Carol Kanereceived her first awards nomination 50 years ago next year.
Awards-wise, Kane has simmered throughout her career while never quite boiling over.
The relationship that plays out is sweet, unexpected, and surprisingly grounded.
Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in ‘Between the Temples’Sundance Institute
CAROL KANE:Oh, I just got a call.
I was just beside myself with excitement, because I have always, always loved him.
It was about 39 pages.
Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in ‘Between the Temples’Sony Pictures Classics
It was Covid time, so we couldnt meet in person.
It seemed like it might work out, so I said yes.
KANE:A little of both.
And then we just had one day of rehearsal when we got to the location.
We would get the script pages the night before, or two nights before.
Which, in hindsight, Im grateful for, because thats not his method.
He doesnt work like that.
I think Nathan Silver took a lot from Mike Leighs technique of not writing a whole script.
We would improvise around a written structure; you know what I mean?
DEADLINE: Was the character of Carla all there?
Were you able to bring something personal to it?
She was 55, and she went and started again.
Nathans take from that was to make my character Bens music teacher.
In the original script, we didnt know each other.
It gave me so many feelings and so many ideas.
Its a cliche word, but hes sopresent, you know what I mean?
DEADLINE: Well, you might see that in the movie.
KANE:Now, tell me, thats interesting.
May I ask you a question?
Id just like to know what you mean when you say you were skeptical.
DEADLINE: Well, because of the age difference, I thought the relationship might be forced or contrived.
But after a while I didnt notice the age difference at all.
KANE:What do you mean?
I didnt know there was an age difference!
No, its true.
I mean, its just that, somehow, we felt very close to each other.
DEADLINE: Even Im older than Jason Schwartzman!
KANE:Well, yes.
Hes a young, beautiful man, and it was my honor.
But you saw it working inHarold and Maude, right?
DEADLINE: Yes, exactly.
Was that in your mind?
Because you worked with Hal Ashby, didnt you?
KANE:I did.
I want to say a swear word, but I wont.
I was so effing lucky.
I didThe Last Detailwith Jack Nicholson and Hal Ashby, and I loveHarold and Maude.
You see that its not about the age.
I think theyre both love stories.
DEADLINE: Thats a good point.
KANE:Thank you.
Nathan co-writes with Chris Wells, and I should mention his name too.
As I said, we were improvising around the structure but improvising so each take could be different.
DEADLINE: Is that what you meant when you said youd worked in a way you hadnt worked before?
Or you talking about the way he used the script?
I have to say it was unique in almost every way.
And as you probably know, Ive now been in the union for 58 years.
KANE:Geez Louise.
You want to lie down?
DEADLINE: Well, I wanted to lie down after reading your credits, because they go on forever.
Youve been working so frequently, its amazing.
KANE:You know what?
Im not working so frequently, but Ive been working for so many years.
For instance, Im not working now, and I have no idea whats next.
I do have one job coming up.
I dont know if you know, but Im on the newStar Trekshow,Strange New Worlds.
Sometime, probably in March, Ill shoot four of those or something.
But thats all I have.
I dont have any other movies or TV series right now.
But the latest thing I did was so much fun.
Have you ever seen it?
DEADLINE: I didnt know that!
KANE:Are you going to do a spit take?
DEADLINE: I thought you were going to say six.
I wish I could do something like that, something that you’re able to count on.
Showbiz is a lot of quicksand.
I know several people whove completely losteverything
DEADLINE: Did you ever live in Hollywood yourself?
KANE:I lived in West Hollywood when I was doing TV stuff.TaxiorAll Is Forgiven.Scroogedwas shot at Paramount.
I worked at Paramount almost exclusively, but it wasnt my idea, it just so happened.
DEADLINE: We talked about Hal Ashby, but you also worked with Mike Nichols.
Coming out of the gate, you worked with some of the most amazing people.
Was that just happenstance?
Or did you know what you were doing back in those days?
KANE:I just was incredibly blessed to have my first real director be Mike Nichols.
I mean, I was just soblessed.
But Mike did that.
He made me feel that way.
I think that was one of his great, secret gifts.
And then, well, Hal…
I must say theres a little story behind me working with Hal.
I was in love with his work, likeHarold and MaudeandThe Landlord.
It was calledWedding in White, I dont know if youve ever seen it.
Its an extraordinary movie.
Thats another great movie!
I dropped it off at the little hotel he was going to stay in.
I dropped it at the front desk for him.
I met him, and I got that incredible part from him.
And when I tell this story…
DEADLINE: You mentioned Paramount.
Were you under contract?
KANE:No, it was just coincidence thatTaxishot there.
And then I got the part in the movieScrooged(1988), and that shot there.
I got to rehearse there on my ballet dance forScrooged, which is the introduction to my character.
I do a little ballet dance in that film.
I dont know if you remember that, but it was quite an experience.
I worked so hard and I wanted it to be great.
He was the grandson of Marlene Dietrich.
I did it so seriously and tried so hard.
And from the beginning, he just started laughing and didnt stop.
We cant use a dancer.
We have to have her do the whole thing, because its sofunny.
So thats what happened.
They let me do the thing and try as hard as I could to do a good job.
And at one point I shake my head and say, Im a little muddled.
[Laughs] It always was funny, but that wasnotmy intent.
DEADLINE: Youve worked with some of the comedy greats, people like Bill Murray andGene Wilder.
Did you learn from them, or does comedy come naturally to you?
KANE:I had no idea that I would ever do a comedy.
I had been on the stage inThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
[In movies] I didCarnal Knowledge,The Last Detail,Wedding in White… And then I didHester Streetwith Joan Micklin Silver.
I was very young.
And then I did not work for a solid year.
The phone did not ring.
I mean, I didnt turn anything downI didnt get any calls.
