For her portrayal of complicated women, Janet McTeer frequently sends audiences into fits of rapture. That includes the co-chief theater critics of The New York Times: Jesse Green called her “a riveting Shakespearean” (in the title roles of “Bernhardt/Hamlet”); and Ben Brantley wrote that she was “the theater’s timely answer to the Hale-Bopp comet” (for her Tony Award-winning Nora in “A Doll’s House”).
McTeer’s television characters are only slightly less formidable, like Helen Pierce, the cartel lawyer in Netflix’s “Ozark.” And she’s slated to play Carolyn Brock, the omnipotent gatekeeper in Showtime’s “The President Is Missing,” whose production has been halted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this month, while hunkered down in her Maine home, McTeer pondered the 10 things — categories, really — she can’t live without. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1. British History
I’m always fascinated about the history of England. When I was at school, it was one of my favorite subjects. I love the fact that Alison Weir writes about women who are often byproducts of men in history — women who were in some kind of power before women were ever supposed to be in power. Hilary Mantel, I just absolutely love her novels. And actually, now that we have this enforced alone-at-home time, I’m going to read “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies.” And then I’ve ordered her new book, “The Mirror and the Light,” and I’m beyond excited to read that.
2. The Theater
Life would be very sad if I couldn’t see plays. And not a specific play, because I feel like that takes something away from all the others — because when I say theater, I mean all of it. You know that magical little thing where you go into a place and the lights go down? It never fails to excite me.
I took my godson for his 14th birthday to see “Six,” the musical, and it was just so joyful. There were all these wonderful young women onstage, and it was very sort of what I would call post-feminist. I can’t see that that would’ve happened when I was young. It’s so embracing of women — not just women against men, but women regardless of men, just standing up on their own. And they did it with such humor and great skill and these incredible voices, and it was just divine. There’s something so wonderful about any form of art being reinvented. I find that just silly, charming and utterly delightful.
3. The First Movies I Bought
When I was young, I didn’t have a television. And then eventually I bought a TV and a video machine, and the films that I bought tell you exactly who I am as a person: “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Citizen Kane,” Olivier’s “Henry V,” “The Sound of Music,” “Apocalypse Now” and “The Terminator.” In my avatar life, I’m either an opera singer, a ballet dancer — or Jason Bourne or James Bond. I really have missed my calling.
4. My Home in Maine
Ever since I was young, I always knew I’d have to have a place to escape to, even if it was just for a walk in the countryside. I get very claustrophobic in towns after a while. I love the pace. I love the culture. I love the fashion. I love the coffee. I love the lipstick. I love the people. I love it all. It’s so inspiring and fulfilling and energizing — and then I just get too much. Then I like to be in nature. I’m looking out my window right now at the rain and all of these trees, and you just feel like your brain empties. You clear out everything between characters, between too much stimulus from the world. I find that very, very necessary.
When I was doing “Bernhardt/Hamlet,” I learned whole swaths of “Hamlet” sitting on the deck in the sunshine, and it was lovely. When I’m trying to create a character, I need very much to be by myself. And I need to just wander around as that person and say my lines out loud. You can’t do that in the middle of Starbucks. Well, I mean, you can, but you might be arrested.
5. Democracy
I find it just so fascinating to watch how different generations change, and how they change other people’s minds, how they change the laws. And the democracy of America is just so extraordinary: the Constitution, the amendments to the Constitution, something that we don’t really have in England in that same way. I’ve always found that interesting, but because I’m doing “The President Is Missing,” it’s even more so. We went to visit [Congress] a couple of weeks ago, and I, like every other tourist, took a lot of pictures. And the picture that is my favorite, that is currently my screen saver, was Nancy Pelosi’s sign on her office door.
6. Poetry
My husband, Joseph Coleman, is a wonderful poet. He sees things in a different way than I do, and he writes poems describing things that I would never know or am not party to. It makes me feel like I know him better. And it’s always that wonderful thing when your partner does something that you couldn’t do. There’s always a little bit of distance between you that’s just so kind of thrilling. I also love Billy Collins because he always comes at my brain sideways. I find him very funny because he catches me off guard. Just when you think you know where a poem is going, it turns the other way.
7. National Geographic Photographs
I’m not really a social media person. But one of the very few things that I follow on Instagram, apart from my family, is National Geographic. I just love seeing photographs of the natural world, of places that I’ve never been.
8. Ballet, Opera and Musicals
I act on the stage, so I know what it’s like waiting in the wings, preparing. But when I go and see opera, when I go and see ballet, when I go and see musicals, I just find them so life-affirming, because they do something I could never do. I went to see Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake” twice in its final week. I saw “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Met not that long ago. And “West Side Story” — I loved that one, too.
9. The Museum of Modern Art
My husband works near there sometimes, so we’ll meet there for lunch. And if he’s got a break, we’ll just wander around and see what’s going on. A while ago I saw Song Dong’s [“Waste Not”]. It was the history of his mother’s life with all of her ingredients laid out, and that was one of my very, very favorites. But there’s always something new that gets your eye.
10. The Power of Words
We live in a world where our means of expression are getting shorter with texts and quick emails, and the art of the letter has gone. And I come from a land where you grew up breathing Shakespeare. In the end, words are just so important to me. Words can become emotional tattoos. If somebody says something beautiful to you, you can remember it forever.
Source: Television - nytimes.com
