Kathleen Turner gets religion in Morristown

Kathleen Turner at Morristown screening of 'The Perfect Family.' Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Kathleen Turner at Morristown screening of 'The Perfect Family.' Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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Few actresses defy typecasting as strenuously as Kathleen Turner.

She zig-zagged out of the gate, from her sizzling screen debut in Body Heat (1981) to the goofy Man With Two Brains to the romantic comedy Romancing the Stone.  The pattern continues in The Perfect Family, an indie film screened at the New York Film Critics Series in Morristown on Wednesday.

The 57-year-old actress portrays a New Jersey housewife determined to win “Catholic Woman of the Year” honors at her church. She needs to present a perfect family to impress the clergy, but her rigid, dogmatic faith alienates her perfectly imperfect loved ones.

Kathleen Turner at Morristown screening of 'The Perfect Family.' Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Kathleen Turner told a Morristown screening of 'The Perfect Family' that advances in affordable movie-making gear have made such indie films possible in an industry 'that is not about risk-taking.' Photo by Kevin Coughlin

“Each time I take a job, I instantly look for an opposite, a real contrast. People have a hard time putting my work together,” Kathleen said during a Q & A session hosted by Peter Travers,  film critic for Rolling Stone magazine, at the Clearview Cinemas in Headquarters Plaza.

Although Kathleen’s great-grandfather was a Methodist missionary, she told the audience that she did not channel her personal history for this role–or for any other role.

“I don’t really think about what I have in my life that would apply. If a script is worth doing and it’s good,  all the information you need is in the script,” she said.

“What interests me is always exploring what I don’t know, what I haven’t done.”

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In one of the funniest moments of The Perfect Family, Kathleen’s character declares: “I don’t have to think. I’m Catholic!”

Yet the actress insists the movie, co-starring Richard Chamberlain of Thorn Birds fame as a parish priest, is not an exercise in Catholic-bashing.

“Any orthodox religion that says ‘this is the only way’ would fit,” she said.

Her character is comical at first, but dark secrets emerge from her closet. Kathleen’s versatility was one reason director Anne Renton wanted her for the lead.

“I needed someone who could do comedy and drama… What was thrilling to me was that she’s brilliant at both,” Anne said.

Opening Friday against big-budget superheroes in The Avengers, the independent production marks the feature debut for the Australian director. She shot The Perfect Family in just 19 days.

That schedule left “little room for ego or attitude,” Kathleen said. “I’m too old to work with —holes anymore!”

A strong cast includes Jason Ritter (Parenthood), Emily Deschanel (Bones), Sharon Lawrence (Grey’s Anatomy) and Michael McGrady (Southland), who plays a recovered alcoholic married to Kathleen.

One of the hottest stars of the 1980s, Kathleen Turner’s career declined in the ’90s as she battled rheumatoid arthritis and alcohol problems that she blamed on her painful condition.

She made a comeback in stage versions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Graduate; at age 45 she famously played a nude scene as Mrs. Robinson.  In 2009, she guest-starred as a sex-obsessed business owner on Showtime’s Californication.

Kathleen said she has enjoyed making most of her movies, including the twisted John Waters satire Serial Mom (1994). She dispatches anyone who annoys her with grisly gusto in that picture.

“When I stick the poker in his liver, it gives me a giggle,” she said, referring to a screen victim.

With similar bemusement, she recalled moviegoers departing The War of the Roses, a 1989 black comedy in which she played one half of a psychotic divorce.

“I would see couples holding each other close, or going their separate ways. Every man would say to me, ‘Why is she so awful?’ And women would say, ‘Thank you!'”

Pressed to name her favorite role, Kathleen settled on Martha, from the critically acclaimed 2005 Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

“That, to me, is the epitome of what I’ve accomplished so far,” she said.

If that one didn’t grab you, just wait five minutes. Like the weather, Kathleen Turner will change.

MORE ABOUT THE NEW YORK FILM CRITICS SERIES IN MORRISTOWN

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