“One of the most extraordinary films”: Kathleen Turner names her five favourite movies
In the grand scheme of things, very few actors are anointed as stars from the second their very first feature film is released, placing Kathleen Turner in rare company when Lawrence Kasdan’s sizzling erotic thriller Body Heat arrived in 1981.
Although she’d been regularly treading the boards for several years beforehand, Turner’s sultry performance as Matty Walker was dripping in star power and sex appeal, and she was one of the most prominent female performers in the industry well before the end of the decade.
She starred opposite Steve Martin in the sci-fi caper The Man with Two Brains and generated sparks with Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone, in addition to going toe-to-toe with Jack Nicholson in the crime comedy Prizzi’s Honor, becoming an animated icon in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and earning an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress’ in Francis Ford Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married. Within a matter of years, all of this elevated Turner’s star appeal to new heights.
It might come across as Turner patting herself on the back for a job well done by naming a movie she starred in as one of her all-time favourites. However, reuniting with Body Heat colleagues William Hurt and Lawrence Kasdan for the romantic drama The Accidental Tourist stood out for both personal and professional reasons.
“I think one of my favourite films is The Accidental Tourist because I thought Larry did such an extraordinarily wonderful transcription of the book,” she explained to Rotten Tomatoes. “I mean, he was incredibly faithful to Anne Tyler, and people had been trying for years to do some of her books, and she’d never allowed it. She’d never been satisfied with film scripts, and when Larry did Accidental Tourist, she felt that he really did capture the essence of her book. And I think we did, too. So that’s one I truly loved.”
That’s the only one of her own credits that makes the cut, though, with Turner proceeding to cast her eyes over decades of cinema. Thanks to her adoration of star Rosalind Russell, the two-time Golden Globe winner opted for Auntie Mame, the protagonist of which is “actually a character I think I’d like to do one day” should the original play ever find itself in line for a revival.
1984’s erotically charged and suspenseful Crimes of Passion may not have been a critical or commercial darling, but Turner didn’t care because it allowed her to team up with Ken Russell. The actor cited his drama The Music Lovers as “one of the most extraordinary films I have ever seen,” leaving her “thrilled” when the director approached her with the chance to star in one of his productions.
In what sounds like faint praise, Turner admitted she enjoyed David Fincher’s remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo “much more than I thought I would.” She went in expecting it to be “watered down and essentially de-toothed” compared to the Swedish original, only to be left pleasantly surprised by its retention of the story’s inherent darkness.
Casting her gaze towards animation, the voice behind Jessica Rabbit threw a curveball into the mix when she decided that Shrek was worthy of being listed among her preferred cinematic experiences. “I thought it was great,” she said. “I loved the animation, I loved the humour.” It’s a far cry from the other four, but as the old saying states, each to their own.
Kathleen Turner’s five favourite movies:
- The Music Lovers (Ken Russell, 1970)
- Shrek (Andrew Adamson, 2001)
- The Accidental Tourist (Lawrence Kasdan, 1988)
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011)
- Auntie Mame (Morton DaCosta, 1958)
