ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEDYARD, CONN.
SOURCE: MICHAEL BLOWEN THE BOSTON GLOBE
``I'm going to be like George Burns and Trigger,'' says Debbie Reynolds. ``I'm going to stay here until I drop dead, and then they can stuff me.''
Reynolds is backstage at the Foxwoods Resort Casino. Most of the crowd for her sold-out performance has wandered back to the slot machines and blackjack tables. She's smiling. She's in the middle of a successful tour of her nightclub act. She's starring in Albert Brooks' hilarious new film, ``Mother,'' which opens in Roanoke later this month.
``No one's more surprised than I am at all this,'' says the petite, sexy star, sounding just like the title character in one of her biggest hits, ``The Unsinkable Molly Brown.'' ``It's wonderful.''
When ``The Unsinkable Molly Brown'' came out in 1964, it seemed too much. No matter what they threw at Molly, from a mercurial love life to the sinking of the Titanic, she just kept bobbing back to the surface with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. How could anyone still be singing and dancing and smiling after all that?
Funny, but Debbie Reynolds, 64, who received an Oscar nomination for her performance in the title role, is still singing, still dancing, still smiling after all these years in show business. And, after her Golden Globe nomination for best actress in ``Mother,'' there's talk of another Oscar nod. Unsinkable.
Reynolds had a supporting role as Tommy Lee Jones' mother in Oliver Stone's ``Heaven and Earth,'' but her first starring part after a 25-year layoff is the title role in ``Mother.''
Writer-director-star Brooks came up with the idea several years ago.
``I realized that no one had ever made a movie called `Mother,''' says Brooks in a later interview, unaware of the obscure 1926 V.I. Pudovkin film of the same name. ``And it's such a fundamental relationship. For the ad campaign I wanted to say, `Mothers - everyone's got one.'''
Curiously, when Brooks was shopping ``Mother'' to various studios, several interested parties wanted Shirley MacLaine to play the title role.
``I love Shirley MacLaine,'' says Brooks. ``But she always gets these roles. I wanted someone different.''
But Brooks didn't ask Reynolds first because he thought she was too busy with her nightclub work. He talked with Doris Day, Nancy Reagan and Esther Williams before approaching Reynolds. ``Thank God, it worked out this way,'' he says. ``Debbie's great. What's great about it is that she's not playing Debbie Reynolds. She's not doing that schtick. That show business thing. She's playing a mother - funny but subtle, understated.''
``This is a unique one,'' Reynold says of Brooks' movie about a middle-aged son (Brooks) who moves back in with his mother. ``It's all very exciting,'' she says, ``because I didn't expect to be doing films at 64.''
What does Reynolds think of her performance?
``It's hard for me to watch myself,'' she says. ``It was a very hard movie to make. It was work, work, work. We didn't have any fun. Up every day at 3:30 in the morning and home at 8. I ate dinner in bed while I memorized lines for the next day. It was the hardest movie I ever worked on. But it was a very caring production because of Albert. So many times the older stars are ignored and forced to fend for themselves. But Albert and the producers - Herb Nanas and Scott Rudin - treated me very well. But it was hard work.''
Reynolds pauses. Her eyes, brighter than ever, sparkle.
``I'd been gone so long from the movies that I thought people might ask, `Who's Debbie Reynolds?' That's what I was worried about.''
Forget the unsinkable Debbie Reynolds? Unthinkable.
Reynolds, who divorced first husband Eddie Fisher in 1958 after he ran off with Elizabeth Taylor and divorced second husband Harry Karl in the late '70s when he gambled away his $28 million fortune and her $8 million in savings and whose third marriage to Roanoke real estate developer Richard Hamlett also ended in divorce, early last year, has had her problems.
``We [Reynolds and Karl] had a beautiful house with swimming pools and everything else,'' she says. ``One day I came home and the authorities had it boarded up. That was the first idea I had about Harry's gambling addiction. The kids and I left in the car. We had nothing.''
Reynolds never declared bankruptcy, and even though it took more than a decade, she paid back all the creditors.
