Interesting new interview with Lili Taylor

I love that she was furious with Julia for playing a happy hooker.

I've worked with her and adore her. She's a cool lady.

R2 Please tell us more!

I thought she was good in "American Crime" with DL fave Connor Jessup (even if the idea that Connor Jessup came out of Lili Taylor is laughable). I stopped watching "Six Feet Under" not long after she joined, though. Her character was supposed to be a pill, of course.

Her best film is "Dogfight" (1991).

She's starting to look like Thelma Ritter.

I still remember her from "Mystic Pizza." IMO, she was the best part of that movie. Her character & the way she acted as that character were totally believable.

Sounds like she is older now and not afraid to say things. She was comfortable saying that River Phoenix was an alcoholic and that she wasn't surprised that he died young. Because she admits she is/was an alcoholic as well, plus has mental health issues.

Thanks, OP, for posting the article.

R5, Dogfight made me so uncomfortable. I was a huge River Phoenix fan but I don’t think I’d want to see that again.

I've never seen him look so plain. And they didn't even try to hide his crossed eyes.

Thanks, OP. Great article. Very smart lady. Tells it like it is but it is not rude or demeaning.

I think Dogfight is a great film though. She and River were terrific in it.

[quote]Like so many of the best female actors – such as Glenn Close and Jessica Lange –

Oh - is that a subtle slap at you-know-who?

One of our best actresses. She was so good she almost managed to salvage that godawful Haunting remake. I felt so bad for her ending up in that turkey, but I guess it helped pay the bills or maybe the script she signed on for was more like the original.

R4 Ewww, does Connor rip out of her like the creature in Aliens?

God, I love her. I'll never forget her character in "Say Anything" and her awful music. Joe lies... Joe lies... when he cries...

I hated Lisa in Six FeetUnder, which is a tribute to Taylor’s great work. She’s cool.

Taylor joined "Six Feet Under" much later than the second season, surely?

R16, don’t call me Shirley.

Love Say Anything!

Thanks OP for posting this. I love her and don’t see her in enough things these days. They always reuse the same stars and it gets boring. Very talented woman and class act.

I thought Lisa on Six Feet Under was one of the best characters ever. Completely unlikable but so dead on for a certain type of woman.

Rewatching it, I didn't hate her as much. Nate I hated more. Claire was pretty terrible too. Hell, they all were.

R21 It seems many women took Lisa as a model for their behaviour.

Love her. She’s been in so many great roles - or roles she made great - and is someone I would watch in anything. Also love the way she said Amy Irving saved her onstage.

She's terrific, and one of the actresses I will see in nearly anything (The Haunting). She was great in Say Anything, I Shot Andy Warhol, Short Cuts (as Lily Tomlin's kid), Pecker, Dogfight, and Edna Ferber in Mrs. Parker. On and on.

I think Dogfight is tremendously moving. They are both great in it.

I also love Lili Taylor. If you liked this interview, you need to track down the interview she did with Marc Maron a year or so ago. Boy, those two have lived interesting lives, and they connect deeply as slightly damaged, compassionate fellow travelers who have seen a lot and are trading notes. She's just so compelling to listen to.

I mentioned her in the great performances that were never nominated for an Oscar thread. She's one of those actors who always elevates the material. And Dogfight is one of my favorites.

I saw I Shot Andy Warhol when it came out. As I exited the cinema I passed a group of radical lesbians who were shaking their heads in agreement as one of them stated "I just don't think they captured the real Valerie".

I wished they would have talked about her birding more?

She’s in “Perry Mason”. In case people who like her aren’t aware. Like everyone in the cast, she’s very good.

for you, r29 (see link)

She deserves an Academy Award. So much more talented than Liv Tyler who so many people tend to get her mixed up with.

R31 Thanks! R29

[Quote] So much more talented than Liv Tyler who so many people tend to get her mixed up with

In the same way that people mix up Andie MacDowell and Roddy McDowall?

Dogfight is a beautiful film. Fuck the author of this article for being too woke to appreciate it. Lili's best film for sure. She's adorable and heartbreaking in it.

Add me to the LOVE her list ! Id love to sit with her and smoke a few bowls and chat for hours .

The scenes she had with Connor Jessup on American Crime were fantastic, she's a great actress.

Oh I forgot to mention her fabulous turn as a villain in Abduction. She can really do the evil thing too

I hated her on SFU. Which means she did a terrific job.

I loved her in I Shot Andy Warhol, particularly how she said “SCUM, the society for cuttin’ up men” in Valerie’s New York accent.

American Crime was such a dark show for network TV like ABC, the second season in particular since it dealt with male on male rape accusations which raised troubling questions.

R42, poor Connor, having to have his hole examined.

I hated her character on Six Feet Under!

American Crime was so good.

