The one role Kathleen Turner has always wanted to play: “I have a very exciting idea”
Whether as Chandler’s dad on Friends, the title character in Peggy Sue Got Married, or the voice of everyone’s favourite problematic crush, Jessica Rabbit, Kathleen Turner never disappoints.
Capable of the biggest, most over-the-top portrayals you ever did see, Turner is a simply captivating presence, whether she’s in a drama, a comedy, or some unique blend of both.
Prior to her movie career, which saw her win major awards and piss off co-stars in equal measure, Turner was a star of the stage. She began acting in the early 1970s, making her Broadway debut in 1977 in Gemini, which went on to become the fourth-longest running non-musical in the district’s history. In the years since, she has always found time to return to her first home. Her most famous stage roles include Mrs Robinson in a production of The Graduate, Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Shakespeare was one of the subjects the star discussed during an interview with Vulture about her phenomenal life. When asked if there was anything else left to do in her career, Turner replied that she would love to play King Lear. This is a dream shared by many actors, gender aside, but since he is the patriarch king, a woman taking up the role would be a new lens to dabble in. However, she wasn’t going to let that get in her way, and outlined her perfect plan to dismantle the system.
“I have a very exciting idea about how to do Lear,” she said, explaining, “Usually when women play Lear, the daughters are rewritten to be sons. I’d keep them as women. When Lear says to Goneril, “May your womb dry up”, you understand what I mean, yeah? ‘May your womb dry up’ from a man? So what? From a mother? My God. There’s a power to the relationships between women that we don’t examine as much as we should.”
The actual quote Turner is referring to is, “Into her womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, and from her derogate body never spring a babe to honour her”. It comes from the fourth scene of Shakespeare’s tale of familial drama and inheritance, when the title character is insulting one of his three daughters, Goneril. It’s one of the many savage burns the bard dishes out in what is widely regarded as his masterpiece. In the language of the time, Shakespeare “hath no chill”.
It turns out that Turner might have been ahead of the game. Just one year after this interview, the late Glenda Jackson debuted as Lear in a Broadway revival of the play. Her three daughters were played by female actors, including Ruth Wilson, who had a double role as both Cordelia and The Fool. Equally, when Kathryn Hunter took up the role in 2022 at The Globe, Ann Ogbomo, a Black woman, played Goneril, while her sisters were played by two white women.
Despite suffering a bout of rheumatoid arthritis in her late 30s, Turner is still very much active today. She was on stage as recently as 2024, so there’s still plenty of time for her to have a crack at Shakespeare’s most revered character. The role mainly involves sitting around, anyway.
