Interview: Kathleen Chalfant Is Everywhere These Days, and at 81, She’s Not Stopping

For well over 30 years, Kathleen Chalfant has been astonishing theatrical audiences in projects as diverse as the original Broadway production of Angels in America, the powerful drama Wit, and solo performances such as A Woman of the World.

Currently, Chalfant is thrilling us again as part of the six-woman ensemble in Jacob Perkins’s new play, The Dinosaurs, which takes place during a support group meeting for recovering alcoholics.

TheaterMania recently spoke to Chalfant about the play, her third time working with director Les Waters, being an octogenarian, and two recent projects, the film Familiar Touch and the television series The Copenhagen Test.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Actually, I was asked to do the play by our director, Les Waters, who is an old friend. So I said yes before I even read the play. But I love Jacob’s writing. There is an interesting tension between its apparent naturalism and carefully written music, in terms of the overlapping voices and the rhythm of the piece. I am also fascinated by the way it investigates time in what appears to be this totally realistic Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. It really takes you on a journey. I think it’s a wise and mature play for such a relatively young man.

Did you immediately connect to your character, Jolly?

Yes! At 81, like I am, she’s the oldest inhabitant of any room. She’s always in the moment physically, but she also has been going to these meetings for 47 years and has seen everything. I’ve personally never been to a 12-step meeting, but I have known many people who have, and I gather this one feels very realistic.

What was it like working with an all-female cast?

I’ve been in lots of play with lots of women, so it isn’t new. But each performer here is astonishing, and each person in this cast is in a different stage of life. Yet all six of us have truly bonded. We have these wonderful round-robin conversations on different topics, and the leader of the conversation constantly moves around. It’s been a marvelous experience.

Tell me about your relationship with Les Waters?

I met Les doing when he came to see Wit and we became friends. In fact, he often stays with us when he’s in New York. This is our third theatrical collaboration. There’s a paradoxical quality to working with him; while you work, the atmosphere feels very relaxed, but when you see the finished project, it’s this beautifully burnished and faceted jewel with an incredible sense of rhythm and style. What I also love about working with Les is that he makes you brave. He encourages you to follow your impulses, unlike some other directors I’ve worked with who shut you down immediately when you do that. So, I work with him every chance I get.

Earlier this year, your movie Familiar Touch finally got released. It also had a lot to say about the challenges of aging. Is that subject constantly on your mind?

It’s been more on my mind being 81 than it did when I was 79, when I made the movie. I really don’t know why. But somehow, 80 makes you feel more serious about being old, about how much of life is behind you rather than ahead of you. After 80, you think about the future in five-year increments.

The film ultimately got a nice reception. Were you happy about that?

Yes! We made it for under $750,000 in 18 and a half days. It was a miracle in all ways. And I am thrilled our writer-director, Sarah Friedland, will have an ongoing career. And because it’s about caregiving, it allowed us to be a voice for those people, who should be honored and not hounded, like they often are under this administration.

You also won a few awards, including Best Actress from the National Society of Film Critics. Do you even care about awards?

As far as awards in general, I think it’s better to get them than not. Some are very gratifying, but others seem to me that if you have to work that hard to get them, then it’s more of a victory for your publicity department than it is for you.

You have a TV series on Peacock now called The Copenhagen Test. Tell me about that experience?

Any time you get to play the Judi Dench part—the woman at the head of a spy organization—you take it. Even though I didn’t get to work with everybody in the show, all of the cast are decent human beings. Luckily for me, though, I worked mostly with Brian d’Arcy James, who really is the best of the best!

Its star, Simu Liu, is now on Broadway in Oh, Mary! Are you going to see him?

They don’t have Wednesday matinees, so right now, we’re on the same schedule. I have to say Simu is brilliant intellectually, does his own stunts, and is interested in everything. So, he was interested in doing that play as a challenge. I hope we get a second season so I can work with him again!