It's a shame Taylor didn't win the Emmy that year. They put her in lead instead of supporting (which was won by Regina King, ALSO on AC, which shows you how great the cast was). I wonder if she had been in supporting she would have won over King (who also won for the first season).

There is no way people hated Lisa more than Nate on "Six Feet Under". I was so glad when he died.

I love that she played an unlikable character on Six Feet Under without sugarcoating it. So many actors have a disease to please and want people to like them and always know that they're good people. Lili just played the role as written and didn't try to soften her up at all. That's truly brave acting.

The other thing is that Lili is just likable by nature so it's a testament to her acting that she can remove that quality.

"Oh I forgot to mention her fabulous turn as a villain in Abduction. She can really do the evil thing too"

I meant "Ransom" with Mel Gibson. Ha

I watch I Shot Andy Warhol every couple of years. It's still so good. Love the soundtrack. Lili is also good in High Fidelity and Born on the Fourth of July. And, bonus, she graduated from my high school (four years before I did).

I hated her role on Hemlock Grove too!

She's so appealing looking when she's dressed as herself, but she's always so plain in movies. But in many ways that's why she's always so busy--there are not enough first-rate actors in Hollywood who can look plain.

Are you suggesting most first rate actors can only look glamorous?

She's a multi-genre actress and does very well in horror, cult and indie films. Her performance was the only good thing about the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill. She excelled in The Conjuring and was pretty decent in Eli.

She should star in something alongside Toni Collette

Side Show?

I kept waiting for Dogfight to morph into a better film. It didn't.

This is why I love DL. For years I have always thought that "Dogfight" was a great movie in so many ways that nobody really appreciated. Now I know I haven't been alone. So what the hell is the article saying? The movie is sexist? Lilly is ashamed of it? It should be cancelled? I want Lilly reinterviewed about the movie.

^ Maybe, just, read the article, for, yourself.

This is who Elisabeth Moss wishes she was. I've always liked her. Didn't her ex-boyfriend actor Michael Radaport stalk her for awhile?

^ Yes. It is mentioned, in the article.

Lisa on Six Feet Under was manipulative. She manipulated Nate into marrying him. It’s never stated, but it is likely that Hoyt is Maya’s father. Lili played her really well.

Would have liked more dirt on Julia.

R16

She was on a very early season, the first IIRC, since she was Nate's roommate, and he was moving out since he needed to move back home.

I guess I'm in the minority since I didn't hate Lisa. She was obviously a terrible match for Nate, but his choice to marry her was all on him.

R63 She was a passive, aggressive, manipulating, lying cunt.

We meet Lisa early in season 2. Nate and Claire go out to Seattle to pick up a body & they stay at Lisa’s. Nate and Lisa hash been occasional fuck buddies, While ordering a meal at a fast food place, Nate has a seizure. He’s scared & seeks out Lisa.

A few epiosides later, Lisa comes to LA pregnant.

R64

Weren't they all?

Nate marrying her just confirmed to me what a terrible person he was. She let him terminate his parental rights and responsibilities. Marrying her was his dumbshit post-Brenda rebound.

- hash, + had.

R62 I think she will always be careful to not trash Julia outright but some morning show in recent years had a Mystic Pizza reunion and Lili's face and body language spoke everything she thinks of Roberts now. She was physically have to stop her eyes from rolling over in her head with her bare hands as Julia gushed. Meanwhile everyone else was treating her like the belle of the ball.

Fuck, Billy Moses has aged.

I guess we can assume that the writer thought Dogfight was "uncomfortable" because Lili was supposed to be or treated as "ugly" in the film,. But, really, it means the whole film went over the writer's head. Also, the film was directed by a woman, Nancy Savoca.

And, just an aside, I really wish Dogfight would get released on Blu-ray. It can get a musical adaptation but not a transfer to HD physical media.

Fugly, hammy, annoying.

Congratulations to her for playing the most irritating character in Six Feet Under, a show that was littered with white assholes.

When the group was asked who had the most fun on the set of Mystic Pizza, they said Julia. When Julia was asked why, she said, “Because I’m the most innately happy.”

And Lily’s jaw dropped.

R70 i don't get it either. The movie is well done and he obviously wasnt understanding the subject matter or loves to be perpetually offended to the point that he can't accept a good story because it portrays someone doing something currently socially acceptable and dares "mock" a homely girl. News flash. You can tell fine stories about people doing unkind things.

R70 i don't get it either. The movie is well done and he obviously wasnt understanding the subject matter or loves to be perpetually offended to the point that he can't accept a good story because it portrays someone doing something currently socially acceptable and dares "mock" a homely girl. News flash. You can tell fine stories about people doing unkind things.

R73/R74: the writer, Hadley Freeman, is a woman.

I read her husband Nick Flynn's memoir, "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City", which had some good bits and a lot of rambling. It was made into the Paul Dano movie "Being Flynn" and Taylor has a small role. He wrote another memoir about the making of the movie, which I didn't read.

