E2
Interview
Pierce” remake. She’s the emphy- semic mother of an Iraq war vet- eran in the upcoming “The Dry Land,” which she accompanied to town a few days ago to show sena- tors and military officials, includ- ing the Army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey. Is she nervous about watching this anguished, depressing movie with the people who are kinda- sorta responsible for the trauma depicted in it? She downshifts from brassy to
tender. “The message of the movie to those extraordinary,
bright,
strong, brave youth is that Mother loves you,” she says. “And that’s a message we need to hear, that somehow — in spite of whatever we’ve been asked to do or have done — we can still be loved.” Love, in Leo’s life, has been tough. Her childhood in the East Village was interrupted by her parents’ divorce, which sent her ricocheting from Vermont to Eng- land with her mother. She went to theater school in London during her teens, got her GED stateside, then “wasted a bit of time in Tul- sa.”
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PATTERSON CLARK/THE WASHINGTON POST
Melissa Leo: ‘I scare people on some level’
A gritty actress finds acclaim but still looks for a leading man
by Dan Zak
The itty-bitty star inked on Me-
lissa Leo’s right wrist came from a late-night trip to a tattoo parlor in Baltimore in the mid-1990s, back when she was living in Fells Point and playing gruff-’n’-tough Sgt. Kay Howard on “Homicide: Life on the Street.” There are 11 more stars tattooed around her body, so that if she strips naked and raises her arms and stretches to the left, she approximates the constella- tion Virgo. She’ll be 50 in September and
has groomed herself into a flinty earth mother onscreen and off — the kind who smuggles foreigners across the Canadian border so she can afford a new trailer for her family (as in 2008’s “Frozen Riv- er”), or the kind who kicks a ciga- rette to the curb on 16th Street NW, hitches a zebra-print bag up her shoulder and slides into a booth at Nage on Scott Circle, ready to offer some tart words about the Jeff Bridges movie she turned down in the wake of her Oscar nomination last year for “Frozen River.” She could’ve played one of the
two middle-age women bedded by Bridges in “Crazy Heart,” about a boozy, over-the-hill country singer in love with a much younger Mag- gie Gyllenhaal. “They wanted me for one or the
other,” Leo says. “And then he ends up with who? And that’s right? She’s young enough to be his daughter. That made me wanna barf.” She’ll have the slow-baked salmon, please, well done.
Beggars can’t be choosers, and
Melissa Leo has been a beggar for most of her quiet career. She al- most always says yes. Since “Fro- zen River” goosed her career, say- ing yes has been a lot more fun. She’s a dogged lawyer in the HBO series “Treme,” the sprawling post- Katrina moodpiece that airs on Sundays and reunites her with a dozen of her “Homicide” compa- triots. She’s sashaying up and down Manhattan with Kate Wins- let for Todd Haynes’s “Mildred
Now what does that mean? “Nothing that you want to write about in the newspaper,” she says coyly, back to brassy, herding len- tils on her plate. C’mon. “Nuh-uh. It’s all been expunged
by now.” After a taste of higher educa- tion at SUNY-Purchase, she dropped out, nannied on the Up- per West Side, walked on stilts in Midtown with a Dixieland jazz band and waitressed. While on a break from a shift, she auditioned opposite Bill Murray for “The Ra- zor’s Edge.” Murray arrived very late, fresh off the golf course, she says, and unwittingly dispensed advice that propelled her into a full-blown career. “He said, ‘You’re much too young for this part, but if you real- ly want to do this, you should just do it,’ ” Leo recalls. “He seemed, in the moment, to be saying I had something, and I should do some- thing about it. I felt he was giving me a gift. Whether he was or not, I have no idea. But I quit work that afternoon and said, ‘I will now only take work as an actor.’ ” The work came: a part on “All My Children,” a long purgatory of
“Depends on who’s opposite.” Who’s your ideal leading man? “Well, because I missed work- ing with him, I’d say Je — ” She catches herself before finishing the name Jeff, tugs on her fingers, fidgets. Maybe she’s mouthed off enough. “I dunno,” she says. “That’s too hard to say.” C’mon. “No, there’s too many delicious,
juicy ones. And what I do — it’s sort of a mind game with myself — is to not have favorites, or ideals. Then you can more easily take what comes along.” The check arrives. Leo requests
a box for her leftover salmon. “You haven’t asked me if I’m
on
washingtonpost.com
A portrait in time straight from an iPad
Watch a time-lapse sketch of Melissa Leo that staff
artist Patterson Clark created with the Brushes app on the iPad. See its development at
washingtonpost.com/style.
bit TV roles (“Miami Vice,” “Spen- ser: For Hire”), a good run on “Homicide,” supporting parts in films and a rough road at home. She spent most of the ’90s in a painful, bitter custody battle with actor John Heard, with whom she had a son in 1987. And finally came Ray Eddy, the steely single mother in “Frozen River” who ushered her to the Os- cars nearly 25 years after Bill Mur- ray told her to go for it. “There was nothing that was
going to deter me from it,” she says of acting. “Now I get this gratitude coming from very fine actors I know who cannot get hired. They thank me for staying in there and proving to them that if they just stick with it, that’s all it might take.”
