Amy Madigan Talks Aunt Gladys in 'Weapons', Oscar Buzz, Malibu Fires, & 'Rebuilding'

Zach was very, no, we're just going to have you kind of go like this.

Like I'm the queen waving, you know?

Just there.

Yeah, that is scary, isn't it?

You don't want that in your brain while you're trying to do it.

My name is Gladys.

It's so nice to meet you.

Oh, I absolutely love this house.

Look, a giraffe in a green Chinese.

That's original in there.

I bet it is.

Oh, I just love this kitchen.

Clean, white cabinets.

How I'm envious of that.

Now listen, I know that it's inconvenient, but I really needed to speak to you about our conversation yesterday.

Oh.

Marcus, get her a glass.

A bowl, please.

A bowl?

Yes, a bowl.

It's a peculiarity of mine.

I don't even try to rationalize it anymore.

A bowl of water.

Okay.

Thank you.

I wanted you to know that I talked to Alex's father, who's very ill, as I said.

But the good news is, he's more than happy to come in Monday, sit down with you, and clear everything up.

Now, I appreciate that, but it really isn't necessary.

So there's no need to contact the authorities, right?

That's, uh, sure.

I guess not.

I mean, you haven't contacted them yet, right?

Gladys, I'm really going to have to insist that you are...

Is that my ribbon?

You haven't contacted them, right?

No, I haven't.

What is this?

Oh, my God!

Whoops!

Look what I did.

Oh, my goodness.

Why did you do that?

Well, it was an accident, of course.

Wow.

That's really bleeding.

Terry, go get the alcohol in the first day.

Oh, no, no, no.

That's nonsense.

Could you get me a rag, sweetie?

I think she cut my hair.

I'm calling 911.

Marcus, I think she cut my hair.

Marcus, what did she do?

Welcome to the actor's side, and what an actor I've got for you.

She has been in this business almost 50 years, I want to say.

Close to it.

Yes.

And now with Weapon, she is once again gaining great acclaim for her performances, Aunt Gladys, and what a performance it is.

This is Amy Madigan.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

It's nice to be here.

Yeah, I'm so excited to have you here, you know, over your whole career.

But here, I want to show you something first.

Okay.

So I'm big friends with the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and they have announced the Virtuosas Award, and that's a bunch of people that are going to line up on the stage that are all, like, acclaimed, award buzz, all kinds of things in February.

Jacob Elordi, Chase Infinity, Wagner Mora, Renata Reinsvie, Sidney Sweeney, Atayana Taylor, Jeremy Allen White, and Amy Madigan.

I will tell you, only one of these people was even born when you were nominated for your Oscar.

That's very true.

That's very true.

As I was talking to somebody, they reminded me, oh, you know, that was 40 years ago.

I went, yeah, I guess it was.

Yeah.

Wagner Mora, who will be on stage with you there, was born, I think he was 11.

Well, thank you, Pete.

That's putting it all into perspective for me.

I think it does, because look at this beautiful picture.

That's kind of fun.

I love it.

They're all very talented people.

I love it, and so deserving, and hold up the flag for being a survivor in this business and being a veteran and showing you can still do it and still be at the top of your game.

Thank you.

That's a really nice compliment.

You know, I'm so proud of the movie, and that's the most exciting thing for me, because I really thought people were going to like it, but I wasn't sure, and I'm personally very happy with my work in it.

So it's nice that people are responding.

Like yourself.

What's not to be happy?

I was starting to tell you I saw the movie without knowing anything about it to go in and review it, and I'm watching the whole thing, and then Aunt Gladys comes into it big time, and I think you've heard this before.

People had no idea who it was when they're watching it.

That was my experience.

I'm watching, and I'm going like, all of a sudden, I'm just latching on to this character, and I'm going like, who is this?

Who is playing this?

And I thought in my head, is it Glenn Close?

I don't know.

Who is it?

And then I'm reading the end credits, and it's Amy Madigan, and I go, yeah, bravo.

I'm so glad, because a couple of people, that's happened to them, too.

