Veteran actress Lois Nettleton admits frankly that when she is performing a serious dramatic work, she can "fake it," if need be. Comedy is a whole different story. "I don't know how to fake comedy. I approach a comic role the same way I would a dramatic role -- from a very realistic place. And then find the extremes of emotion. If my character is angry, she's very angry. If she's thrilled, she's very thrilled. Comedy is exaggerated, but it always has to function within natural parameters."
That said, there are limitations to what an actor can do with comedy, asserts Nettleton, a 70-something Chicago native who brings to mind Joanne Woodward. "I'm a Method actress and I work from the inside out. I try to create characters with as many facets as possible, which works with drama but can get in the way with comedy. Subtle emotional mood shifts don't work with comedy."
Now starring in Mark Giesser's "How to Build a Better Tulip," a play that bowed Off-Broadway at the Acorn Theatre on Wed., June 30, Nettleton is grappling with the challenges of doing comedy. "How to Build a Better Tulip" -- loosely based on the novel "The Black Tulip" by Alexandre Dumas -- examines what transpires when two rival botanists (one of whom is Nettleton) compete to develop the first black tulip, a heated competition spurred on by invasive ancestors on both sides (scientists in their era) who also have a stake in the botanical creation.
Chatting with me in the theatre before a preview performance, Nettleton notes the specific challenges she faces in "Tulip," most notably clarifying the science and scientific language, as well as the role of the meddling ancestors, with whom her character has conversations throughout the play. "Carolus [one of the ancestors who appears sporadically] is letting me know it's incumbent upon me to create the black tulip. It is my destiny. But I play these scenes with him as if I were having conversations with myself.
"The science in the play is accurate, and although I didn't do any research into the subject, I grasped the science through memorizing the lines and the imagery I came up with, which helped me memorize the lines." Nettleton points out, "If you visualize what you're talking about, it will make sense."
Didn't Know What to Do With Her
Nettleton's career spans 40-plus years and she has appeared in all the major media. Her Broadway credits include revivals of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "They Knew What They Wanted" (Tony nomination). In Los Angeles, her performance in "A Perfect Ganesh" earned her an L.A. Theatre Critics Circle nomination, and for "Dancing in the End-Zone," she received an L.A. Dramalogue Award. Among her many feature films: "The Man in the Glass Booth" (with Maximilian Schell), "Echoes of a Summer" (with Richard Harris), and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (with Burt Reynolds). She is probably best known, however, for her work in many TV movies, miniseries, and popular series. To name a few: "Seinfeld," "Coach," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Golden Girls," "In the Heat of the Night" (Emmy nomination), and "The American Woman" (Emmy Award). Most recently, she had a recurring role in "Crossing Jordan," as Jill Hennessy's common-law stepmother.
"They really didn't know what to do with my character," she recalls. "I was largely there as a further source of conflict between Jordan and her father. Finally, they had my character leave and write a letter to Jordan's father, telling him he has to make up his mind about our relationship," Nettleton laughs. "No, I don't think they're going to bring me back."
Nettleton has no particular desire to do another series, "although a series would re-establish me."
Still, her first love is the theatre, and she says she would have spent much more time in New York if it hadn't been for an ailing mother in Los Angeles whom she took care of. Nettleton recalls being very close to her mother, who had Parkinson's disease and died several years ago.
There is something sad about Nettleton, who is sweet and delicate in manner, with a soft (almost breathy) speaking voice. It is easy to imagine Nettleton in a play by Tennessee Williams, her favorite playwright. Nettleton describes herself as shy, hates public speaking, and says she would have been a terrible acting teacher: "I don't impart information very well."
Nettleton had a rugged beginning. When she was very young, her parents divorced (she didn't know her father until much later in life) and she lived with relatives for a number of years before moving in with her mother, who struggled to make ends meet. Nettleton attended Catholic school briefly and toyed with the idea of being a nun. "I even thought I might be a saint, but then I yelled at my mother and realized I wouldn't qualify."
Loved the Work
As Nettleton tells it, she knew she was going to be an actress from the outset. After graduating from high school, she studied acting at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and then came to New York to launch her career.
Looking back at the New York theatre scene in the late '50s and early '60s, Nettleton reflects, "It was more logical then than it is today. For starters, there weren't as many people in the field, and those that wanted to be actors loved the work. For many kids today, I think acting is a search for identity. Glamour and stardom is what's wanted, respected, and rewarded.
"When I was starting out, if you said you wanted to act, people felt a certain fear for you," Nettleton continues. "It was viewed as risky. Now the response is, 'Oh, my sister is in showbiz, too.' "
In the early days of her career (when she was one of the last contract players at MGM), Nettleton remarks that she was typecast as "the plain nice girl or unhappy wife next door." In more recent decades, the characters she has played have run the gamut.
One reporter once said to her, "You've played far too many characters. You'll never be a star. To be a star you need the same persona in every character." Nettleton responded, "That's fine with me. Because the joy in acting is playing as many different characters as possible."
Nettleton adds, "I've turned down many roles that didn't interest me. And I have not faced more barriers as a mature actress. I just play more mature roles."
She says there are no longer any roles that she is dying to play, short of, perhaps, the faded star (made famous by Geraldine Page) in "Sweet Bird of Youth." That said, Nettleton stresses that she has few regrets.
"When I was in my late teens and early 20s, I wanted to play Blanche DuBois -- and I did. That was my biggest hit. There was a time I wanted to do 'Summer and Smoke.' But that time has passed. Now I'm a little long in the tooth."
So what's next for Nettleton? "At the end of the day, I would just love to do some more theatre."