Elizabeth Ashley blitzed on coke in late 80s Interview

She has a small part in 'Russian Doll'.

I also saw her in a very small part in Oceans 8.

She was one of the Older actresses they used to move the diamond store auction.

I saw her in Agnes of God, and she was not high.

R3 i’ve heard that the role of Martha is one of the most challenging parts in the theater. I’ve always liked Ashley. I think I would’ve preferred her in the movie to Fonda.

Who was Agnes when you saw it? I know Amanda Palmer won the Tony but I would’ve loved to have seen Carrie Fisher do it just to see if she would’ve shown up that night. I read an old article in the New York Times that said she had missed 12 performances in two months.

^Because the character of Martha is only off stage for about 10 minutes the entire show.

OP, Love her. Definition of a broad. And, yes, her Theater Talk interviews are wonderful.

Wow--I have never heard anyone who naturally sounds like Liza Minelli.

R6 yes! I love her in interviews. I know some people say she goes out of her way to be outrageous but I think she’s just being herself and I love it.

She did an episode of the Johnny Carson podcast. I have no idea if something like this would interest you but she does tell us some good stories. For an Ashley fan it’s worth a listen when you’ve got some chores to do or some spare time.

Very entertaining and honest in that interview. Thanks for posting. If she still has the house in the Caribbean, I hope she's taken down that Confederate flag.

R9 and I know I cringed a little bit when I heard that. Very 1989.

I heard an interview in the 90s where she said that some people from “Friends” were moving in nearby and she knew it was time to move out. I guess the area she was in was becoming fashionable.

Has she really sailed Along most of the worlds coastline? That’s really interesting. She really seems like a go-getter

r8 - thanks. I'm not a Carson fan (I grew up with Letterman), but I'll definitely check that out for Elizabeth.

R11 so did I. And I didn’t even watch him that much so I don’t care for a late night but I thought he was a lot warmer if that’s a word you can use about David letterman and then Carson.

Just from the old shows I’ve gone back and seen Carson looked like a low-key asshole.

Jesus Christ. I’m at work guys, I will stop using voice recognition. Sorry for the multiple mistakes in grammar.

Surely you have your lesser fallen stars confused, OP.

That photograph is of actor Robert Blake.

Who wasnt blitzed on coke in the 70s-80s ? It was harder to get a bag of weed than an 8 ball.

R15 And you know she probably flew with it too. 🤣

R4, I saw it with the original cast on Broadway: Ashley, Geraldine Page, Amanda Plummer. I love Anne Bancroft, and Bancroft-Fonda must have looked great on paper, but I don't think the movie works at all.

r15 Glad you survived the 70s-80s. Occasionally, I see someone from that period who burned the candle at both ends and in the middle. They are usually completely awesome now or a fucking wreck.

"I'd never seen snow!"

And then she made up for lost time.

She and Peppard were hot. She’s fun.i found her autobio in a used bookstore. It had been inscribed to a man (elder gay I assume) with warmth. Her book didn’t tell you if she and Peppard swung or if Peppard was bi. She did let you know how she felt inside. It was a good book. She’s really a beatnik.

I read her book when I was a young gayling and I’ve loved her ever since. Really bold and honest. Saw her in Agnes of God several times. She and Page were electric. And they weren’t mic’d! Amanda Plummer was haunting. Carrie Fisher was dreadful and inaudible. She didn’t finish out her contract and was replaced by Understudy Maryann Plunkett who was the best Agnes of all. Heartbreaking.

Isn't she nuts?

"I've always been TOO SOMETHING..."

How about TOO FUCKING HIGH Liz?!!

I couldn't even get through that interview, she was making me jumpy!

Carrie Fisher was too stoned to come out of her dressing room on the last day of her contract. Off topic but can anyone remember the times Johnny Carson was kind to his guests?

Yes, R22. Or as show business people like to call it - eccentric.!

Call her crazy or eccentric but she’s a pro. Never heard a bad word about her from anyone who has worked with her and her bestie is Penny Fuller who was her understudy in Barefoot in the Park.

I can't with that phoney accent. Especially since the bitch is from Georgia.

Oh I came out fine R18 . My 1st husband pretty much put a stop to my overindulging . He liked to party too ,but after a few years together he decided we needed to prioritize our lives and it was the best thing he ever did for me. If not for him,Ive no doubt Id have ended up a train wreck over drugs. I liked them far too much .

This is Bowie levels of coked out interview. It’s kind of sad, but having interacted with her on a few occasions she seems to be in a much better place now. She’s the very definition of broad, to cite the other recent thread. I adore her, high or not.

