|
the Arts Centre presents
Leading
Ladies
A Creative Development Initiative
Interview
| Biography
Geraldine
Turner
Geraldine Turner was performing with Sydney
Theatre Company at the time of this photo shoot.
While her location is linked to the performing
arts, Geraldine chose to be photographed out
of the theatre environment, enjoying the spectacular
harbour of the city in which she lives.
Geraldine
Turner
The Wharf Restaurant
Sydney Theatre
Company, Sydney, 2003
Photograph by Jeff Busby
Commissioned, 2003
the Arts Centre, Performing Arts Collection
Interview venue: the Arts Centre, Melbourne
Interview date: 28 March 2003
Leading
lady
Being
a leading lady
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Inspirations
Love of the
theatre
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Aspirations
Recordings
Geraldine Turner: I want to fly
without the net… I want people to hear
me breathing. I want people to know that there's
a sort of liveness to the performance. That
is not perfect, it's something else. It's real…
And I think you can only get that edge when
you've only got a certain amount of time…
I'm doing it like a concert… and you know
that I didn't take a year to record it. I like
that.
Australian
theatre
Simon Plant: I wonder whether
you were conscious of wanting to advance home
grown music theatre?
Geraldine Turner:
Absolutely, absolutely. I've always been interested
in the industry as a whole and the Australian
industry and getting that to the world. Absolutely,
which has been part of my reason for staying
in Australia too, although I couldn't work in
other countries anyway at the time. And that's
why I was so interested politically… I
was federal president of Actors' Equity for
six years… Yeah, I've always been interested
in the Australian theatre and promoting it and
being part of it.
Ambition
Geraldine Turner: I do still
hold ambitions and I think the day you don't
have ambition, is the day you give up and open
an antique shop… And I would like to be
one of the stayers, one of the people who is
75 and working in the theatre… I would
like that, I think it would be great.
Rehearsals
Learning
a role
Geraldine Turner: Every single
role's a different journey… I think I'm
an instinctive actress, rather than someone
who approaches something from an intellectual
point of view… and so I have to kind of
feel my way through the rehearsal process quite
slowly. And I don't like to do too much acting
until towards the end and I think that's good.
I think if you do too much acting too soon and
make too many decisions too soon, they're kind
of set in your mind…
That's what acting is. It's talking
and listening, talking and listening. You learn
your part before you go to work, how are you
going to be listening to the other person and
then reacting to the other person's energy or
emotion?… You can't do acting by yourself,
you have to do it with other actors.
Rehearsal
process
Simon Plant: So you actually
enjoy the whole thing of making choices?
Geraldine Turner:
I love it. And I love rehearsals. I love it…
You can take risks and you can try different
things and I like that. Sometimes, of course,
you get stuck and that's a worry and you need
a good director to help you through it…
Simon Plant: They're
very intensive too, aren't they, rehearsals?
There's acting calls and private tuition and
dialects... Do you enjoy that whole chaos?
Geraldine Turner:
Yeah, I do. I do actually. And I always get
very tense about the third week, when you start
thinking 'Oh God, I've got to start getting
serious about this.' 'Cause there's a point
where you have to start putting your book down…
and actually doing it and that's scary, because
the script's a bit of a security blanket…
When you have to put that down and actually
start doing it and other actors are looking
at you doing it, that's scary I think.
Simon Plant: I think
you've said also you really enjoy the first
orchestra rehearsal. That you can really hear
the show.
Geraldine Turner:
Oh yeah, I love it… It's fantastic. It's
always terribly exciting because you've been
rehearsing with a piano and then the whole orchestra's
there and you hear all the colours... You feel
really excited.
Backstage
Rituals and
routines
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On
stage
Mrs
Lovett (Sweeney Todd) and Reno Sweeney
(Anything Goes)
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Fear
Geraldine Turner: But like
a lot of people who have had to deal with a
lot or… have to bring on this strength
when they walk into a rehearsal room, you cover
up a lot of those insecurities… Bluster
and cracking jokes and all of that is what I
do to cover that nervousness, which we have
to do. 'Cause a lot of people say when I perform:
'Oh, you never look scared.' I'm terrified,
absolutely terrified. So, it's just something
you learn to do - cover it up.
Simon Plant: Does
that terror deepen?
Geraldine Turner:
Yes. As you get older it gets worse… Actually
the decade 1990 to 2000, I think, has been my
hardest decade in that way. I don't know if
that's my age; that was like 40 to 50. I don't
know if something happens to you at that time
in your life… I've certainly had it [stage
fright] for that decade.
Maybe it's just that when you're
young, you're out to prove things… You're
out to establish yourself. You know no fear;
you think you're invincible. All of those things
that come with youth… And then as you get
older and you realise the more you know, the
more you don't know… only that stuff that
comes with age…
And I think by the time you get
to 40, particularly if you're a woman…
for most of us, the phone stops ringing as much.
No matter who you are, no matter how famous
you are, no matter in what country you are…
I don't mean that I haven't done some of my
best work in that period… and I feel now
that I'm just coming into my own again…
I would like to think that I am moving into
a kind of area where I'm taken more seriously
as an actor as well.
Partly the fear I have felt, is
that fear of loss as well. That fear of loss
of your youth, of your looks, of the way other
people perceive you… I'm not frightened
of being old. I'm not frightened of wrinkles…
of looking old on stage… It doesn't particularly
worry me… It's other people's view of you.
I have felt a lot of fear in that
decade. And fear of singing, as well, which
is really amazing because I've always been able
to sing. I've always been the girl who could
sing… But I'm coming out of it. When I
did Witches of Eastwick last year, I
felt very much… I wasn't scared any more…
I just felt, 'I'm not scared of this. I know
how to do this.' And I hadn't felt that sort
of security for some time.
Superstitions
Geraldine Turner: But I'm very
much a creature of habit anyway… For instance,
in the play I'm doing at the moment [Inheritance]…
I have a cream skirt (hideous costumes - I'm
trailer trash!)… I have this cream skirt
in Act II, which I wear with these 'adorable'
cowboy boots (hideous) and… there's a scene
in Act II where there's some blood on the stage
and I could get blood on the skirt, you know,
and so they gave me another copy of the skirt…
for other performances… But you know? I
don't ever wear the other skirt, because I wore
this one on opening night… I don't want
to wear the other one! It's pathetic!…
Just in case something goes wrong if I put on
the other one, because it's different.
Theatre atmosphere
Simon Plant: Is it a safe
place? A totally comfortable environment?
Geraldine Turner:
Oh yeah. I love that. I love being part of the
family… Yeah, it is totally safe. Sometimes
you're scared. I mean, that terror comes in,
you know, but you get your first laugh or whatever
it is you're supposed to do in the first five
minutes of your performance and then you think,
'Ah, okay, it's going to be a good night tonight'
or whatever you think…
Audiences
Audience
as one animal
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