Steel Magnolias Cast on Donahue 1989-Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] well you must have had the time of your life did you do this in louisiana did you film it there yes we did you lived in a trailer sort of for three months yeah natural dish i'm sorry naca dish louisiana which is outside of new orleans not way outside way outside well it's a beautiful film visually it's beautiful um american moviegoers are treated to ah such an ensemble cast and i'm going to presume that no ego got in the way and uh i hope you all brought your oscars to the rehearsals or something huh sure i mean look at this olympia with one sally has two and shirley as you know one one four terms of endearment so i was right the first time four or second time four oscar winners here right here on my stage i'm telling you all make me nervous look at here four-time grammy award winner dolly parton's with us i hope dollywood's going well and everything and don't you just look nice and what are you doing eating birdseed for breakfast you almost weigh nothing oh i weigh plenty for my height i'm just a little person and i was fat so long it feels good to be little well what must it have been like i am pleased to report to you that julia roberts performance in this film is only perfect and what was it like good kid i mean come on good day well that's her mother's daughter yeah and i'll tell ya sally's yes sorry mom sally's her mother in this film some of you may wonder whether this illusion will carry throughout the film and i want you to know it does well i have a 20 year old son what can i tell you this is the way this old looks now uh uh-huh time of your life come on yeah was it it wasn't dull i bet you uh-huh uh so you were real confident you just hit your mark and that was that or uh what dummy did was there any intimidation at all with the uh intimidation yeah with these world series people you're working with here no they no i mean the first day of rehearsal i was very nervous but within like i guess the first 23 seconds everybody kind of took their place and and understood each other and there was in scene 23. oh my gosh i heard that i said that anyway there was a lot of immediate bonding for me anyway and they put me at ease and they may i think the greatest thing that they all did for me is they made me feel like i was an equal to them so i wasn't nervous and at the same time i felt like i could say i have no idea what's going on and they would say well maybe i should tell you did you watch the date did you watch the dailies no you don't do that i mean i watched him a couple of times but you don't like to mean it depends it intimidates you maybe a little bit oh actors argue about this you guys watch the dailies oh olympia i want to be just as grand as you are and confident too no no shirley tried to get me there a couple of times and finally once you promised me that they had wonderful food caviar had a great big spread all that knackered so then i went that one time and they had pizza and you never showed up and uh i look at shirley and i think of that kicks you know i mean she is way up there best looking legs best looking body best looking face in the business triple threat she looks like hell in this picture i don't do anything for an award they will never accuse you of vanity what a wonderful performance you delivered in this film you are the most cranky cynical the playwright film uh screenwriter must be thrilled with what you brought to this uh i mean you did everything to yourself you look like you might wear like if you know what i mean oh yeah i mean i decided when you get to be my age you have to make a lot of decisions about your future and you know when herbert when herbert called and he said okay what do you want to play herbert uh-huh and i i picked i picked the cranky one i i picked the real mean one i i picked the one who who says well i bet you're such a nice person you take the dishes out of the sink before you pee in it yeah that's what you look for in a son-in-law uh or a husband uh the uh didn't you get away with a southern accent how did you do that pronounce p-a-s-t once there's two there's two syllables we had three separate accents in the film it was a little hard to keep straight because dolly had one julian and i had enough the real one and uh dolly and daryl hannah who's also in the film she's not here if we hadn't noticed um they have one accent julia and i have another and and shirley and olympia have all together a different one and they had the most difficult one because invitation it was called a plantation accident it was very very difficult it sounded a little new york um you're right you're still alive sally thank god uh julia you were you not born in smyrna georgia i was well my good woman we got you someone's out of here you probably went to school and put marbles in your mouth and everything else to get rid of the accent did you when you became a performer no wasn't it well i i initially i think the worst thing about a really a heavy southern accent is that you don't hear it you don't know it's there you know and so i came to new york sounding like ellie mae clampett and thinking that i was just like everybody else and i started to catch on when i would go to an audition and i would come in hi where are you from i thought why is that always the first question it's not how are you it's where are you from so i started saying connecticut and that wasn't going on so i took a speech class well uh the accents work for me i i hope you don't be upset if i tell this audience that this picture puts an arrow in your heart i have never seen a a script take in performances take an audience as this one does and without giving every anything a away here in in the most uh heartfelt moment of this film when you really wonder if uh you're not going to have your whole emotional life altered you get the biggest laugh in the film you get the biggest laugh in a cemetery that's the writing isn't that exciting bobby magnificent and you did it well with the help of my friends i reacted well yes you did yeah all right here we go where's