Interview: Calista Flockhart on Sharing the Stage With a Sheep and Christian Slater

For Calista Flockhart, starring in the New Group’s off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class feels like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle. “Sometimes I get the pieces together, and the next night I don’t. I am always searching,” she says of finding her character, Ella, the matriarch of a dysfunctional family.

She’s no stranger to taking on meaty stage productions, having starred on Broadway in Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters (1997) and Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (1994). But the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actress, known for Ally McBeal and Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, hasn’t been seen on a New York stage since then.

Flockhart spoke with TheaterMania about Curse of the Starving Class (now extended through April 6 at the Pershing Square Signature Center), having a lovable, rambunctious sheep as a co-star, and her thoughts about an Ally McBeal musical.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What is it like to be back in New York, and how has performing here changed?

I have nostalgia sometimes walking down the street. I feel like I’m 25 again. I can remember the cracks in the sidewalks. It brings back a flood of memories. The city felt aggressive to me at first because I simply wasn’t used to it. Now it doesn’t anymore, and it feels great to be back. I like to go to the park with the dogs in the morning and my little coffee shop. I feel like I’m slowly developing a little community for myself once again.

You’ve done a lot of classics. What drew you to Curse of the Starving Class, and what do you most enjoy about bringing new life to old plays?

I didn’t think too much about doing it. I got a call from [director] Scott Elliott asking if I wanted to do Sam Shepard. I’ve loved Shepard since I was very young. I’ve never had the opportunity to do one of his plays, so I said sure. Doing this type of show comes down to trying to trust my intuition and knowing that it comes out of me, my experiences, my feelings, my sense of humor, and my body. I don’t try to reach an end result that other people have done before me. It’s a skill that I’m still working on and trying to learn, but instead of focusing on what everybody else thinks, I really try to focus on what I think.

You have said that Class is a tough play to produce, which is why it hasn’t been done in many years. How does the New Group’s production overcome those hurdles?

I’m not sure it has. I think the play intrinsically is tricky. It was deceivingly difficult for me. I’m always searching and trying to make it work. It has been a challenge to try and figure out the journey of the character, but a challenge in a very satisfying way.

The absurdity and irony in many of Ella’s lines make her so interesting and compelling to watch. How did you tackle her many layers?

Slowly. I tried to find her truth and honor it. Ella is a woman who is in a bad situation, and she is doing everything in her power to get out. She is trying to escape, and she has come up with a plan. She is driven to make it work because she has been so disappointed in life. I focus on what that would feel like and how it would be getting out of there. Hopefully, the rest of it falls into place.

You and co-star Christian Slater share the stage with Lois, a sheep who steals the show when she’s onstage. How does she stack up to the many actors with whom you have worked?

I love Lois! There’s something about when she makes her first entrance—there is a real sense of relaxation that comes over me. Maybe it’s because it does something to the audience. They relax in a way. [The audience] sort of comes together with me even more than we have before. Every now and then Lois is very vocal. It seems right because our characters live on a farm so we’re very used to animals—though it is unusual that Lois is in a kitchen. It’s just so quirky and wonderful. I love Sam Shepard’s imagination. It was so beautiful.

How would you feel about tackling an Ally McBeal musical? The show certainly had the music and dance numbers for it!

If only I could sing! An Ally McBeal musical would be interesting. I’m up for anything. I’m way too old to play Ally McBeal now. I would have to figure out a way to be Ally McBeal’s mother, or Ally McBeal would have to be a woman of a certain age. I loved her, so I’m up for anything. You’re the first person to bring it up, and I would never have thought of it!