Agnes of God (1985 movie)

Anne Bancroft was getting older, at that point. It may have been a “lifetime achievement” nomination.”

Youre right about Jane’s smoking not being natural. I’m a former smoker and was kind of self-conscious about smoking in public. But I do notice when actors can’t smoke convincingly.

Meg Tilly has that baby voice that worked for the role.

Not sure I would want to watch this movie again.

Worked much better on stage but it's a good screen adaptation. Meg Tilly is definitely the standout in the cast. Ironically, Geraldine Page who originated Mother Miriam Ruth on stage beat Annie for the Oscar that year.

Elizabeth Ashley trashed the movie on a podcast a few years back. She thought the movie diluted the mystery of the play. She also thought it was too "Fussy" because the Broadway play was basically two straight back chairs placed on a stage. The beauty of the play was how sparse and intimate the delivery was.

Nykvist shot it gorgeously and I enjoyed the specifically French Canadian milieu. I think it was a mistake to change the ending of the play, but I like the film and the commitment of the actors, even if Fonda’s role is quite thankless.

Tilly has a peculiarly beautiful face and a distinctive voice prone to fascinating, idiosyncratic cadences. This vehicle makes strong use of both, and I’m not surprised she was the one actress that year who managed a major Best Supporting Actress win (the Golden Globe) in the year of Anjelica Huston’s near-sweep for Prizzi’s Honor.

R4, can you tell me what the ending of the play was if you remember what Ashley said (or if you saw it)?

Thanks.

It was a good year for actresses: Coral Browne in "Dreamchild" and Mia Farrow in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" were also memorable in good roles.

Two other good choices, R6.

I remember Ashley's final monologue about Agnes being sent to a mental hospital where she died. This was after Agnes admitted she had sex with a field hand who impregnated her. At least that's how I remember it.

I loved the film; it was superb.

R5 I never saw the play. Ashley went on a long discussion about it on a podcast called "Let's sit crooked and talk straight" It's episode 41 on Itunes.

Sandy Dennis played the Fonda and Ashley role in summer stock. THAT I would have loved to see.

R10. Sandy played opposite Geraldine Page in that summer tour.

[quote] I remember Ashley's final monologue about Agnes being sent to a mental hospital where she died. This was after Agnes admitted she had sex with a field hand who impregnated her. At least that's how I remember it.

Oh, interesting. Funny, I thought I had remembered that they specified who the father was in the film (like a delivery person who had snuck back to see Agnes) but I guess they really didn't. they just inferred from the secret passage that a man had come into the convent that way and met her.

I was reading that Jodie Foster very much wanted to play Agnes in the film version but they felt she was on the skids, career wise at that point. I think she would have been miscast. She's much too cerebral an actress.

Jodie Foster was considered as a replacement for Amanda Plummer on Broadway as well, but security would have been a nightmare, because the Hinckley situation was still very fresh in the media.

Debbie Reynolds got wind of Plummer leaving and asked Ashley if she could help Carrie Fisher audition for it. Carrie got the job, but didn't last too long as her drug abuse was out of control during this time.

Ashley also helped get Diahann Carroll in by going on a vacation for a week and letting Diahann test the role out. Carroll got raves, and she became Liz's replacement once she left.

I saw Carrie Fisher and, aside from being inaudible, she walked through the performance like a zombie. I also saw Carroll who was fantastic and absolutely stunning onstage. She was cast in Dynasty right after that. As much as I loved Amanda Plummer as Agnes, MaryAnn Plunkett was my favorite. I think it was the physical awkwardness she brought to the role. Like someone who had been horribly abused and afraid of pissing anyone off. (I saw the play about 6 times.)

I saw the play on Broadway. Carrie was out that night from illness so we got Plunkett. I remember being shocked at the scene where Agnes has hysterical bleeding, being too naive at the time about stage tricks.

Drugs or no drugs, I would have hated to spend Broadway money and be stuck seeing Carrie Fisher. Wonderful writer, terrible actress.

Plunkett, OTOH, I imagine was wonderful. I got to work with her for two seasons at NAT and she gave several wonderful performances and played a wide range of characters.

Further to R15 - at intermission the woman sitting next to me asked how I was enjoying the show. I thought New Yorkers are so friendly.

Another Six Degrees of is that playing the mother of Jane Fonda in the film is Anne Pitoniak. She played the mother in night,Mother on Broadway. The role that Anne Bancroft took in the movie version.

can you tell me what the ending of the play was

Agnes was sent to Saint Katherine's Parish convent in San Francisco where she joined the Sister Act.

Saw Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Ashley on stage in NYC in 5he original play - 1000 times better than the movie

IT HAPPENS

I think Anne Bancroft was a better film actress than Geraldine Page. Bancroft could be big Italian but she was never as annoyingly Actors Studio as Page was.

Debbie Reynolds got wind of Plummer leaving and asked Ashley if she could help Carrie Fisher audition for it.

Debbie also wanted to play Mother Miriam Ruth but as The Singing Nun.

R21, the alternative sounded better on paper. Turned out it wasn’t.

Debbie was in Woman of the Year when Carrie & Liz were snorting shit in Agnes so they were both on Broadway at the same time.

Elizabeth Ashley originated the role of Corie Bratter in Barefoot in the Park on Broadway. Jane Fonda played her in the film. Jane Fonda played Doctor Martha Livingston in the film of Agnes of God, the part that Elizabeth originated on stage.