my script here just a moment who would i give this to i want to just show you a piece of this we got to let this audience in here um all right here is uh the ever gorgeous and lovely uh shirley maclaine who incidentally in this film does not oversee a chain of charm schools here is uh here are uh shirley and who else is in the the whole group's in this all right here's the town curmudgeon uh it is shirley mclean and the rest of these talented people from steel magnolias roll this film sally you're one of my favorite actresses and i just wanted to know you are the best crier i have ever seen how do you do that so easy i am yes it's very i always thought i was i i like the way other people cry better i have to work so hard at it i it's hard when there's a crime scene i worry about it but thank you you know i'm going to say something when she had her great scene at the funeral there were all the rest of us who they had to do close-ups of not only was she incredible in her own scene but she did it full out for the rest of us when she wasn't even on camera it was the most generous thing i ever saw an actress do first of all we really lucked out today this is great [Music] could have been male strippers you know you never know surely when uh phil introduced you he made a little joke about the afterlife and all i wonder if that ever bothers you about the jokes oh well not with phil because he's usually funny i think i make up half of them myself i i collect all the shirley mclean cartoons and if i can stay up late enough i listen to the late night jokes and mark them down and then i'll put them in my act you know it's all right as long as they're not most of them aren't um devastatingly harsh they're really kind of endearing i think it's a serious subject and you need some comedy relief about it sir yes uh dolly this is a very happy moment for me i've always wanted to meet you from the hills of west virginia i'm from the hills of west virginia you're a homeboy yes i am yes i am what are you doing now and what's up well i'm on the road in on tour now i have a new group together called the mighty fine band and we've been traveling around all summer actually ever since we finished the movie i went home and put together a group and worked on a new album which is out now quite limousine is doing real well so i'm just out there hoofing it enjoying it thanks for the compliment yes um do you all think that the friendships you made during this movie are going to last for a while absolutely no what'd you say what'd you say i said i love you all she'll grow up soon or not yeah oh yeah this was really a special special experience for that um getting to be around these women and i know that we've made friendships and relationships that will last it was just really remarkable time yeah this is really awesome for me i can't believe i was this fortunate do you do you all get more nervous coming to this kind of a show than you would in performing in a film or a play or you all have so many talents does it bother you i mean you get nervous coming here i'm terrified right now she's the baby she was uh uh a real nervous i i think you always have a twinge of oh my gosh will will i be all right and and i never know what's going to happen what you're going to ask yeah yes the answer yes don't uh you can't fool us olympia i mean nobody appeared uh last year in one short time before more live human beings than you did on the uh on the campaign trail with your cousin michael uh i suppose there is a difference i don't know uh you took your questions and you watched him take his that must have been a very uh you're never gonna forget it no i don't think so no yeah it was pretty awesome um just uh i think recognizing uh how um his spontaneity and his honesty and that that's really what was all about you don't have to plan anything you just have to come from yourself kind of thing that's the hardest thing to do though and you have more living relatives than anybody else i've ever met i do yeah oh you do i mean uh what a proud greek clan that had to be oh yes you really kind of walked tall didn't you yes yes i think you would have taken a win but you really were very proud of him yes that's very true and the family we should all have that kind of support dolly excuse me in reference to what you were talking about i think different people react to the public in a different way in fact one of the reasons that daryl is not here today we didn't want people to think she she's very shy and she's horrified of a big crowd and she's oh please you know because she wanted to be with us so much but she was just a little bit frightened and of course she even left her hotel room because she knew we'd go up there and drag her down how he would have so i think it's different to this right now dying in some bar somewhere yes but you know one thing is true about it i mean she believed in something for example uh during the campaign she came with me to new orleans and she did a fundraiser for michael dukakis and the first time in her life she stood up and she talked to people and she did because she felt so strongly about what's going on i really she was proud of herself but she was terrified i mean daryl is so terrified of this that she really can't face it we're going to have to talk to her girls she's real shy dolly with the holidays coming up are we going to see any more christmas specials well i didn't do one this particular year but they still have some some that they show every year but next year we've added a new addition to dollywood i might as well get a plug in here if i can uh we're going to have the park open all year and i'm going to do a christmas show from there every christmas from then on hopefully but i love christmas julia is this your first movie uh no steel magnolias was my fifth oh really uh yes her brother is eric roberts yes they do come she comes from a theatrical family um we've established that you were born in smyrna uh georgia yeah uh was it a big family eric and julian who i have um an older sister lisa and i have a younger sister nancy yeah uh julia as you know they're all