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Lea Thompson Interview – The actress talks Exit Speed, Back To The Future and working with Clint Eastwood on J. Edgar

18th July 2011 By Tim Isaac


To many Lea Thompson will always be associated with Back To The Future, where she played various incarnations of Lorraine Baines McFly. However she has had an incredibly broad career, that’s taken in everything from the successful sitcom Caroline In The City to the Broadway stage. With her latest movie, the action-thriller Exit Speed, reaching DVD on Jul 18th, Movie Muser’s Tim Isaac spoke to Lea about the film, as well as what she thinks of Back To The Future 26 years on, and her upcoming role in Clint’s Eastwood’s J. Edgar, where she play Ginger Roger’s mom!

Can you tell us a little bit about Exit Speed?
Yes. I hadn’t done an action movie in a long time when I made this, so it was a lot of fun. It’s just kind of a cool idea. A romp about these people who are stuck on this bus. They’re all just in their separate worlds, then all of a sudden their bus is attacked by this crazy, meth-smoking, motorcycle gang. They have to survive. They have to fight their way out of it, just these normal people. It’s kind of a survival story really. There’s these amazing stunt in it. These people do these crazy things on motorcycles. But you know, it a story of how strangers can band together when they have to.

You say you hadn’t done an action film in a long time. Is it something you were looking to do?
No, it just kind of found me. I call them westerns, as it’s kind of like a western, when you’re shooting out in a desert-y kind of area and it’s the good guys versus the bad guys. I love doing westerns. I love that whole thing of being outside, and guns, and bad guys. The whole thing was fun.

There are quite a lot of good roles for women in Exit Speed. You half expect your character to be a stereotypical soccer mom who just going to scream all the way through to build tension, but she reveals herself to be something else. And that’s true of many of the other female characters.
Yeah, that is one of the surprising things about the movie. I did like the character. I really think that women can be quite fierce when it comes to protecting their children and stuff. So I liked playing that character. And it’s always fun to have a character who surprises the audience, and she is surprising.

Were there any stunts that you were involved in that you were particularly proud of?
Well, when you’re making a not super-expensive movie, you get called on more often to do your own stunts. I think it’s interesting in Exit Speed that I kill the same person twice! That’s what happens in a low budget movie. I had to do a lot of running and dodging of motorcycles, and that’s fun when you’re not 20, to be able to do that.

You started off in ballet, so has the discipline of that helped you keep fit and able to do all the running?
Yeah, I think it did. I think it becomes more and more important as you get older to keep in touch with your body, and that you’re not afraid to move. It’s one of the reasons I still do yoga and still dance a little, because if you’re too careful with your body, you can’t do this stuff anymore. And I like being physical, especially as you can tell a lot about a character by the way they move. I always say, ‘If you don’t move it, you lose it!’

I’ve talked to quite a few actresses around your age group who’ve said it’s difficult to find decent roles, but I was looking at your IMDB credits, and you seem to be doing more than ever. Do you find it difficult to get roles or is it not so tough?
Well, it’s always difficult to get roles. There are a million actors and three parts. And it is more difficult for actresses. Just statistically if you look at it, it does look rather grim, but I think what happens is that it is such a difficult business and so a lot of people give up. So as you get older, there are less people doing it anymore because it’s so hard. I do think I’ve been lucky. I had a really brilliant year and done a lot of good parts. I think that by virtue of staying fit and not giving up you can get the parts.

I think the quality of the parts is more interesting for me lately than it has been, say, in my early 40s. I’ve been able to do a broader spectrum of roles, which is what I’ve always tried to do – comedy, drama, action, thriller… – because it’s just fun to attempt to do different things. I think particularly in America, with the broadening of all the different cable channels, and the fact they now specifically have channels for women and for older women, I think that’s been a real help to actresses like me, because it broadens the spectrum. For example I’ve just done my first romantic comedy movie for the Hallmark Movie Channel, and they specifically wanted women in their 40s to do that, which wouldn’t have made business sense before.

You said you’re trying to do all sorts of things, but of course to many people you’re particularly associated with the Back To The Future movies. Are you still proud of those films, or have they become a bit of a millstone round your neck – the thing you’ll never escape no matter what else you do?
Oh no, no, no. And look at that part. That was a great part. I played a woman in her late-40s, a 17-year-old, an 84-year-old – all different incarnations of the same character. I would love to get that part right now! I was very lucky. That was a huge character part and I feel very fortunate to be most famous for that. And I’m amazed that little seven-year-olds come up to me – that those movies are still holding up, even though we got the future so wrong! We were just a disaster for what the world would be like right now.

