Laurie Metcalf on the Roseanne Revival and Her Newest Role on Broadway

Laurie Metcalf used to think of herself as a shy person. But in high school she summoned the nerve to audition for her school’s production of Auntie Mame. While the part was small, her learning curve was gargantuan. “I had three lines or something,” says Metcalf. “On opening night, I accidentally got a laugh on one of the lines. And I wasn’t expecting it.”

For a second, she was thrown by the laugh. But she also realized that she really liked it, and it got her thinking. “I wondered how it happened. I didn’t like that I didn’t know how I did it and that it was an accident,” explains the Emmy and Tony-winning actress. “I wanted to figure out why I got a laugh with that particular delivery, so could I do it again.”

Metcalf dissected her performance and was rewarded with the laugh at the remaining performances of the show's short run. “I was hooked,” she says. “I find the whole technical side of acting fascinating. To this day I’m always figuring out, 'Why did I miss that laugh last night? Oh, I know, because I didn’t emphasize the right word in the lead-up to it. Or I came in too quickly.' Usually it ends up being about timing.”

However, seeing herself as a very practical person, Metcalf didn’t think she would make a living as an actress. At Illinois State University she studied German and anthropology, appearing in some of the university’s plays. A student named Terry Kinney was so impressed with her talent that he connected her with fellow students John Malkovich and Jeff Perry. They joined with Gary Sinise to form Steppenwolf Theater and performed in a little church basement theater in Highland Park, Illinois.

“We took a leap of faith. There was no master plan for how long we would do it or where it would take us. We just initially started out wanting to put some one-acts together for the summer. Then it just kept building and growing,” says Metcalf. “I don’t know that I would have stayed in the acting profession if I hadn’t done it with that particular group of people.”

The leap paid off. Steppenwolf remains one of Chicago’s most acclaimed theaters. Metcalf has acted in more than 30 of their productions, including tackling Laura in The Glass Menagerie. Malkovich directed her in Lanford Wilson's play Balm in Gilead, which transferred to New York City in 1984 (with Glenne Headly, Sinise and Kinney also in the cast. During the play, Metcalf delivered a heartbreaking and hilarious 20-minute monologue that has been lauded as one of greatest theater-going experiences.

From there she was cast in a slew of film and TV roles, including Roseanne’s sister Jackie Harris on Roseanne. Through it all, Metcalf has remained committed to her theater roots. Last year she received a Tony award playing Nora in the what-might-have-happened sequel A Doll's House, Part 2. In 2017, she also ignited the big screen as one of cinema’s most memorable moms in the film Lady Bird, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.

This year Metcalf has returned to Broadway in Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Three Tall Women. She stars alongside Alison Pill and Glenda Jackson, who has returned to acting after more than two decades serving as a member of parliament for the Labour Party. The play examines the choices we make, our regrets and how we arrive where we are.

Metcalf plays a caretaker for Jackson’s character. Their dynamic goes swings from achingly real to ridiculously funny. “I love playing the reality of the frustration of that job. Some of the humor comes out in how they have a contentious but codependent relationship,” says Metcalf, who was nominated for a Tony award for her performance. “Albee really captured the conflicting emotions of the caretaker.”

Read on for Metcalf's full interview with Parade.com.

Doing Three Tall Women, you're not able to consult with playwright Edward Albee [who passed away in 2016]. Is there something you wish you could have asked him?

During rehearsals I would have had a lot of questions. I found the rehearsal to be really hard. It was a really difficult play to learn. I think we all stumbled around for a long time in the rehearsal room. But as Joe [Mantello], our director, got to know the play, it started making more and more sense to us. All the humor in it was, to me, not always apparent in the script. It was fun to find once we got an audience in there to help us.

I am glad that we struggled along on our own. I really like what we ended up with, how our production fits together and how the three of us work together. I love what the set contributes to it, which is gorgeous.

What inspired you to do Three Tall Women?

I wanted to be in the same room with Joe Mantello, who is my favorite director to work with. I wanted to watch Glenda’s process and also work with producer Scott Rudin again. He also cast me in A Doll’s House, Part 2 last year, which was fabulous, and the movie Lady Bird. I wanted to be in the room with all those people.

Three Tall Women makes you think about the past and how you arrive at where you are. Is there something you wish you could have told yourself when you were starting your career?

If I could go back, I would tell my younger self, “You can depend on this passion that you have for acting. You’re not going to lose it.” I would have liked to have known at 25 that years down the road the passion would not diminish, that I would get the same rewards working in the theater as I did at my younger age.

It’s so great to see Jackie again on the current Roseanne revival. Is there something you'd like for her to experience?

They allude to the fact that I’m a life coach now, which I find hysterical. But we didn’t get to see her practicing being a life coach. I’m hoping that we get to see that this next time around. Jackie has zero qualifications. I mean, she has ruined every relationship that she has ever been in. I find it funny that she could coach anybody else in their relationships, because she has failed in all of hers. I would love to see how bad she is at being a life coach. Or however they want to do it.

Your daughter, Zoe Perry, is playing your Big Bang Theory character, Mary Cooper, on the show's prequel, Young Sheldon. Have you given her advice?

I don’t give her advice for the same reasons that I don’t direct plays. There is a real skill to be able to talk to a fellow actor and not mess them up. And I don’t have that skill. So I don’t give her advice on portraying the character. But it has been fantastic to know the Young Sheldon show and see the back history. Now, when I go on TheBig Bang Theory, I feel I have more information to draw on for my character on that show because of Young Sheldon.

What did you say when she told you she wanted to be an actress?

She was flirting with it when she was very young, but I didn’t want her to go into it at that age.  I think it’s too stressful for a kid. So I didn’t let her audition for anything back then. In high school, she forgot about it and didn’t want to do it anymore. So it wasn’t an issue. When she went to college at Northwestern, she fell in love with the theater crowd. She ended up auditioning for a couple of things, got in them and stuck with it. It was kind of a natural progression.

What do you like to do when you are not working?

I still have a young one in junior high, so I do the mom thing. And I like to do jigsaw and crossword puzzles, things that keep my mind active. I also like knowing what my next project is going to be. So I can start daydreaming about how I might play it and begin learning the lines.

Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women is playing at the Golden Theatre.