AE: Is there anything you want to say to your fans?
MLP: You know, I love my lesbian fans. And I just did this little webisode — my girlfriend Cat [Davis] and I — she's gay, and it's all about me helping her pick up girls, 'cause I'm her wingman. … So she's gonna put it on YouTube at some point. Hopefully it'll be out there. … It's me helping her pick up girls 'cause she's like a lesbian who can't pick up girls. I'm helping her as a straight woman showing her how to pick up girls.
AE: Did you give her any special tips?
MLP: Yeah, I'm like: "Watch. Get in the van. Are you gay? Get in the van."
AE: So you're very direct — that's the tip that you give her.
MLP: Yeah, I'm just like, "Be nice to women, that's what they want."
AE: That's true.
MLP: Yeah, and you know I love my lesbian fan base.
AE: Well, they love you [laughs].
MLP: It's true, I have a soft spot. It's true.
Parker as Nancy Botwin in Weeds
AE: Do you ever wish — I know this is a long time ago, but do you ever wish the story line on Fried Green Tomatoes was a little bit more —
MLP: Yes! Well, in some ways I do. I tried to make it a little bit more articulated at the time, but they didn't really want to go that way. And in some ways I wish that it was, and then in some ways I think maybe the audience wouldn't have gone there, so I don't know — I have very mixed feelings about it. Because I tried — I really tried to push it at the time, and they didn't want to go there with me.
AE: Who didn't want to go there?
MLP: [emphatically] No one.
AE: Not even your co-star?
MLP: Oh no, Mary Stuart did, Fannie Flagg did, but not the director, not the producer, nobody else.
AE: Wow, OK.
MLP: But I was really trying to push it, and they were like [shakes head].
AE: Times have changed, I guess.
MLP: Yeah, for sure.
Mary-Louise Parker currently stars in Weeds, which airs Monday nights at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.
Mary-Louise Parker pick up artist
Why didn't you bother to ask Mary-Louise Parker how she learn to pickup chicks? lol cute interview I really like Mary-Louise Parker on Weeds.
-Nathiest
the devil is in the details
Proof
Malinda,
You forgot to mention one of her biggest awards. MLP won the Tony for Outstanding Lead Actress in Proof....
This chick is a brilliant actress....
Mary-Louise Parker
Pick-up lines
Hmmm...I think "Hey, I'm BFFs with Mary-Louise Parker" would be a good pick-up line :-D
Perhaps her friend should try that :-)
get in the van?
Ditto.
boys on the side
was amazing! i was probably 11 when I saw that movie and i remember crying for like an hour afterwards. the two actresses played that unexplored love so beautifully. and thank god for mary louise and mary staurt being true to the FGT story. i am greatful to them for that.
"what kind of rat bastard psychotic would play that song right now at this minute?"
MLP
<3
love it.
Since watching Fried Green
Since watching Fried Green Tomatoes, I slip into a southern accent when I talk about Mary-Louise Parker, and call her 'Mary-Lou.'
Kudos....
Snowgirl41
"Every person in the world has a purpose for being here—a calling".
Rockstar...
Mary-Louise Parker is a goddess. I LOVED her in Boys on the Side too- when Whoopi sings 'You Got It' to her at the end- amazing, I cried buckets!
'Right on.' - Love it.
Can't wait to see her lesbian dating advice vid- I SERIOUSLY need it lol...
Buckets?!?!
More like Oceans...i could not stop! Oh that was heartbreaking.
I am with you on the dating advice video..i hope they post that soon.
They did a good job
I think the actresses did a good job of secretly gaying up the story, because I saw the movie when I was 14 and I didn't know anything about the book. I watched it my mom, and when we got to the scene during Ruth's birthday when she and Idgie are in the water, I thought to myself, shocked, "my mom is showing me a lesbian movie". I wasn't out to her yet, and I was just really surprised that she had watched a lesbian movie.
Anyway, I just think that the straight community may not get it if they don't know the book, but the gay community can certainly figure it out.
mary ann you're better than the world
Much love to Mary Louise
she is beautiful and talented and has totally made me laugh, 'awww' and cry numerous times because of said talent.
major props to her and Mary Stuart for conveying the real relationship between 'Ruth and Idgie' even though they weren't supposed to >.>
and SUPER major props for being the coolest mom on TV :D
"I'm not a dealer, I'm a mother who happens to distribute illegal products through a sham bakery set up by my ethically questionable CPA and his crooked lawyer friend.."
-Nancy Botwin
Oh My God
Mary. Louise. Parker.
My head just exploaded,
OMG
Chase!
Right on? How retro of MLP...
Her answers were a bit edgy, but I wouldn't expect anything less. She's an incredible stage actress -- her lead role in the play "How I Learned to Drive" was heartbreaking and powerful. She won an Obie for that -- another two plays she's done, "Dead Man's Cellphone" and "Reckless", were panned, but I thought she was excellent in Reckless.
At the Globes, a few years ago, when she had recently split with Billy Crudup, after giving birth to their child, she said during her acceptance speech for the Weeds role, (and I'm paraphrasing here) "...all I can say is, right now, all I want to do is make-out with Elizabeth Perkins..." It was hilarious.
My favorite quote from "Weeds"...
