Previously Unpublished: A Chat with Jane Adams

A conversation that was conducted in 2011 but wasn't deemed up to snuff. So it goes.

Over the course of 10 years and 200+ Random Roles, there has only been one occasion when I turned in an interview for the feature and was given a kill fee: my conversation with Jane Adams.

You’re about to read that interview, and let me just say two things about it before you dive into the proceedings…

1) There’s nothing that could’ve been done to make it any better, because this is pretty much an unexpurgated transcript of the conversation, and Jane Adams - God love her, and as sweet as she was - just did not warm to the format, and no matter how many times I tried to steer her toward telling longer stories, she just wasn’t going to provide any.

2) It’s really not so terrible that it shouldn’t have run, but when you consider the way that my Random Roles interviews at the time tended to play out, I can certainly see why the decision was made to kick it to the curb.

Anyway, here it is: my interview with Jane Adams from September 2011, repurposed for your reading enjoyment.

Hung (2009 – present), “Tanya Skagle”

Now that you’re in the third season of Hung, is it still fun to step back into Tanya’s shoes?

Jane Adams: Yeah. But, I mean, I enjoy working. [Laughs.] So for that alone it was nice to have a third season. Also, they’ve brought on someone this season, Analeigh Tipton, who’s playing a new character, and I really like her. She plays…God, I don’t really know how to describe her except to say that she’s the girlfriend of the new competition for Ray.

The angry triangle between Tanya, Ray, and Lenore was one of the most interesting parts about Season 2. Was that something that you’d been forewarned was going to be developing?

No, (creators) Colette Burson and Dmitry Lipkin just do what they want. They don’t even discuss it with us. [Laughs.]

Fair enough. Have you at least been enjoying the way it’s been playing out?

I…don’t know. [Laughs.] No, what I mean is…I try not have opinions about the storylines, ‘cause I can’t…it’s not my department. But it’s nice to act, no matter what. It gets me out of the apartment.

Do you feel like Tanya’s been evolving as a character over the course of the series thus far?

I hope so. I honestly can’t tell, but I really hope so. I’m just too close to it. It’d be like if I asked you to watch a home movie and asked you, “How do you feel you’ve grown?” Or watch a video you shot a couple of years ago and ask, “How have you changed?” That would be for (Colette and Dmitry) to answer any kind of character objective. They always have a lot to say about that. [Laughs.] I’m happiest when it’s on track with Tanya. I think she’s kind of revolutionary in her thinking, and I think she has a large vision of where this could go that Ray doesn’t always see. I think we see more of that a little bit in the third season, but I think it could go further.

Have you found that there’s a particular difference between working for cable versus network?

Oh, I just love working for HBO. I feel like there’s just so many smart people looking after things. So it’s a good feeling. I mean, I think everybody’s trying to be creative, but I think HBO is succeeding. They’re just really great to work for.

Tales from the Darkside (1986), “Charlotte Rose Cantrell”

Oh, my God. [Laughs.] Yeah, Warner Shook directed that. He was a director I had met in Seattle. God, I think I was 23 years old, playing a 15-year-old. Seriously. I’m, like, 23 years old, and I’m playing something like a 15-year-old girl. With pigtails. That’s all I can say about that.

Was that, as IMDb suggests, your first onscreen role?

[Hesitates.] No. I don’t think so. I think there was an Afterschool Special, where Betty Buckley was my mom. But I’m not sure. It was right around the same time, I think.

[Actually, the Afterschool Special in question, the racism-themed “Taking a Stand,” aired in 1989.]

Prior to that, though, you’d been working in theater. Did you just decide that you wanted to see what the world of TV was like?

Again, it’s really just that thing of just wanting to act. I didn’t really care about the medium.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), “Carrie”

Oh, yeah. I just love working with Michel Gondry. I think that was Charlie Kaufman trying to be nice, because the role that he wrote in the film that I did before, that Spike Jonze directed (Adaptation), I got cut out of it. So they called and said, “Come on, we want to put you in this one!” [Laughs.] We were in Montauk shooting, I remember, and David Cross and I, we had a lot of fun.

