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Elaine Stritch Encores TODAY Show F-Bomb on SHOOT ME Red Carpet!
Nov 9, 2022
The new documentary about stage and screen legend Elaine Stritch, Elaine Stritch: SHOOT ME is currently in limited release at New York City's IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinema. The film just had its New York City premiere earlier this week and BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on hand to chat with Stritch and friends on the red carpet. In the video below, Stritch talks about the film and gives us an encore of the f-bomb that she famously surprised viewers with on the Today Show earlier this week. Check it out below!
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0:00
Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Stage screen and television legend Elaine Stritch is back in New York
0:07
for the premiere of director Chemi Karasawa's documentary on her life called Elaine Stritch, Shoot Me
0:13
And I'm here on the red carpet where the stars are out to celebrate. This is so beautiful
0:31
That's what they say. I know that. Oh, that's awesome. Models. Yeah
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Can everybody look at what? Would you share an Elaine Stritch story? I mean, everyone has them
0:42
You must have many of them. Well, I, you know, I just told one, and I realized, you know, I can't
0:47
it's hard to think of one where she, you know, where you have to, you know, you always have to
0:51
I have to clean up the language. You don't have to clean it up for us. Oh, yeah, well, I was saying
0:56
telling someone that she said, And she said to me that she never pays for the theater
1:05
She goes to the box office a few minutes after 8 and says
1:11
Hi, I'm Elaine Stritch. Just give me a single in the back. And that apparently this always works, she said, except for one show
1:21
And I said, Really? What show? And she said, Mama f***ing Mia
1:26
She was pissed. She didn't get to see Mama Mia. So there you are
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So if the producers are watching, they should send her a free ticket
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To Mama Mia. To Mama Mia while she's here. I'm so excited
1:45
I think it was two and a half years ago I heard that she was asked to do a documentary
1:51
And she said no. And I called her and I said, that's the worst mistake of your life
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You have to make the documentary. You have no choice. and two days later we had the meeting and signed the papers and she's here we are you know it's like
2:02
i've been wanting to cry all day long she's a bigger star today than she ever was she is she's
2:09
like getting 10 000 twitter followers a minute she's a bigger star at 90 years old than she ever
2:14
has been in her life and she knows it and she's never been so happy yeah she's always been someone
2:20
who's lived her life her way hasn't she oh yeah yeah you can't make any decision for her unless
2:25
She'd go behind her back, which I like to do all the time. Exactly. But how exciting is this for her
2:30
I think it's just what she needs, you know? It's what propels her with her career and her life
2:37
It's what she needs to keep going and keep marching ahead as she gets older, you know
2:42
It's perfect. It's just what she needs. And she dropped the F yesterday on Today show It has 100 more followers It the best thing she could have done for the film You know and she didn even she wasn even meaning to say it
2:54
You know, it was hysterical. Look at her legs still today. She's amazing
2:58
She's astonishing. She's rocking it. Totally singular. So being in this business, what do you admire the most about her as a person and as a performer
3:06
She is so true to who she is. She's candid. She's authentic. and whether that's dirty or flawed or foul
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it's real and it's wonderful and it's endearing. And, you know, sometimes we get coached to be a certain way
3:22
and to put on a certain facade. That's not Elaine. And I think so many of us want to strive to be who we truly are
3:28
And she's been true from day one. And not to be too literal, but the notion of I'm still here
3:34
her longevity is astonishing. And she's got more energy than all of us. What do you admire the most about Elaine as a performer and as a person
3:42
Well, she has the most incredible sense of timing of anybody in the world
3:46
and has a great singing voice and presentation, and she's funny and charming
3:52
so there's nothing to not admire about her. And as a person, it's her incredible fortitude, and she keeps on going
4:00
and doesn't let anything stop her. She's a good dame. I've been hanging with Hunter Ryan Herdlicka since Cabaret
4:10
And he said, you have to come. And actually, my husband wrote this amazing new play that we sent to Elaine
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So I'm here like this. To be double duty. To woo her back
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Yeah, yeah, exactly. Tell me what you admire the most about her as a person and as a performer
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Oh, my gosh. No holds barred. You know what? I teach a little bit
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And I tell my students, my acting students, to make ferocious choices. and I think that Elaine Stritch has made ferocious choices on stage and off
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and I'm so impressed and in awe of that. I wanted to see it very early on at the Trebek Film Festival
4:46
sort of overwhelming and like all really large of a life experiences
4:51
of which her life is surely one, I needed to come back and see it again and take it in all its color
4:59
It is everything you want it to be. all the colors of her rainbow, supremely funny, very moving, and essentially a leg
5:08
There's a vulnerability in her work and that's what attracts the human
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condition. She carries it all, right? Exactly, she works without a nest
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And she's terrified. When someone is that courageous, you know, with all the fear
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then you go, you step right into it, fly right into it. That's when you see
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excitement in her art. As a person, she marches to her own drum
