Dan's Papers - July 3, 2009 - Who's Here: Mercedes Ruehl, Actress

Fans of Mercedes Ruehl have the opportunity to see the Academy Award winner in the American premiere of a British play, Dinner from July 9 through August 2 at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Described by a British critique as a "modern gothic revenge drama," the play by Moira Buffini promises to display Ruehl's famous talent for playing a comic character whose vulnerability gradually begins to leak through to the tough-as-leather exterior.

The setting is a dinner party at the upper middle class country house of a woman named Paige, whom one British critic described as the "posh bitch protagonist." The meal might be distasteful, but Ruehl's performance is likely to be delicious. "I'm laughing my head off in these rehearsals," she said. She's not the only one. "We just happened to get a wonderful cast, and we're having a hell of a good time in rehearsal."

Ruehl, who lives in Springs, said she got involved in the relatively unknown play the same way she has always gotten involved in the dozens of films she's been in. Generally, she said, the old rule applies: "The role chooses you, you don't choose the role." With Dinner, she said, "I was just going along my merry way, when I got this script by a writer who is not known."

She was attracted to the lead character Paige because "she is intelligent and witty." But Ruehl characters typically have a lot bubbling beneath the surface. "She is a woman on the serious verge of something. Not a nervous breakdown, it's more contained. Her mordant humor comes out of a very dark place - her humor is desperate."

Not a word will be breathed in these pages about what Paige brings from this "dark place," (and she certainly does it with plenty of "rich" language, in many senses of the word). But, as Ruehl said, "She decides to grapple with the situation in an uncompromising way."

While Ruehl gets people laughing all over again remembering her ballsy portrayals of everything from jealous wives (Married to the Mob) to confused mothers of sons who grow up too fast (Big), she is also forever in the memory of audiences due to roles in controversial and tragic works, including The Goat, or Where is Sylvia? In this 2002 Edward Albee play, for which Ruehl received a Tony nomination, several controversial themes were explored, including bestiality (the main character falls in love with a goat). Of the play, Ruehl said, "It was a great idea explored in a shocking way." One of the many things she admired about the play, was "the greatness of the language."

Enthusiastic as she was about being star of a play that forced the audience to confront society's hypocrisy and inconsistencies on sexual matters, she said the crew for a while had to escorted by security people. "We got death threats."

But critics and many theater-goers applauded the risk-taking and taboo-breaking, hailing Albee and the cast as brave and brilliant. Ruehl said they managed to find a piece of wry humor in the situation."I said to Edward (Albee), 'Every night we risk our lives in the service of your play,' and he replied, 'Every night I risk my play in the service of your acting."

On the other end of the spectrum was Ruehl's early 1990s role in both the stage and film version of Neil Simon's play Lost in Yonkers. She received a Tony Award as Best Actress for her role in the play.

Having to personally audition for the great Simon, she was a nervous wreck the night before. "I sat down with a glass of wine, and I told myself that I won't go to bed until I've gotten this." She worked and agonized for hours, then the approach to the character came to her: "You've hit pay dirt tonight!" she told herself.

In the audition the next day in front of Simon, she recalled, "I just opened my mouth and started reading the character. I was giving him the person I wanted, and the person he wanted. I knew, he knew, and I knew that he knew that I knew.

Ruehl's ability to dig into who a character is has been tested with this role - as was her versatility. She had just finished filming The Fisher King, which would lead to her 1991 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (and many other major awards for the role).

Winning an Academy Award is as much of a lifetime high as anyone could imagine, and as scary. She described it as a "memory like a dream," which she remembers in "flashes."

"Walking up those stairs in 4 1/2 inch high heels - no railing to hold - I started to lean over. Somebody came to my aid." That somebody was Warren Beatty.

Ruehl said that the delicate art of owning and displaying an Oscar can present dilemmas - the recipient doesn't want to disrespect the award he/she worked so hard for, but she/he also doesn't want to be a show-off. "I've known people who used them as door stops."

Generally, the statue stands on a shelf in Ruehl's home office. "But then at Christmas time, we've always brought him down to put on the mantle, and give him a little Santa Claus hat to wear." After Christmas, Mr. Oscar goes back to a more discreet place, but may make appearances in the more public rooms. "Face it, there's no place you can put the damn thing," she said.

It's almost impossible to picture Ruehl as anything but a tremendously talented actor, but she said if she hadn't gone into acting, she probably would have become a writer. "I was an English major in college. I was always surrounded by people who loved language. I'm glad I majored in English and not theater, because acting is language."

But acting called, and fans followed. Anyone who hasn't seen her in her famous roles, the movies Big or Married to the Mob, might want to head to the video store or scroll through the offerings of Netflicks. Ruehl said she is not in the habit of using colorful language in real life, but one of the lines most quoted back to her was in Married to the Mob, when she snapped to a cop, "Just give me the f--in' ticket, d--head."

Like many other artists, Ruehl said it's impossible to name a favorite role, although she is particularly proud of her early career roles in Much Ado About Nothing and in Medea, when "I had a surprising personal breakthrough" in development as an actor.

While many of her roles have involved peeling away the layers of almost frightening characters and situations, so many have been funny as well. But she believes humor, such as that in the play Dinner, usually "comes from a darker root. Humor is our best defense."

In Dinner, she said, "We're dealing with a play that's about death and the death of dreams. These are some tremendously sad aspects of human experience."

She recalled asking Jodie Foster once about her role in Silence of the Lambs - how she could stand filming such a shocking story. "Jodie said, 'We laughed our heads off all through that movie.' I knew what she meant."