Lili Taylor on Starring Alongside Josh Brolin in Prime Video's Outer Range and Her Memories of Mystic Pizza

Author:
Walter Scott
Apr 9, 2022

The American Crime, Mystic Pizza and I Shot Andy Warhol actress Lili Taylor, 55, goes West in Outer Range (April 15 on Prime Video). She plays Cecilia, the wife of a modern-day rancher, Royal Abbott (JoshBrolin), who makes a baffling discovery with mystical implications on his Wyoming spread.

What can you share about the mysterious hole Royal finds on the Abbott Ranch?

It’s a void. And I think anytime you come up against a void, by its very nature, it’s mysterious and unknown. Sometimes you just have to hang tight and trust that it’s going to reveal itself. And it does, by the end.

Tell us about your character, Cecilia.

She’s religious but also spiritual, and she has a strong faith. She’s very practical, innovative and resilient, with a live-and-let-live attitude, which is kind of a grace, in a way. It’s not an easy thing to have.

What was it like filming on a ranch?

It was fantastic. The series captures the beauty of the landscape—the open air, the space, the elements. I felt all that when we were filming; it’s hard not to when you’re on 100,000 acres. There’s no way around feeling the wind and the cold and seeing the space.

Had you worked with Josh Brolin before?

I love Josh. No, first time and I feel very connected to Josh. I feel he’s like a brother to me and I feel like we have a bond now.

How hard is it for Cecilia to be married to Royal, who doesn’t share her religious beliefs?

She understands it’s not personal. His belief in something bigger has nothing to do with her, and he’s going to come to it when he comes to it.

Did being in nature add to the mystical element of the story?

I think so. That’s one reason I love the show. We’ve all been cooped up, but I think all of us could be a little bit more in touch with the outside world. And I feel like this show brings us closer to that in a way of what happens when you open that door and interact with the outdoor world.

Will viewers be satisfied that their questions are answered?

Absolutely. I mean, it’s funny. Maybe this’ll be a show where some people are a little perplexed, but I don’t find the show perplexing or weird or anything. I find it captivating and suspenseful and like life. Is there going to be some gray area? Yeah, but The Sopranos showed us that we have a capacity to understand complexity and don’t want things on a silver platter, so we can’t think or feel.

One of your first movies was Mystic Pizza, which got a prized two thumbs up from Siskel & Ebert, and people still watch it today. What are your memories of the project? Why do you think it lasted?

I don’t know. I’m surprised by that. I wonder if it passes the Alison Bechdel test. AlisonBechdel wrote Fun Home and she’s graphic novelist. Anyway, she created this test that’s gone viral in a way. A movie passes this criterion if it involves two women, if there is a scene where two women are talking, and if they’re talking about something that involves them but not about a man. It’s this cool criterion.

But anyway, maybe Mystic Pizza is one of the movies that actually involves these women and their feelings as opposed to… I know a lot of men are involved and the women are revolving around men in it, but I’m wondering if that’s more [the female] relationships as opposed to being male-driven.

It’s also about them trying to find success, especially with the pizza parlor and the critic coming. So there’s more going on than their relationships with men.

I think so too. I think that, too, there’s not a lot of that out there still today. And there’s a purity about it, an innocence. I think maybe all that is why it’s still around.

How does your upcoming Audible play, The Fever, translate from a theater piece to audio-only?

WallyShawn is the playwright, and a few of his other plays have been [turned] into podcast or audio series. It translates really well because it’s like an inner monologue. It’s one character, it’s one day, she’s reflecting and she has a fever. She’s sick, so she’s in a more heightened state. I think it’s going to be fantastic.

Are you a listener of audiobooks?

I love audiobooks. It’s funny because I would feel guilty for listening to a book over reading it, and then I heard that the spoken word came first. And when books came around, people thought it was going to be the end of civilization, kind of like what TV is. That's no way to take in the word. So I don’t feel guilty anymore that I like hearing books more. Well, I love reading, but I like hearing too.

What kind of projects get your attention?

I think for the most part, I’ve got to feel like there’s going to be a collaboration and that we’re going to work together, that we’re in it together. The director is very important, and then, of course, the script. And then I would say the role is probably the third most important.

In a way, if the role is great but the director isn’t very good or we’re not collaborating, then at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. Because at the end of the day, it’s really all about the meaning and the experience, and I’m not interested in just having great roles but not a deeper thing happening.

You’re an ambassador for birds, on the board of the Audubon Society. Explain your fascination with birds and how you got involved.

I love being on the board. I’m on the board of the American Birding Association also, and I love it. Especially for an actor; I joke that for an actor to be taken seriously in this kind of way is very exciting, to actually have name tags and get to sit at this table with people who create software and run big companies and stuff.

But I love birds, and I love getting in there. Today we’re going to talk about water in the Southwest, we’re going to talk about the Climate Act and about wind and nuclear. We’re going to get in there and talk about laws and ways to protect birds and the places they need.

I love birds, and I’ve always loved birds, but I didn’t know I loved birds until Twitter, which is weird because it’s got a bird on it. But it’s because I was too shy, and I didn’t know there were people like me.

And then I found there’s a world on Twitter called Bird Twitter, which is a whole lovely world that you can walk into that’s not at all like toxic Twitter. It’s a safe place for birders to communicate because we can say in real time, “There’s a bird in Central Park,” or, “Right now, I’m seeing this owl.” And so, I went to Central Park when birders were saying, “Oh, there’s a yellow-breasted chat,” and I went and then I met other birders. Then I went to a bird festival, and then I realized that I have a tribe and that there’s lots of ways I can do this. So I’m a birder; there’s just no way around it, and I love it.

What is there in life that you don’t have now that you want?

I just want more connection with humans, and in person. I want to be around humans. I really do. I miss humans.

Hopefully, if omicron is dying down, we’ll have some time before the next variant emerges.

Exactly. We’ll get a charge and rejuvenate, and if we have to go back into our little caves, we will. And then we’ll emerge again like the Whos in Whoville.