Ellen Burstyn
Interview by Paul Fischer
Ellen
Burstyn's physical radiance may have something to do with her on-screen visibility.
Not only is a new generation of moviegoers discovering her anew in the director's
cut of her classic horror film The Exorcist, but that same, hip audience
is seeing the legendary star as an overweight Jewish mother in Requiem for
a Dream, Mark Wahlberg's dying mama in The Yards, and a feisty Italian
mother in the new TV series That's Life. All maternal roles, all different,
and all projects that Burstyn is excited about. "I'm so lucky; I mean
like I have to find out what's happening in the stars or I don't know what. It's
as if all of a sudden they just went: OK it's YOU, here and they're throwing everything
at me. And I feel I'm in a state of gratitude, but I have no explanation as to
why I'm experiencing all this great fortune."
Darren Aronofsky, her director on Requiem for a Dream, describes Burstyn as the 'greatest living American actress'. Burstyn accepts such praise with typical modesty. "When I hear that I should apologize to the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange, and all the other great actresses who are slighted by high praise", she says. Yet Burstyn remains a formidable presence. The former head of the renowned Actors Studio, Burstyn, who won an Oscar for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, has starred in such acclaimed films as Harry and Tonto, Same Time Next Year, The King of Marvin Gardens and, of course, The Exorcist, which is enjoying a healthy re-release. Asked what she noticed about her acting when seeing the 25-year old classic again, one of the things she approved of, she says, "was I felt that I listened very well, that's what I liked about my performance. But for the most part I would do somewhat the same performance, but there were moments I felt I could do better now." Of course, she coyly adds that there is no way she was going to reveal what she didn't approve of.
Burstyn is an actress who has relished taking risks. While there are no obvious similarities between The Exorcist and Requiem for a Dream, they both contain horrific imagery and represent a boldness few actors are prepared to take. Perhaps Ms Burstyn is the exception. "It's not very often that you get a role that challenges you that much, where you feel that you can do this. And I did have this feeling with this latest role so I was excited and relieved when I did pull it off."
The
role Burstyn refers to is in the hyperkinetic Requiem, an interlocking
story of four people whose addictions get the better of them in a big way. Burstyn's
character, Sara Goldfarb, is a widow who tries to numb the pain of her loneliness
by eating, watching TV and then dieting with the aid of pills. She becomes strung
out, hallucinates and ends up catatonic, although not before being strapped down,
force-fed through the nose and undergoing electroshock therapy. Much of this is
conveyed in an increasingly frenzied rush of images that may leave viewers exhausted.
Burstyn gives an extraordinarily intense performance, one which may garner an
Oscar nomination. "That'd be nice; it shows that awards aren't only for the
young and beautiful in Hollywood", Burstyn says smilingly.
At 67, the actress revels in her portrayal of this aged junkie, a character she feels comfortable relating to, she admits. "I think there's a lot of addiction at all ages," she says. "I know people who are in their 80s who are addicted to Valium. It's a different effect, but it's softening those edges, it's not feeling the pain. I've had all kinds of addictions in my
Burstyn was a product
of the frenzies, post-Vietnam seventies, an era that was not exactly drug free.
But it was also one of the most exciting eras in the history of American film.
Not that she knew that at the time, she happily concedes. "I do now. I didn't
particularly then. You never realize that you're in the middle of an era when
you're in it. But I think it will come back. I feel like 
something
is happening now with the independent film movement. For a while we just got away
from film as an art form and into film as a moneymaking proposition, period."
Burstyn is busier now than ever. Apart from Requiem, she loved working for little money on James Gray's thriller The Yards, a comment on corruption in the subway system. Here, she also gets to play Faye Dunaway's sister and has some fine scenes with that other seventies star. "Let's just say that there's nobody like her. She's also fun to watch, the way she works that camera. She knows her business and her face in every angle. She is one of a kind." Apart from her flurry of film work, Burstyn can be also be seen in the US TV series That's Life, about a working class New Jersey family, of which Burstyn's character is the matriarch. Her first series gig since The Ellen Burstyn Show, one would imagine that she wouldn't need to do television. "Well I do have to support my habit of doing theatre and independent films", she quips. "But I also loved the show, because it's just really good writing, written by an Italian-American from New Jersey, who has a unique sense of humor. It's a very literate show, it's smart, but it's also very available." So, it seems, is Ms Burstyn.