Video: Jessica Lange Opens Up About Her Mother of a Role

Welcome home to Broadway

Thank you. That's a nice thing to hear. Well, you know, I know this is something you always come back to the theater

Jessica, why is that? Oh, because the experience is always thrilling. I mean, it is, it's exhausting and it's maddening and all of that, but there's nothing more

thrilling than doing theater. Yeah. Yeah. You've done some incredible special plays here in New York, the Tennessee Williams canon

the O'Neill. Yeah. But what's made this so special with Paula's play

Well, first of all, because I've never, I never had an opportunity to do a brand new

play before. And that was huge. I mean, because I thought, you know, after I finished doing Long Day's Journey and, you

know, I'd talk to people and they'd say, well, what would you like to do? And I think, well, I don't know

There's nothing, you know. I mean, I've done the parts that I really, Mary Tyrone, you know, Blanche DuBois, things

that I'd been passionate about all my life. And so when this came up, to do a brand new play was, I mean, I thought, yes, that's what

I should do. I should do something that's never been done before

I should originate this part, create this character, figure out this play, and see if

I can do it. Yeah. And working with Jim and Celia, finding a new play together, what was that like for

all of you? I think, you know, we all had a similar experience, just the thrill of creating something for

the first time. And I mean, I love working with them so much

Every night we walk on stage, I think, oh, well, we're in this together

This is it. We're, you know. And there's never been a moment that it hasn't felt complete and thrilling. So

I love that you were all nominated together. I know, I know, I know

That was the best news ever. So what was that day like for you

Would you all text each other? Well, finally we did toward the afternoon

I mean, I woke up and turned my phone on and there were all the congratulations, congratulations

And I was excited, you know, really happy about that. And then at some point I said, I got to a text that said, and Jim and Celia are nominated too

And I just screamed. It was like, yes! You know, because of your success and Jim's and even Celia, many people are coming to

the theater for the very first time to experience something live. Yeah

And that's what I love about your audience. You may not be able to see them from the stage, but there's young people coming and people

who know you from film and television and just introducing them to the theater

That's great. What that means to you. Well, I mean, anytime in this day and age of virtual living, I mean, the fact that

you know, you can get people seated together in this kind of collective experience, witnessing

and feeling something. I think that's just, it's extraordinary. I love that part of it

And it, you know, when you're on stage and you hear somebody in the audience crying or

you hear some, I mean, it's like, oh, okay, this is, yeah