An Engaging Conversation with Patricia Clarkson at the Sarasota Film Festival

Vivacious, funny, and svelte with personality plus, Patricia Clarkson engaged the audience at Sarasota Film Festival’s “In Conversation with Patricia Clarkson.” She conversed on stage with Elvis Mitchell, former NY Times film critic and host of the radio show The Treatment.

Known for her roles in independent films and HBO’s Six Feet Under for which she won two Emmys, Patricia says it was her role in High Art that changed everything for her in 1999. Her own rise to fame now leads her to advise all actresses to play a lesbian heroin addict, she says. However, Patricia didn’t draw from personal experience to play the role; she has never taken a drug in her life. Describing her self as being “so straight it’s scary,” she added “but I do like bourbon.”

Patricia reports losing ten pounds when she finally made it to Sundance. She states, “The independent film gods came together” when two of her films were in competition. Pieces of April and Station Agent were both made by first-time directors, each for less than half a million dollars.

Recently starring in Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, Patricia loves working with Allen who shoots scenes without stopping. She feels the need to be more prepared with Allen than with any other director.

Patricia plays the lead role in Cairo Time which will be released this summer. In this “very romantic” film, she plays the woman she wants to be.

Clarkson starred in Stanley Tucci’s Blind Date which screened previously at the Sarasota Film Festival. Being “really great friends” with Tucci, she hesitated to play the role of his wife in the film. When Tucci asked if she couldn’t be attracted to him, she joked “Well, I am an actress!”

At the age of 50 with a body that most twenty year olds would envy, Patricia seemed totally comfortable in her own skin, frequently kicking her crossed leg in the air as she spoke. Patricia joked about showing so much of her body in films. She said she would rather be naked than wear a white bikini, but had to do both in the film The Dying Gaul. She laughingly stated she “so needed a white bikini” in Shutter Island.

Influenced by a teacher at Yale who taught her “the body never lies”, Patricia strives to totally immerse herself in her characters, describing herself as a “very, very physical actress.” She likes becoming someone else and won’t accept films that don’t require her to change radically

The youngest of five daughters, Patricia grew up in New Orleans. Although there are no longer indications of a Southern accent, she states she can bring it back with a bourbon or two. Growing up in a very social home where strangers were often present, she learned early in life to naturally carry a dialogue. Her mother’s idea of a small party was 60-70 people. A politician at age 74, her mother is president of the City Council of New Orleans. Patricia refers to her mother as a “true orator” who, unlike her, never writes a speech.

She believes her upbringing has helped her to “withstand the enormous rejection and heartbreak” that comes with her profession. Although she no longer has to audition for parts, Patricia still experiences rejection and disappointments. But not on the day of the “In Conversation…,” on that day, she received an offer for a film.

I left the “In Conversation…” feeling like I just “met” someone I’d like to hang out with. I left wanting to see every one of Patricia’s films that I haven’t seen.

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Photography by Kim Fowler

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