Jessica Lange makes me nervous.
Tootsieturned out to be the best film I ever made.
Over 40 years of intense, edge-of-madness performances, shes specialized in playing high-strung characters with dangerous dark sides.
But then she stops short.
A hammock and a daybed!
My favorite things places to nap.
She drops into the hammock, taking a blissful swing as a hummingbird buzzes overhead.
Its rare, and somewhat reassuring, to see Lange in laid-back mode.
Lange portrayed another troubled star,Joan Crawford, in this years FX seriesFeud.
As an actress, Lange has seldom chosen the easy path, or failed to persist.
She took on Shakespeare at 50 and plunged into series television at 62.
Lange has been just as bold off the set.
Lange announced in 2013 that she was thinking of retiring, yet has shown no sign of slowing down.
Her staying power isnt just about the boom in meaty roles for older actresses on television.
Its the desire to do something brave, she says, to be challenged.
She reflects on a number of big times in her life.
I went to eight different schools I was always the new girl in town, the outsider looking in.
Ive felt that way my whole life, like I never belonged in one particular place.
The imagination was my escape and my entertainment.
Thats what acting still is for me.
Disastrous Movie, Gritty ResponseKing Kong, 1976
Getting cast in the Fay Wray role was such a fluke.
But then they flew me out to MGM to put me on camera what did they have to lose?
And by the time I left, I had the part.
I went back to taking acting classes for a few years.
When youre young, you dont see the connections, how one thing leads to the other.
I learned a lot from being around Jack hes one of the great film actors of all time.
He understood the camera and what to do when.
He showed me the power of gesture.
A Simpler TimeFirst Academy Award, 1983
