The thing about Alec Baldwin is he does a great interview.
I’ve been listening to his podcast, Here’s the Thing, for some time and I have several actor favorites. Edie Falco, Sarah Jessica Parker come to mind. But it is the episode with the late, great Elaine Stritch which blows it out of the ballpark. Maybe it’s because I loved Stritch as Jack’s ball-busting mother, Colleen, on 30 Rock. Maybe it’s because Stritch has such an only-in-New York, kids, kind of 1950s theatre bio, having arrived from Michigan’s Convent of the Sacred Heart to land in a scene class seat between Walter Matthau and Marlon Brando at The New School. And maybe it’s because, as Baldwin said about Stritch’s portrayal of Colleen,
“No one was funnier and had better timing than Elaine…she would walk in there and we just had to stand back and get out of her way and the rest of it would take care of itself.”
A particularly poignant part of the podcast is about Stritch’s twelve years living at New York’s Carlyle Hotel, where she sang for her supper (part of her rent was paid in performances). Baldwin proposes a TV show where Stritch barters for services. “Send in the Clowns is gratis,” she quips, referring to her famous rendition of the Stephen Sondheim song from A Little Night Music.
At the end of the podcast, Baldwin lovingly tells Stritch “You’re an incalculably talented woman and you’re a legendary pain in the ass.”
As only Baldwin can.