I loved it when Mary-Louise Parker said, "I go to work, take my brain out of my head, put it in a drawer, then nine hours later, I take my brain out of the drawer and put it back in my head." She was referring to her character Nancy Botwin working at the maternity store in San Ysidro with her friend Celia (Elizabeth Perkins). That so beautifully summed up just about every job I have ever had...
Maybe someday they can do a remake of "Fried Green Tomatoes", the gay version? Are you reading this, Nancylee Myatt?
Yeah, I related to that line.
another quote from Weeds is
another quote from Weeds is ...
Celia: Ok, you cannot become a lesbian just because you don't wanna lose weight. I know what you're thinking, you see people like...Rosie O'Donnell, and you think "well, if she can find love.." But that is not where lesbianism is going. Look at The L Word
Mary-Louise Parker is just gorgeous.
FGT
:-)
I like MLP. Need to watch FGT in it's entirety because I didn't realize there was a lesbian storyline, I usually changed the channel when it came on back in the day.
I loved Fried Green Tomatoes so much
Thought the book DID have the relationship *spoilers*
Really? I thought the book did have the lesbian story in there. Maybe not wildly overt, but definitely there. Also, in the movie, the Idgie character grows up to be the Jessica Tandy character, who had gone on to get married. In the book, they are two separate people, and Idgie has lived her life alone after Ruth's death.
Malinda, great interview! Love that MLP. And, um, did we all get the impression that the independent film does NOT have funding? rather emphatic there.
Ruth in Chicago
movie vs. book
I don't see any earthly way that Idgie and Ninny Threadgoode are the same person, unless Ninny is a pathological liar. She says quite early on that she married one of Idgie's younger brothers, and she also explains that she learned the story of Bennett's murder from Sipsie's daughter on her deathbed. There's no rational reason she would have invented either of those stories for Evelyn's benefit, and both of them make your theory flatly impossible. I would also add that it seems highly, highly, highly unlikely that Ninny would claim that her disabled son had been her only child if she really had raised Buddy Jr. as well, and I'm sure other points of disagreement between their life stories would occur to me if I thought about it long enough.
In other words, rest assured, even de-gayed as it was, the movie never tried to convince anybody that Idgie got married after Ruth died!
re: movie vs. book
Hmm, yeah, I always thought there were some major continuity problems, but it seemed that the last scene was strongly implying this. I'll have to watch it again.
Thanks.
Ruth in Chicago
**BOOK SPOILERS** In
**BOOK SPOILERS**
In the book Idgie has lots of lesbian sex with a prostitute who Buddy sr had frequented. Ruth is really jealous. It's clearer that they are a couple in the book than the film.
Doe eyes....they get me every time
She's genius
I think Ms. Parker is genius on Weeds. It's hysterical, and I can believe Nancy would get out of all the situations because she's hot.
I agree with the Fried Green Tomatoes. I loved it when I was little and always wanted it to be about the ladies falling in love. Guess I wasn't too far off!
MLP, my favorite actress since I was 7 years old
Seeing this article just totally made my day! Ms. Parker has been my favorite actress since I saw FGT in the theaters when I was 6, maybe 7 years old. It was, and will always be, my favorite movie of all time. In some ways, I'm disappointed to hear the actresses wanted to play up the lesbian storyline more, but at the same time, I think had that been more played up, the 6/7 year old me would not have understood the movie, nor would it have become my favorite. When I was old enough to read the book and know what the true storyline was (not just really good friends) it rattled me. Not because I was homophobic, but because my whole life I told myself I'd rather have what Idgie and Ruth did than have a boyfriend -- and that meant I'd rather be gay than straight. And at the time, I was terrified I'd turn out to be gay. (Thank goodness I finally did...but that's another thing). Now I love them movie even more for it's love story and for broaching the subject in the mainstream at a time that it wasn't all that acceptable.
Anyway, I've loved pretty much everything the MLP has been in. I'm glad to see she's getting the recognition and acclaim that I've always thought she deserved. And I think it's great that she has a soft spot for her lesbian fans. Just makes me admire her all the more.
Not that she'll read this, but thanks for everything you do MLP!
Another cool thing she did, or its an urban legend ...
I read or heard, several years back, that there was a lesbian in high school who wrote a short lesbian play for her drama class. This girl was getting all sorts of hell raised on her and it was a huge media thing. Then Mary Louise Parker and another actress of her caliber (name escapes me) volunteered to act in this girl's school project.
I swear this is a true story. Someone please help fact check this for me because I don't want to be wrong, because I want MLP to be the coolest person on earth.
Also, Fried Green Tomatoes is such a great book. The scene in the book that breaks my heart every time I read it is when Idgie is having her temper tantrum at Ruth's leaving and ripping her room apart and cussing at Ruth, then Ruth goes in to try to calm Idgie down, but it blows up in her face. Ruth decides its best she leave Idgie because she's so in love with Idgie and the whole scene is killing her and breaking her heart. Ugh! I have to reread this book.
Mary-Louise is amazing!!
One of ML's best films. The chemistry between Mary-Louise and Mary Stuart was amazing! If you get a chance...read the book by Fannie Flagg...the lesbian story is THERE!
Also, I can check the truth on the "urban legend" for you.....and will let you know...what I find out. I manage the MLP Fan site.
Also for more on ML...please visit the MLP web site at:
http://groups.msn.com/Mary-LouiseParkerFanPage/_homepage.msnw?lc=1033