"She's the coolest motherf****r": Patricia Clarkson's favorite role yet is an American hero

Actor Patricia Clarkson is proud of her reputation for playing "unsavory" characters, but the one she describes as "the coolest motherf****r in the world" was an Alabama mom who worked at a tire company.

Oscar and Tony Award-nominated Clarkson has had an on-screen career spanning cerebral dramas like "Good Night and Good Luck" and broad comedies like "Easy A," but she's perhaps best known for playing women who are icy cool and utterly chilling, like her Golden Globe and Emmy-winning turn as Adora in HBO's 2018 series "Sharp Objects." After viewers got a taste of Clarkson's scene-stealingly brittle Southern belle, "People would cross the street not to get near me," Clarkson recalled with obvious relish during a recent "Salon Talks" conversation. Yet it's her role as a real-life American hero that she's most excited about these days.

As Lilly Ledbetter in the new biopic "Lilly," Clarkson said she reached into "the best of my soul" to play the woman whose Supreme Court case against her former employer, Goodyear, paved the way for the Fair Pay Act named in her honor. It took director Rachel Feldman nearly a decade to get the movie off the ground, and its arrival now feels acutely timely.

"Lilly" debuted last fall at the Hamptons Film Festival, four weeks before the election. Seven months later, and in a new administration in which worker protections are being rolled back and initiatives aimed at limiting women's rights are on the rise, the story of Ledbetter's fight has taken on new resonance.

"That's one of the reasons people are standing and shouting and yelling at the end of this film," Clarkson said. "People are starting to realize now that things can be taken away."

During our conversation, Clarkson opened up about the joys of staying single, why she calls George Clooney "one of the great people in our industry," and why she's always drawn to playing the woman "who poisons her children or is a drug addict." But while her knack for playing outrageous, difficult characters is undeniable, it's Lilly who she says "is still with me." And though she knows audiences love the kind of "cool, sexy, complicated ladies" she does so well, she wants more movies about the Lillys of the world. "She made good trouble," she told me. "That's what makes America great."

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

What did you know about Lilly Ledbetter and her story before you took on this role?

Well, I grew up in a house of six women. I am the youngest. I have four older sisters who are all very accomplished and in the workforce, and a powerhouse of a mother, so you can imagine the relevance, the importance, the towering figure that Lilly Ledbetter is in my household because of what she accomplished. It was a very quick yes for me when I was offered the part.

This has been 10 years in the making.

Well, I wasn't attached 10 years ago. My beautiful director, Rachel [Feldman], fought the good fight, the long and arduous fight of getting this made, which is really difficult because adult drama is rough in Hollywood. But she hung in there, fought the good fight, and eventually, yes, she came to me when the film was pretty much ready to go.

I was in London when I was offered the part, working with the great Brendan Gleeson, and I told my agent, "I think this is going to be a very quick decision." The first person I called was my mother, and [then] my sister was like, "Oh my God, Patty," because when you list the characters I played, I've played quite a few unsavory characters, and finally I get to play a real, true American hero. We don't tell these stories often.

Lilly was alive right up until two days after the premiere at the Hamptons.

The first big premiere we had of it was at the Hamptons Film Festival, and unfortunately, she got quite ill. Her daughter and her son-in-law came, but she passed two days after we debuted the film. It was heartbreaking. There's no other way to say it. It was devastating. Devastating. I remember waking up on Sunday, and I thought, "My God, this remarkable human being is gone." I said, "But she had seen the movie and she lives on, thankfully."

We've taken this film all across the United States because it's a real American story. This is a woman from Possum Trot, Alabama, who grew up with nothing, a very modest upbringing, but people love her. They chant, they scream in the middle of the movie. People are shouting and stomping. It's like being at a wrestling match. It's kind of fabulous.

To play a woman who is a hero and so beloved, a real person who was, up until two days after the premiere, alive, that's got to be a little intimidating.

Very intimidating. This is why I didn't meet her. She knew all of this. She saw the movie and everything, but I chose not to [meet her] because I needed to take her from on high and put her on the ground, because you can't play someone you idolize. You can't play idolatry, you have to play her. I felt she was owed the deepest, truest parts of my soul, as pretentious as it may sound, but I thought she was owed everything, the best of me, the best of my soul, the emotional strife she went through, the physical strife.

We were set to meet at the Hamptons Film Festival, but I got to meet her beautiful daughter, Vicky, who is really just one in a million, just a stunning, wonderful human being. That apple falls right next to that tree. It was heartbreaking, the whole thing, but she is living on. She did get to know that people were screaming and cheering for her [when the film was screened across the country].

People understand her story. They understand her character is everything, her stamina, her fortitude, her resilience. She was just a remarkable person, and yet she was incredibly modest. Then she started to rise and become this star because she knew what she had accomplished.

She also passed away three weeks before the election. How does this film resonate differently for you in this climate?

I think that's one of the reasons people are standing and shouting and yelling at the end of this film. I did a screening up at Barnard [College], a lot of Birkenstocks and intellectuals. I'm not saying that in a derogatory way, Birkenstocks are wonderful and beautiful, but you know what I mean. These great minds, beautiful, smart people who are educators, screaming, yelling, clapping, crying.

Right now, in this climate, we need people who are stepping up. And it was really Obama who stepped up too, finally — it took until 2009 for this vital bill to pass. My goodness, how long we lived without that. I think people are starting to realize now that things can be taken away. She made trouble, good trouble, a lot of it, and we need those people who make good trouble. We can't ever lose it. That's the American spirit. That's what makes America great. It's always been great. We're not making it again.