Why didn't Elizabeth Ashley get a better shot in Hollywood?

Her IMDB credits indicate her film career peak may have been Ship of Fools and The Carpetbaggers mid 1960s......and the rest is TV...

I love Elizabeth Ashley on stage but I always thought she was a bit too theatrical and grand on film though she photographs beautifully.

Read Elizabeth Ashley’s autobio.

She did the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and made Maggie much more sexual than Barbara Bel Geddes. I think if this revival hadn’t been done, Cat would have been demoted to second rate Williams.

[quote]Why didn't Elizabeth Ashley get a better shot in Hollywood?

She left at the height of her broadway stardom just as she was breaking into movies to marry George Peppard. He didn't want her to be a working actress, so she retired and had a kid. By the time she divorced him, she basically had to start over. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was a huge comeback for her, and she got across the board raves, even from shits like John Simon. How she didn't win the Tony for it is baffling.

Her book "Actress" (Sadly out of print but you can find used copies everywhere) is a blast to read. Her marriage to Peppard was violent. Each one would pull a gun out on the other and she claims Peppard smashed her in the face with a frying pan.

I really liked Meg Tilly back then, thought she could have been a really good breakout actor, but then she just seemed to slip away in obscurity.

[quote]I really liked Meg Tilly back then, thought she could have been a really good breakout actor, but then she just seemed to slip away in obscurity.

Too many moles on her face.

[quote]Why didn't Elizabeth Ashley get a better shot in Hollywood?

Uhm, booze.

I saw the original cast early in the run and Elizabeth Ashley held up the curtain because she "had twisted her ankle and the wardrobe mistress is out looking for a pair of sensible flats for Ms. Ashley".

When the curtain finally came up, Ms. Ashly did indeed have on flats and was also using a cane to great dramatic effect....she was also drunk.

[quote]Agnes was sent to Saint Katherine's Parish convent in San Francisco where she joined the Sister Act.

Actually she became a Toreadorable.

[quote]Each one would pull a gun out on the other and she claims Peppard smashed her in the face with a frying pan.

At least it wasn't a fondue pot.

Fay Wray's daughter, Susan Riskin, stood by for Ashley and Page. I saw her sub for Page and she was ok.

I like Meg Tilly in Psycho 2 and Body Snatchers. She had an interesting intensity about her. I think she is great in Agnes. (so innocent and angelic.)

There used to be a DL joke (along the lines of Jan Maxwell’s Manhattan Plaza apartment) that Elizabeth Ashley lived in an NYU dorm.

Ashley set her apartment on fire a number of years ago I remember.

I remember seeing Ashley on Live at Five when I was a kid. It became a family joke. She was just out of her mind on coke probably. She kept pulling out chapstick until Jack Cafferty laughed and asked if her lips were dry.

When they showed the clip of the movie she was promoting she got look 2 inches from the monitor and stared at it. She was really tripping.

I saw Ashley in Vanities with Barbara Sharma and Lesley Ann Warren.

I found the film tedious. On stage it was concentrated and intense. It's not really the type of material that transfers well to film. Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Ashley and Ammanda Plumber were more vivid than their film counterparts.

R41. That's the production where Lesley Ann skipped opening night to fly to LA for an audition (Superman?). There was, allegedly, alot of backstage drama with Liz and Lesley.

Liz and Vanities.

Ashley:

[quote]In my younger years, when the rest of them [referring to stars too focused on their careers] were sitting in Sardi's or in the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills waiting for calls from their agents, I was on a plane with The Who, having a blast with Roger [Daltrey] and Pete [Townsend]. In my 30s, I circumnavigated the globe in my sailboat - twice. It was the best life ever. The only thing I ever minded was the time in the 80s when there were massive, savage rumors that I was on drugs. Being quite the disciplined person I am, that really pissed me off.

Her third husband was a cute guitarist who appeared with her in the Broadway flop, "Legend."

Elizabeth was offered the Martha Livingston part but was doing a film so had to turn the stage role down. Lee Remick was cast and played the role in tryouts in Boston. She was scheduled to bring the show to Broadway but withdrew by mutual consent. By this time Elizabeth was now available and took the role with the show's opening delayed for one week. Remick played in Boston on March 13 and the New York first preview was March 29.

Wasn’t that Meg Tilly as Shorty’s girlfriend in Modern Family?

I would have loved to have seen Dianne Wiest as Agnes.

I believe Diane Wiest did a reading of the play prior to the production.

and

Didn't Anne Pitoniak originate the Mother role in the first production in Louisville with Mia Dillon as Agnes?

Mia Dillon was also a vacation substitute for Plummer then came back when Plummer was ill (I believe she was suffering from malnutrition). She was very good. The original Agnes understudy was Sally Klein who was in the OBC Merrily.

Dianne Wiest would have been all smiles.

I thought I read that Michelle Pfeiffer tested for Agnes for the film. It's not IMDb trivia so maybe it's in Norman Jewison's book.

R47 That was her older sister, DL fave Jennifer Tilly.

About 10 years ago, Meg starred in a Canadian stage production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. As Martha!! Meg would have been a perfect Honey early in her career.

I would have loved to see scenes with her playing Martha.

Cradling mug.

Roger Ebert's 1⭐ review of the murky Agnes of God

Amanda Plummer was the original Juliette Lewis.