Family Ties (1987 / 1989), “First Love” / “Marty Brodie”

Oh, my God. [Laughs.] Yeah, I did that twice. I went and did it the first time, and I remember Gary Goldberg coming up to me and saying, “We’re going to have to dowdy you up a bit.” And so they put me in glasses and…well, it was like what Colette did with me for Tanya. It’s, like, “We’re going to make you look really bad. That’s our brilliant idea.” So that was my first experience. And then one of the writers on the show, Marc Lawrence, he brought me back as not a dowdy character. I was brought back as Michael (J. Fox’s) love interest.

And for a two-parter, no less.

[Laughs.] Yeah, exactly. The big ‘80s kissing episode of Family Ties. That’s really all I can remember. No, wait, I remember having to fake-play the piano. And my hair was blow-dried very straight.

Pray tell, what kind of kisser was Michael J. Fox?

[Breathlessly] Fantastic. I’m supposed to say that, right? I honestly don’t remember. [Laughs.] But let’s just say he was fabulous.

Relativity (1996), “Karen Lukens”

Oh, (creator) Jason Katems just won an Emmy, didn’t he? I loved working with Jason Katims…and he’s someone who did discuss character stuff. He was very actor-friendly. He was very collaborative. And I had fun also working with Adam Goldberg.

That was your first time as a series regular, right?

Right. Although it only lasted for 18 episodes. [Laughs.]

Well, true. But at least for 18 episodes you could say, “Hey, I have a regular gig!”

Oh, and it was great, especially at that age. That was really the first time I had made regular money, because I had done theater. I was 29 years old when I did that series, and I’d only done theater before that, and I was living…you know, I would go to the ATM all the time, and it would be just under $20, so I couldn’t even get any money out. So Relativity, it was fun, and it was, like, “Oh, I’m paying my rent!” [Laughs]

And, actually, Relativity…for actors who might be reading this, Relativity was an example of where I did all that theater – for years, from 23 to 29, I did theater, theater, theater – and tried to get parts in films, indie films or whatever, and it was really difficult and not happening much. Not the kind of role I wanted, anyway. And it wasn’t until I let go of that and said, “Okay, screw it, I’m going to go do a TV series and live in L.A.” [Laughs.]

And then the tape from that, Ted Hope (producer of Happiness) ended up telling me, “Oh, we cast you after we saw…” I mean, I met Todd and everything, so it was a combination of things, but seeing the tape from Relativity helped. So that was an example of how sometimes you just need to put all of your ideas away about the things that you want.

Out of curiosity, was there any connection between you being in Father of the Bride Part II with Kimberly Williams and getting cast in Relativity (in which Williams co-starred)?

Totally coincidence. But it was, like, “Oh, we get to work together again!” So that was nice. And I’m still very good friends with Poppy Montgomery, too.

Happiness (1998), “Joy Jordan”

That was a really hard shoot, but what a great experience. That’s the best script…I mean, I got five minutes into reading that script and called my manager – I wasn’t even finished with it – and said, “I have to do this!” What a great script.

When I talked to you before, you mentioned that you’d been kind of frustrated with the battle over the distribution of the film.

Yeah, but you, you know, that stuff…you can’t control it.

In the interview, done for Bullz-Eye.com, Adams said of the situation, “We were all going to go to Cannes, and then October Films was the distributor, and they yanked distribution because they were upset about the content of the film. And that was a big bummer, because that was the first time that…I mean, we just had a killer film. And then Ted Hope’s company had to distribute the film, and they’d never done that before. It got a lot of attention, but it didn’t get the attention it deserved. I felt Dylan Baker should’ve been nominated for an Oscar.”

