.....Debra Winger? Don't know? Me neither, but from this interview it sounds like a bottle of Jack and a quaalude is in involved. She sounds drunk but pretty straight up about her feelings towards Hollywood.
"She pulled off one of the great disappearing acts in Hollywood, but it's still easy to spot Debra Winger in a crowd. Sitting in a Manhattan restaurant, the actress looks much the same as she did riding the mechanical bull in Urban Cowboy, swept up and away in the arms of Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, and hugging her children farewell in Terms of Endearment. Her long, dark curly hair has a reddish cast now, but even behind pale tinted sunglasses, she can't hide those big blue opaly eyes.
This is the first film you've produced.
The endless phone calls! Sometimes I think I could slash my wrist. But it takes six minutes and 55 seconds for your blood to circulate out of your body, and my family won't leave me alone long enough.
How do you know that?
I looked into it once.
Were you nervous to be onscreen again?
No. Maybe before we started. Working out the hair and wardrobe. You realize as you're talking to people that they assume that you want to look younger. Nobody even questions it. It's assumed by the photographer or the photo editor that you want everything taken off your face.
Most women are freaked out about getting older.
We're all freaked out. You just have to be freaked out quietly. It happens about 42, 43. You can feel where it's going to go. Here's my recipe: Live with fewer mirrors. It's part of the reason for doing fewer movies, because you have to start every morning with two hours in front of a mirror. I mean, who wouldn't be depressed? I am not saying it's easy to age. But women have to be really vigilant because the world is geared toward helping you to look younger at every turn. There's a small club of women who are willing to age.
An Officer and a Gentleman was on television last night.
I did not have a great time on that set. Studio mishegoss. I was being really jerked. And most of those guys are dead now. So I don't feel bad. People like Don Simpson -- they were pigs. I'm sorry, may he rest in peace, but he'd go to dailies and bring me a water pill. They treated girls very badly. I was trying to stand up to it. And it was hard. I was really young. "Is she fuckable? Do I want to fuck her? Will I get to fuck her?" That's all it's about in that world. And I don't go to the movies for that. It wasn't about finding a guy I wanted to fuck. It was about dreaming about life.
Speaking of notorious Hollywood producers, you worked with Robert Evans on your big breakout movie, Urban Cowboy.
All I remember is the massive amounts of cocaine on the front of his shirt. What is he made out of? And I'm, like, 23 years old and I see Robert Evans, and that was Hollywood to me. It was kind of a gift if you think about it. Had it been any less ridiculous, I might have bought it. I might have bit.
Michelle Pfeiffer was up for the role, too.
Yeah. Michelle and I are about the same age. We came up in the business together, but now she looks like my younger sister. Hmmm, how does that happen? Takes a bite of crème brûlée. Mmmmm. That's so good it makes me want to kick someone! It's like those vinegar-and-salt potato chips that make me want to slap someone.
You see, you do have anger issues!
Oh, yeah, big ones. Big ones. To the waiter Come here, come here! Jokingly slaps him. Oh, he likes it!
hen Noah was born. I was 32.
In 1995, you were two weeks into shooting your last film, The Divine Rapture, with Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp, when the financing fell through. What was it like working with Brando?
I first met him at an Andy Warhol party in 1979. Urban Cowboy wasn't even out yet. I don't have the Marlon thing. All the guys do, but to me, he's a bit tragic. I love him because of what he was, and what he was is probably what hurt him. But I find him tragic. Because he's very locked up. Locked in there. I do remember the day he slapped Johnny Depp. It was like a lover's spat. Maybe he sees in Johnny the young him and wants to keep from happening what happened to him. I don't know. He slapped him in a scene, but they were improvising -- which is all you ever really do with Marlon. But we had fun acting together. He was wearing some Kabuki makeup. And he had dyed his hair red, because we were in Ireland. I have the footage in my living room.
And to think, he was such a god.
Well, there's only one direction from there. And everybody ought to get hip on that.
What's the most money you've ever made on a film?
I got out before the whole thing exploded. I was at the top of my deal, but it wasn't anywhere near what happened when those other girls arrived. Would I be bitter about that? No. But it does put money in perspective. It's like a merry-go-round: You go up and down, and sometimes you get the golden ring. But there are so many actors going for the ring every time that there's nothing in between. There's just golden rings. It's boring. The money stands for something that's just less quality. Arliss and I have the How Much Money Does He Need? game. Like when you see someone well-known in a commercial, you go, "How much money do you need?" I just never required that much money. It corrupts. Bigger house? Bigger car? Who cares?
Are you back now?
I'm definitely open to reading scripts again. I'm not interested in . . . I've hit my sell-by date on turkeys. I don't want to try to be something I'm not. I'd love to work with Wes Anderson, Bernardo Bertolucci, Richard Attenborough, Agnieszka Holland, and Quentin Tarantino, depending on the material. I'll tell you where I'm at: Yesterday, a photographer was shooting me for another magazine, and he said, "Ooooh, I love that freshly fucked look!" And since it was eleven o'clock in the morning, and I'd just gotten out of bed with my husband, I actually had been. I had that look. Love that morning stuff! At the same time, one of his assistants was saying, "Wow, you're my mother's favorite actress!" "
Article by Holly Millea of New York Magazine
She is a nut job and a breath of fresh air all rolled into one. Cheers to you, Winger! And that has been this weeks segment of Whatever happened to.......!!
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