they're just we should thank the lord every day they're just a lot of beautiful young women who do what you do and who are out there reading scripts too and quite obviously you uh you have the more than the looks you have the talent i'm not sure when this awareness came to you or uh right about now did you study or what is this just in the genes tell us now because maybe there's some other folks out there like to do what you're doing well phil i really don't know you didn't study um i i quit a lot of acting classes and i actually um why because because i would i would be i would find myself in an acting class and think you know i'm going to be in here and i'm going to learn how to act and it's going to be really great and then suddenly i would realize that i was with people who who in 10 years had done like a series of kentucky fried chicken commercials and not that's a bad thing but there comes a point when you got to do more than pump chicken anyway [Laughter] sally from where i'm sitting it looks like bert really screwed up [Applause] she came to new york for them sally seriously uh can you tell us what happened is there a question i don't know okay here's an observation oh goody sat down never mind told you'd like this audience i have a question for shirley um i read all your books shirley and it fascinates me it's i'm very interested in it and your last book you talked about when you had workshops and you met with people and you do this kind of work how do you find out when and if you're doing them or how you're doing them or who gets invited to participate i'm not doing them anymore something happened to me when i was involved with that it was so um it sort of caught the people who are interested in their own self-searches imagination and so so many people were coming and it felt a little bit like they were giving away their power to me too much and i didn't like that because that is not what it's about for me for me it's about sharing searching and sharing and helping someone else do the same and it it began to get too burdensome that kind of responsibility and also the transfer of one's own individual power to somebody else is not what it's about so i stopped doing them you appear to have created a uh something here that became much bigger and i think that's what happened phil uh you'll also permit this personal observation um you did become there for a while thank goodness it only happened last a little while you were rather humorless if i may say and i don't think that's because you're some sort of bad person i think it's because of this you i think got a little tired of the laugh the laughs and the kidding and the that's my opinion well you mean getting tired of you said a nasty thing to david letterman oh he's a jerk he was that doesn't make me humorless that makes me uh uh yeah but it looked like he didn't even want to talk about what was in the book you know it looked like i went on to talk about a picture i had made and that was our agreement and i said to him i'm here to talk about madame zuzatska i was very proud of that and he wanted to exploit yeah no he got a lot of stuff out of dancing in the light all these lifetimes that i'd written about that i realize i'm very aware of how exploitive that is that kind of material and he had all these jokes lined up you know what he was going to make jokes about each of these i saw that on the paper and under that i saw if she won't talk about that i'm going to ask her about her brother i mean all of that is saw that on a piece of paper yeah that's why i took the paper away from him and then i thought he's really never mind what he really is but the uh you want to see cut two well what is it what's the setup here let me just ask do you do you uh tell me about dance now and how much if at all that's going to be a part of your life it seems like yesterday that you had the kicks way above the head uh i've got kicks lots of ways not just above my head anyway i'm going back on the stage in uh february a one-woman undertaking huh let us see now so you'll explain to all the old uh male jocks out here how you keep the bod now do you uh are you every day with the bar in the mirror i do my yoga every day but i'm basically lazy and um but you can get it back can you you really concentrate going to try this experiment of not trying so hard i'm going to try doing it now without the old dancers worry i'm going to try to expect it to be easy and see what happens so you can bring your head yeah sort of an oriental approach not to try so hard but to it's called the law of reversed effort relax and it'll all be fine oh i want to know more about this you want to see this this it's this ensemble all the players in this oh this is uh you're pregnant and we're announcing this and mom is only a little it's the movie mom yeah uh your beloved and devoted mother sally field is uh i can't remember her character name is uh is is conflicted about your pregnancy because you do have an illness we won't give everything away but uh you're going to be all right maybe but nobody's sure but the girls get together and here's how they celebrate the event the news [Music] we got us a hit and we'll be back in just a moment [Applause] [Music] yes i just i want to say that you guys are all great to be here and thanks a lot and also i saw the play in new york and i wondered if you all how much freedom you all felt as actresses to deviate from what the play was like and how similar it is to play movie well i felt a lot of actually encouragement to go and to find my own way because what i noticed in the play the character was constantly staged upstage and kind of away from the action i don't know how many of you saw the play no but clarie was just kind of always upstaged like dealing with her cards and remember the the recipes and stuff like that and i thought um that's not going to happen to me and it didn't i think sally's terrific i grew up watching her on tv and i feel more like she's a friend than an actress and you look terrific how do you stay so thin i know you have a little baby yeah yes i start but just you know eat as