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), “Ruth Hale”

Kansas City (1996), “Nettie Bolt”

I remember at one point they totally ran out of money – no one was getting paid – and then they fixed the problem. And I remember that Alan Rudolph was great to work for. Like, what a sweet, warm, intelligent man he is. Seriously. Like, one of the best. I love his movies. I was a big fan of Choose Me. I learned a lot working for him. And from Robert Altman. I met Robert Altman because he would come around and intimidate me… [Laughs.] …when we were shooting Mrs. Parker because he produced that. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that. It was more that he was…accidentally intimidating. He wasn’t trying to be. He didn’t realize that I was scared of him.

So, basically, he was intimidating to you simply by virtue of being Robert Altman.

Yeah! I just loved his movies so much. I was such a big fan. So it’s important to make the distinction that he wasn’t intimidating. He was intimidating to me and didn’t know it. Later, once I got to know him, I realized, “He’s being nice! He likes me!” But I was afraid. I was, like, “He’s going to fire me…” But then a couple of years later, he cast me in a movie that he was directing, Kansas City. He said, “I want you to play this character based on my grandmother.”

No pressure.

Well, there never was any pressure with him, actually, because he’s the kind of person…he just hires you, and you know, “Oh, he hired me because I’m exactly what he wants.” So you can’t really do anything wrong. He’s not trying to turn me inside out into some idea he has in his head. He’s not interested in that. He wants me to surprise him. And that’s my favorite kind of person to work with.

Little Children (2006), “Sheila”

You know what’s funny about that? I was always a big fan of Jackie Earle Haley, and for about a year or two before I was cast in that, I had bought a t-shirt at Built by Wendy, in New York City, that had sketches of him all over it from The Bad News Bears, and I wore it everywhere. I still have it. It has holes in it. But I was wearing that around for a couple of years before I did the movie. Then I went in and met the director and he cast me, and then I showed up on set, and Jackie and I, as we were getting to know each other, I said, “You know, I was wearing this t-shirt with you on it…” [Laughs.] I said, “I’ll bring it, I’ll show it to you.” He said, “No, actually, I’ve seen it, ‘cause my kids found it on the internet, and they sent us a box of them!”

Frasier (1999 – 2000), “Dr. Mel Karnofsky”

[Laughs.] Yeah, that was…fun. You know, Kelsey (Grammer) and David (Hyde Pierce) are fun to work with, and I liked Peri (Gilpin). That was really my first experience being a guest star. We had a good time.

I would think that it would’ve given you at least somewhat of a boost in profile, given that it was such a popular show.

Yeah, there was a lot more of, like, “oh, I loved you in that thing” after that, with people stopping me. I don’t think I noticed it as much until after that.

Wonder Boys (2000), “Oola”

Oh, I loved that. That was funny because I was just showing up in Pittsburgh, nothing to do. But Katie Holmes was there, and Robert Downey, Jr., and Tobey Maguire, so it was good off-time. Oh, and Curtis (Hanson). It was nice to spend time with Curtis.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), “White Faced Woman”

Well, we were told, “Oh, we want you to do this, and you and Jennifer Coolidge and Luis Guzman will improvise…” But then we got there, and it was, like, “Okay, don’t move, don’t breathe, just pretend you’re asleep.” So it was a little frustrating. But I had a lot of laughs with Craig Ferguson. I mean, there’s always great people. I think that’s my favorite part of these roles: the people you take with you.

Songcatcher (2000), “Eleanor 'Elna' Penleric”

God, this is like This Is Your Life! [Laughs.] I just remember smoking a lot of pot in North Carolina and going to the Waffle House across the interstate because my hotel room was so bad that the floor was damp, ‘cause…I think the air conditioner was leaking all the time. And it would make the carpet wet.

Orange County (2002), “Mona”

Oh, God, that was fun. I remember the morning of the fire… They did a test fire at the school with us there in our underwear, and they said, “Okay, this is what it’s going to be,” and they had walkie-talkies and everything. And then they did it again for the camera, and it was completely different. Stuff was just completely bursting into flame and falling everywhere. [Laughs.] Jack (Black) and I looked at each other and shrugged and were, like, “I guess this is it, so let’s make it work.”