After years, actress finally alights in ‘Bird’
It’s difficult to determine where to begin an interview with feisty spitfire Sylvia Miles. The Academy Award-nominated actress, now in her 70s, has done everything from an Andy Warhol film to “All My Children.’’ Over the years she’s popped up on “Sex and the City’’ and “Wall Street.’’ She even originated the role of Sally Rogers in a pilot of “The Dick Van Dyke Show’’ (she eventually passed on the role).
Tomorrow night, Miles is in Provincetown to play Alexandra Del Lago in a reading of Tennessee Williams’s “Sweet Bird of Youth.’’ In 1986, Miles was slated to play the part in Provincetown before the play was canceled in a conflict over the rights to the show. If you miss tomorrow’s performance, a benefit for the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, she’s scheduled to return in September to do “Sweet Bird’’ again.
Miles, who got her Oscar nods for “Midnight Cowboy’’ and “Farewell, My Lovely,’’ plays an aging actress in “Sweet Bird,’’ one who is brought to a small southern town as she dries out from a bender.
Miles met Williams himself more than 50 years ago while performing off Broadway, and the two remained close friends, working together frequently, until he died in 1983. Although the playwright told her she would be ideal for the part, tomorrow night is the first time she will perform the show.
Q. I understand that you were supposed to have done this show in 1986?
A. What happened was I was doing “Oh Dad, Poor Dad’’ at the River Arts Repertory theater in Woodstock, where at the time I had a house. The only reason I had the house was that I came back from England, where I was doing “Evil Under the Sun,’’ the Agatha Christie film. Did you see that?
Q. I didn’t see it.
A. Ugh! You’ve got to see that before you even write the piece! It’s a funny, funny movie. It was filmed in Majorca and London, and England wanted my tax money. So did the United States. So the only way I could get out of paying both was that I had to buy something, so I bought this dopey little house in Woodstock on my way to a party.
Q. Wait . . . how does this fit in with “Sweet Bird of Youth’’ in Provincetown?
A. Well, I was supposed to do “Sweet Bird of Youth’’ in Provincetown that summer. In the middle of the rehearsal, the theater in Provincetown burned down. In the meantime, Lauren Bacall had been doing “Sweet Bird of Youth’’ in London, bombed with it, and didn’t want to give up the rights, because she was trying to stage it in New York. And it would have played Boston and New Haven before New York in those days. So she wouldn’t give up the rights. We had to cancel.
Q. That was greedy of her. So did you do another Tennessee Williams play in Provincetown instead?
A. We did “Oh Dad, Poor Dad’’ in Provincetown, but we never had a chance to do “Sweet Bird.’’ So I’m really glad that I’ll have the opportunity to do it because Tennessee, in his memoirs, said he had wanted me to do “Sweet Bird.’’
Q. It seems like such a perfect part for you.
A. Can I tell you something? That part is so wonderful, and I’m glad I’m getting the chance to do it in Provincetown, which was Tennessee’s love.
Q. It’s great that the opportunity presented itself again.
A. I’ve suffered a lot for my art, and a lot of those things [that happened to the character in the play] have happened to me. When you have a long career, let’s face it, a lot of things happen. I made a lot of movies.
Q. But did you ever wake up in a drunken stupor with a handsome cabana boy at your side like Alexandra Del Lago?
A. Well, let’s go on and talk about other things before we get to that. When I said a lot of the things happened to me, we don’t have to go straight to that.
Q. But that’s the best part!
A. I mean, let’s face it, we’ve all known our cabana boys. I don’t think you necessarily have to have been an old actress to know a cabana boy. In the early 1980s, everybody was trying to be a masseuse. They were taking that up as a livelihood. I’m sure I got a few free massages.
Q. You were just trying to be helpful.
A. It sounds trite saying this, but I miss Tennessee. I have a lot of photos of Tennessee, and I have a few of them around, so I see them all the time. After I had already been nominated for “Midnight Cowboy,’’ I did “Heat’’ for Warhol, and Andy was friendly with Tennessee. And Truman Capote. So these were all the people who were around in the 1970s and 1980s. We had a blast.
At Norman Mailer House, 627 Commercial St., Provincetown, tomorrow night at 6 . Tickets: $20-$50. 866-789-8366, www.twptown.org