They go, I didn't know it was you until the credits came.

And it was smart for the powers that be in the studio, and Zach Kregor, writer, director, they said, let's keep it under wraps.

Let's not have you do publicity and all that kind of stuff.

And I totally agree with that.

I said, I think it's very smart.

Not to give anything away, right?

Yeah, because it should be a surprise to people.

And I have, for people who haven't seen the film, Gladys has a very particular look.

And she is someone that if you were on the subway or walking down the street, you'd kind of go like that and say, who is this person?

And which, if I could just say, I had a great team of people that I worked with with hair and makeup and prosthetics and costumes.

And it was just exciting to create a character from the ground up, somebody really different and unique.

Have you ever done a role?

You've done so many.

I could stay here all day reeling off all you've done on stage, screen, and television over the years.

But, have you ever done a character like this or remotely like this?

No, I haven't.

I haven't.

And that's one of the things when I read the script before certainly I was cast in it, I said, oh, I love this woman.

I get who this woman is.

She's exciting.

She just kind of just has to do what she has to do to survive in this world.

So, I was just really excited about it.

I mean, I've played some kind of strong characters or some wacky characters, but nothing like Gladys.

You know what you've played?

I just, we watch, my wife and I, ever since the pandemic began, we watch movies, especially on the weekends, a classic movie.

A classic, yeah.

Based on whosever birthday it is or the day they died.

And I get a list.

And I've got like thousands of DVDs and things.

And we just watched, literally two weeks ago, Uncle Buck.

It was John Candy's birthday.

It might have been a week ago.

And there you were.

And I remember, oh, my God, there's Amy Madigan.

And it's so good, too.

That was a fun role.

Oh, it was, well, John Yoo's film was great.

And John Candy.

And now there's a lot of press around him because of the documentary.

Which is why my wife chose that one because she had just watched the documentary.

And they had wonderful scenes from Uncle Buck in it and everything.

We had such a good time.

He certainly went way before he should have.

Oh, yeah.

But, I mean, that was a great experience to make that movie.

And funny.

And, you know, Gabby Hoffman was in that movie when she was a little girl.

And she was also in Field of Dreams as a little girl.

And you played Kevin Costner's wife in that, obviously.

So, it's all kind of wound up in some way like that.

That's fun to me.

That was a hell of a time.

Now that I'm remunerating all those things, yeah, it really was.

Because I've put in a lot of time and I've put in a lot of work for a lot of different characters.

Yeah.

I'm a character actor and that's what I love.

And so, Gladys is kind of like the penultimate character for me right now.

I mentioned that all of these people you're going to be honored with at Santa Barbara, most of them weren't born when you were first nominated.

No.

For an Academy Award.

And it was so, that's another movie we recently watched, maybe two, three months ago.

I don't know whose birthday it was.

But, or maybe it was Gene Hackman, something with him.

But it was twice in a lifetime.

Yeah.

And I watched that again.

And I probably hadn't seen it until it came out.

Yeah.

At the time I was a movie producer for Entertainment Tonight and I used to send crews to all the sets and all that stuff and saw it then.

But, man, were you good.

That was so deserved.

Thank you.

That was such a great character, you know.

And a standout cast like that.

Oh, cast.

You know, Gene Hackman and Brian Dennehy and Ellen Burstyn and Anne Margaret.

Stephen Lang was one of his first things.

So, I was so excited to be there.

And I was happy with my work in that, you know.

I don't think, I don't know how people track box office and numbers back in those days.

I don't think as obsessively as they do now.

It doesn't seem to.

No, it was actually, yeah.

But it was kind of a very small, almost like an indie kind of a film, you know.

And, yeah, I had a, it was a hard shoot, but I had a really good time doing it.

What was it like getting nominated like that?

And that was pretty much near the beginning of your film career, I would say.

Yeah.

Well, it was very different than how it is now.

There wasn't.

Well, now it's an industry, let me tell you.

No, it is.

And you know this better than I from the side of it.

