Few female stars had a more rapid rise to fame than Kathleen Turner – out of drama school she quickly nabbed an agent, then scored a role in a Broadway hit (Gemini) and a soap, before landing the lead in Body Heat. This was an instant classic and she followed it up with two more excellent films, both very different – The Man With Two Brains and Romancing the Stone.
It wasn’t hard even at the time to see why she became so big so fast – that incredible voice, great sex appeal, confidence and genuine acting ability. She was on a hot streak for the entire 80s – Prizzi’s Honour, Accidental Tourist, War of the Roses.
But in the 90s it went sour. Her husband had business troubles (he was involved in a building which suffered a fire; 87 people died); she developed arthritis which led to a drinking problem; steroids and other medicines helped wreck her looks and figure; she featured in a number of flops. But she kept working and eventually had a big comeback as a stage actor, with The Graduate and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (although her marriage ended after 20-odd years).
Interesting trivia: Debra Winger was meant to play the lead in Stone but she bit Michael Douglas at a meeting; the role of Joan Wilder’s agent was originally shot with a male actor playing the role but the scenes were refilmed; Tony Perkins and Ken Russell had major problems with drugs and booze respectively on Crimes of Passion; she and Douglas had a fling on Stone; Nic Cage’s acting choices in Peggy Sue Got Married (the hair, the voice) were deliberately against the wishes of Coppola to show his independence of his uncle director; Burt Reynolds was a little bitch on Switching Channels.
To be honest I would have preferred more of this than her going on about Virginia Woolf and her guest role on Nip Tuck all the time; she also goes on a bit too much about her daughter, friends and general philosophy on life (I’m not saying it doesn’t have a place there’s just too much of it).
I did really like her tips on acting, including a discussion of a voice – Turner teaches acting and you can tell. She pats herself a bit too much on her back about her feminism and activism but I did find this interesting; I also enjoyed the biographical stuff: I had no idea she was a “diplomat brat” – she grew up the daughter of a US diplomat, living in Cuba, Venezuela and England (se was in Cuba when Castro came to power); her father died of coronary thrombosis when she was only 17; she has a brother who lives in New Zealand now. This goes on a bit too long but a decent enough read.
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