Today is also the birthday of another delicious fop - Kathleen Turner. I've adored KT since I was a little kid; she was my favorite actress in the 80s (and I know I ain't alone in this). I can't tell you how many times I've seen Romancing The Stone - it's a film that totally captured my young imagination. Adventure! Romance! Man-eating alligators! I was completely obsessed. Basically, I wanted to be Joan Wilder. I could probably recite the film, verbatim, for you from beginning to end right now - "I juuuust keep hopin' for you, pumpkin." - but I'll refrain. Ahem.
As I was saying, I worshipped KT. Joan Wilder, War of the Roses, Jessica Rabbit... sweet jesus, the lady rocked my world. Living here in NYC, you'd think I'd make it to the theater more often than I do - I go maybe once a year... maybe - but I made sure to see KT in "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" and was not disappointed. Another time, the boyfriend and I went uptown to see Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration, and who should plunk down two seats down from us? It was her! And, inevitably, I chickened out on saying anything to her. I always do. But I sat through the entire movie listening for that distinctive throaty laugh of hers.... it barely came. Granted, FYC isn't Guest's greatest film, but if it might've hit a little close to home for KT, after having been robbed at the peak of her powers of that coveted little gold man. The bastards aren't worthy, anyway.(Neither is my boyfriend, who has on two occasions - the first time at that FYC screening, and the second just earlier this week hearing KT talk on the radio - mistaken her for a transsexual.)
But I love her still, and always will. If I were writing my autobiography, I'd totally make up a passage that involved Nicolas Cage kidnapping a chihuahua too, just for the hell of it, and then laugh it off when I got caught just like she did. I do believe the words "tough ol' broad" were made for her. And I worship her for it. Now, everybody down a fifth of scotch in her honor, and let's list our five favorite Kathleen Turner performances, shall we?
"You're a mondo dismo!"
Matty Walker, Body Heat"My temperature runs a couple of degrees high,
around a hundred. I don't mind.
It's the engine or something."
Peggy Sue, Peggy Sue Got Married"Well, Mr Snelgrove, I happen to know that in the future
I will not have the slightest use for algebra,
and I speak from experience."
Barbara Rose, The War of the Roses"Was it as good for you as it was for me?"
Beverly R. Sutphin, Serial Mom"REWIND!!!"
Wow that was like pulling teeth! Ahh! Painful. Choosing just five nearly killed me. Ask me five minutes from now and I'd give you a list that includes Jessica Rabbit and Mrs. Lisbon from The Virgin Suicides and Sarah from The Accidental Tourist... I also just realized I still haven't gotten around to seeing Crimes of Passion, which is just ridiculous at this point. Shame on me.
Anyway, all y'all off to the comments
and tell me how very much you love her. Do it!
.
and tell me how very much you love her. Do it!
.
Posts
3 comments:
I'm really very retarded when it comes to Kathleen Turner. I hadn't seen anything by her, but a month or two ago I decided to rectify that situation after reading some post Nathaniel made about her. So I rented Body Heat one night, LOVED it, but never got around to seeing anything else by her. When I was in town the next morning, returning the dvd, I stopped into a bookshop to see a huge cardboard cutout of her. Turns out she had been there signing copies of her book and I had missed her by like 10 minutes.
Ja, I'm very disappointed. Surely the "Pussywillow" quote from Serial Mom beats "REWIND!"
KT -- my favorite actress of all time. "Body Heat" and "Serial Mom" -- two of my all-time favs, along with "Crimes of Passion." Watch it already -- you'll love it. One of KT's greatest performances EVER, and it's delightfully sick and twisted to boot...not that you would expect anything less from Ken Russell.
Post a Comment