So, Iraq. Katrina. Illegal immi-
gration. One might conclude that she’s drawn to American crisis. “It’s drawn to me,” Leo says.
“They’re not going to come to me with a romantic comedy. If they do, we’ll have a happy celebra- tion.”
So you’d do a romantic comedy?
single,” she says with a faint whiff of flirt. Both her chocolate eyes and her tiny nose piercing twin- kle.
Are you? “Yes, I’m single.” Happily single? “I feel lonely sometimes. I don’t know what to do about it. So I thought I’d tell you and you could put it in the newspaper. My friends tell me I have to throw it out there. I’ve never been married. My son is a bastard. A darling bas- tard. And then I did try for a long time, for 10 years, with a relation- ship that had its ups and downs and then ended. I’ve dated a little bit and so on.” She’s getting giggly, biting her lower lip, sitting on her hands, hunching and unhunching her shoulders like a schoolgirl up to no good. “It’s not my schedule that’s
hard,” she says. “First of all, I have never been asked out. I have nev- er. Been. Asked. Out. There’s something — I scare people on some level. I think it’s my red hair. I think, in the end, it might be as simple as that.” Don’t be ridiculous. “I don’t think I would be very easy to have a relationship with. I don’t need to be taken care of in the ways women are used to being taken care of. It would take an in- ventive liaison. Or maybe this is just how it’s meant to be, and that’s that. It’s clear how much I love my work, right?” It is.
She looks away, tosses her hand
— her tattoo briefly becoming a shooting star — and says, “Well, maybe that’s all, then.”
zakd@washpost.com
KLMNO
SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2010
PREMIER SPONSOR
2010 WOLF TRAP SUMMER SEASON
Coming up at Wolf Trap
JEFF BECK
SPECIAL GUEST:
ERIN MCCARLEY
2010 SUMMER BLAST OFF!
“THE PRESIDENT’S OWN” UNITED STATES MARINE BAND
WITH FIREWORKS!
TONIGHT! 8 PM FREE—LIMITED CAPACITY
JUNE
CIRQUE DREAMS—
ILLUMINATION
“Jawdropping, family-friendly spectacle”
—Los Angeles Times
FRI., JUNE 11; 8:30 PM SAT., JUNE 12; 8:30 PM LAWN ONLY
THE BARNS AT WOLF TRAP
Wolf Trap Opera Company
ZAIDE
NEW PRODUCTION
MOZART
IN GERMAN WITH ENGLISH DIALOGUE AND SUPERTITLES
Mozart’s unfinished opera —where you choose the ending
FRI. & TUES., JUNE 11 & 15; 8 PM SUN., JUNE 13; 3 PM SAT., JUNE 19; 7:30 PM
WOLF TRAP’S 21ST ANNUAL
LOUISIANA SWAMP ROMPSM
MARCIA BALL THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND
BEAUSOLEIL AVEC MICHAEL DOUCET ROSIE LEDET & THE ZYDECO PLAYBOYS
SUN., JUNE 13; 2 PM
HARRY CONNICK, JR.
& ORCHESTRA
YOUR SONGS IN CONCERT
Sophisticated vocal jazz pianist showcases his new GRAMMY- nominated release, Your Songs
TUES., JUNE 15; 8 PM LAWN ONLY
RIVERDANCE
FAREWELL TOUR!
This is the LAST CHANCE EVER to see the breathtaking celebration of Irish music, song, and dance.
WED.–SUN., JUNE 2–6; 8 PM WEEKEND MATINEES; 2 PM
JOHN BUTLER TRIO
STATE RADIO
SPECIAL GUEST: ANGUS & JULIA STONE
WED., JUNE 16; 7 PM
CATS
All your favorite felines—Grizabella, Old Deuteronomy, and more—on the
Wolf Trap stage for the first time ever!
FRI.–SUN., JUNE 18–20; 8 PM WEEKEND MATINEES; 2 PM
EARTH, WIND & FIRE
Electrifyingfunk all-stars behind
hits “September,” “After the Love Has Gone,” “Shining Star,” and more
MON., JUNE 21; 8 PM LAWN ONLY
CHICK COREA FREEDOM BAND
WITH CHRISTIAN McBRIDE, KENNY GARRETT & ROY HAYNES
BÉLA FLECK, ZAKIR HUSSAIN, EDGAR MEYER TRIO
Eclectic night of all-star jazz
TUES., JUNE 22; 8 PM
YES
PETER FRAMPTON
“Owner of a Lonely Heart” rock superstars tour with record-breaking rock guitarist
WED., JUNE 23; 7 PM
“One of the most influential lead guitarists in rock”
—Rolling Stone
MON.,
JUNE 7; 8 PM
LAWN ONLY
NATALIE COLE
Cole remains R&B and jazz royalty after selling more than 5 million copies of duets withher father, Nat “King” Cole.
