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Amid the menagerie of women Truman Capote surrounded himself with, Joanne Carson was perhaps the oddest.
I was wearing heels; I was wearing this hair that was not my own.
And then trying to drag Tom Hollander out of the pool …
I can only imagine what it was like in real life.
At a certain point, I was like,I just dont know how Im gonna do that.
And Tom has to pretend like hes completely dead, or at least completely unconscious.
It was really not very easy.
And then theres the 911 call Joanne makes but doesnt follow through on.
We see her staring out into space after pouring Truman a drink.
They answer and say, What is your emergency?
In her mind, shes seeing the whole thing: seeing them come, seeing them revive him.
Shes seeing it all happen again and again and again.
And she realizes hes just too far gone.
That it doesnt matter.
Joanne thinks he just really doesnt want to be there anymore.
So she makes the decision to let him go, basically.
Not kill she doesnt want to kill him.
But she just has to let him go.
So thats what I played.
Its a hard thing to play.Yeah, it is.
And shes really conflicted about it.
Shes staring outside at the hummingbirds.
Shes waiting and thinking that if she waits long enough, itll just kind of happen.
It was really, really heartbreaking.
Its such a wounding moment.It was powerful to be able to see the whole thing.
Everybodys taking shots at Joanne and saying, Oh, she hasnt been the same since shes divorced!
Oh, shes so wacky!
Oh, shes kooky!
Blah, blah blah.
You see her have this very heartbreaking clarity.
It was just him and me, she doesnt sound like kooky Joanne at all.
She sounds completely down to earth.
Theres a gravitas to that moment.
Im one of those people who feel likeAnswered Prayersmight show up in a box somewhere.
I dont know if I just want to believe that.
I do think it might show up years from now.
My first play ever when I was 3 and a half years old was calledThe Grass Harp.
It was community theater based on the story by Truman Capote.
So I knew him before I knew Dr. Seuss.
As I got older and I started reading his books, he became one of my favorite writers.
She would refer to herself as an ugly duckling, which, of course, she wasnt.
She was actually quite beautiful.
And she doesnt look anything like me!
Shes very, I think, very beautiful.
It was hard to find stuff about her.
Johnny Carsons third wife was named Joanna Carson, so that gummed up my research a bit.
But I did end up finding one interview so I could hear the way she spoke.
She was from California and Im from California, so I felt like I was okay with the accent.
I know a couple of people who knew her and said she was incredibly kind and very nurturing.
Joanne had divorced Johnny, which threw her into questionable social territory.
And then Truman did what he did with the other women, so they were together in that.
But at the end of the day, I was really playing an interpretation.
I was serving that story.
Joanne really was Trumans friend.
I think she absolutely loved him and believed in his genius more than anyone else.
She understood him as an artist and wanted to do whatever she could to facilitate that.
I was just watching the Kurt Vonnegut documentary last night.
She encouraged him to quit his job with GE and said, Youre a genius!
Sometimes, writers really need that person.
He was too far gone.
Its based on the connection between Babe and Truman.
But Joanne and Truman did everything together.
When I see pictures of them, they have matching fedoras.
She had his ashes for years after.
She had written a book and he edited it for her like, rewrote sentences.
They were there for each other in a way you dont exactly see in the show.
That really means a lot.
I really worked hard to get it right.
It really does make you think about the importance of words.
It makes you understand that endeavor.
I probably understand that better than any of the so-called swans.
I dont think they really thought about Trumans writing and what it really meant to him.
I really, truly admired Truman Capote.
His writing and also parts of his personality.
Just because he had that crazy confidence.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
