EXCLUSIVE: Andie MacDowell – On Womanhood and her Latest Film

Actress Andie MacDowell’s sweet yet sultry sensuality captivated movie-going audiences with hits like ‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape’, ‘Green Card’, ‘Groundhog’s Day’ and ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. She has always played the woman of great desire who orbits just outside of the male lead’s reach… that is, until he figures out how to win her over.
As Andie tells it, her “it girl” status throughout the late eighties and the whole of the nineties was a thrill ride, but left her feeling torn between an A-List movie career and being a hands-on mother to her three children. It was then she resolved to stop making movies back-to-back, but to choose her projects more carefully – which does not mean she’s playing it safe.
In her latest film, ‘Love After Love’, MacDowell tackles the role of the beautifully confident Suzanne, a wife and mother of two grown sons. She is loving her life until her husband’s declining health and his death leaves her and her family reeling with grief, bitterness, and fear, as they try to regain their equilibrium.
Allison Kugel: When you’re making a movie like ‘Love After Love’ where the subject matter is heavier and about loss, do you feel pressure to entertain the audience, or is your allegiance solely to bringing out the truth of this character?
Andie MacDowell: I don’t think about it as entertaining the audience. I think it’s about touching your audience. When I read a book or watch a movie, I feel what the characters are feeling. Sometimes when I watch a movie, I almost feel like I’m in the movie. It’s more along the lines of being honest. And this character, Suzanne, she is so beautifully written. It’s about taking someone on the same journey that these characters go on. Our director, Russell Harbaugh, is a true artist and I think this movie looks like a piece of art.
Allison Kugel: You’ve said that you were starving for this type of a role. Beyond the need to no longer be typecast, did playing Suzanne in ‘Love After Love’ allow you to work out events and emotions from your own life? Was it therapeutic for you?
Andie MacDowell: I have such a well and a huge depth of life experience that I haven’t had the opportunity to use on film. I saw so much that I could do with this character. She has all these different parts of herself. She has this lusty confidence; she’s a self-assured woman that’s not ashamed that she had an open marriage. And then she crumbles. But she is heroic in taking care of her husband, and then devastated at losing him and you then see her destroyed. And then she is trying to start over, and she has that humbling experience of having sex with the person she works with. In the scene where she loses it on the young actress, I really wanted to play that part of things, the ability to be cruel because you’re in pain. We do that as mature women. We’re fed up as mature women and we lash out sometimes. It’s a true moment in the film.
Allison Kugel: Do you feel a sense of relief that the kinds of roles you’re getting to play now are more character-driven, as opposed to the young female lead that you played in the nineties?
Andie MacDowell: I’m thankful for all the jobs I’ve had, and I’ve gotten to do some great parts. I don’t have any regrets, and I think those roles suited me at that age and time. I think as you get older, you are a character (laughs). You have a lot more depth by the time you’re my age, because you’ve had to struggle. My life has not been a piece of cake.
Allison Kugel: How did you feel about being cast as Chris O’Dowd’s mother in this film, playing the mother of an adult child?
Andie MacDowell: I am old enough to be his mother. And I just played another character, recently, where I tried to look even older. I don’t have a problem with looking older. I think I can play ten years older and ten years younger. At some points in the film I looked older than at other times. I think that happens all the time, in real life too.
Allison Kugel: This movie is about grieving and finding your way back after the loss of a loved one. What are the things that you turn to when the ground starts to shake beneath your feet? How do you come back to center?
Andie MacDowell: Oh, I’m always looking for centre. I hike a lot and I like to be in nature around trees. I love to ride horses…
Allison Kugel: What do you teach your kids about emotional and spiritual resiliency?
Andie MacDowell: They are spiritual, which I am thankful for. I put no pressure on them to believe anything that I believe, but I think it’s healthy to have spirituality in your life. They also do a lot of yoga. They are very peace-seeking people, and love-seeking people, on the inside.
Allison Kugel: In your late twenties and into your thirties and you were doing movie after movie and all eyes were on you. What did that moment in time feel like for you?
Andie MacDowell: Well, I could have done a lot more, but one year I did three movies in a year and I realized that I could not be a good mother and do that many movies. I was so popular, and I was so young, that it was easy. Life was great.