I mean, now that there's so many carpets and so many interviews and everybody has a stylist and you have all of these other people that are working with and for you.

Yeah.

But back then, I mean, people weren't calling me up like somebody like you and saying, oh, I really want to talk to Amy Madigan.

They weren't doing that.

Yeah.

You know, maybe they talked to Gene or Ellen.

I don't know.

But it was just a very different thing.

I was surprised, very surprised.

And I was really happy.

So it was fun.

My husband, Ed Harris, and I, we went and we had to go get our own clothes.

We didn't have a stylist, you know.

That's what you did.

Yeah.

Or at least that's what I did.

That's what we did.

Right.

And we went and we were like, well, this is kind of fun.

And look it, there's Yo-Yo Ma and there's that person.

You know, it was exciting to see people.

But that was a long time ago.

Now it's a machine, right?

Now it's a machine.

And it's a long haul now.

It's like six months of a solid, you know, Oscar season.

Who ever thought it up that it had to be that way?

I don't know.

You should know the answers to these things.

You know, it sort of morphed into that with all these fall festivals taking on.

Yeah, that's true.

There are a lot more festivals now, right?

And because people discovered those as a launch, you know.

Weapons, however, came out in the summer, late summer.

And totally off that beaten track of how you normally would do that.

Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

And I guess that was really smart for those guys to put it out then.

But Zach was always like, this is a summer movie.

Yeah.

This is when it should come out.

And it's a real tribute to it that people are not only still talking about it.

They're dressing up as Aunt Gladys on Halloween.

Did you see a lot of Aunt Gladys?

Oh, my God.

They're everywhere.

Do you see the West Hollywood parade?

Yes, but kind of everywhere, you know.

My friend who's a wonderful makeup artist, he was going to a gay club in this little, outside of St. Louis somewhere, and he walked in, and the person who was handling the door was Aunt Gladys.

So she's kind of living, I guess.

I don't know.

She's somewhere.

I think she's still going to be living because they're talking about a prequel.

There is a lot of talk, and Zach, I have to defer to him, he's been very vocal about it and says, I've got a really good idea.

Yeah.

And, yeah, we're going to do this.

So now it's in a conversation on Zach is very busy, which he should be.

Yeah.

So we'll see, but certainly if there's some interest that, you know, I like living in Zach's brain, as I like to say.

Yes.

It's a very interesting brain.

It was a, it's a hell of a thing.

And you have such physicality.

I know you've done this before in your career.

You've had very physical kinds of parts and things.

Yeah.

But this one, not to, we want you to see the movie if you haven't seen it.

But my God, what she runs through in the last third of this picture is unbelievable.

Well, just say there's a long, long running sequence.

Many doors and windows and alleyways.

Yes.

Chased by a bunch of little kids.

Right.

And I really was quite vocal in the system.

I said, oh, no, I'm, I'm going to do the running.

They had a stunt person.

They had a stunt person for the very, very end of the sequence.

But I said, no, no, I'm going to do this.

And, you know, I think, if I can say, I think a couple of the producers were a little nervous.

And I said, oh, no, I'm doing this.

And Zach was on board with me.

And we just did it.

And I had so much fun.

And, you know, it kind of kicked my butt.

But that was okay, because I had a really good time doing it.

Do you like doing that kind of physical stuff?

Yes, I do.

I like doing physical humor on stuff.

It's just, I come up from, you know, live performance in theater.

And you engage your whole body with that stuff.

And I just, even in some of the films that we have mentioned, I've always put, like, some physical humor and things like that.

So this was a really good opportunity to do that.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, and, you know, and on top of that, you know, you've got, like you mentioned, all the makeup and the prosthetics.

How long a thing sit was that in the chair?

It was about, we got it down to just a little under three hours.

Oh, okay.

So that, I know, and there's other people who are in there all day long, depending on what they're doing.

So I guess, okay.

But it took us a while to find it, and we had to do screen tests.

We had to try out all the different looks and wigs and times in the film when I look absolutely, I'm very ill and not looking well.