And that was my first comedy.
I dont know why he gave it to me.
He saw it in me, and he wanted that, and thats how I accidentally got into comedy.
And then Jim Brooks called.
This was back in the day, Damon, when stage and film actors poo-pooed television.
We all looked down on it and thought, You mustnt do it if youre a real serious actor.
And then I saw that the actor Jack Gilford had doneTaxi, playing Judd Hirschs father.
I loved Jack Gilford; he was so great.
And I thought, If Jack can do it, I can do it.
And so I did.
I accepted the firstTaxi.
With the terrible attitude of Leave me alone, Im a serious actress.
I even kicked Jim Brooks out of my dressing room!
In the theater, the half hour before you go onstage is sacred.
Nobody is allowed to come into your dressing room, because youre preparing, right?
I brought that attitude with me, because that was my background.
And also, I thought that the producers…
This is how stupid I was!
I thought that the producer meant theadvertisers.
I didnt know any better.
I ran into Jim.
I had just come back from Australia, making a movie.
This was I think two years later or something.
And I said, Yes, I would love to.
Well, you asked me about learning!
I wasnt taking myself so seriously.
I wanted to do a great job, and so I was trying to be funny.
And Jim just let me have it.
He said, No!
Dont try and be funny.
If the writing is funny, itll work.
If its not, then we have to fix it.
The writers have to fix it.
Dont try and be funny.
Oh my God, what a lesson.
Its a hard one.
Its a very hard one to learn, because its a natural instinct to want to amuse people.
You want everybody to start smiling and laughing.
He said, Thats not it, and he was right.
You just have to do it, and if its written funny, itll be funny.
So anyway, Im going on a little, but that was such a gift that Jim gave me.
KANE:Oh, you asked Judd.
Id be curious to know what he said.
DEADLINE: He only had good memories, but he was very diplomatic.
He said he could be difficult.
We hadhugedifferences in our techniques, and that was a very interesting thing for the process of working together.
So, we rehearsed all day Friday and shot Friday night, I would be mad at Andy.
We had this talk, and we had it every single time we worked together.
And by the end of the talk, we were together.
But we had to have that talk.
Steve Buscemi, Alexandre Rockwell, Gus Van Sant, all those kinds of people.
KANE:Well, I was aware that these were artists that I wanted tolike they sayplay with.
I love Steve Buscemi.
I mean, he is just so brilliant.
And so, I was beyond thrilled to get offered the part inTrees Lounge[1996].
I wish it wouldve gotten more attention.
And then I did a movie calledIn the Soupthat Alex Rockwell directed.
Actually, that came first [in 1991].
My name was Bubbles and Jim was called Monty.
We still call each other that.
Poor Steve had to sit on a stool with a cone over his privates for the interview.
It was a great movie.
And it also starred Seymour Cassel.
Steve and Seymour were this incredible duo.
Yeah, it was great.
DEADLINE: And you still find time for the stage.
It seems to be very important to you.
KANE:Its very important to me.
I must be honest and say I havent been on stage in several years now.
But I was inWickedon and off for four years.
EverywhereBroadway, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago.
That was a very demanding but fantastic experience.
I loved the theater.
Eight shows a week.
And I had a beautiful little doggie named Johnny who was sick and passed away.
My life has taken a little bit of a different turn.
But thats the truth of a certain point in life.
DEADLINE: Whereabouts do you live in New York?
KANE:We live on the Upper West side of Manhattan.
Are you familiar with New York?
DEADLINE: I go there very, very rarely.
I know Lower East Side, and thats about it.
KANE:Oh, so were on the Upper West Side.
So, in a certain sense were way, way across town and uptown, yeah.
The Lower East Side is where we shotHester Street.
We shot in a little studio on East Fifth Street.
DEADLINE: Do you feel that that films due a revival?
Because the directors being rediscovered a bit lately, isnt she?
KANE:Thank goodness.
Joan Micklin Silver is who youre talking about, isnt it?
I didnt know who it was.
And then Nathan told me it was for Joan Micklin Silver and that she was one of his heroes.
Im glad to hear you say you feel people are rediscovering her work.
And that film in particular, which is obviously a big deal for you.
KANE:She was such a gifted writer.
It was so beautifully written that I thought I saw the movie.
Thats an experience you have very rarely.
But thats how good the writing was.
I think that she executed it beautifully with four cents in the budget.
I mean, literally, I think the budget at the very most was $375,000.
Isnt that the greatest thing?
A huge example of necessity being the mother of invention, right?
DEADLINE: Is there anyone youd like to work with that you havent worked with?
Am I right to think that youre working with Darren Aronofsky at the moment?
Or are you done with that?
KANE:Oh gosh.
Yes, Im so lucky.
And also in the scene was, oh gosh, that genius young actor that didElvis.Austin Butler.
I learned to do my lines in Yiddish forHester Street, and it was a breeze.
It was hard to learn those lines.
I think he was OK with it.
But the other question?
Ive all my life hoped to work with Marty Scorsese one day.
And Robert De Niro.
DEADLINE: Is there anything that youd like to do in your career that you still havent done?
DEADLINE: You might jinx it?
When I read, I mostly read biographies and autobiographies.
Im very drawn to the notion of trying to bring to life someone who has lived already.
I havent really gotten much of an opportunity to do that yet, but I hope to do that.
It was written by a man who I think is a genius.
His name is David Weil.
It was withAl Pacino, who was so great in it.
When I was young, I did a lot of theater with Al.
And then there was this huge gap of years, and then we got to doHunterstogether.
I personally think that that series is brilliant and should have gone on.
And then it was so fun to work onUnbreakable Kimmy SchmidtwithTina Fey.
I mean, Im a lucky girl, dont you think?
