Tracy Letts adapted his Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play, August: Osage County, into the movie starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts (which is sure to take home a bevy of further awards). VF Daily spoke with the playwright and actor about breaking his cast-no-Brits rule for Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch, playing Senator Andrew Lockhart on Homeland, and his generally stellar 2013, which also included his marriage to actress Carrie Coon, his co-star in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
VF Daily: You’ve had quite a year. This movie is coming out, you won a Tony Award in June for acting in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and you got married to Carrie Coon, who was also Tony-nominated. What’s all that been like for you? What was your wedding like?
Tracy Letts: My wedding was in a hospital after my emergency gallbladder surgery. We were going to go to the courthouse to get married, and the night before, I suddenly came down with pains. We went to the emergency room, and I had my gallbladder removed the next day. So she went and she found the Lutheran chaplain there in the hospital, who had never performed a wedding before, who came to our hospital room and performed the ceremony there. So it was a lovely, intimate, personal ceremony. We had a great time.
And yeah, it’s been a great year. Not only because of the marriage, which is the biggest thing, but being on Homeland, and August: Osage County, and winning the Tony Award, which was completely unexpected.
This amazing cast: you not only got Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, but Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Were you surprised? Thrilled?
I was really delighted by the way it came together. Meryl and Julia were the first two to sign on, and once they signed on, we were off and running, in a sense. And John [director John Wells] and I talked a lot about the casting requirements for the movie. It’s difficult to put together any large ensemble cast; it’s sort of like assembling a puzzle, but especially when it’s a family. So we just very carefully, very slowly, went about assembling them piece by piece.
Do you feel like Meryl Streep was born to play Violet? Or that Violet was born to be played by Meryl Streep?
Meryl’s born to do a lot of things. That’s one of the incredible things about her, is her ability to play a wide variety of roles. She’s a character actor who became a movie star. We all know how talented she is, and how talented she’s been for a long time, but she’s also a consummate professional. She shows up really prepared; she’s done her work. She’s not just some savant who walks in off the street and can throw this off; she’s working hard to be the good actress that she is, and raising the bar for everybody else.
What about Benedict Cumberbatch? Did you go after him?
Well, I’ll tell you the truth: In one of my first conversations about casting with Harvey Weinstein—this was before John Wells was even a part of it—I begged Harvey not to cast any Brits or Irishmen or Australians. I said, “This is a quintessentially American piece, and it was performed originally by an American theater company on a Broadway stage, and I think to then turn around and make an American film of this, and then fill it with Dame Judi Dench as Violet and Nicole Kidman as Barbara, I not only think it’s wrong for the piece, but I don’t like the message that it sends to American actors. I mean, I think American actors should have the crack at this.” Well, I lost that fight in the case of Benedict, and in the case of Ewan [McGregor]. But I happily lost the fight; they’re great in the movie. So I’m glad that the cast is primarily American. I hope that doesn’t sound too provincial. I’m glad the cast is primarily American, but I’m also glad that Benedict and Ewan are in it.
Is there any significance to the fact that the housekeeper is Native American, and she’s kind of witness to the madness of this Caucasian family?
Yes. Well, I will say that with the play—we lost some of Johnna’s material in the transition to film—but, you know, the fact that “Osage” is part of the title, the fact that there’s a Cheyenne housekeeper, who is keeping watch over this family, as you say. I will tell you that the Native American actress who originally played the role onstage, a woman named Kim Guerrero, told me when we were working on the play, she said that the idea that she was brought up with was: This is our land; the white people are here using it for a while. We’re going to be good hosts to them while they’re here, and then when they’re gone, the land will return to us. That was very much a governing idea behind the Native American character in August: Osage County.
Has Claire Danes ever cooked for you while you’ve been on the set of Homeland? Other cast members have told me she loves to cook, and sometimes makes dinner.
She didn’t. That was the way it was in the first season, but Claire’s had a baby since then, and so I think the cooking and the cookouts and all that kind of stuff kind of came to a halt when the baby came along. Now, her baby is enormous. She has a giant baby. So maybe she’s a very good cook for her baby.
Is it a little ironic that you are working on this hit TV series, even though your career has been mostly on the stage, and you’re working opposite Mandy Patinkin, who has also been a major stage actor.
Not only that, but we both have girl’s names. So we’ve got that working for us, too.
It is funny the way that’s come about. But what I have done for most my career is act onstage in Chicago. We don’t make a lot of films and TV shows in Chicago—that’s never been part of our culture there—and it’s one of the reasons our theater is so good, and people aren’t using it as a stepping-stone to the next thing. They love theater for theater’s sake. That’s always been one of the great things about Chicago, and one of the reasons I’ve lived there for 25 years.
The New York Times had an article about how the Weinstein Company is moving into scripted television, and your name was mentioned, that you may be writing something for them. Are you in talks with them about this?
Yeah, Harvey’s asked me about that Ten Commandments thing that he’s working on, that I think is mentioned in that article. We haven’t struck a deal or anything. We’ve just been talking about it so far. Hopefully we’ll work something out.
Have you written for television?
No. Nor do I have any...Look, I can’t do what they do on Homeland. There’s no way I could do that. There’s no way I could work in that writer’s collective. Harvey talked to me about simply participating in one of the episodes of the Ten Commandments. So if that comes to pass, that would be great.
