TVSquad Talks To Elaine Stritch on "30 Rock"

[JamesG]

Elaine Stritch on "30 Rock"
by Joel Keller
posted May 6th 2010


Veteran actress, singer and overall force of nature Elaine Stritch is back on "30 Rock" this week, playing Jack Donaghy's domineering but loving mother Colleen.

In the Mother's Day-themed episode, airing May 6 at 9:30PM ET, the entire staff of 'TGS with Tracy Jordan' has to contend with their moms dropping into their crazy lives in the 'TGS' offices



Jack, played by Alec Baldwin, has a lot more to contend with than just his mom, as he's trying to juggle relationships with the challenging Avery and the comfortable Nancy. Having to deal with Colleen in the middle of all that should make for a fun episode.

The always-outspoken Stritch sat with me earlier this week to talk about being on the "30 Rock" set.





How many times has this been now, playing Jack's mom?

I don't know. But I'm on it rarely.

And I just was talking to someone about this the other day. That's good. I think it's good. I think it's tasteful, I think it's smart producing. I think this should not be a mother that's around all the time.









Colleen Donaghy is referred to a lot more off camera than you're actually on the show.

And that's the best thing, dramatically. I think there's such a thing as overkill. She's a very, very zowie woman. You know, she walks in a room and people know she's there. You'd better believe it. She's always got an opinion.

A lot of mothers, you know, typically have that quality. But she's funny. And humor is dangerous. I've always felt that. And so she gets away with murder.

That's what humor is. It gets you away with murder. And she knows exactly how to, as the kids say today, push his buttons. And at the same time, she's pushing them with love, you know what I mean?









It's kind of a passive-aggressive-slash-aggressive relationship.

Yes, exactly. But it's full of humor. On both sides.

He didn't lick it off the ground. Did you ever hear that expression? That's my dad's expression. When he would say, when somebody would say to him, "By God, George, your daughter is talented," his first line was well, "She didn't lick it off the ground."

Now you don't get that do you?





Basically meaning that you didn't just pick it up from nowhere.

Yeah! "She got it from Midge and me, my wife and myself. That's where she got it from!" And he wanted the world to know it.

He's with General Motors. He doesn't take any s**t from anybody.









Who approached you to play the role to begin with?
Was it Tina Fey? Lorne Michaels?

I don't know. I don't know who approached ... what do you mean?

My agent. They asked me if I'd like to play Alec Baldwin's mother, and I said, you know, no problem at all. No problem at all. Because my opinion of Alec Baldwin is very high.

And the way I criticize him is almost on the same level. I just love him to death. I think he's, ugh, he gives talent, he's so talented, it's just a little scary. You know?









Did it surprise you that, knowing that he's been a dramatic actor for the most part, most of his career, that he can be this funny?

Oh my God! It's part and parcel! It's the name of the game! You can't be funny unless you're tragic, and you can't be tragic unless you're funny.

But the one thing at the bottom of all this is humor. And humor's complicated. Oh boy, is it complicated. Oh my God.



I said a line the other day, and I'm very proud of it. Because sometimes a well-written line falls out of your mouth. And this worked for me in my head.

I said, and it's in my act at the Carlyle, my act about Stephen Sondheim. I compare Stephen Sondheim with humor, because humor is unanalyzable. You can't analyze humor. You just have to get through it.

And I don't know what to do after I say that line. So I tell them that maybe they'll get it when they get home. If they keep thinking about it. Because it does make sense. Humor is so complicated. You know?









When people sit down and try discuss humor...

You can't do it. It doesn't work. It pure and simply doesn't work.

You can get to a point so that you don't get technical about humor. Don't get ... you don't sit down to a script and say, "Oh, I know where I can get a laugh." Don't take that attitude.

Read the script and understand what they're talking about, what the point is they're trying to get across, what I'm trying to say to my son Jack, in '30 Rock,' what I'm trying to get over, my ulterior motives, the things I'm trying to sneak in so he won't notice it.



Those are the things to play for real. The whole friggin' thing, you gotta play it for honest-to-God reality, and they will laugh. And you will be so gratified that you can't stand it.

You just fall in love with yourself when they laugh at you. It's wonderful.









What's the atmospehere on the set?
Does Tina keep things light? Is it serious?

Tina Fey stays with it, the hard work of it, most of the time. And look what she does in a week. It's just extraordinary. More is the pity, but there's not a lot of time to sit around and talk about what you did last night, or who you've got a sneaker for. There's just not a lot of time for that.



When you think she's got an interview every five minutes, she's on the cover of every magazine going, she's just ... that doesn't come from a week of sitting on a set in a director's chair, shooting the bull with another actor.

That doesn't happen so much anymore. And sometimes, I think it's more is the pity, because a lot of laughs are lost.









You and Tracy Morgan don't do many scenes together, but do you see him around the set at all?

Oh yes. I don't see him much, I hear him. That's all I can say about Tracy Morgan. He's a very talented kid, and he better behave himself or he'll get no respect from me. He needs to behave himself. He's a diabetic, like I am.

We're the same kind of diabetic, and you gotta behave yourself. You just got to. It's a choice. It's like people who take drugs. Make the choice: You wanna live, you wanna die, next?



He's a likable fellow, and he's so loaded with talent, and he doesn't know what to do with some of it, and he doesn't want to lose some of it, or get some of it.

But this way or that way. He's just spontaneous. He's a spontaneous, dopey, wonderful guy. And I think he surprises himself. I don't think he can understand himself yet at all. And what's coming out is for real, though, I can tell you that.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/06/el...-and-diabetes/