``My career's gone pretty well,'' she says. ``A lot better than my choice in men.'' Reynolds laughs at herself and at the humiliation brought on by her financial difficulties.
She's been around long enough to expect curves and potholes in the road ahead. Right now, it seems as smooth as her performance in ``Mother.'' In some ways she has her daughter, Carrie Fisher, to thank for pushing her into the role.
Fisher, the writer and actress famous for her role as Princess Leia in the ``Star Wars'' trilogy, wanted her mother to star in the film version of her first novel, ``Postcards From the Edge,'' the story of a mother and daughter in show business. ``But Mike Nichols wanted Shirley MacLaine,'' says Reynolds. ``So that was that.''
But Reynolds has been around long enough not to take the disappointments too much to heart. Now she's just grateful for another shot at making movies.
``Albert's so funny,'' she says. ``When we were rehearsing the script I made a few small suggestions and Albert said that I was acting just like his mother - bossing him around. Albert's very sensitive.''
Did Reynolds ever meet Albert Brooks' mother?
``On the last day of shooting,'' says Reynolds. ``She's very different than the character I play. I don't think Albert sees his mother clearly. She's outgoing, well spoken. She was an actress who gave up her career to raise a family. She's a wonderful lady. Not like the character I play.''
So, what kind of mother are you?
``It depends on whether you ask my son or daughter,'' she says, referring to Todd Fisher, who manages her Las Vegas casino and museum, and Carrie Fisher. ``I don't know. Heaven knows I tried.''
Reynolds talks to her daughter regularly. ``Last night we were talking about where Carrie gets her sense of humor. So, I said, `Well, your father's not funny, so where do you think you got it?'''
And how about Reynolds' relationship with her mother?
``My mother was on the road with me for 27 years,'' says Reynolds. ``She's 84 now and not doing well. But she never once told me she liked what I do. She never did like it. I went to see her recently and the first thing she said to me was, `You look old.' I told her that's because I am old. And then she asked me about the lines around my eyes and why I dye my hair. As soon as I walked in the door she started in on me. When I complained she asked me for suggestions. I said, `How about something nice like hello?'''
Reynolds says that her relationship with her mother caused her to back off from her own children's lives.
``I might say something about them heading in the wrong direction ... maybe a little warning, but I don't say `I told you so' if it doesn't work out.''
What does Carrie think of the movie?
``After the screening, she turned to me and said, `Mommy, Mommy, you were so great.''' Comforting words that Reynolds has never heard from her own mother.
``That's the way it goes,'' she says, realizing that no matter how much we might like things to change, sometimes they don't.
Reynolds looks over at an oversize bouquet of flowers sent by a longtime fan. Reynolds appreciates it, but she doesn't live in the past.
``I like taking chances and looking toward the future,'' she says. ``It kicks you into another gear, and you're never bored. Drop in a quarter, and I'll sing `Tammy.'''
Reynolds just finished shooting ``In and Out,'' a new Frank Oz film with Kevin Kline that will be out later this year.
Hold the stuffing.
My career's gone pretty well. A lot better than my choice in men.
LENGTH: Long : 148 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Now 64, Debbie Reynolds has been nominated for aby CNBGolden Globe best actress award for her role in Albert Brooks'
comedy "Mother." color. 2. Reynolds made her first big splash in
1952 in "Singin' in the Rain" with Gene Kelly (left) and Donald
O'Connor. 3. An MGM publicity photo was taken in 1953. 4. With first
husband, Eddie Fisher, in 1956. 5. Reynolds (left) had the title
role in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" in 1964. 6. With second
husband, Harry Karl, in 1965. 7. Reynolds did a turn on Broadway in
the early '80s in "Woman of the Year." 8. With actress - and
daughter - Carrie Fisher in 1983. 9. Newlyweds Richard Hamlett and
Debbie Reynolds in 1985. 10. Rehearsing on the Roanoke Civic Center
auditorium stage for a 1985 show. KEYWORDS: PROFILE