Are you HIGH, Clairee?

The Queen of Photogrey Transition Lenses!

I couldn't get through one minute of that due to the interviewer's distracting facial hair situation. Trying to simultaneously create a chin and hide a double chin.

Elizabeth Ashley reminds me of Tallulah Bankhead. The husky voice, the mannerisms and she resembles her.

I always liked her and enjoyed her work. She was so menacing and coldly calculating, as the head nurse in “Coma”. Her performance begins at the 2:12 spot.

If Elizabeth is so clear headed, sober and professional, how come she hasn't worked more?

She got OLD!

She looks and sounds amazingly like Margot Kidder. She also seems crazy like Margot, who had a bigger career but was stunted by drugs and mental illness - is Elizabeth nuts too? She seems it...

How do you guys know she's high? She may just have a flamboyant personality. I know people who talk very energetically, but aren't actually high.

That never ending kicking of her foot, for one thing.

R24 is that true about Carrie? Damn. No wonder she never did Broadway again. Or did she?

R37 she keeps flicking at her nose if you watch the interview. I lost count the last time I watched it.

She’s high

[R40] The big shades are another giveaway - to hide her dilated pupils.

Debbie and Carrie were on broadway at the same time. Debbie was, briefly, in Woman of the Year at the Palace while Carrie was snorting coke in her dressing room a few blocks away.

There were rumors that Jodie Foster was going to go into the show during a school hiatus but that never happened. The Hinckley incident was too fresh and security at the theatre would have been a nightmare. Fun fact: Fay Wray’s daughter was standby for Ashley and Page.

Love her. Her autobiography Actress is wonderful.

She is scary creepy in Windows 1980

Her Maggie the Cat was considered the best.

R44 Windows is definitely worth a look. I know it got slammed by critics but I kind a liked it. Ashley plays crazy really well. The only movie Gordon Willis directed.

R45 “ My job was to make sure every man in the audience got a hard on“ -on playing Maggie the Cat 🤣

[R46] Well that’s an exceptionally vulgar statement for an actress to make. Despite her striking looks she has no class. She was probably high and being “outrageous” when she said that. I loathe sloppy women.

R47, Mary!

She had a good guest shot on the Larry Sanders Show making out with her ex, Rip Torn. He said something about how hot she was after her Slimfast diet. And I enjoyed her on Treme as Aunt Mimi.

The only reason the role of Martha in Agnes of God would be considered challenging is because it’s so badly written.

It is not a serious play. Note there’s never been a major revival.

Sorry, I should’ve said Agnes of Gawd.

And the only person who thought she was the best Maggie The Cat was her!

I liked her in Todd Solondz’ Happiness with Ben Gazzara, who was the original Brick if I recall.

Liz with Lucy, Otto Preminger and Mamet

Lee Remick quit Agnes after Boston tryout. I think there were rewrites she wasn’t happy with.

Thank you, Liza Minnelli R37. HA!

I love the LA production with Pam Dawber and Diahann Carroll.

I was forced to watch her in some in-the-round POS starring her as the hot cougar and Bruce Boxleitner as the hot young stud. God damn you, Mother, for taking me to this.

Yes, she and Kidder are both in "92 in the Shade" (1975) . They sound a lot alike, and grew to resemble each other even more as they aged.

R50 and the movie is virtually unknown. It took me a week to find it and I can usually stream anything.

Ashley and Kidder both were balling Tom McGuane on a movie set. Kidder got pregnant.

Elizabeth on Thomas' knee.

I thought she died. :o Oh well, there's always lots of time for her to prepare well to do that.

She turned 81 a few months ago. Pretty good for a serious smoker.

Pam Dawber and Diahnn Carroll did Agnes of God in LA? I know Carroll replaced Ashley on Broadway.

That recent Carrie Fisher bio has an interview with Ashley about Agnes.

I forget all the details but she said Debbie Reynolds was eager for Carrie to get a serious acting job on Broadway. She asked Ashley to help and Ashley went to Fisher's audition to help her out. She said she did very good in the role without much rehearsal.

She says that Fisher was troubled stuff (boyfriends, but she is probably covering up for drug use by Fisher.) She started to have trouble with her voice and started missing performances. Geraldine Page wasn't too happy with her and loved the understudy Maryann Plunkett. When Fisher started missing all the time and it made the papers they eventually fired her since they had Plunkett all ready to go and she was liked by the cast.