I didn't know this:

[italic]It was shortly after the release of I Shot Andy Warhol that it was reported that Taylor had been harassed by her ex-boyfriend, the actor Michael Rapaport. He was charged with two counts of harassment, to which he pleaded guilty. I ask her if this was all going on during the shooting of the film, but I feel trepidatious approaching the subject, certain she will shut it down. Instead, she seizes on it with appetite.

“It was after. But it would have been handy [if it had been during] because I could have used the Society for Cutting Up Men … Boy, if I’d had [Solanas] on my side then, think about that!” she laughs.

I ask if the experience affected her later relationships with men.

“That was hard. I’m not blaming myself, because it’s not my fault that I chose this person. But it made sense to me on a psychological level: I thought about myself in such an undervalued way that I didn’t know I had the right to privacy. That’s some low self-esteem. So since then has been about getting some self-esteem, which has been harder,” she says.[/italic]

He's been at the center of a few sordid stories.

Rappaport is absolute trash.

R78 But I think he falls on the sympathetic side of the Natasha Lyonne story right?

Unfortunately Lili’s topless scene in Household Saints made me glad I am gay.

I’ve NEVER understood how she could have been involved with Michael Rapaport!

She elevates. She was great in the conjuring

In a podcast she wrote that she did a 'little bit of cocaine'!

One doesn't write in a podcast.

She played a lot of parts in small films where she seemed one anxiety attack short of a straight jacket. I always figured she was like that in real life. It's nice to see her playing something other than waifs in need of a commitment hearing.

What a lovely pic of her OP - she looks so serene

Great interview. Thanks for posting OP.

I liked her in [italic]Pecker.[/italic]

She was so butch in ‘Mystic Pizza 🍕’ , I really thought she might have turned Vincent D’Onofrio gay!

It's "strait" jacket, R86.

I thought she was going to reach out of the screen and pull my dick right off!

American Crime

I really like her in movies and tv, but I saw that production of THREE SISTERS she talks about where Amy Irving rescued her and called for the understudy. Lily was horrible, but to be fair, the entire production was terrible. The only person who was enjoyable was Jeanne Tripplehorn, of all people. Calista Flockhart was allegedly good, but she was off the night I saw it. Truly the worst thing I've ever seen on Broadway.

Once the writer started on "Dogfight" I was going to have to stop. Just no. I continued on because I love Lili but these people, god help us.

R70 I'm sure Warner Archives will put it out on Bluray eventually

Lili Munster!

People who loved Dogfight....Why?

Currently watching the movies Bright Angel from 1990 with Lili Taylor. It's very obscure.

R97 I think the real question is why didn't you love it? I think you need to reach deep in your soul and ask yourself when you died inside.

I've seen much of Lili's work and always enjoy her. So intense in Andy Warhol.

Glad to see the love for Dogfight. That is always my first association when I hear her name. Not sure why people have a problem with it as a film...it was a fairly simple story, simply told, with great characters.

On co star Julia Roberts and knowing she would be famous - "She had that thing that famous people have, this capacity to carry other people's projection. For some people it gets too much and they die, but some people can just carry it."

I can't tell whether that's deliciously bitchy or a very astute observation about fame.

Arizona Dream

She plays crazy really well. I don’t actually think that’s easy; playing the role of someone in the throes of mental illness could easily veer into camp or scenery chewing, like Dunaway in MD. She inhabits those roles with a real sense of nuance for how real people act when they aren’t emotionally well or mentally sound.

She plays crazy well because she was a mess when she did those roles. She didn't have to "act". Be glad for her that she's grown out of all that.

R102 Isn't that the mythical Kusturica film that was the hit of all the Europe AND Cannes?

R105 Yes, I haven't seen it in ages but remember it being very good. Kusturica is one of few two-time Palme d'Or winners, he received them for When Father Was Away on Business and Underground.

R104 How do you know?

R106 That's true but Faye Dunaway made a little mistake in that iconic angry voicemail, because Arizona Dream was the belle of the Berlin film festival, not Cannes.

Lili has the same birthdate (day and year) as Kurt Cobain.

[quote]I thought Lisa on Six Feet Under was one of the best characters ever. Completely unlikable but so dead on for a certain type of woman.

I love Lily Taylor, but Lisa was so insufferable. I've known a number of real-life Lisas and she definitely nailed that particular type.

R107: Read the thread and the links.

I'm so happy to see how many of you loved Dogfight too. I have the DVD and saw it recently and was surprised by how well it held up. So many movies from the 90s don't. Another movie I really liked her in was Arizona Dream (the quirky indie film she did with Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Vincent Gallo, and Jerry Lewis).

Loved her as Miep Gies in the Anne Frank miniseries in 2001.

I really enjoy her style of acting, she has a good voice for it