To those of us so far removed from the golden age of Hollywood, Kate Burton's childhood seems impossibly mythical. Her mother was Sybil Williams—a Welsh actress who founded the popular New York disco club Arthur—and her father was Richard Burton, one of the most famous men in the world and a leading actor of his time. Kate's parents divorced in 1963, when she was five years old, and the next year, Richard married Elizabeth Taylor, beginning one of Hollywood's most legendary, and tumultuous, romances.
Initially, Burton never wanted to be a professional actor, thinking she might go into international diplomacy instead. The call to acting came in her twenties, and Burton has never looked back, forging her own path separate from her family's fame. She began her career in theater, but many fans know her from longtime roles on the Shonda Rhimes blockbuster shows Grey's Anatomy and Scandal (she played Dr. Ellis Grey and Vice President Sally Langston, respectively.)
This summer, Burton—a three-time Tony and Emmy nominee—returns to her classical roots, starring in the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Coriolanus, one of the bard's lesser known tragedies. Burton plays Volumnia, the bossy mother who encourages her son toward greatness—and great danger. The play has not been performed at Shakespeare in the Park since 1979, when Morgan Freeman played the title role (and a 25-year-old Denzel Washington played a minor part).
Here, Burton talks with T&C about her journey to the stage, why Coriolanus is so relevant today, and the best advice she ever got from her father.
Even though it's Shakespeare, the play isn't well known. How has it been brought to life, and what does it mean to you?
Coriolanus is especially interesting because it doesn't get done that often in the United States, it gets done a lot in England. For me personally, my father was a very famous Coriolanus at the Old Vic. The definitive text for anybody who is working on a Shakespeare play is the Arden, which is very, very dense but it tells you what everything means and about production history. So one of the thrills for me was sometimes I'd be sitting in rehearsal and I would look at the Arden and it would reference my father playing those moments in 1953. It's just mind blowing for me. It's been a labor of love, a labor of family, and thrilling to bring this play to American audiences again.
What makes Shakespeare in the Park so special?
When you see all those kids, the soldiers and citizens, you wonder, "there might be an Oscar winner in that group!" That's what's fantastic about the Public—they take the cream of the crop from Juilliard, Yale, Brown, NYU, and move them up. For some of those kids, that's their first professional experience. You feel like you're carrying on a tradition. Plus, I mean, free Shakespeare in Central Park. What could be better?
The play is about the messiness of democracy and bad leadership. Some would say it feels spot on today.
It's so relevant it's not even funny. Not all people who are thrust into leadership positions should be leaders. Hello! Who could we be thinking about [laughs]. Also, it's just unbelievable that what comes out of people's mouths in this play written over 400 years ago is still true. Shakespeare is grappling with how do you lead appropriately, how do you govern a country? And in all his great tragedies there are deeply flawed leaders.
Your character Volumnia is this ambitious, pushy mother. What makes her such a great character to play?
The mothers in Shakespeare are few and far between. Volumnia is such a force and she's totally a single mother. There is no reference to Coriolanus's father. The first thing I say is "I was pleased to let him see danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him." She prepared him to be a great fighter and is very ambitious for him and for herself. There's a bit of narcissism in her for sure. His failure with the citizens at the end of the first half, she takes personally.
Was acting a natural choice for you?
I did resist it at first. I loved acting, but I resisted the profession. I went to Brown and was planning to be a diplomat! But I had this amazing professor, my Russian history advisor, and he said to me my senior year, "you have a gift, and you're squashing it down because of your family." I said "let me see if I can get into a drama school." I got into my first choice, Yale, and graduated in 1982.
You did a lot of stage work, but most people probably know you from this little show called Grey's Anatomy...
In my 20s and 30s I was mostly doing theater, some TV here and there. Then in my 40s, I landed on this hospital show [laughs] and it turned into a 15-year experience. I'm still on Grey's Anatomy, I still come back two or three times a year as a ghost or dream. And then Scandal happened, and that also put me in a different place.
What's the greatest piece of advice your father gave you?
My father would often say you often do the best work when you're tired, because you only have so much energy and you have to focus it really strongly. He said "use your fatigue." My dad's been gone so long but he's still advising me in my head. And I heard Mike Nichols say to Glenn Close one time, "bring your day on with you. Whatever you're working with."
Coriolanus runs through August 11 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.
Liz Cantrell is the assistant to the Editor in Chief of Town & Country, covering arts and culture, and has previously written for Esquire.
