美国国家公共电台 NPR Renée Zellweger On Playing Judy Garland: 'A Different Kind Of Triumph'

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

There are at least two Judy Garlands. In the 1930s and '40s, she was the sweetheart movie star, the girl next door - think "The Wizard Of Oz" or "Meet Me In St. Louis."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE TROLLEY¹ SONG")

JUDY GARLAND: (Singing) Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell.

SHAPIRO: And then there's the older Judy - scrutinized² by the media, struggling with alcohol and pills, financially unstable³ - as in the later years of "The Judy Garland Show."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STORMY WEATHER")

GARLAND: (Singing) Stormy weather.

SHAPIRO: This is where we find her in the new movie "Judy" - a few years after the end of that show, not long before her death at age 47.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JUDY")

RENEE ZELLWEGER: (As Judy Garland) I don't have a home. I can't even get a manager.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) London would offer you a lot of money.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Talk of the town.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) ...Is desperate to do a deal with you.

ZELLWEGER: (As Judy Garland) You're saying I have to leave my children if I want to make enough money to be with my children?

SHAPIRO: That's Renee Zellweger playing Judy Garland. The movie centers on a run of shows she did in London - sometimes blowing audiences off their feet, sometimes falling far short. Zellweger sings all the songs. I asked her what she knew about Judy Garland before taking this role.

ZELLWEGER: Not so much - I sort of took her for granted. She was always there on the turntable, reel to reel. And she was Dorothy, of course, you know?

SHAPIRO: So you step into this role playing a woman who has been caricatured thousands of times, often by drag queens. How do you thread the needle between accuracy and parody⁴?

ZELLWEGER: Well, like you said, there are a lot of things that are recognizable as uniquely Judy, just characteristics which have been - I wouldn't - I don't know if they've been parodies⁵ as much as celebrated⁶ in our culture for decades. And so those things are pretty well-established and nonnegotiable, and that's just about coming to familiarize yourself with those things and watching videos and watching performances and interviews, etc. But...

SHAPIRO: So you, like, immersed yourself in all of that, like, took a Judy Garland master class.

ZELLWEGER: Oh, yeah. Oh, certainly. I mean, and - come on - what a job to have. You know what I mean?

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

ZELLWEGER: I was spoiled rotten. And you know, the treasure trove⁷ is vast because her legacy⁸ is extraordinary. And thank you Internet, you know?

SHAPIRO: I mean, can I just ask - since you have dug so deeply into that. I think anybody who has any familiarity with Judy Garland has kind of a hit list of the best moments, but you've watched moments that certainly I haven't and probably many listeners haven't. Is there one that you were like, oh, this is the gold nugget I've been looking for? Like, if somebody's going to go to YouTube right now, what should they pull up?

ZELLWEGER: Oh, goodness, Ari. There's a billion, zillion that seemed essential.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

ZELLWEGER: There's one interview that I would go back to quite a bit, and it was when a very, very young Barbara Walters sat down with her and her children, Lorna and Joey. And she seemed so vulnerable. And she was putting on a brave face, but you could tell that she felt there was a lot that was hanging in the balance in this televised appearance and feeling so exposed.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BARBARA WALTERS: If you hadn't been an actress, if you can imagine being anything else but an actress, what do you think you might want - to have wanted to be?

GARLAND: Happily married and just a nice lady.

ZELLWEGER: And that seemed key to me in sort of filling in the blanks between what's on public record and people's speculations⁹ about what her experiences might have been and then, you know, the ugly things that were written about her at that time. I felt like, now, wait a second. This isn't a woman who is past her prime, with respect to her performance ability. In fact, she's probably more powerful in her ability to emote and connect with people with empathy in singing these songs about love and loss and hoping for better things having lived those things herself, you know? There was a different way to look at her not as a victim but as heroic...

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

ZELLWEGER: ...In what she was able to navigate¹⁰.

SHAPIRO: There's a moment in the film when she talks about the tension of being a fully¹¹ realized human and being kind of a persona in front of a camera. And this is a moment when she's fighting for custody¹² of her children. I want to ask you about this. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JUDY")

ZELLWEGER: (As Judy Garland) What?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) The fights over custody, your children living away from you.

ZELLWEGER: (As Judy Garland) I mean, if I'm the terrible mother they like to write about, well, you tell me how I end up with such incredible kids.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) But I wasn't suggesting...

ZELLWEGER: (As Judy Garland) Well, no. Everybody suggests things, like I'm not a real person. But I am, you understand? I'm only Judy Garland for an hour a night. The rest of the time, I'm part of a family. I just want what everybody wants. I just seem to have a harder time getting it.

