A Conversation with Mary Kay Place – HuffPost 11.27.13

Mike Ragogna: What did Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman mean to you?

Mary Kay Place: Being on the show was a gift. It was a mind blowing, 360 degree experience. Shooting 35 pages a day, five days a week for 325 episodes was a real education in the creative process. I learned a lot–often the hard way. It was as fun as it gets and at the same time could be very stressful and intense. It was quite a journey and changed my life in many ways. I’m grateful to have been a part of it.

MR: Did it ever get too surreal?

MKP: It may have been for some people. But with the volume of material being produced each week it was inevitable that occasionally things went off the rails. Some scenes and episodes worked better than others but when it was good it was very good.

MR: How closely did you identify with the character you played?

MKP: I don’t know if I really identified with Loretta Haggers as much as I felt I understood her and enjoyed imagining how she would perceive certain situations and react. She was a lot of fun to play. I also really loved writing her original songs. Growing up in Oklahoma and spending a lot of time in my grandparent’s small towns in Texas I interacted with a lot of folks that influenced the way I played Loretta. The way she pronounced certain words, her faith, her love of country music and Charlie.

MR: Where might your character “be” in 2013?

MKP: I have no idea. Let’s see, she’d definitely still be singing and writing country music but instead of the Capri Lounge–which was razed for a Walmart–she now sings at the Indian Casino on the outskirts of town. Since beloved Charlie, Graham Jarvis, has passed away, I guess she’d be a widow and maybe teaching a Sunday school class. Recently, she started dating the new guitar player in the house band at the Casino, a much younger man.

MR: If there were any TV show at the time til now that Mary Hartman, Mary Hartmancould have crossed over with, what would it be and what would the plot have involved?

MKP: I don’t know about a crossover or a plot, but the first show that popped out after that felt like it could be a relative to our show in that it also shared soap opera elements, was out of the box, and unique in tone and rhythm was Twin Peaks. Even though it was a very different show and we didn’t share grandparents, it felt like a second cousin once removed.

MR: Mary Kay, what do you think of your hits “Baby Boy” and “Vitamin L” all these years later?

MKP: Due to our hectic schedule, those songs were written very fast to include in scenes on the show. It never occurred to me at the time that they would ever be out in the world aside from the show, let along on record albums or on the radio. I look back at these songs with great affection. I had fun writing them in the voice of Loretta, from her point of view and I still think these songs did their job of revealing character and telling Loretta’s story.

MR: Did you get what Norman was doing with the show’s premise or were you just having fun with your role or both?

MKP: Both. I got what we were doing and I had a lot of fun doing it.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

MKP: Follow your instincts. Listen to the wisdom of your body. If your gut alarm is going off, something’s wrong. Reassess.