Film

Kathleen Turner Has Thrown Shade At Just About Everyone In Hollywood

She wasn't too impressed by the cast of 'Friends', that's for sure.

by Jared Richards  8 August 2018
Kathleen Turner

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Kathleen Turner has given us the world, or at the very least, a dozen or so classic films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The War Of The Roses and The Virgin Suicides. And now, like Quincy Jones before her, the Hollywood veteran has given us more than we deserve by giving absolutely no fucks in an open-book interview with Vulture.

Which makes sense: Turner’s had her ups and downs. In the ’90s, she gained a reputation for being “difficult” on-set after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in her late 30s, a painful condition portrayed without much sympathy in the media.

And now, in 2018, her story is now mostly read as a woman demonised for fighting back against bullshit — and by the sounds of this interview, there was a whole lot of it going around.

“The ‘difficult’ thing was pure gender crap,” she says, saying that she was rarely taken seriously, and that Hollywood had an “unspoken assumption that women were property to be claimed”.

“[It’s] why I’ve never lived in Los Angeles,” she said. “Every time I go to that city I feel insecure.”

For example, she says that Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas and Warren Beatty had a competition in the ’80s as to who would bed her first. “None of them did, by the by,” she adds. In addition, she says that working with Burt Reynolds on 1998 film Switching Channels was “terrible”.

“The first day Burt came in he made me cry,” she said. “He said something about not taking second place to a woman. His behaviour was shocking. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t someone’s equal.”

In addition, she calls out Elizabeth Taylor’s acting (“I don’t think she was very skilled.”), and has similar words for Nicolas Cage, who she starred opposite in Peggy Sue Got Married, in which he decided to put on a very odd voice. 

“It was tough to not say, “Cut it out.” But it wasn’t my job… I wasn’t in a position to do much except play with what I’d been given,” she said. “If anything, it [Cage’s portrayal] only further illustrated my character’s disillusionment with the past. The way I saw it was, yeah, he was that asshole.”

Turner also talked shit on Daniel Day Lewis and other method actors (“You shut up and do it.”), and said that the cast of Friends were unwelcoming when she guest starred as Chandler’s dad (sigh), and that she had “no comment” on their acting. But she did say she thinks Emma Stone is incredibly talented, which is nice.

Which is all very juicy, sure. But then Turner brings the spice — first up, interviewer David Marchese asks Turner whether she encountered Donald Trump back in the 1980s.

“Yes. Yuck. He has this gross handshake,” she says before elaborating. “He goes to shake your hand and with his index finger kind of rubs the inside of your wrist. He’s trying to do some kind of seductive intimacy move. You pull your hand away and go yuck.”

Which, as soon as you read, instantly tracks. More eye-raising is Turner’s redacted comments when she discusses the positives of avoiding similar roles throughout her career, unlike some actress.

“I’ll give you an example, but you mustn’t include her name,” she says. “[Very famous Hollywood actress] has played the same role for 20 years. She even looks pretty much the same. She’s probably one of the richest women out there, but I would shoot myself if I were like that, only giving people what they expect.”

Which, of course, has sent the internet into a frenzy. Vox has already tried to decode who it could be — Reece Witherspoon and Sandra Bullock are floated as possibilities, but, given the previous Friends-related shade, a betting man’s money is on Jennifer Aniston.

You can read the full interview here. In addition to the above, Turner also talks candidly about working with Frances Ford Coppola, a couple of awful theatre experiences, and fighting off Fox’s attempt to give The War Of The Roses an optimistic ending. It’s a blast.