Eileen Brennan
A Conversation ...
--Carolyn J. Bennett

Eileen Brennan just finished a gruelling run of Ladies in Retirement at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Coconut Grove, Florida with Julie Harris. The play itself is three hours long, so for these ladies to do it eight times a week is quite a feat. A consummate character actress, Eileen Brennan was perfection in this play. I'd seen her many times in movies and on television but it was my first chance to see her on stage. I would never miss another opportunity to see her work. Her timing never misses a beat. Her character was wacky, but never went over the edge, keeping a completely realized, sweetly damaged child in a middle-aged body.

Have you recovered from the show?
"The fatigue was profound," she says. "I got home and I couldn't walk for a week," she says. "My legs have been broken three times. It's a wonderful thing about getting in front of an audience, you forget about everything. You just do what you have to do. When they designed the set with that high staircase that we were up and down all the time, they didn't think about the fact that we are not little women. But, you get through the run and then you realize, literally, how much it takes but, you know, that's what I do. Julie was exhausted," she continues, "absolutely exhausted."

How did you like working with Julie Harris?
"I'll tell you one thing in all honesty, to know her and to work with her is a treasure for another artist. You see behavior and you see dedication and art that you can sop up like a sponge. So, from that standpoint, every moment was worth it. Actors are crazy or we wouldn't be doing this. I don't know. It's a wonderful thing. It's a paradox. You hate it, yet you adore it.

But, I think people should learn how to make it -- not easy, because it will never be easy -- but more open in dialogue with the actors and the way they set a schedule and take into consideration that particular package. It's three hours that's a big deal." (Julie Harris turned 70 during the run of the play and Eileen Brennan is 60).

"I was dumbfounded by it, but I just put the bit in my teeth and went through it. First of all the rehearsal schedule, two weeks and then we were thrown onto the stage. It seems to me that everything comes down to economics. I see it in television, you expect that. But, one of the reasons you do is a play is to have the enjoyment to take your time to build it. But, now it's a money thing. There's no other reason. I think they should know that the one last place we have is theatre and they're turning that into a mill, not giving it what it takes to make it good, to make it special, to make it what an actor wants to give to an audience. It's the biggest thing in the world to be in front of an audience, and the audiences in Miami were the best. The matinee audiences were wonderful, no matter if they were explaining the play to each other!

One thing I can say I got out of Miami with no injuries and this is very important to me. I finally said I don't want any more injuries in my life."

I asked her how she had broken her legs.
"I was doing Private Benjamin, the series that came after the movie. Goldie Hawn and I were out to dinner one night down on Venice Beach and I woke up two days later in the hospital. I don't have any recollection. I just know what I read in the papers. My legs were broken. Every bone in the left side of my face was broken. I know she got in her car and I started across the street to get in my car and I was hit.

I'm 18 years in the program (AA). The night of the accident, we were laughing and then I was mowed down by this thing, but not a bit of alcohol. If I'd been drinking we'd probably have stayed in there until the last drink and I wouldn't have walked out there in front of that car. Ironic, huh?

Then I was doing Annie on stage at the Kansas City Opera and I walked out on the ramp and as I stepped back onstage, I went into the orchestra pit.

When I was doing The Last Picture Show, I went down there in a wheel chair to do that movie and I had a burst appendix. I've had all this karma burned off me in the last 10 years! My father always said, 'you're going have to learn the hard way. That's the way it is. You won't listen to me so you learn the hard way.'"

She mentioned that she was 18 years in the program, so I asked her about it.
"I grew up with all of it, surrounded with it. I have three sisters and we're all very close. That's why the play meant so much to me. We're all crazy, too. We have a strong bond being under that horror as children. We bonded together. It's woven in and out of our lives. In a way, I wouldn't have missed it. There's something about the whole problem that is ... it's a paradox. It's so horrible and it can be so disasterous, yet there's something about the sensitivity of the human being that has to face it. We're very sensitive people with a lot of introspection and you get saved or you don't get saved.

That's one thing alcoholics always ask. 'Why was I saved,' because that's really what you feel. Because it's like a miracle. Believe me I'm in this business and I'm surrounded by a lot of 'miracles waiting to happen' and I hope they do. That's why the play meant so much to me because it was sisters who stood together regardless of what got in their way. Each sister was like one of my sisters."

Who did you study with?
"The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and The Actors Studio. I study with a friend from The Actors Studio, Caitlan Adams. I love to study because in television, you just do it, you know. My son's best friend from high school studies in this class. When I was in Miami, I called him and said to get here as 'quickly as you can to help me with these bloody words. We go on in 20 minutes.' He came out and helped me and stayed through the opening of the previews so we had a good time."

Any movies or plays in the near future?
"I had a film that just opened. Opened and gone.Reckless with Mia Farrow. It got a good review in New York."

How did you like working with Mia?
"Like most people, she's very open and very easy to work with, so that was good. We shot it in Connecticut. Every day she'd come in with a different child. I think she has about 11 or 12. I don't know. I remember seeing a number of them! Then, in January I'm going Cleveland to do Front Page. We have four weeks rehearsal," she adds.

Interviewing Eileen Brennan was like chatting with an old friend. She answered the phone herself and just started talking. I didn't have to ask a lot of questions. We found a lot to laugh about, even bizarre things in common. For instance, I said that I had lived in Vegas when I was in the late 60s and Goldie Hawn and I both did commercials for the same wig company. Then, Goldie went to Laugh-In ... and I went to Labrador. Goose Bay. Nobody has ever heard of Goose Bay, but Eileen said she'd been to Goose Bay as a performer on the military circuit in the 50s. Then, years later she and Goldie did Private Benjamin.

We both have cats. "Cats are magnificent. There's nothing like a cat. They're the most comforting animals. They're so cool. God made cats and threw away the mold. I love my dog, but cats are something else. Cats are special."

We're also both Irish. "Eccentric," she says. "When I was in Ireland recently, I went there to do a play, I picked up a book called Irish Eccentrics. I wouldn't be anything else. It's the saddest damn history I've ever seen, and now I can't get enough of Irish history. And, I married an Englishman. We've been divorced for years. He just got divorced from his second wife, whom I really like. Now he's starting on his third but he has two children from both of us and we pay the freight for everything. He likes to take walks with the dogs and write poetry. Eccentrics!"

One thing we didn't have in common was that Eileen married later in life. I asked her about her family. She has two sons, Patrick and Sam who are 22 and 23.
"I was Catholic," she says. "I knew I had to get my career going and that's why I waited. I would have had a baby in nine months and that would have been it." Her son, Patrick is a basketball player, going to school on a scholarship, and the other one, Sam, who's a singer, lives at home.

"When Patrick and I talk about attitude all those things come up on the (basketball) court. I have a good frame of reference -- they're the same problems as acting. You have to be disciplined, tolerant, cool. And you have to be dedicated. And, so, it's helpful to him. We have a wonderful time as a matter of fact. I'm always happy to be home although I don't like cleaning the house after I've been away for two weeks!"

What kind of mother are you?
"Very, very indulgent. I loved it because Patrick's birthday's Christmas day, so that's a big deal. That's the Irish. I had them very late and they'll never leave. They're typical Irish lords. They'll be 40 before they leave home. But, we sure have fun. You know, we have all the variations of rage and all of that, but that's allright because we're not afraid."

Eileen Brennan's won an Emmy, an Obie and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Private Benjamin. She's unmatched in Hollywood today for off-beat, tacky characters with a heart. A big Irish heart. God love her! I'll look for Reckless in the video stores. Watching her work is a treat.