And that was an arduous process.

But, man, all those people are artists who do that work.

It's such a great look.

It's so iconic already in the annals of horror movies and things like that.

That first shot that we see of her, or one of the first from a distance, you just sort of see her there, totally haunts me.

It's like, who is that?

Yeah, just there, you know, but not close up, none of that.

No.

And that shows it works.

Yeah, I'm so glad to hear that observation on it, because Zach was very, no, we're just going to have you kind of go like this.

Like I'm the queen waving, you know?

Just there.

You're going like.

Yeah, that is scary, isn't it?

You don't want that in your brain while you're turning to it.

No, you don't.

What do you think, once you've got the full makeup on and you look in the mirror, does that, do you suddenly feel, okay, I've got this?

I've got this character?

Oh, yeah, very much for Gladys, very much.

I mean, I did work on my own and all of this, and Zach and I talked.

We spent a lot of time, you know, with the team working on that stuff, but I just knew once in pieces I started seeing it and feeling it and putting on the clothes.

I said, oh, yeah, I know exactly.

It was very clear to me who Aunt Gladys is, very clear to me.

Yeah.

And that's not always the case, you know?

No, I know.

And it can be, like, so over the top, it doesn't work, you know?

True, and I've been guilty of that in my life as an actor, sure.

We all, I mean, yeah, you just are, and then you go, oh, reel that back in.

That's not good.

No, and it was so, you know, you believe her, she comes in, you're totally, oh, okay, eccentric at Gladys.

Yeah, okay.

You're like, okay, she's kind of wacky, but.

Whoa.

Yes.

And she's the key to everything here.

How you holding up?

My cousin, Lanny, I think he met her one time.

She's got 2,500 acres up in Montana.

Big spread.

Says she could use a hand up in calving season.

Maybe longer if things work out.

Save up to rebuild the place.

Hmm.

Can't get no work here?

Well, they set me up with some work in the highway department.

And, um, you know, that old dirt road up by 50, but, I mean, that's not, that's not who I am, so.

You told Ruby yet?

Montana?

Yeah.

Guy Rose.

This is not your only movie this year, because coming out this fall is another movie I reviewed without knowing a thing about it, uh, out of the Sundance Film Festival, which was Rebuilding.

Did you see the film?

Oh, my God, I, and I reviewed it for Deadline, and.

Oh, you did? I didn't know that.

I left you pull that review up.

I was very moved by it, and your performance in it, too.

Thank you.

And completely opposite of Aunt Gladys.

You are, uh, uh, just a kind soul and a strong anchor, I thought, in your scene.

Yeah, it's a really beautiful film.

I think it's independent film in its best, and we need it, because those are new voices, and they're unique voices, and they need to be out there, and so I'm glad that you pay attention to that.

Oh, yeah, and it came from producers of Nomadland, the Oscar-eating film, and with Josh O'Connor.

Yeah, Josh is great in it, you know, and he's kind of great in everything, but what a nice man.

Is he, yeah?

Yes, and so talented.

Megan Fahey's in it, playing a very, very different part.

Yeah, very different.

So, yeah, it was nice.

And I was looking at it at the time I saw it, the fires had happened, um, and, uh, and here is a story about people losing it all.

That's right.

In a fire, and I'm looking at that, and then, I, I, you lost your house in the Powell State fire.

Yes.

After you had been in this movie.

Yes.

Um, Ed and I live in a little cul-de-sac street in, um, Malibu that we've been there for, you know, 42 years in that house.

So, we had two houses on the property, and they're gone.

Oh.

And we had fought eight different fires on that property, successfully, with fire hose and water and the jenny and all that.

But this was different, so, it's, it's still very there.

Yeah.

Very there.

And, um.

But you're going to rebuild?

Yes, we are.

Yeah.

We are.

And we've lived in three or four places now.

We have a, we're renting a place now.

Because we need to get that insurance money and put it for the rebuild, you know.

And I know many people are in the same situation.

It's, you know, it hasn't gone away.

