JESSICA LANGE ON SAM SHEPARD IN AARP MAGAZINE

Jessica Lange

After the sad news of Sam Shepard’s passing, Jessica Lange spoke with AARP The Magazine for the August/September issue and shared the following quote about Sam.

On Sam Shepard (her partner from 1982 to 2009):

“I wouldn’t call Sammy easygoing and funny, but everybody has their dark side, and he always does it with a sense of humor.”

On the joy of family:

“Having children gives you a perspective you didn’t have before. You are no longer the center of the universe. It opened my heart, made me a different person. Every move you make is with someone else in mind. I loved being a mother more than anything else in the world, and being a grandmother is even more fun. There’s the chance to do it again. It’s in the perfect order of nature: You raise your children, and then the next generation comes along. They are the redemptive force in nature. Plus, it’s easier!”

5 things you didn’t know about Jessica Lange:

· On Bob Dylan: “Lange says she can “sing every lyric Dylan ever wrote. He was a transformative artist in my life.”

· If she could change one thing: It would be her “absolute willfulness.”

· On her experiences with the paranormal: “I’ve seen a presence. Most ghosts are easy, benevolent.”

· On loneliness: “Where I grew up, it seeps into your bones. Seems I’ve spent my life trying to fill it up.”

· Her tattoos: Lange got her first tattoo in Paris at age 19 – a crescent moon on her hip, the smallest one offered. She also has a Celtic knot on her wrist; her older daughter is similarly inked.

On older women in Hollywood:

“Ageism is pervasive in this industry. It’s not a level playing field. You don’t often see women in their 60s playing romantic leads, yet you will see men in their 60s playing romantic leads with costars who are decades younger.”

On her staying power:

Lange announced in 2013 that she was thinking of retiring, yet has shown no sign of slowing down. Her staying power isn’t just about the boom in meaty roles for older actresses on television. “It’s the desire to do something brave,” she says, “to be challenged.”

On her ascent to happiness:

“In recent years, I’ve tried to come to grips with the idea that you can actually choose to be happy. You can choose not to let things affect you negatively. I’ve always had such a quick temper. I realize now, it’s such a waste of energy. You can actually choose to let things roll off you.”

On her first Academy Award:

“I knew when I did Frances that it was something extraordinary. I love those kinds of parts, with huge emotional swings. But Tootsie turned out to be the best film I ever made. And to win my first Oscar for it was thrilling, not terrifying, the way it might be today. The awards were more casual then. You did your own hair, you did your own makeup. It wasn’t the fashion event of the season”

On the meaning of home:

“My father was a traveling salesman and a teacher, and we moved around a lot. I went to eight different schools – I was always the new girl in town, the outsider looking in. I’ve felt that way my whole life, like I never belonged in one particular place. The imagination was my escape and my entertainment. That’s what acting still is for me.”

On the joy of family:

“Having children gives you a perspective you didn’t have before. You are no longer the center of the universe. It opened my heart, made me a different person. Every move you make is with someone else in mind. I loved being a mother more than anything else in the world, and being a grandmother is even more fun. There’s the chance to do it again. It’s in the perfect order of nature: You raise your children, and then the next generation comes along. They are the redemptive force in nature. Plus, it’s easier!”

On Mikhail Baryshnikov (Her partner from 1976 to 1982):

“When I first met Misha, there was something so familiar about him…physically, emotionally, everything.”

On Sam Shepard (her partner from 1982 to 2009):

“I wouldn’t call Sammy easygoing and funny, but everybody has their dark side, and he always does it with a sense of humor.”

On writing her first children’s book:

“It started as a little story I wrote for my granddaughters. I was very interested in turn-of-the-century photographs and the way they would be hand-tinted. So I collected a lot of photographs I had taken of the kids and started hand coloring them. Then the story came together after I had a dream, and I put it together as their Christmas present, as a book. And then a friend of mine saw it and said, “You should publish this.”