Pirate Jenny

I know the film is full of so much magic as well and thinking back over your careers, can you remember the first time you felt real magic when you were on set either with this film or the first or a different project?

I remember when I was about in my early, early 20s, and I was in a play called Musical 3 to the Opera, and I was cast as Jenny Driver, and I had to sing the Pirate Jenny song, which I'm not familiar with, but when the production came in, I remember the first time we were in a tech, and the lights came on, and I sang the song, and I knew that something had happened to me that I had never experienced in my life.

And it was as if my emotional life, my intellectual life had all come together.

And I knew exactly what I was doing.

[laughs]

... and she played, she played Pirate Jenny, the elderly prostitute-

I know.

My, yes.

I started singing quietly online, and tears started rolling down my cheeks, and I knew Audrey was waiting to be born.

And I've done this with other parts, like in Threepenny Opera when I did my Pirate Jenny or in, in The Boom Boom Room with Chrissy at the Public Theater.

There were certain characters that I create over there, but they're over there, but they start inside.

I do instinct, and then I add technique.