I was think you probably ought to phone up Bob Zemeckis, because now you’re actually the age Lorraine would have been in 1985, so you should see whether they can digitally insert you as you really are, rather than how they thought you would be.
Yeah, I know. We all were together just musing about that – how they got the makeup right and how they got it wrong. But you know, they were also trying to put a lot of weight on me too. That makeup’s still not perfect. Even though now they can help it digitally when you change an actor’s age, it’s still difficult to do.

I believe that you’ve recently been working on Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, playing Ginger Rogers mother. Is that right?
Yes.

How does she fit into the story?
Well, it’s not a large part. She was a really interesting character, but it’s not really fleshed out in the movie. But she was an expert for the McCarthy Hearings, and she would decide which line in what movie was a communist ideal that was being put into the movie. It was a ridiculous thing, but she was very political and she was very good friends with J. Edgar Hoover. There were rumours they dated. I don’t believe they did, but they were friends and my function more in the story is to put pressure on him, because his sexuality was, well, not interested in women, so I’m there to put some pressure on that. I think she wanted to be his girlfriend, but he wasn’t really that interested.

But it was just an honour to work on that movie and to be part of that crew, with Leonardo DiCaprio, it was amazing. I’d always wanted to work with Clint Eastwood – because he shares my birthday [laughs]. No, but whenever he calls, anyone will go. The cast of that movie is amazing. It’s like Woody Allen – you just go. You don’t question whether the part’s the best part or not, you just go. That was really a wonderful lark and a great experience. And of course it’s all set in the 30s, so there’s all the hair and the makeup, which is so much fun.

You have worked on an incredibly wide variety of projects. What for you in your acting career is the thing you’re most proud of?
Uh, well, I suppose, Cabaret on Broadway. It’s the only English accent that I’ve ever done and that was my proudest moment. I did it for eight months, eight shows a week. It was just one of those parts where it I really had to earn it, because I had to sing and dance as well. And it was just a great project. Same Mendes and Frank Marshall were the directors – it was actually developed in London and then came to Broadway. It was just a spectacular experience. You know, in America when I started, they really categorised actors. You were either a film actor, a TV actor or a theatre actor, and they really didn’t help you do all those mediums. I always looked up to British actors, as it was always so acceptable for them to move easily from TV to film to theatre and the community was so supportive of that. I’m happy that in America that’s bled over, and it’s easier for people to do different things. I always tried to do that, and I think I sometimes suffered for that, so I’m pleased that British sensibility has bled back over to America.

I believe your daughter Zoe is now having some success in the acting field. Are you pleased she’s following in your footsteps or would you have preferred her to choose a different direction?
No, I’m honoured that I’m not such a formidable a mother that she want to shy away from that. I think with some mothers there’s a sense of not wanting to compete – not that we’d be up for the same roles – but it becomes difficult. I think that it’s an honour. I’m really enjoying working with her and helping her and showing her the ropes. And my other daughter has just graduated college. She’s more of a musician though. I’ve sung with them both, I’ve acted with them both, I hope to direct them one day. It’s really nice that they’re following in the family business, and it’s good that I can tell them that I know how they feel and for that to genuinely be true. They’re both so talented that it’s really exciting for me to just watch them.

You say you’re hoping to direct your daughters. Is directing you’d like to do more of, as I believe you directed a couple of the Jane Doe TV movies that you starred in?
Yes, I would love to. I would like to direct the new series that I’m working on for ABC Family [Switched At Birth – in which she plays the mother of teen girl who was switched in the hospital as a baby with another child]. It’s a big hit at the moment, and it’s a really interesting idea. I’d love to direct my own movie as well. I’m just waiting a few more years until my kids get a little older, because when you have to make your own project it’s such an all consuming event. So I’m saving some of that energy at the moment to be a mom. But I love directing, and I feel I have a lot of talents that are good for it. And I’ve done so much in the entertainment industry that I know so many people, and I really understand the economy and how the business works. I really hope so!

Thank you very much, Lea.

Exit Speed is released on DVD on 18 July by 2020 Films

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