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and she is just who she wants to be and she doesn take any shit I those are things that I aspire to And as a performer I love how she has got she got a she got a shtick and she just works it
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And it's, and I think when, if, you know, like I saw the trailer for this film and she says something similar to it
5:57
but like, if you're fascinating, you're always going to be fascinating. You know, some people are just fascinating
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And she's fascinating. Yeah, and some people aren't. And she just is
6:08
So you're about to come back in Cabaret. How excited are you to be returning to Roundabout with this show
6:13
I'm very excited. I'm just having such fun. I really enjoy it. It's like a different thing
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And I'm, you know, obviously double the age of most of the people I'm dancing alongside
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And I just love it. I'm actually, you know, I've got sore legs. and I just
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it's exciting to bring this story to a new generation I know it sounds like
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I sound like a lame stretch when I say that but I kind of mean it I do mean it
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it's a timeless musical it's a timeless production I love the new cast
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you have with this so do I I think they're great but also I think
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it's timeless but it's timely as well because sadly in our world
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there's always you know there's always situations that remind you of this
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what the story of Kabbalah is about. Like in Russia right now, if you're gay in Russia, I bet you're getting the very similar vibe
7:05
to what it was like to be Jewish in Germany 80 years ago. Tell me what you admire the most about her
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as a person and as a performer. Well, her honesty, her audaciousness
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and her originality on both ends, personally and professionally. You know, she came to see me in Elaine May's play
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and she said such lovely things to me, and she comes backstage, and she's generous to other actors
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which is very important. Some people don't know how to do that. Phil, for you
7:36
Well, she has legs. She does. And it's really an amazing career
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Her arc of her whole personal life goes from, well, early 20th century to now
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Fabulous. She's not afraid of anything. And she doesn't give a damn about anything
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But herself. And that's what it should be. Jack, for you. Well, I rehearsed Elaine in the 70s, 60s as Essie
8:11
One day when she came to be an APA in the... You can't take it with you
8:18
And she had her toe shoes. And we did one rehearsal and she left after that
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She said do you mean there are other people playing this part And I said yes Elaine She said not when I doing it And that was it And we been friends ever since There no one better than her
8:34
There's nobody better than her. There's nobody like her. Yeah, exactly. And that's why we're here
8:40
Tell me what it was like working with her. Oh. Well, I never directed Elaine
8:47
I only presented her as an artistic director. But, you know, Elaine is extremely collaborative
8:53
She really wants to know what you see, what you think, what you're hearing
8:57
You know, she would holler out into the house, Is it working, Michael
9:02
I'm thrilled to be here. I got to work with Elaine Stritch on the musical of Royal Family
9:06
that we never got to do. But it was an honor to become her friend at that time
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and to work with her. And the thing about Elaine Stritch is that it's impossible for her to lie
9:17
She is one of the greatest truthometers we have on the stage. So wherever she is, it's a mentorship, really
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And I enjoyed very much being her friend when she was living in New York
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As tough as she is, she's as tough on herself. And she would want to get every and, every comma
9:42
I mean, when she was doing the show, it seemed like it was just spilling out. But I was just dazzled just by the instrument and the discipline and determination with which she approached the work
9:53
It was like, it was like with the ferocity of, and I realized that what she was doing, she worked so hard to take the effort out of it
10:02
Because if there's no effort, then an audience can go completely inside of the material. And it was Gregory Hines was like that too
10:08
They worked so hard to allow an audience in. Because if there's too much effort, the audience stays on the outside
10:13
It's just sheer brilliance. I've never done anything like this before. It's really exciting
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I'm really happy for Elaine. You know, I've been very, very lucky to be with her all these years
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and know her in my way, and now the audience can know her very similar like I do
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Everybody seems to like me and think I'm okay, so who would like anything else but that
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And all your friends are here tonight and colleagues to celebrate with you. joy to see the people that I
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spent my entire career with. Let's talk about working with Chemi, what it was like
10:47
working on this project. The best, the best, the best. I've got no
10:51
problems so all of Alec Baldwin's cameramen can f*** up. Fabulous. The F-bomb again
10:59
Yes. Listen, go downstairs, have a great time, I'll see you down there. Oh, will I see you
11:03
after the show? You'll see me after the show. Tell me honestly what you think of it. This is my third time, I love it. I want you to
11:09
Tell me more and more and more. It is the best documentary ever, E-V-E-R
11:16
Oh my God. I love you, I'll see you downstairs
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