411: Ebersole qua Edie

One of The Operator's favorite Broadway divas dishes with Playbill about our favorite movie-turned-musical: Grey Gardens.

Q: What were your thoughts when you first saw the film?

Ebersole: I was completely obsessed with it. I couldn't stop watching it. Morning, noon and night. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Q: Why do you think "Little Edie" wasn't able to escape Grey Gardens in the end?

Ebersole: There's a line that she says in the movie: "Aristocracy is the hallmark of responsibility." So, in other words, she understood her position in life, the station that she came from. She was very devoted to her mother — she was absolutely faithful and loyal. She stayed because of the mother — she had to help her mother preserve Grey Gardens, to fight for Grey Gardens.

Towards the end of the interview, Ebersole puts her finger on why so many people are drawn to the Beales and Grey Gardens:

Ebersole: When [Edie] says, "They can get you in East Hampton for wearing red shoes on a Thursday," and she says, "They can get you for almost anything. It's a mean, nasty Republican town." So, it's the idea, it's the metaphor of the red shoes that is almost like her strength in starting the revolution, of wearing red shoes on a Thursday, of standing up for what you believe in and finding a voice and being a nonconformist. I think she's been an inspiration for me that way.

DIVA TALK: Chatting with Grey Gardens' Christine Ebersole [Playbill]


Christine Ebersole ;Grey Gardens;Musicals