Jessica Lange

She launched her career with a celebrated Flop, then proceeded to surprise the critics with some of her generation's most searing performances. Renowned costume designer Ann Roth Gets The Scoop From A Woman Who Has Never Shied from taking chances or Stopped Exploding Expectations.

[Jessica Lange and Ann Roth are shown to a quiet corner table at Gotham Bar and Grill in New York City. It's 3 P.M., and the lunch crowd has mostly dispersed. With the tape recorder whirring between them, they settle in for the following conversation.]

ANN ROTH: I was just remembering seeing you in Bordeaux while you were making Cousin Bette [1998]. Was that a great experience?

JESSICA LANGE: I wasn't all that thrilled with my work in it, nor with how the film turned out, but I had a wonderful time doing it. I mean, we were in that chateau, living out there among the peacocks and the exotic gardens. And we had a great cast. So any dissatisfaction is with my own work.

AR: I've heard you say that a few times in your life. Do you think that you could love 70 percent of your work? That's a number that keeps coming up for me. I feel like I got 70 percent of it right, whether it was exactly what I was after or something else. That's not a percentage that makes me happy, by the way.

JL: Well, sometimes the odds are against you--the director doesn't know what the hell he's doing, or something falls apart in the production, or you're working with an actor who's just unbearable and there's no chemistry. But there are also times when I feel I let myself down, and usually it was because I was distracted--I was thinking about the kids or my relationship.

AR: Did you have satisfaction with doing Titus [1999]?

JL: I did, because it was the first time I had tackled Shakespeare. And working with Tony Hopkins was great--

AR: I just have to interject here because I remember going over to your house and you were making a huge pot of soup. You had some kids there, your sister and her daughter were there, and it was a very Minnesota moment. [Lange laughs] But you were in the midst of doing Titus!

JL: For me, nothing has ever taken precedence over being a mother and having a family and a home. I've been thinking a lot about next year, which will be the first time in 25 years that I don't have a child at home.

AR: Do you already feel free thinking about it?

JL: No, I actually feel a certain trepidation. But, I'm thinking to myself, Now, just as an experiment, if I could work straight through for that year, the way I've never been able to approach this acting business because of not wanting to leave home and not wanting to drag the kids somewhere, what kind of experience would that be? Would my work get better? Would I discover something?

AR: Of course you would. And you will! Talk to me about Bonneville, the movie which you recently finished.

JL: Oh, it was great! It was the first film in I can't tell you how long that was actually a joy to do. I'd have to go way back to some of the great experiences like Sweet Dreams [1985] or Music Box [1989] or Blue Sky [1994] or Rob Roy [1995] to find anything that compared. It was exciting material and a great group of people. There was this collective energy between Kathy Bates and Joan Allen and me. The way it just fell into place and ended up being the three of us was perfect. Who knows, maybe the film will turn out well. it's an interesting story.

AR: Oh, it's a very good story. What tends to draw you to a script?

JL: It comes down to something really simple: Can I visualize myself playing those scenes? If that happens, then I know that I will probably end up doing it. The worst is when I talk myself into something. Sometimes you take things because you want to work with a certain actor, or you want to work with a director, even if the script or the part's not that great.

AR: Are there any roles that you regret not

having done?

JL: Yeah. There are a few, but I hate to speak about them because it's not so nice for the person who ended up doing them--I mean, I'd hate for somebody to do that to me. But my greatest regrets are for the ones that I shouldn't have done.

AR: What's the regret for?

JL: That I wasted my time. You know what it's like--you're on set and your kids are little and they're back at the rental house or out having a little excursion. They're going somewhere, they're doing something, they're having fun; something happens in their life that day, and you're sitting on a set somewhere with a group of jerkoffs [laughs].

That was always the hardest for me.

AR: What can you tell me about making Sweet Dreams?

JL: That's another one of those films that were just blessed. I remember the first time I went out to Owen Bradley's barn, you know that famous recording studio outside Nashville, and I was so intimidated. I remember thinking, I can't do this, and I certainly can't do it in front of anybody. When I first started working on that project, he explained to me the difference between Patsy Cline's voice and most other country-western singers. He said that unlike the others, Patsy actually had operatic range.