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This week, the actressGena Rowlands diedat the age of 94.
Many of her best roles were in films directed by her first husband, John Cassavetes.
(The movie was directed by her son, but still.)
Despite the torment of her most famous parts, Rowlands discussed her work in terms of high pleasure.
She was a woman who loved, loved, loved acting.
So I reached out to someone who loves, loves, loves actors.
When I asked criticAngelica Jade Bastienif she was a fan of Rowlands, she said, A fan?
She is one of the best actors to ever be put to screen.
Shes up there with Bette Davis for me.
And then she told me why.
I want to start from the very beginning of your relationship withGena Rowlands as a performer.
was when I was in high school and I sawJim JarmuschsNight on Earthfrom 1991.
She never sucked up all the oxygen in the room.
Her character is an actress doing a stage play.
Sometimes when actors play actors they get a little too obsessed with themselves.
She knew how to thread the needle.
The other one is a TV movie that probably five people, including myself, have seen.
Its calledStrangers: The Story of a Mother and a Daughter, from 1979.
Rowlands played the daughter, andBette Davis was the mother.
Bette won an Emmy for it.
The movie concerns them attempting to repair their estrangement after like two decades.
Im a sucker for a tense, fucked-up mother-daughter dynamic.
We need more of those.
You know, the reputation is that Bette Daviss heir apparent is Meryl Streep.
Even Bette said that.
I love Bette, but Ive disagreed with her ever since I watchedStrangers.
The movie acts as a passing of the torch.
Rowlands was so good at moving between registers.
InOpening Night, her first lines are whispered through the cigarette gripped in her teeth.
She makes you wonder:What else does this woman have to show me?
I see you as a professional … You dont care about anything.
Hes trying to provoke her.
How did these two people work together?
How did they create such amazing films that are so charged with the nature of heterosexual dynamics and marriage?
Thats what a film likeOpening Nightis.
OrA Woman Under the Influence, from 1974.
I wouldnt be able to last two weeks.
So he rewrote it as a film.
But she was always working, way beyond the stuff she did with him.
That would be unusual now for an actor of her caliber.Yeah, they dont do that now.
It speaks to a very, very different atmosphere, to someone who sees pleasure in the work.
Think of all the television Rowlands did from the 50s until 2010.
I have a soft spot for her appearance inColumbo.
She was really more of a working-class actor as in, an actor who reallyworked.
I imagine that would make you approach the work very differently.
You dont obsess over the glamour of it.
Or whether it will project a sense of exclusivity.
Cate Blanchett is not going to be in any old project.
I havent watched CassavetessGloria, so Ill put that one in the mix.
Even in movies that arent great, Gena Rowlands is always bringing it.
The fact that everyone keeps talking aboutThe NotebookI find fucking insulting.
Bar for bar, most people cannot come for her.
Brando, kiss my ass.
Gena Rowlands every day.
