Lynn Cohen
Her many New York stage appearances on Broadway and Off-Broadway include Tina Howe’s recent play, “Chasing Manet” opposite Jane Alexander (Primary Stages), “Macbeth” (Delacorte), “Traveling Lady” (EST), “Ivanov” “The Devils” (NYTW), “Uncle Vanya” (Victory) “The Model Apartment” (Primary Stages), “Orpheus Descending,” “Hamlet” (NYSF), and “Street Scene” (NY City Opera). Regionally, she has appeared in “Getting Out” (Actors Theatre of Louisville), “The Three Sisters” (Cincinnati Playhouse), “The Tempest” (Alpine Theatre Project), “Rabbit Hole” (Company of Fools), “La Dispute” (ART), “My Good Name” (Bay Street Theatre), “End of the Day” (Williamstown Theatre Festival), “The Women” (Hartford Stage), “The Bacchae/The Seagull” (Guthrie). Her film and TV includes Magda in “Sex and the City,” “Sex and the City 2,” Judge Elizabeth Mizener on “Law and Order,” “Munich,” “I Shot Andy Warhol,” “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” “The Cradle Will Rock,” “Deception,” “Delirious,” “Last Call,” “The Last Days of Leni Riefenstahl,” “Across the Universe,” “Vanya on 42nd Street,” “Synecdoche, New York,” “Eagle Eye,” “Damages,” “Nurse Jackie,” and “The Extra Man.” Ms. Cohen has received the Richard Seff Award, the Bowden Award, and is a Fox Fellow.
How did you begin in the theater?
I was fifteen when I went on the stage. It was a professional theatre summer stock company. I did a play a week as an apprentice, washing dishes and then walked on the stage. Growing up in Kansas City, I was very, very shy; I was an only child. When I read “Theatre Arts Magazine,” it opened my eyes. I found out about a summer stock company in Massachusetts, I had to be older to get in but I was going. My parents were so supportive; they called The New York Times, and asked to speak to Brooks Atkinson. They told him: “Our daughter is very young, and she wants to go to this summer stock theater, what should we do? He calmed them, and told them: It’s fine, it’s safe, it’s a real theatre so she’ll be all right.” So I got to go.
I did “Night of January 16th,” “Warriors Husband,” “Enchanted Cottage” – they gave it to me as my show, and “Ah, Wilderness” – a new show a week.
You continue working on your craft and instrument.
I work very hard; I was trained by Alvina Kraus at Northwestern. She was a legend. Alvina was strict. She didn’t suffer fools. She wanted you to go to the mat and do the work.
Communication is the most important thing. She had a great ‘eye’ for knowing who did the work. The people in her class were the serious, hard-working – Richard Benjamin was there.
I swim to maintain my body, and do some exercise. You can never stop working on your voice. I go to The Actors Center, they have workshops: Rob, Claire, Ron van Lieu are there.
I always feel like a beginner, like I learn every single solitary time I walk on stage. I recently was directed by John Doyle for six weeks in ‘Three Sisters”; we had three weeks rehearsal in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club, then rehearsed for three weeks in Cincinnati, and then had four weeks of performances. Such a fabulous theatre; we had great sets, lighting. John loves and understands actors; he directs with a concept, and you know it from the first day. We had a wonderful cast: Laila Robins, Frank Wood, everyone. I don’t’ remember hearing “no.” When someone would ask: “Can I try this?” He would say: “Why not, let’s see what happens if we do it.” You learn from directors like that. And real actors are the greatest things in the world.
You’ve also been fortunate to work some fine film directors.
Louis Malle, Woody Allen, Tim Robbins, Michael Patrick – how lucky can you be. I’ve been very fortunate to do film projects that are amazing, with wonderful actors and wonderful filmmakers
On “Munich,” Spielberg would lean across to me, and talk; he genuinely cared, it was amazing. Tony Kushner is also a genius. On set, one time Kushner wrote a new line for one of the Israeli actors, English wasn’t their first language. An hour later, they were still working on the line, Spielberg says: “Take your time. I have a lot of time. I have a lot of film, and I can’t do it as well as you.”
In film, it has to do with energy. It has to do with filling the space – whether my energy will travel from here to there. If you understand what that is trying to reach someone then you know exactly what to do.
Who were inspirations for you?
Laurence Olivier was my idol; my sons are named after him. He talked about the energy it takes being on stage, that comes from your gut. Olivier was one of the most beautiful actors – do you remember him in “Henry V?” I was a kid when I saw that film. Then his “Hamlet” came out; I must have seen it at least 25 times. And “Wuthering Heights,” and you see how far he went in “The Entertainer.” It was so different; his hands were off the work.
I saw Uta Hagen in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” on Broadway on opening night. I did the role in stock. I’ve worked in about 30 regional theatres. I was in the first Humana Festival – Jon Jory directed me in Marsha Mason’s “Getting Out” at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. It’s the best way to learn how to act
My hunger has always been for the theatre. I don’t want to work on material that’s not hard to do. I do feel the quality of the material you work on has to do with what you’re willing to share of your self.
“I remember reading a framed needlepoint sampler when I was young: “You must not judge another man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins.” This little piece of craft store kitsch was like an epiphany for me…And going to the United Nations opened up this door to an idea for me, an idea of peace and reconciliation among strangers who distrusted each other. And I think I’ve never really given that up or gone beyond that idea of being a translator, of explaining people to each other, of being a conduit of mutual emotional understanding. I’m only being a little grandiose when I say I think that’s why I've always been drawn to characters who are difficult to translate to other people, prissy women, disagreeable women, women whose motives are easily misconstrued, women who are hard to love." Meryl Streep
