Patti LuPone: You know what? I was having the best time on Hollywood. And so it was not hard to keep happy or to be happy. And I suppose if you exude happiness, it’s infectious. And we have a wonderful company in the cast of Hollywood, and I don’t think anybody wanted to be depressed or anybody pulled attitude. Everybody was just really lovely and upbeat. And so it was easy to be happy. You know when you’re called a leading lady and primarily for the stage, because that’s where I come from, it is a responsibility to set a tone. It absolutely is a responsibility. I’m sure you’ve heard of people being real divas and people you know not being happy on a set or not being happy backstage and you’ve heard of just the opposite.
And so it’s the responsibility of the leading players, both the man and the woman, to set a tone. And hopefully the tone they set is going to be one that then translates onto the stage, so that what the audience is seeing is joy and happiness. You can tell when there’s a happy cast and, and when there’s not a happy cast, you can just tell.
I’m curious how you reacted when you found out that your role in this show was the central role of this particular TV series.
Well, it didn’t start out that way. When Ryan offered me the role, I thought it was going to be something along the same lines as Pose, where what I had to do was relatively important, but it was not the lead. I think we were on episode three when we shot the scene, the first scene with David Corenswet where I say, “I want to go to Dreamland.” And then I take him to the Beverly Hills Hotel and that’s when Ryan told me that he was going to make me the leading lady of it. And I was thrilled and surprised and grateful and I didn’t know what that was going to entail. We got episode one, we shot episode one, and on the second to last day of episode one, we got episode two. So I didn’t know what the trajectory of my character would be except for his pitch. So you know, you don’t know how much you’re going to get. You don’t know how many scenes you’re going to have to play. And it was terrific. I’ve never had a role like this on film, so I’m really, really grateful to Ryan.
There’s this moment where your character has been talking to the young, idealistic actor. And she says sort of cynically, “So movies, you think they matter?” Right now we’re getting so much out of the various bits and bobs of entertainment, of people streaming at home, of you giving tours of your basement or whatever it is right now. Do you think about how much entertainment matters right now?
It always matters. I just said this recently, that in this particular dysfunctional, evil administration that we are suffering through, the two words art and culture have not been mentioned. And they are inherent rights and human nature. So I think this outpouring of people creating on the internet, first of all is a desire to give, a desire to keep creating. And it’s necessary. People need it. It’s compromised because there’s no interaction, really. But it’s uplifting. It sort of transcends the world we’re living in right now. And it’s extremely important.
One of the many performances that you’ve done since we’ve all been in lockdown that I responded particularly to, is the Stephen Sondheim concert. I wanted to ask you about your song choice. “Anyone Can Whistle” is such a beautiful song and it’s such a beautiful show. And a show that I think doesn’t get as much love. Can you talk about your pick of that song out of all the songs?
Well, it’s, I almost started to weep when you brought it up. It affects me deeply, that song, and it really exposes Stephen’s soul. But then what song that he wrote doesn’t? It’s so simple, and in my case it’s so true for me. I may appear to be a strong individual, but I’m vulnerable and intimidated and scared like everybody else. And that song really speaks to me.
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