A Conversation with (the Very Busy) Olympia Dukakis

At age 87, Academy-Award-winner Olympia Dukakis is showing no signs of slowing down. On May 5th a frank, no-nonsense documentary bearing her name will be featured at the Montclair Film Festival (appropriate since Dukakis's Whole Theater Company resided in Montclair) with Dukakis taking part in a Q&A after the showing.

In June, Netflix will premiere "Tales of the City" a follow up/sequel/reboot of Armistead Maupin's seminal 1993 television event (based on his writings) that saw two further installments in 1998 and 2001. All these years later, the marijuana smoking trans heroine, Anna Madrigal, is back and played with true poignancy and expected resilience by the indomitable Dukakis.

In a career spanning over 60 years, she has weaved her way from theater to film to television with ease and grace, picking up several major awards, breaking ground by portraying characters traditionally played by men and always taking risks.

Dukakis has been a great champion for the LGBTQ community, taking on gay-friendly characters such as the iconic Clairee in "Steel Magnolias" as well as queer roles like Stella in Thom Fitzgerald's "Cloudburst," where she played fellow Oscar winner Brenda Fricker's significant other.

Not surprising, Dukakis's latest project has her embodying a former dominatrix, now boss, in the award-winning web series, "Switch," created by Stavroula Toska, based on Toska's real story.

The aforementioned doc, "Olympia," directed by Harry Mavromichalis over a three-year period, is an empowering, entertaining and honest portrait of Dukakis showing her fierce strength and conviction in her life and work.

EDGE had the great pleasure of speaking with Dukakis the week before the "Olympia" bow at the Montclair Film Festival and she was her blunt, effusive and fabulous self!

Gives a damn

EDGE: Back in 1988, when I was in high school, I saw you in "The Rose Tattoo" at the Whole Theater in Montclair...

Olympia Dukakis: You did? Can you believe I did that show five times!

EDGE: I can believe it! Did you always know you wanted to be an actor?

Olympia Dukakis: No. I actually wanted to be an athlete. Then I went to school to become a gym teacher. Then I transferred to physical therapy. There, they asked me to direct a show. It was a total accident. And I realized that's what I loved. I thought I wanted to be a director. I have directed but mostly I've acted and produced... and I've taught a lot. Fifteen years at NYU.

EDGE: You certainly forged your own path. You were one of the first actors to move from stage to screen to TV and back before it was common as if you didn't give a damn. Is that true or did it concern you at the time?

Olympia Dukakis: I think that "I don't give a damn" is one of the things I learned early in life, fighting the Irish. (Laughs) Oh, my life! But I do give a damn. I give a great damn. About a lot of things.

A gay icon

EDGE: One of those things is the LGBTQ community. You're very much a gay icon.

Olympia Dukakis: I know! It pleases me!

EDGE: In the doc, you mention how you felt as an immigrant, you "didn't belong." And many of us in the queer community feel the same. Do you think that might be part of the kinship we feel with you?

Olympia Dukakis: Oh, interesting, I never thought of it that way. Yeah, being an outsider, so to speak. Yes. Absolutely. And being considered "less than."

EDGE: I binged the "Tales of the City" reboot yesterday! Great stuff. Let's speak a bit about Anna Madrigal and how groundbreaking that character was. Armistead Maupin said you knew you were part of something historic...

Olympia Dukakis: Yes, I did. I had help from a lovely gay man in California... I asked them to find me someone because I knew nothing about transgender [people]. He was wonderful, sweet. He had a heart. He was smart. And I knew nothing about gay life or gay men at that time and he really opened my eyes. I came to it from a point of humanity as opposed to from a point of sexuality.

Connecting with her characters

EDGE: How did this iteration feel?

Olympia Dukakis: It was terrific... I really enjoyed the experience. I was very fortunate.

EDGE: How much do you bring of yourself to each role you play and, in particular, Anna Madrigal?

Olympia Dukakis: I bring an aspect of myself that connects to the character. And with Anna, I would say in the way in which she has figured out how to survive being who she is, I figured out how to survive and actually prevail being who I am. I totally understood that. I understood her need for friendship. I understood her need not to abandon who she was, because in our business it's very easy to do that and try to adapt and win over people. I actually understood her clothing! (Laughs)

Playing Lear

EDGE: You've done so much eclectic stage work. There's all this fuss being made about a woman playing King Lear on Broadway (Glenda Jackson). You did it way back.