THURS., JUNE 24; 8 PM
RAIN—A TRIBUTE
TO THE BEATLES
All your favorite Fab Four moments,
from Ed Sullivan and Shea Stadium
to Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road
FRI. & SAT., JUNE 25 & 26; 8 PM
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
With hits “IfYou CouldReadMy Mind,” “Sundown,” and “The
AN EVENING WITH
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
SUN., JUNE 27; 8 PM
LOVE ON THE RUN
PAT BENATAR
REO SPEEDWAGON
WITH SPECIAL GUEST KEATON SIMONS
“Heartbreaker” pop queen tours with “Keep on Loving You” rockers
TUES., JUNE 29; 7:30 PM
JULY
PAT McGEE BAND
SPECIAL GUEST:
HONOR BY AUGUST
thurs., july 1; 8 pm
JETHRO TULL
SPECIAL GUEST:
PROCOL HARUM
This progressive-rock group ruled the charts while blurring genre lines between hard rock and blues.
TUES., JUNE 8; 7:30 PM
GIPSY KINGS
Performing the worldwide hit “Bamboleo” and other fiery
flamenco tunes with passion and pop
FRI. & SAT., JULY 2 & 3; 8 PM
The ultimate feel-good show!
WED.–SUN., JULY 7–11; 8 PM WEEKEND MATINEES; 2 PM
THE BARNS AT WOLF TRAP
Wolf Trap Opera Company
THE TURK IN ITALY
IL TURCO IN ITALIA
ROSSINI NEW PRODUCTION
IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUPERTITLES
Another gem from the master of comic opera!
FRI. & TUES., JULY 9 & 13; 8 PM
CHRIS ISAAK
SPECIAL GUEST:
MARC BROUSSARD
“Wicked Game” romantic pop-rocker
MON., JULY 12; 8 PM
JULIO IGLESIAS
Latin pop sensation
TUES., JULY 13; 8 PM
THE B-52s
SPECIAL GUEST:
SUPERCLUSTER
WED., JULY 14;
8 PM
BACKSTREET BOYS
SPECIAL GUEST:
MINDLESS BEHAVIOR
Backstreet’s back with their multiplatinum dance-pop hits and songs from their new album, This is Us.
WED., JUNE 9; 8 PM
& THE FOUR SEASONS
THURS., JULY 15; 8 PM
LAWN ONLY
FRANKIE VALLI
AND JULIET
EMIL DE COU,
CONDUCTOR
ROMEO
TCHAIKOVSKY, PROKOFIEV, GOUNOD & BERNSTEIN
WOLF TRAP OPERA COMPANY SINGERS
A classic love story retold four ways
FRI., JULY 16; 8:15 PM
AN
EVENING WITH
IDINA MENZEL & MARVIN HAMLISCH
Broadway sensation with award- winning composer
SAT., JULY 17; 8:15 PM
THE BARNS AT WOLF TRAP
Wolf Trap Opera Company
AMERICAN NIGHTS
RECITAL WITH STEVEN BLIER
LATIN DAYS,
SUN., JULY 18; 3 PM
B.B. KING
SPECIAL GUEST:
LUKAS NELSON & THE PROMISE OF THE REAL
SUN., JULY 18; 8 PM
THE GO-GO’S
FAREWELL TOUR
New-wave/punk hits “We’ve Got the Beat,” “Vacation,” and more
MON., JULY 19; 8 PM
JIMMY CLIFF
SPECIAL GUEST:
SLY & ROBBIE
Iconic reggae star recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
THURS., JUNE 10; 8 PM
DANCE COMPANY
80TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!
PAUL TAYLOR
A KAY SHOUSE GREAT
PERFORMANCE
Celebrate the great choreographer with the D.C. premiere of a new work
TUES., JULY 20; 8:30 PM
THE LEVON HELM BAND
JOHN HIATT & THE COMBO
WED., JULY 21; 7:30 PM
PLUS Joshua Bell,
A Rodgers & Hammerstein
Celebration, Eddie From Ohio, Beach Boys, and many more!
Visit
www.wolftrap.org for the complete schedule!
TAKE METRO TO WOLF TRAP!
Express Bus #480 leaves from the West Falls Church Station starting
two hours prior to show time!
Express Bus service will still be available during temporary rail shutdown toWest Falls Church on May30, June5&6,and June 12&13. For details on taking Metro to performances on those dates, visit
WWW.WOLFTRAP.ORG/METRO.
For info:
www.wolftrap.org/visit.
Support for metro accessibility to Wolf Trap is provided in part by Heineken USA, the Official Beer and Responsibility Sponsor.
Tickets:WWW.WOLFTRAP.ORG 1.877.WOLFTRAP
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