Allison Kugel: And then you entered your forties.
Andie MacDowell: Yes, it’s true. People would keep saying to me when I would get interviewed, “How does it feel to turn forty and know that you’re not going to work anymore?” And it really was… kind of like a light switch.
Allison Kugel: Even though you still looked gorgeous and had the same abilities…
Andie MacDowell: Even though I looked gorgeous. It gets harder. I never wanted to complain or whine too much because I always thought it was unattractive. I find it really fascinating that women are finally in a place this year where we are no longer seen as whiners. We’re seen as legitimately having a truth to tell that is finally being told.
Allison Kugel: In the early years of your career, did you ever have a #MeToo moment?
Andie MacDowell: I didn’t ever have sexual problems in the context of my career. I never found myself in any kind of position in this business. I had #MeToo issues, but not in the business. But for me, what I find as relevant and equally as important as the #MeToo movement regarding sexual assault I strongly believe that this is the first time we have had any voice. Women have always been accused of being too emotional. If you’ve studied therapy, early on, according to Carl Jung, a woman who wanted to be independent was crazy. That’s how far we have had to come. Just to be independent, not too long ago, we were called insane. There are so many social issues right now that are really important. My hope is that every aspect of how we have been diminished is going to be opened up.
Allison Kugel: With Love After Love you did find a role that shows the complexity of a female character.
Andie MacDowell: I am astounded by this film and this role. And Chris O’Dowd is a great person and very talented actor. I was surrounded by remarkable people.
Allison Kugel: Was there a lot of improvisation in this film?
Andie MacDowell: There was a good bit of improv. But with the script, I love the words that [filmmaker] Russell Harbaugh wrote for me. They are not words that I would come up with, so I liked using his words and speaking the way that he wrote her.
Allison Kugel: The question in the first scene that’s asked to your character is, “What is happy?”
Andie MacDowell: That was an honest answer that my character gives, “You can’t always be happy.” A therapist told me that one time (laughs). It was a big revelation; you can’t always be happy.
Allison Kugel: How do you define happy?
Andie MacDowell: I think happiness is peace of mind. It’s definitely not superficial. Happiness is not a big house. I’ve had a big house and I’ve had a small house, and I think I was happier in the smaller house. Happiness is never going to be things. It’s also love and attachment, but to me happiness is really peace of mind.
Allison Kugel: What do you see as the moral of the story in this movie, ‘Love After Love’? What’s the takeaway from this movie?
Andie MacDowell: That we’re broken. Everybody, all of us. I think we’re all broken and we’re just trying to get through life as best as we can.
Allison Kugel: I feel like there should be a “but” there. We’re all broken, but…
Andie MacDowell: But, we’ll get through it together. We need each other and nobody’s perfect.
Allison Kugel: How are you going to ring in your sixtieth birthday next month?
Andie MacDowell: I’m going to be working which is what I like to do! That’s a good thing. I want to do something special. Maybe I’ll go to India. I’ve been wanting to go to India for a long time.
Allison Kugel: What do you think this new decade will bring into your life?
Andie MacDowell: I know what I hope it brings. I would like to do more spiritual work. Go to a yoga retreat and cultivate every aspect of myself so that I can continue to work on peace of mind. As you get older, I feel like if you’re going down the right road there is this clarity that you can see in your eyes. It’s a gentleness that is the most beautiful aspect a human can have. That is my goal, to continue to work on that gentle side of myself.
Allison Kugel: The title of this film, ‘Love After Love’, I feel like it holds a double meaning. Does it mean finding your life after losing love, or finding love again after losing love, or both?
Andie MacDowell: For me it means that love is a complex thing. You can’t fit it all in one place. In this film, it could mean that maybe we all loved him so much that we needed to learn to love in another way. If you don’t have a person in your life any longer, then you have to find your way to loving other people.
‘Love After Love’ is in theatres and On Demand on 30 March.
> Allison Kugel
Allison Kugel is a syndicated entertainment and pop culture journalist, and author of the book, Journaling Fame: A memoir of a life unhinged and on the record. Follow her on Instagram @theallisonkugel.
Photo Credit: Sam Jones