411 Movies Interview: Lea Thompson

Posted by Tony Farinella on 03.06.2009

411's Tony Farinella sits down with Lea Thompson for an exclusive interview about her new film, Exit Speed!

You probably remember Lea Thompson from her work in such eighties classics as Back to the Future, Some Kind of Wonderful, and All the Right Moves. She also played Caroline Duffy on Caroline in the City. Recently, I caught up with Lea Thompson to talk about her role in Exit Speed, which is currently out on DVD. We also discussed her relationship with director Howard Deutch, Jaws 3D, the eighties, and a whole lot more.


TONY: You've done a lot of interesting films in your career, but have you ever done anything quite like this?

Lea Thompson: I don't know, kind of. Well, I've never killed anyone with a machete. (laughs) I've never strangled a girl with a plastic bag. But I think I've done a lot of interesting action. I mean, I did Red Dawn and everything. I also just did the Jane Doe Hallmark mysteries, where there was a certain amount of running and action and stuff like that. But that was kind of glossier; this is a little bit more gritty. So, yeah, I really loved the part, and I was really attracted to the movie because of all the interesting and strong characters, the women. I thought there were really a lot of great girls in it. And I was really happy to be a part of a movie like that.

TONY: How do you mentally and physically prepare for a role like this?

Lea Thompson: Well, for every character, I get a lot of notes. Just for myself, I figure out what their life is like and I do a lot of characther research like that. For something like this, you just try to get in a little bit of shape so you don't hurt yourself. Especially when it's a low budget movie, you've got to do most of your own stunts, so you don't want to hurt yourself. So I try to get in shape a little bit for that. Usually, it's pretty fast and you don't really know what they're going to have you do. So you just try to be prepared and bring your knee pads.

TONY: At this stage in your career, what are you looking for, script-wise?

Lea Thompson: I think it's always been basically the same. I mean, I really enjoy diversity in roles. I really enjoy different styles of movie. I think it would be hell to be stuck in one style, like certain movie stars get stuck and they have to always be action stars or always be femme fatales or always be one kind of thing. I feel really grateful that I've been able to do a lot of different things: musicals, musical comedy, dramas, sitcoms. I'm doing a sketch comedy show in L.A. tomorrow, where I get to do a bunch of different characters. So that's been the blessing of my career. The bad side is I don't have an Academy Award or an Emmy. (laughs) But the good side is that I've been able to consistently work in really different mediums, which, for me, is what I love. I love going from one to another, from going to comedy to drama to live action to directing. I've been really lucky.

TONY:: How has family life changed your perspective on what you want out of Hollywood?

Lea Thompson: Well, my kids are old now. I have a seventeen-year-old and a fourteen-year-old. It's my suspicion that I would have had a bigger career if I wouldn't have had my kids so relatively young and having them be my first priority before my career. But, that said, I wouldn't trade it for anything. My kids are everything to me, and I'm really in awe of what an incredible experience it's been to have them and have had the time to be with them. Another thing I'm really grateful for is that I wasn't ridiculously famous when they were in their lives, because that's so hard on kids and it's so distracting. So I've been able to make a really good living as an actor and not have the problems of being under the scrutiny of the media the whole time. Is that any kind of explanation? Another thing to be grateful for is I've been able to work and my kids have had a relatively normal experience growing up with me. For example, they still think a premiere is really fun and they're in awe of the famous people that they meet. They haven't had to read too many mean things about me. So it's been my number one priority and I've been really, really happy that I've been able to be an actress and be a good mother. I've been able to be there for them. I'm just so grateful and lucky.

TONY: A lot of people say that films today are a lot more cynical and mean-spirited than they were in the eighties, when you enjoyed a great deal of success. What do you think of the films being released today?

Lea Thompson: Well, it's just not natural for me to be like, 'Things used to be better than they are now.' That's not the way my brain works. Things are certainly different. Sometimes I think about the movie business as kind of like a glass of water in a pan. It used to be a glass of water. Now, you pour the water into the pan. There's so many more outlets that it's just kind of all spread out. It used to be there were just a few movies and now there's so many. I guess the comedy is a little bit more cynical than it used to be. I'm not one to ask about it used to be better. I mean, the eighties were certainly better for me as a movie star because I was a movie star. I can say that. That's a natural progression. I did a famous John Hughes movie and John Hughes movies were really specific, that whole idea of taking kids' plights very seriously the way he did and intermingling it with comedy. No one seems to be able to do that the same way.


TONY: Even though people remember you from certain films, what are some under the radar film projects that you're really proud of?

Lea Thompson: Well, I did a movie called The Wizard of Loneliness in the eighties that was beautiful. I'm sure you can't even get it. That was a really beautiful movie that I thought something should have happened. I just did this really cute movie called The Christmas Clause. With Christmas movies, once they get on TV, they're on all the time. So maybe people will get a chance to see that. I really liked that movie. I did a movie with my husband called Article 99, with this huge cast: Forest Whitaker, Kiefer Sutherland, John C. McGinley, John Mahoney. That movie nobody saw. That was a really good movie about the plight of the veterans in these terrible hospitals. And that's a long time ago. Nobody saw that. As you can tell, by talking to me, I try to dwell on the sunny side, not the dark side. I did a movie called The Substitute Wife, which was on TV. That was a great movie. That was with Farrah Fawcett and Peter Weller. But I feel lucky to have had so many great parts.

TONY: When I interviewed Maxwell Caulfield a couple of months ago, we talked about his role in Grease 2 and what it was like being thrown into a major film at such a young age. For you, what was it like being thrown into Jaws 3D at such a young age?

Lea Thompson: Jaws 3D, that was my first movie, and that was really crazy because I literally knew nothing. I had done like a Burger King commercial and I was really a ballet dancer at the time. So that was kind of crazy because I had to really fly by the seat of my pants. I mean, I had lied and said I had done all these movies. I was kind of terrible. So that's my first impression. When I got All the Right Movies, I actually didn't want to audition for the lead. That was a movie with Tom Cruise I did, the second movie I did. I didn't want to do the lead, because the lead was required to do a nude scene. They were like, 'No, we don't want you for the little part. We want you for the lead.' And I was like, 'I really don't want to do nudity.' So that was an interesting experience, because, again, I still knew nothing about acting. I constantly find myself doing things on a big scale that I'm not entirely prepared for. I wasn't a singer at all, and I had to sing the national anthem for the World Series and I had never sang the national anthem before. So I find myself in these really weird situations sometimes that I'm not really prepared for.

TONY: What's it like having a director for a husband? Are you and Howard Deutch able to relate to each other on different Hollywood issues?

Lea Thompson: Yeah, it's interesting. I've been married for a really long time. What's been interesting is that I'm trying to get into that business. I've directed a couple of TV movies, the Jane Doe mysteries that I was in. So it's kind of interesting, him giving me tips on how to go on director auditions and things like that and watching how hard he works. What's interesting is it gives us each a perspective. Howie understands how hard it is on actors and I understand how hard it is on directors. So I think we're gentler when we're working. I'm always nice to directors because I know what my husband is going through. He's nicer to actors because he knows what I'm going through. Obviously, it's worked out for us somehow because we've been together for twenty-three years. It's all about perspective, so that's what's nice about our relationship.