SHAPIRO: Did you identify with that part of the Judy Garland character? When you read that part of the script, did you think, oh, yeah, I know what she's talking about?

ZELLWEGER: Well, I understand it. Yeah, I do, I mean, in a way that I might not have maybe 15 years ago. But that's not unique to my experience. That's anybody who has a public job, whether it's sports or broadcasting or, you know - you should hear what they say about you.

SHAPIRO: Yeah, but nobody knows what I look like.

ZELLWEGER: You should hear what they say about you, Ari.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: I read Twitter. I know what's out there.

ZELLWEGER: You do? Really? No.

SHAPIRO: You don't? You don't read Twitter?

ZELLWEGER: Oh, gosh, no. No good could come of that.

SHAPIRO: Let's talk about the songs. Because the focus of the movie is the series of concerts she did late in life, you do a lot of singing as Judy Garland. So tell me about what it took to do some of the most well-known songs performed by one of the world's most famous singers?

ZELLWEGER: Well, the first step is to take that part out.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: Don't let yourself be aware of that.

ZELLWEGER: Compartmentalize that part...

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

ZELLWEGER: ...And cloak it in a very substantial layer of denial.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

ZELLWEGER: And then, you know, there's just a lot of learning to do and a lot of exercises.

SHAPIRO: You mean just, like, singing lessons, vocal¹³ exercises.

ZELLWEGER: Yeah, just to keep pushing until something that sounded like it belonged in the song was coming out of my mouth.

SHAPIRO: The last song we hear is her most famous - "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." And the context in which we hear it is not pretty. It might be beautiful, but it is also broken, which, at that point, the character is. Tell me about the choice not to give the audience the transcendence and, instead, to give them the kind of falling short of aspirations¹⁴.

ZELLWEGER: I guess I might have looked at it not as falling short but as a different kind of triumph - the triumph of refusing to quit, the triumph of tenacity¹⁵, her beauty as a performer despite her inability to fully access her instrument at that point in her life. I don't see that as sad. I see it as remarkable¹⁶. It's more beautiful that you refuse to let go of that belief that things will be good again.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JUDY")

ZELLWEGER: (As Judy Garland, singing) And the dreams that you dare to dream...

SHAPIRO: Renee Zellweger, it has been a pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much.

ZELLWEGER: For me, too, Ari - thanks for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF RENEE ZELLWEGER SONG, "SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW")

1 trolley   

n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车

参考例句：

• The waiter had brought the sweet trolley.侍者已经推来了甜食推车。
• In a library,books are moved on a trolley.在图书馆，书籍是放在台车上搬动的。

2 scrutinized   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The jeweler scrutinized the diamond for flaws. 宝石商人仔细察看钻石有无瑕庇 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop. 我们一起把甜食店里买来的十二块柠檬蛋糕细细打量了一番。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比

3 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

4 parody   

n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文

参考例句：

• The parody was just a form of teasing.那个拙劣的模仿只是一种揶揄。
• North Korea looks like a grotesque parody of Mao's centrally controlled China,precisely the sort of system that Beijing has left behind.朝鲜看上去像是毛时代中央集权的中国的怪诞模仿，其体制恰恰是北京方面已经抛弃的。

5 parodies   

n.拙劣的模仿( parody的名词复数 )；恶搞；滑稽的模仿诗文；表面上模仿得笨拙但充满了机智用来嘲弄别人作品的作品v.滑稽地模仿，拙劣地模仿( parody的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Later, however, they delight in parodies of nursery rhymes. 可要不了多久，他们便乐于对它进行窜改。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
• Most parodies are little more than literary teases. 大多数讽刺的模仿诗文只能算上是文学上的揶揄。 来自辞典例句

6 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

7 trove   

n.被发现的东西，收藏的东西

参考例句：

• He assembled a rich trove of Chinese porcelain.他收集了一批中国瓷器。
• The gallery is a treasure trove of medieval art.这个画廊是中世纪艺术的宝库。

8 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

9 speculations   

n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断

参考例句：

• Your speculations were all quite close to the truth. 你的揣测都很接近于事实。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• This possibility gives rise to interesting speculations. 这种可能性引起了有趣的推测。 来自《用法词典》

10 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

13 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

14 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

15 tenacity   

n.坚韧

参考例句：

• Tenacity is the bridge to success.坚韧是通向成功的桥。
• The athletes displayed great tenacity throughout the contest.运动员在比赛中表现出坚韧的斗志。

16 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。