You have an eye for these kinds of projects, though, you were in “She Said.”

Yes, that was very important for me to be in.

You were in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which is now on Broadway.

A huge success. George Clooney is one of the great people in our industry. I can honestly say, having worked with him and getting to know him, he is one of the true egalitarians we have in this world. He sees all people as equal. He really, really does, and I lived it every day on his set. From the actors to somebody who brought you a cup of coffee, he didn't care. It's thrilling to work with great people like that, and that's what I seek out. Then I turn around and play a woman who poisons her children or is a drug addict. I just did Mary Tyrone in London. What's a little morphine between friends? [Laughter.]

But I do love to seek higher ground when I can get it, and it doesn't often come. We had Erin Brockovich, then we had Shirley Chisholm, maybe a year ago. We should have an abundance of movies about great women in our country.

We love telling stories about cool, sexy, complicated ladies, but I also think what people are shocked about in this movie is that nobody is cool or hip in this film – except she's the coolest motherf****r in the world.” I think it's just shocking people how extraordinary she is and what she went through, and that she just kept getting back up. She was on the ropes for 10 years, and I don't know if I would do that. I'd be like, "You know what? I lost. Bye-bye. I'm done."

It's beautiful how powerful this is. When I was in New Orleans, my nieces and nephews were all in their 30s, 40s, and this hit them hard. They were all crying. They have children now, but this hits people of all ages. Yes, it probably has a slightly larger resonance with people [who are] older, but this film has shocked me, the reception of it. I’ll be honest.

I’m proud as a peacock, seriously. I walk home in my high heels because I'm so proud of what Rachel accomplished, what all of us, the great John Benjamin Hickey, who plays the love of my life, and the great Tommy Sadoski. They're just flawless, and they have to play the girlfriend parts, but they showed up. They were beautiful. They were present. They were kind. They were such supporters of me because I was shooting all day, every day, and I was so exhausted. They would make me laugh and remind me, "Patty, you're playing the great Lilly Ledbetter." And I'd be like, "Ah, okay. What time are cocktails?” [Laughter.]

The way that this movie hits with people, part of the reason is that we have not cured sexism.

Oh God, no. It's better. Things are getting better.

But one thing that you’ve said in multiple interviews is that the most sexist feedback you have received is because you never got married and had kids.

Oh, yes. I grew up in a very strong family, a very strong household. I grew up in New Orleans, so I didn't really grow up Southern. My mom and dad were old-fashioned. They were very wonderful, accepting, and loving of all people. I didn't grow up a Southern belle in a lot of ways because I grew up very middle-class. My mother was a powerhouse. My mother, I think, understood that I really loved working, I really was fierce. I was very independent as a child. I was gregarious. I was outgoing. I left New Orleans and transferred to Fordham University, my alma mater, and then I went to Yale School of Drama, and both were remarkable schools, made me a better actress, and gave me the career I have.

But I think my mother knew early on. I had some wonderful men in my life. I was engaged twice. I thought about marriage and I thought about children, but I love other people's children. I was with a man who had a child. I loved his child. I've had beautiful romance in my life, but it is crazy how people view you. It's better than it was maybe 10 years ago.

I made this one comment in an interview that went so viral, and you wonder, “Why did it go so viral?” Bruce Bozzi, I told him, "My mother was afraid that I would wake up at 50 and be unhappy because I didn't have children." And I told Bruce, "I woke up at 50 in a thong and stilettos, happier than I've ever been." Why would that go so viral?

Because you're living the dream of every unmarried woman. That's what everyone is hoping 50 looks like.

The thing is, I'm living a dream like Lilly was living a dream, my mother was living a dream. My mother was fighting for a city after Katrina. Lilly was fighting the good fight. We're all kind of living the life we were meant to be, and I am convinced that Lilly was the only person who could have taken on this challenge because she was from Possum Trot, Alabama, and grew up with an outhouse. She had nothing, and she didn't expect anything. She was fierce.

It was an undeniable route, the route she chose, and she had the wind beneath her wings. She had this remarkable husband, Charles, who loved her, and they had a beautiful love affair. People, I think, forget that Lilly was marching onward, but she had this real true love affair. But I think we all, as women, can live so many different lives. I think women are so diverse and I think more independent than men ever realized.

I'm lucky I have this great life, and now I've taken this film so many places, and I still have a journey, a lot of press to do on it. That's the beautiful thing. You can make a film, but everybody wants to talk about Lilly Ledbetter. That's where she's living on, in this. It's so heartbreaking because it would've been fun if she could see what she's inspiring in crowds across this country, seriously.

You've played so many different roles and mentioned some of those unsavory characters. Is there one who really got under your skin, who was hard to leave behind at the end of the day?

I would say there's two. I would say the woman in “Sharp Objects” stayed with me for quite some time. Some people would cross the street not to get near me. And Lilly. I will never, ever, ever, ever let go of Lilly. She will stay with me. She's always with me. I have a picture of her on my fridge. It's just such a gift. It makes me emotional, but it is a gift. It's a privilege to be called up. It's a calling. To be asked to play someone as great as this, someone as heroic, someone as stalwart, who lived a life well-lived. And she's not a Kennedy. She came from a very specific upbringing, and she rose to the occasion. I'm happy that she's with me and still with me, and I have to talk about her all day now, but it gives me solace. It gives me great comfort to talk about her because she's just with me.