Interview

Getting Behind Blue

How Karen Moncrieff went from soap star to indie film director.

Beau and Jordan Bridges

It helps to have a father who knows a little something about the biz—and a grandfather, an uncle, two brothers, and a sister. Indeed there's no shortage of talent in the acting dynasty started by actor Lloyd Bridges. Yet more than simply offering his sons that first break ...

Rap On, Sister

Though she admits to not being as obsessively detailed about her work as she once was, Lily Tomlin is still the consummate performer and a virtual encyclopedia of her own life and times. At a recent tribute to Tomlin at the HBO-sponsored U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen earlier ...

Objectively Speaking

Whenever I talk to practitioners about the craft of acting—which I do constantly for this column—there is one technique that is always mentioned, no matter what approach we're investigating, no matter what the medium (film, TV, stage), no matter whether we're discussing auditions or performances.

Now and Then

Something happened to Christina Ricci since the last time I spoke to her—and it's not just that she blossomed from an awkward, flippant 17-year-old into a buxom, poised young woman. Ricci found a sincere respect for acting—a dramatic turn from a few years back.

Character Studies, Marcia Gay Harden

Every year since the 1960s, the media has been abuzz about a certain Best Supporting Oscar curse, rumored to have either killed a long list of careers or lulled them to mediocrity.

Broad Appeal

In an industry in which many women complain of a dearth of roles after they leave their 30s, Cloris Leachman is living proof that there's life after 40. And 50. And 60. At 78, Leachman is one of the most sought-after actors working today. She has no fewer than ...

In Her Prime

Tovah Feldshuh might be best-known for her role as the quintessential Jewish mother in the Sapphic comedy Kissing Jessica Stein, a part that should have at least earned her an Oscar nomination, if not the award itself. "Miramax chose to back Shakespeare in Love that year," she says good-naturedly. "Hey ...

Deborah Kara Unger: Talent Will Out

Few actors manage the transition between independent and studio films so effortlessly as Deborah Kara Unger. Since the beginning of her career—in the 1989 miniseries Bangkok Hilton—Unger has alternated between studio films such as Payback and The Game and indies such as Sunshine and Thirteen, the only consistent ...