Funny I think Mark Hammill was right around the block in Amadeus at the same time. Didn't seem like they got that much publicity back then. As the Star Wars fandom got older having the two of them on Broadway at the same time would have caused pandemonium.

She's unhinged. Loud. Pressured speech. And so self-involved. In love with her stories. God did the host even get to ask a question?

Look in the dictionary under actress, and...

r53 Remick got very poor reviews in the Boston tryout compared to the other two actresses. The said she left because she couldn't stand the smoking but the truth supposedly is that she was struggling with the demanding role and they mutually decided they needed someone else.

TL; DR What's the point of this thread? To help or hurt?

She was in that terrible CBS shitcom "Evening Shade".

so many holes in her nose she had to breathe thru her va jay jay....like trump.

saw her in agnes of gawd, with page and amanda plummer. DAMN GOOD SHOW.

Can you take me high enough.... *holds up lighter*

Why so much hate for this person?

She wasn't big enough to hate...

I’ve seen her onstage several times. You can’t take your eyes off her. She’s very theatrical but also manages to be real. I love her.

She was the only good thing about Evening Shade.

A gay forum and nobody posted this?

L-R: Judy Garland, Elizabeth Ashley, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty. Ashley and Redford were in Barefoot in the Park on B'way circa 1963.

Is Warren holding in a creampie load?

I don't know what the point of the thread was--but I had never heard of her before, and I think she's beautiful.

Wow, she looks amazing for 81 and for being a smoker. I've always enjoyed her acting, but she definitely has drug and mental health issues.

Ashley has been divorced three times. Her first and second husbands were actors James Farentino and George Peppard. The latter was her leading man in her first movie, The Carpetbaggers (1964); the couple had a son, Christian (born 1968)

Here's Liz and Christian in 1991.

She lives in Union Square. In a building on the corner to the left of Barnes and Noble. I met her in the B&N café a few years ago and yes she's very eccentric! She just walked up to me and started talking a mile a minute and I ended up helping her find a book and then she called me 'divine little man' and asked me to order her a coffee. Which I did and wasn't sure if she wanted me to pay....She came up and paid herself, tried to pay for the book there too which she could not so she ranted a mile a minute about that too. I'd pay to have a boozy lunch with her but I imagine she would be a nightmare to live with.

I knew her at the time only from Evening Shade but have since listened to that Carson Podcast and another long form interview and have a better appreciation for her career. Kind of a miracle she's still here with us. She mentioned in interview that she would hang out on The Who's private plane and called herself something like a 'rock n roll sexual savage'.

[R79] You sound like a divine little man. Buy me coffee?

High AF. Love the sunglasses and raspy voice, however.

Anyone know anything about the son. Single, never married, when asked what he does she called him 'an adventurer'. Did Peppard have enough money left to leave his kids well off or is this dude a waster.

Great story, divine little man :) Thank you sharing with us

Peppard did The A-Team for a long time I think so he probably made some good money.

R67 I like Ashley. Evening Shade, Ship of Fools, her two guest spots on Murder, She Wrote were all things I enjoyed her in.

I thought the interview was entertaining and Ashley’s drug use has always been brought up by fans here.

Not trying to hurt. At all.

R82 I wondered about her son too. Is it a Faye Dunaway-type situation? He makes his living through or because of her? And his father has passed.

Ashley says she’s sailed entire coast of continents. Maybe he’s into this more than her, hence “explorer” or “adventurer”.

If she’s in her 80s he’s got to be in his mid-50s? I imagine he was left a pretty sizable chunk from his father‘s estate if not most of it. I don’t know if Perppard had children with other women.

[quote]Off topic but can anyone remember the times Johnny Carson was kind to his guests?

Oprah Winfrey told the story of guesting on Carson around the time of THE COLOR PURPLE premiere. Carson chatted amiably enough with her the moment she appeared and she (still a bit of a newbie) felt more at ease. She continued bantering with him during the commercial break, only to realize that Carson was sitting there silently, staring ahead and completely ignoring her. Dead to her. They came back, Carson turned himself back on, and introduced the next guest.

Winfrey said it was a good education for her about show biz and about many of the people in it. Of course, stories about Carson's racism have surfaced since his death, so that may have been a contributing factor.

Divine little man? Liz was being kind.

r87 Oprah adopted that style for herself. Kathy Griffin tells the story that when she was on as soon as the would go to commercial Oprah would take questions from the audience and ignore the guests. (Letterman did this too. I think the idea is to save the conversation for the show.)