little as you possibly can when you feel faint eat you know [Laughter] olivia before moonstruck where were you can you what were you doing she was in new jersey with the whole theater i was in the middle of my life is where i was and doing wonderful parts and plays working with some terrific people working in new york working in regional theater doing some movies nothing substantive but that's changed fortunately yeah thank you i mean more than anybody up here what'd to say she's working more than anybody else i know what uh what an event to get an academy award from shazam out of the sky this thing comes in what a wonderful thing you're not even an egomaniac yet [Laughter] she plays my leading man in the picture that's why i did that dolly i love your music especially your latest yellow rose because i'm from texas did you write any of the music for the movie uh no well i did write some things but they didn't make the movie only because it seemed like it would be too much dolly parton and they all felt and i agreed that the character i played was a bit removed from the you know the over-exaggerated person and so it didn't seem to be right i had a contract to do it and i could have forced the song in the movie but after i saw the film back i agreed that it was not right so i was happy to just be part of this wonderful uh group of people and i think the movie is very special but i'll be singing more in other things when is the movie coming out november 5th uh sunday night is the world premiere here for us as far as press and i think the mid uh mid-november it opens november 17th here or everywhere everywhere uh in 500 theaters awesome this woman is awesome she's the accountant she's incredible they call that white i think i'll explain it to you we go wide later honey oh i said i see in about a week you have to get up early because my mother said you got to get up early with this one uh ted danson and the producers of dad will not be upset if i remind our audience that you start in this film which i think is on the marquee now and uh yeah just want to get this in olympia presides over along with a lot of other talented people a uh organization called the whole theater which is uh in new jersey regional theater professional regional theater new jersey you keep check off alive and i am so impressed with your effort to make sure the classics live and so came out and saw i did the seagull right uh-huh okay and understood it you know and had a few laps right uh so you're this this is your background your training and i've been involved in this you're a long way from mtv over there in jersey kid i'll tell you and and shouldn't we celebrate it when you consider what might be happening to our beloved culture as we watch well uh culture is alive and well at the whole theater in montclair new jersey thank you very much i have a question for julia after working with a cath this incredible yeah well like your other movies be somewhat of a letdown yeah no no that's not i i just i just finished uh a movie called 3000 with with richard gere um that was tough on your bed and all the women and now i'm i'm actually now i'm doing a movie which is um an ensemble it's it's the same number but it's with um but i'm the only girl and it's me and kiefer sutherland kevin bacon billy baldwin and oliver platt and yes yes i want to know how she gets such great movies with such incredible looking men bacon rigid beer i i'm under a lucky star i guess okay the difference yes yes ma'am uh first i'd like to say that this is quite a thrill to be in the same room with such tremendous talent thank you very much my question my question is directed at dolly um i have followed your career for a long time and i'm a great fan and i was sorry to see your show canceled and i just wondered if you had any other plans for something similar to that well i have some plans to do more tv i did my best to keep abc at number three all that year but i had a real good time doing it and it did not sour me at all on doing tv and i plan to do some specials some movies of the week and i'm working on a 30-minute sitcom that i eventually hope to have on within the next year or two so i'm i'll be i want back show you i don't know how in a very quirky turn in this script uh olympia buys a radio station they have the high school football games and she does collar i think i don't think this will get on the air but let's show it to this audience what oh well let's give them a try it's in the movie yeah but oh well this is all right i mean what's you know yeah i don't know what i have no idea what they're going to do what's wrong with you know if you've seen right if you've seen you've seen two cheeks you've seen them all here is olympia dukakis in the high school football team locker room role at that great that's steel magnolias and we'll be back i'm shocked i am shocked and we'll be back in just a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] moment well believe it or not there are men in this picture now you you know him as uh perhaps uh he's most familiar to the most number of people because of his recurring role in cheers you know him from the movie mash the turning point and top gun here is sally's husband in the film julia's father tom skerritt come on in here oh you know that may be the most wonderful entrance in the 23 years we've been on the air i was going to shake your hand tom but i can't imagine there being any thrill at all in that [Applause] hey i loved you in this film i mean it you are perfect in the film i believed every moment and tell us what a wonderful experience it was working with these uh young women and i hope you didn't share a trailer or anything with these people well you've you've been here you've seen what it is yeah it's fun huh yeah uh-huh he's reflecting yes he is yes he is calling him a great bunch of broads yes yes yes you know what i mean i was watching the clips and i enjoyed watching the clips but i enjoyed watching you watching the clips do you do you find it comfortable to watch yourselves on screen or sometimes do you turn away sally huh uh um yes and no sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't this time it's particularly enjoyable because i'm watching them and it's just funny to watch them you notice i haven't been in any of these clips so uh and even when i am i say very little and not funny so i'm enjoying them well uh i'll tell you this i'm serious in this film yeah the most challenging scene in the film and boy you deliver it too yes what are uh your favorite your most favorite characters you've ever played i know that you that a lot of you have been um in many different movies moonstruck and in terms of endearment i love that movie um what are your favorite characters [Applause] oh my goodness uh i guess well i maybe it's mother courage that i did last summer with my daughter christina which i thought was a great just a great experience doing that the mother long day's journey oh my god goodness sakes she's talking about brecht and you know gotta be norma ray norma ray norma ray oh gee which is my favorite flying unplugged i didn't say that i'm trying to recover leave me alone uh uh i don't know i may be civil uh how about you irma no irma wasn't my favorite um i liked the character and some came running jenny moorehead like that and then i loved this imperius cobra-like mother in terms of endearment i don't know about the but the other gals but i usually like the one i just finished the one nobody's seen and you don't know and you have done a love scene with jack nicholson i uh i wonder if you'd be free pleasure you know perhaps you'd be free to do another show for us where we'll discuss just that issue dolly nine to five you had to be thrilled with that i played door lee the secretary but i made a better than the secretary [Laughter] and the madame yeah how did you like working with cher oh yeah wonderful right yeah yeah yes we had better uh take a a break tom try and just button it up a little bit we've got a lot of people want to talk here uh tom skerritt will never be accused of being pushy and we'll be back in just a [Applause] [Music] moment [Music] [Applause] here are the stars of steel magnolias you know what uh shirley i i so loved terms of endearment and i came out of that theater saying to myself i never would have bought this script a lot of other studios felt that way too you know what you can't see it on the piece of paper and i wondered about this thing too i mean it's such a wonderful film but i think i'd say wait a minute i don't see it here you know we haven't been speaking about it um ray stark made this film and saw to it that it got made and it was not an easy picture to make i it was turned down many many places and herbert ross is the director and he did a fabulous job at sort of shepherding us and you know quieting us down so they could roll the camera and really uh i thank them both i mean the other thing i have to wonder and of course uh this is just me being you know a little impertinent again i mean this must have been an expensive cast come on you're gonna have to open really wide and uh four and two and all the restaurants we actually did yeah we're less money than we normally would because we all believed in this so much truly like three quarters no no but we can assume that uh tom keep it down 100 huh i almost got a sentence um okay but you were as the film enjoys its its uh success around the world presumably no we're not participating do you find drama a more difficult act than comedy or it's it's this is spoken would you say is it both it is like when you're doing movies which do you find more more difficult to to act who are you asking doesn't matter take a swing tom tom tom well first of all i think uh i think i think that herb and and ray had this problem with these ladies it was he was they are often more like um road managers for the anna ray hutton all-girl band i want to say something in defense of tom a while ago he said something a lot of people that's what it might be in this time no when he said when he called his brother i know how sensitive some people are about those kinds of things this man was such a gentleman treated us all so wonderful just like his own mother and sisters and daughters so i didn't want anybody out there to think that he was insulting us shirley you are just awesome in my book and my very favorite film was to terms of endearment you and jack nicholson were absolutely fantastic the chemistry was just something else are there any future films with him we i wanted to do maybe a sequel to uh the film what would happen you know when she and the astronaut were next door and the daughter is now dead and how she would deal with his uh starlets that would come and raid his icebox but uh jim brooks didn't think so then maybe it's best to leave it well enough alone i would love to work with him again and maybe the telephone book would be fine i wouldn't care about the script over here yes ma'am um i i just want to say i've seen each of you in in several movies and i really enjoyed you julian mystic pizza you brought so much enjoyment to give us a chance to escape which is a great thing to do it seems so much here lately um what got you started though uh sally and what made you decide that you wanted to be an actress why did you it's i i just was born an actress i had no decision it just was stamped on my forehead i was always going to be an actress and then i was discovered standing on a street corner literally when i was uh 17 and they asked me to come try out for something i didn't know what and it turned out to be for television series called gidget and we'll be back in just a moment [Music] [Applause] look here we're almost out of here uh here is a personally signed autograph from all of these stars is it your birthday are you ralph you have my congratulations that's for you from the stars of steel magnolias sally field i loved you in murphy's law that was one of the best movies you did it was great thank you very much

Channel: John Flanagan

Views: 546,765

Rating: 4.8442192 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 2QHhHsV3pzo

Length: 39min 51sec (2391 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2020