10 Quick Questions for Kathleen Turner

Growing up, you moved often and lived overseas because of your father’s career in the foreign service. Was any country your favorite, and do you speak any foreign languages?

I speak Spanish, some French, some Italian. Romance languages. Give me a week in Paris and wine, and I’m doing pretty well with French. I love Italy. I love Spain. I really do. Andalusia, the southern portion of Spain, is just enchanting to me. I find it magical. A few years ago my daughter and I took a vacation, and we rented a car, and we just drove all over Andalusia. We based ourselves in Córdoba, which is a beautiful city, and just had the best time. This past June we took a couple weeks in England. We hadn’t been back to Europe in two years, which was tough because [typically] I go every year to Europe. We had houses out in the countryside, in Wales. We shopped at farmers markets and farms and made our own meals mostly and drove around the countryside.

Back at home in New York City, what’s a perfect day off?

Good book, a lovely restaurant, some good wine and food, a walk along the river. I love the Hudson River Park. They’ve done such a beautiful job there. I like walking down to the tip, to the harbor. It’s like the rest of the world is out there. That’s one reason I always wanted to live in New York, because it’s as close as I can get to the rest of the world. L.A. never felt like that. 

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What shows are you watching these days?

I watch a lot of news, I must confess. Probably too much. Certainly in the evenings, the BBC and PBS and stuff I’m rather religious about. … I’ve been watching Shrinking; I was watching She-Hulk: [Attorney at Law on Disney+]. I love that actress [Tatiana Maslany]. She just cracks me up.

Do you have a favorite acting genre?

I have to confess, making people laugh pleases me most. I’ve been doing [my one-woman show] Finding My Voice in Arizona, Virginia, New York. It’s autobiographical, but it’s also about my politics, my beliefs and then songs to highlight the text. It makes me very nervous at times because I’ve written it. It’s not a script that I’m hiding behind. Everything has to be true. True, period. I just love it. I love the people. I love the feeling I get from them. At one point I say, “Every day I am astounded by the affection that has been given to me over the years, and I hope people know it is returned.” And I sing “On My Way to You,” and it’s a lovely feeling.

In Finding My Voice, you are very open about your health struggles with rheumatoid arthritis. How have you persisted over adversit
y?

When [growing up and living abroad] we used to get all upset about having to go back to Venezuela, go back to Cuba, go back to other places [after] we’d be home [in the States] for a while. [My grandfather] listened and he’d nod and he’d say, “Well, you just have to, don’t you?” That really comes down to that. Oh God, I don’t want to. It hurts too much. I don’t think I can handle it. Well, you just have to.

Looking back, what would you tell your 20-year-old self?

That I was on the right path. Everyone [saying] “It’s too iffy” and all the endless, endless doubts and my family [saying] “There’s no sure income. There’s no sure security.” They’re family, they worry about this stuff. Yeah, OK, I understand. I will take it into consideration, but no. I just simply never thought I would not make a go out of this career. Honestly it never hit me.