Kathy of course kept trying to get Oprah to talk to her. Most of her attempts were futile until Kathy brought up how Streisand painted her mike white. Oprah couldn't resist and turned to Kathy and said yeah can you believe she painted my mike? (the full story is in Kathy's first book.)

When I was a kid we were waiting to go into an off-Broadway theater. They announced the inner lobby is now open but the house is still closed.

From the crowd a really loud voice bellowed 'IS SMOKING ALLOWED IN THE INNER LOBBY?"

I recognized her and pointed it out to my parents. Some nasty theater snob chewed me out that you shouldn't point out famous people like that.

Just listened to her two hour interview on the Carson podcast. Loved it. She's smokes like a chimney, though. She must have lit up twenty times during it.

But man, what a fascinating career. And the stories she has. Why isn't she a patron saint among gays? This woman should be this generations Shelley Winters.

Shelley has some classic movies, though.

Ashley is considered the best Cat to ever appear on Broadway. Tennessee Williams was a fan.

That bra is doing a lot of work.

I saw her in Vanities about 40 years ago in Chicago. She was starring with Barbara Sharma and Maryann Plunkett, who had replaced Lesley Ann Warren. She was marvelous in the trifling comedy.

She came to Houston in the play A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking. Her co-star was the pathetic Susan Anton. Ashley could've wiped the stage with her, but she was very generous instead. I always admired her for that.

[quote] Her co-star was the pathetic Susan Anton. Ashley could've wiped the stage with her

So could I!

I didn’t think actors of her generation got that into it ...guess I was wrong.

It’s never good for you but if you start that habit when you’re older it really is no joke.

Tell me about it, stud r98

R27, I'm not sure that's a fake accent. It sounds like Mississippi/upper Louisiana to me. Carrie Nye and Tallulah Bankhead sounded somewhat similar and were from the same region.

It's not the standard "southern" accent.

The accent's not fake, it's educated Deep South.

Ashley is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and adds flourishes to her speaking voice as bipolar Southerners do.

Back in the day, she was great friends with Terrence McNally, James Coco, and Robert Drivas. Doris Roberts and F. Murray Abraham were also part of the group.

Saw her in some dinner theater production with Bruce Boxleitner. Remember being impressed with how fit she was. She harks from that pre-feminist wild child space occupied by Pamela Tiffin, Jane Fonda in her Barbarella era and other 60s it girls. She's a camp artifact.

No. She appeared way too grown in that era to have anything to do with the Ann-Margets, Pamela Tiffins or Jane Fondas. I expect she competed for roles with the likes of Diane Baker.

I saw her onstage in THE RED DEVIL BATTERY SIGN by Tennessee Williams - she did a great job!

She always had "crazy" eyes, even as a young woman.

[quote] Who wasnt blitzed on coke in the 70s-80s ?

Jane Curtin.

It's pretty stupid to get blitzed on coke right before you make a talk show appearance. Everyone can tell.

[quote]Back in the day, she was great friends with Terrence McNally, James Coco, and Robert Drivas. Doris Roberts and F. Murray Abraham were also part of the group.

Who wouldn't want to party hard with Doris Roberts and F. Murray Abraham?

R109 Roberts and Abraham were very funny, active people in the 70s and 80s. Don't forget F. Murray's performance in THE RITZ. And both were terrific in McNally's BAD HABITS.

No one could party heartier with Doris Roberts.

I heard that once she was staying in a hotel suite in Vegas while the Rolling Stones were staying next door, and ultimately they had to call the management to ask her to keep the noise down.

Sorry, but Evening Shade was a total shit show.

Sometimes she sounds British esp when talking about the the-a-thuh! Other times deep south and every now and then she forgets and has no accent! I love that she would go sailing about for years and disappear off the face of the earth. She must have some crazy stories. Here she is looking for a man on Geraldo with Joan Rivers and Virginia Graham lol

I loved her in Vampire’s Kiss.

Charming in a way only a 70s tv movie can be.

She was the modern day Tallulah Bankhead.

Anyone know why she wasn't kept as Benson's mother on SVU? 1 episode and that was it.

Bossy bottom. Big Bush supporter.

Ashley, Page and Plummer made Agnes of God something very special. Ashley theatrics, Plummer’s crazy innocence and Page’s very skilled hamming was a joy to behold. Looking back it was a Master Class in acting.

Supposedly Ashley is bipolar but didn't know it in the '80s. She might be in a manic phase in that interview rather than coked up.

Elizabeth has swagger.

In depth interview.