Sally

Thank you for picking up a copy of the Teaser. If your French is a little rusty and you want to know what Sally Wingert says in her interview, look no further. Here it is in all its English glory:

Sally Wingert
Louise the French Maid


Teaser: Do you speak French?
Wingert: Un petit peu. Don't ask me any more than that though. (Mouthing just a little bit with hand gestures).

T: So what's it like to prepare for a role like this?
W: I've just been doing it. It's taking the script and holding it open and sitting with the DVD in and pressing back to track one, back to track one. I had some French. And the wonderful woman that is speaking the French for me on the DVD I'm sure is going as slow as she think it's humanly possible to speak this language. As soon as she gets going faster than about a half a mile an hour, I'm back to track one (laughs) studying the words. I can't believe how bad I am at it. I can't believe how difficult it's coming to me. Let's hope everyone is doing well with the English because I'm plodding with the French.
Once I get it, though, I'm going to say it so bloody fast so they'll think, "She knows what she's talking about." She doesn't! And then unfortunately these are not phrases I can use traveling, which is really what I wanted. <>

T: Can you talk about Louise a little bit? What's her story?
W: Well you know she has a huge back story. I mean, there's a novel written about Louise. Peter Rothstein has been looking at these photos of Paris in the 20s and 30s and finding all these fabulous semi-dissolute women - you know, they are all hanging out in cafes, smoking, with these Louise Brooks hairstyles. They just look like they're up to no good, completely. They wear their stockings that have got to be rolled down - just naughty, bad girls. So Louise is a naughty, bad girl. And also you know how much the French love the English and vice versa. I just think it's delicious that these sort of semi-snotty English people have a really nasty French maid. She's pissed off the whole time. And probably coming off a bender, maybe still drunk even when she enters. We haven't really determined that yet. <>


T: You've been in this play before here at the Guthrie Theater
W: I have! Yea!

T: How has your relationship to the play has changed over the past 15 years or so?
W: Well, doing Amanda is a whole different gig than doing Louise the maid. I will say that this isn't my first Coward maid either. Years ago did the maid in Coward's Fallen Angels, which I just had a great time with. Coward writes fabulous servants, so it's never a bad thing to be a servant in a Coward piece. You might not get a lot of stage time, but its prime. It's almost been 15 years since I did Amanda. And when I read it again I remembered just how much I loved doing it, how great that language is. And I think that Veanne and Steve are going to have as much fun as Charlie Janasz and I had, which was a great deal too much fun.