People's lives have been eradicably changed.

That's the power of film, though.

Yes.

Because I thought this picture, rebuilding, at the time I saw it, gives you hope.

It does, doesn't it?

For humanity.

Yes.

You know, and all of that.

And it's important to have that out there so people can see that.

That's what cinema can do, too.

I know it.

And if I could just say, the state of the world in general, we need to have some hope with some situations, you know.

And that's why film and music are so incredible.

Yeah.

Because they really make the case that, you know, you'll get through it.

You say music.

You started out as, like, an alternate rock kind of, uh...

I just...

That was your career for a while.

Yes, for a long...

In L.A. in the 70s?

For a long, long time, yeah.

I grew up in the, you know, in the Midwest and I played music.

I went to Marquette University in Wisconsin, so I played music in the Midwest and drove my Volkswagen out to L.A. with a guitar player and just started woodshedding and playing.

And I played with many different great musicians and many bands and all sorts of things.

So that was my woodshedding time.

I knew how to be on stage and I knew how to tell a story and I felt comfortable up there.

So when I kind of made a turn to just devote it to acting, I felt confident that I could do it, you know?

And I had a couple of opportunities that I...

Thank goodness I had earned them, but, you know, it's hard for people coming up.

Oh, yeah.

It's really...

It's hard for people to get an audition, you know?

And I actually got to go into a room with people and present myself.

Sometimes I stunk when I didn't audition, but, you know, you sat across from someone like this and that's kind of a lost art, you know?

It's important.

Yes.

You know, now it's self-taping and hoping that they're even watching your tape.

Exactly.

And you don't even know.

You don't know.

No, you don't know.

And I think, like, well, boy, if I didn't get into the room with somebody, I know that happened, like, with that big movie, Field of Dreams.

I finally had to get into that room with all those people a couple of times and with Kevin to say, here it is, you know?

And that's so great.

That's still one of my favorite movies.

It's one of so many people's favorite movies.

I know.

People's, like, grandkids are singing now.

I'm very proud of that movie.

That's Phil Alden Robinson and the cast.

Am I kidding?

Kevin Costner, Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones.

I mean, you know, it was like, oh, wow.

Yeah.

Gabby Hoffman.

And Gabby Hoffman.

Once again.

All roads lead to Gabby Hoffman.

I know.

I would like to work with her.

I would like to work with her now.

That would be fun.

She's fabulous, by the way.

Yeah.

She's great.

She's growing up to be a.

She's great in everything.

Yeah.

And she's just the coolest person.

Oh, that's so cool.

So, you know, I mean, I'm not really friends with her or anything, but I'm putting this out.

Yeah, I'd like to work with you, Gabby.

I would like to.

Again, well, you know who you also work with a lot, and I have interviewed your husband on a few occasions.

Yeah, you've interviewed Ed.

Yeah, I once at the San Francisco Film Festival, and the guys in the audience came up to him afterwards, and a movie came out of that.

The Miller Brothers.

Yes, yes.

Even in that book, they wrote about that experience.

That's right.

And that was all because I was interviewing Ed Harris.

I know.

Isn't that weird?

How things look like that?

And to this day, we are best, best friends with the Miller Brothers, and they're having a very exciting career, you know, selling scripts and writing.

Yeah, they were so nice.

Taking Home, which is a truly independent film.

Yes.

It's so well done.

It's so beautiful.

Robert Forster's in it with Ed, and it just breaks your heart.

I love it.

And it's a story about their dad.

Yeah.

You know?

And those guys were so sincere.

It's another way you can say, look, you never know how you're going to get noticed in this business.

You don't.

I know.

And they did.

But Ed, you know, you've made many movies with him, too.

Yeah, we've had a really good time working together.

I hope we get to do it again.

Yeah, I bet you will.

I think we will.

We've been trying to get a couple of things off the ground, and like most things, you know, we just need a little more money.

Just need a little bit more.

But, you know, hope springs eternal for us.

Yeah, well, Apollic, which he produced as well.

