Full Article Text
arts&eatertaiameat
f i I m
Cooking with Kyra
Kyra Sedgwick talks about going to lesbian bars with her costar Julianna Margulies
to research their gay roles in What's Cooking? By Michael Giltz _ -I've kissed Paulina
~ ~ Porizkova, Helen Mir-
ren, and Julianna
Margulies, " laughs
actress Kyra Sedg-
wick. "God, people would kill to
be in my shoes."
The smooch with Porizkova
came last spring during Sedgwick's
"blink and you missed it" sitcom
Talk to Me. Her dalliance with the
estimable Helen Mirren occurred
in Losing Chase, a 1996 Showtime
movie directed by Sedgwick 's hus
band, Kevin Bacon. Now, in the
new movie What's Cooking?
(which opens in New York on No
vember 10 and in Los Angeles
and selected cities the fol
lowing week), Sedg
wick enjoys a loving
relationship with
ER star Margulies .
A comedic drama,
What's Cooking? re
volves around four
families: a Jewish cou
ple who are happy to
have their lesbian daughter
home for the holidays, as long as
her "friend" remains just a friend
in the eyes of the relatives ; an
upper-class black family with
Alire Woodard as a mother seem
ingly at loose ends; a Vietnamese
family featuring an unrecogniz
able Joan Chen as the tradition
happy matriarch; and a Latino
family headed by Mercedes Ruehl
as the separated mom ready to
date again.
Despite other subplots involv
ing marital strife, a loaded gun
kept hidden by a teenager, and in
terracial dating that gives parents
on both sides conniption fits, the
characters played by Sedgwick
and Margulies are at the heart of
the movie. They gamely endure
THE ADVOCATE 1881 NOVEMBER 21, 2000 the questioning of guests who
want to know when they'll meet
the right man, let Mom (Lainie
Kazan) come into their room in the
morning (with the single beds still
pushed together), and try to make
the best of an awkward situation.
According to the friendly and
slightly raunchy Sedgwick (who
perks up whenever she tosses off
an expletive or two), she and Mar
gulies were made for each other.
"We both care about the same
things," explains the 35-year-old
New York City native. "We both
are women who won't take a lot of
shit from anybody. We're very in
touch with our male sides as
well as our female sides.
And we're women who
really expect to be
treated as equals." In
other words, they'd
both make good les
bians? "Yeah!" she
laughs. "I think so."
And Sedgwick also
confesses to a bit of curiosi-
ty. "Honestly, I've always been
slightly saddened by the fact that I
had never had a lesbian come on
to me," admits the actress, who
currently stars off-Broadway in
Stranger [see review, page 96], a
new play by Craig Lucas. Since
she's married to Kevin Bacon and
the mother of two, Sedgwick's
chances to be the object of a
woman's affection seemed remote.
Besides, when she and Mar
gulies hit the New York City bars
to prepare for their roles, Sedg
wick thought there might be awk
ward situations at the places
where she and Margulies hung out
as "tourists." "I expected a little
anger, a little 'What the fuck are
you doing here?'" says Sedgwick,
who mentions Henrietta Hud-~
f i I m
Cooking with Kyra
Kyra Sedgwick talks about going to lesbian bars with her costar Julianna Margulies
to research their gay roles in What's Cooking? By Michael Giltz _ -I've kissed Paulina
~ ~ Porizkova, Helen Mir-
ren, and Julianna
Margulies, " laughs
actress Kyra Sedg-
wick. "God, people would kill to
be in my shoes."
The smooch with Porizkova
came last spring during Sedgwick's
"blink and you missed it" sitcom
Talk to Me. Her dalliance with the
estimable Helen Mirren occurred
in Losing Chase, a 1996 Showtime
movie directed by Sedgwick 's hus
band, Kevin Bacon. Now, in the
new movie What's Cooking?
(which opens in New York on No
vember 10 and in Los Angeles
and selected cities the fol
lowing week), Sedg
wick enjoys a loving
relationship with
ER star Margulies .
A comedic drama,
What's Cooking? re
volves around four
families: a Jewish cou
ple who are happy to
have their lesbian daughter
home for the holidays, as long as
her "friend" remains just a friend
in the eyes of the relatives ; an
upper-class black family with
Alire Woodard as a mother seem
ingly at loose ends; a Vietnamese
family featuring an unrecogniz
able Joan Chen as the tradition
happy matriarch; and a Latino
family headed by Mercedes Ruehl
as the separated mom ready to
date again.
Despite other subplots involv
ing marital strife, a loaded gun
kept hidden by a teenager, and in
terracial dating that gives parents
on both sides conniption fits, the
characters played by Sedgwick
and Margulies are at the heart of
the movie. They gamely endure
THE ADVOCATE 1881 NOVEMBER 21, 2000 the questioning of guests who
want to know when they'll meet
the right man, let Mom (Lainie
Kazan) come into their room in the
morning (with the single beds still
pushed together), and try to make
the best of an awkward situation.
According to the friendly and
slightly raunchy Sedgwick (who
perks up whenever she tosses off
an expletive or two), she and Mar
gulies were made for each other.
"We both care about the same
things," explains the 35-year-old
New York City native. "We both
are women who won't take a lot of
shit from anybody. We're very in
touch with our male sides as
well as our female sides.
And we're women who
really expect to be
treated as equals." In
other words, they'd
both make good les
bians? "Yeah!" she
laughs. "I think so."
And Sedgwick also
confesses to a bit of curiosi-
ty. "Honestly, I've always been
slightly saddened by the fact that I
had never had a lesbian come on
to me," admits the actress, who
currently stars off-Broadway in
Stranger [see review, page 96], a
new play by Craig Lucas. Since
she's married to Kevin Bacon and
the mother of two, Sedgwick's
chances to be the object of a
woman's affection seemed remote.
Besides, when she and Mar
gulies hit the New York City bars
to prepare for their roles, Sedg
wick thought there might be awk
ward situations at the places
where she and Margulies hung out
as "tourists." "I expected a little
anger, a little 'What the fuck are
you doing here?'" says Sedgwick,
who mentions Henrietta Hud-~