I didn’t have an actual conversation with Lili Taylor. I don’t just bump into Indie film queens on the subway or in the office cafeteria. I paid $8 to attend “A Conversation with Lili Taylor,” a special event sponsored by the Independent Film Festival of Boston at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge. A rather paltry screening of Taylor’s extensive filmography was followed by a moderated discussion led by the owner of the Brattle, then a Q and A session.
Lili Taylor is one of the few actresses I’d ever want to have a conversation with. She’s had so many compelling roles, ranging from Corey in Say Anything (“Joe… likes gir-ls… with names… like Ashley”) to Valerie Solanas in I Shot Andy Warhol , and recently was in Six Feet Under. I loved her in Dogfight, in which she is courted by River Phoenix because him and his soldier friends placed bets on who can find the ugliest date for the evening. I wanted to ask her if she was insulted that she was considered ugly because she doesn’t look like a typical Hollywood actress, but I couldn’t think of how to phrase the question without sounding freaky (though mine would have been better than the one from the self-described aspiring actress: “When you act, do you see your body as a vessel for your emotions?”)
I took notes so I’d have something to write about today. It wasn’t the most insightful conversation, but I will say Lili Taylor is as cool as I imagined her to be.
- When asked if she could walk down the street without being recognized, Lili told us about the stewardess on the plane to Boston who recognized her as JoJo from Mystic Pizza: “What was Julia like? Do you still talk to her? Have you been in anything else since?”
- Lili doesn’t like doing television shows like Six Feet Under because the character is in the hands of writers. She had no idea what was going to happen to her character and couldn’t develop it the way she wanted. She didn’t continue to watch the show to find out what happened after her character’s disappearance.
- During the Q&A, a native of Mystic, Connecticut asked her to sign his copy of Mystic Pizza. “Ooo, VHS,” the moderator commented when he brought it up to the stage.
- When asked which actor she enjoyed working with, Lili named Johnny Depp and then couldn’t think of anyone else. “I hope Johnny doesn’t here about this,” Lili said. “He’ll think I’m weird.” During another question, she called her The Haunting co-star “Liam Neilson,” and then looked around in confusion. “Neilson? Neeson? Anyone know?”
- When asked about her interests besides acting, Lili ran her fingers through her bountiful mane of reddish-brown waves (she was very jittery) and said “Well, I hung out at Peet’s Coffee twice today.” Taylor also enjoys “spacing out” and bird-watching in Central Park.