And wrote and directed and starred and yikes.

Oscar nominated and actually won an Oscar for Marcia Gay Harden.

For Marcia Gay Harden.

Well deserved.

And you were great in it as well.

So, you know.

Peggy Guggenheim was a character.

Yeah, she was a great character.

Yeah.

I know.

She was really funny.

But that's how you have to do it sometimes, I guess, you know, in these kinds of things.

You were nominated.

You won a Golden Globe for Roe vs. Wade.

Yes.

And you played the lawyer in that.

Could you imagine at the time, and you were nominated for an Emmy, that Roe vs. Wade would turn out to be history at this point?

No.

I really couldn't.

I don't think it was just naivete.

I mean, this is an issue that I've worked on since I was in high school.

Right.

And now here we are.

And brought it to life as a lawyer involved in that famous case.

In that case, yes.

And everyone thought, oh, it's fine now.

And...

It's settled law.

And it's like, no, it's not.

It's not.

Nothing's safe.

No.

It's a frightening time for people and their rights.

And I don't see it letting up myself.

Hopefully, some of the projects you get going, we'll have something to say about the world right now, because...

I think it's important.

Yeah.

Right?

I do.

Don't you?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And to use your voice...

It has to be a reflection in some way of what's going on.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

What I'm so happy about to see is that people have rediscovered you.

You know, for a while they go like, oh, yeah, her.

Yeah, where is she?

That's what I get.

I'm telling you, if I go to the airport and someone will go, oh, you used to act.

You know, and you just stand there kind of, your head kind of goes like this.

You know what I mean?

Or stuff like that.

Or, you know, people will come up and, you know, give me the wrong name.

They'll go, are you Holly Hunter?

And I go...

No, but I worked with her.

Yeah.

She's a good friend of mine.

I mean, crazy stuff like that, you know, because people haven't seen me.

And they haven't seen theater.

They haven't seen probably the indie films and things like that.

You know?

Did they not?

I mean, Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway, you did with Jessica.

You played Stella!

I did.

And Jesse and I are friends to this day.

Yeah, she's great.

You've interviewed her.

I loved it.

I had a wonderful interview with her.

She's so fantastic, you know?

And she's, you know, just an amazing...

But you know what?

She told me she's got this movie.

It's made, Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Ed plays her husband in it.

Ed's in it, too.

Great.

And she's still...

Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

And they are still having a hard time.

They have it.

They have it in their pocket.

And it's maddening.

It's maddening.

Isn't it frustrating?

And when you have that level of talent, and this was over a year ago when she was telling me about it when I was interviewing her.

And she says, I just want to get it out there.

We'd just like to get it out there.

And there is an audience for that.

Oh, my God.

You know what I mean?

I don't understand it.

You know what I mean?

I really don't.

I mean, we've all kind of had our theories and summations and getting angry and all that kind of stuff, you know?

You know.

But I know Ed, and I've heard him quoted on this.

He always told you, something's going to come along.

There's going to be something.

He did.

Is that right?

Did he give you that kind of a...

He did.

And I don't think it was just being a great supportive husband.

I think he really believed it because he was seeing something in me getting older and my frustrations, certainly.

But saying, no, you wait and see.

You're going to get a lot of work.

Something's going to happen for you.

And he said it a few times, you know.

And so here it is, I guess.

Oh, it's here.

It's here.

I don't want to jinx anything, but I think you're going to be talking about this movie until you're blue in the face.

So I'm so happy that you came in today to be able to talk about it now because everyone needs to see Weapons, even if you don't think you want to.

Yeah, it's scary, but it's way beyond that.

It's such a clever, smart movie.

And it's funny, which is crazy.

You find yourself laughing and going, oh, that was horrible, but it's funny.

It's amazing.

It's made $250 million worldwide, so people are finding it.

Yeah, that's true.

That's nice.

And they're going to continue to find it.

Well, you're amazing, and thank you so much for joining us on The Act.

Thank you so much.

This has just been, this has been great.

It really has.

I appreciate it.