Olympia Dukakis: I played Lear a couple of times!

EDGE: And Prospero. What made you want to take on those characters?

Olympia Dukakis: Oh, the command, the expanse. Lear especially, for me, was the evolution of what happens. He starts off in a very dark place and as the play progresses he evolves and changes. And we see the spirit and heart of the man. It's a wonderful part.

EDGE: You've done many comedies. Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo." What a wacky role...

Olympia Dukakis: What a great part! I loved doing it. I've got to look him up. Durang is wonderful.

EDGE: Do you have a favorite playwright?

Olympia Dukakis: I've done "Rose Tattoo" five times so it's hard not to say that Tennessee Williams isn't one of my favorite playwrights.

And playing Italian

EDGE: Speaking to "Rose Tattoo" and making a bit of a link with "Moonstruck," you play Italian so well...

Olympia Dukakis: Well, I knew a lot of Italians. (Laughs) My first love was an Italian.

EDGE: Did you have any idea "Moonstruck" would be as successful as it was?

Olympia Dukakis: I did it for the job and because the part was so great. I never thought that way – maybe because I'm not very good at predicting things. I always think of the part.

EDGE: In the doc, you said that winning the Oscar meant something because it was for a specific piece of work...

Olympia Dukakis: That was very special – a wonderful experience. That was (director) Norman Jewison. Actually, I'm going to see him. He's coming to New York. I'm going to have lunch with him next week if we're both still alive and kicking. (Laughs)

EDGE: On "Steel Magnolias," was (director) Herbert Ross difficult to work with?

Olympia Dukakis: I didn't have a problem with him but he gave Julia Roberts a hard time. And as a matter of fact I remember going to him and saying, "I cannot work when you're doing that." I made it about myself. She was, of course, very young. And I think he thought it was a way to deal with young actors. But it was wrong to deal with her that way.

Her favorite actresses

EDGE: And you stepped up.

Olympia Dukakis: I did. I did it very privately and I made it about myself. Because I knew I couldn't tell him, "you can't treat her that way." So I said I cannot work when this is happening. So when I expressed my feelings, he wanted to protect my work so he let up on her.

EDGE: Was there a particular actress you enjoyed working with?

Olympia Dukakis: Name them and I'll tell you!

EDGE: Shirley MacLaine.

Olympia Dukakis: (Gasps) Fabulous! Are you kidding?

EDGE: Dolly Parton.

Olympia Dukakis: Wonderful!

EDGE: Sally Field.

Olympia Dukakis: Terrific. Everybody was. Sally Field did an amazing job. She was really something.

Favorite medium

EDGE: Do you prefer one medium to the others?

Olympia Dukakis: I like them all. I don't know that I'm that fond of television. But I haven't done that much, so...

EDGE: At the end of the doc, you speak of Perseus destroying evidence of the great mother because there was no way for men to compete with women – dethroning the matriarchy from power. Have you explored that further?

Olympia Dukakis: Oh, yes. There was a period of my life where I was very much involved with the history of it. It really awakened me to how we evolved and got to this place. Women are treated like second hand human beings. That history was very much important for me to understand.

Playing a dominatrix

EDGE: Is there a role you still want to play?

Olympia Dukakis: Interesting question. Nobody's asked me that. On the stage, no, I can't handle it... you know what I'm really enjoying? Teaching. I taught for 15 years at NYU and I stopped for a little while and now I'm back to it. I don't think I have the stamina for the acting. My assistant insisted I do one of her projects. It's called "Switch."

Stavroula Toska (Olympia's Assistant): It's a short form digital series I created. Olympia has been my mentor for many many years now... It's based on my life story and my research as an undercover dominatrix in New York City. And Olympia is playing the role of the boss, the former dominatrix who is running the whole city. So she knows everybody's dirty secrets.

Olympia Dukakis: (shouting) "Don't fuck with me!"

EDGE: That sounds like it's tailor made for you, Olympia!

Olympia Dukakis: It is!

EDGE: There are so many exciting things you're involved in. I hope you go on for another 50 years!

Olympia Dukakis: Oh my God, why would you wish that on me?

Olympia Dukakis appears in "Tales of the City," which drops on Netflix in June. .