The go-to Goonie
for tomboy or lesbian parts since her 1985 big-screen
breakthrough, Martha Plimpton has balanced mainstream films
such as The Mosquito Coast and Parenthood with
queer-friendly art-house fare, including Pecker and
I Shot Andy Warhol. Now a member of New
York’s theater circle (having earned a 2007
Tony nod for her role in Tom Stoppard’s epic The
Coast of Utopia), the 37-year-old Emmy nominee
currently stars in the Broadway production of Top
Girls, Caryl Churchill’s 1982 feminist
masterwork, as a legendary cross-dresser and proves once
again that, to paraphrase Cyndi Lauper, what’s
good enough for us is good enough for her -- unless,
of course, that includes Facebook.
In Top Girls, how are you approaching Pope
Joan, who, according to legend, became pope in the
ninth century by posing as a man?
Very gingerly. Mainly, I’m just trying to learn
the Latin. She’s a fictional person, which is a
benefit to me, but also a slight impediment, meaning
there’s not a whole lot of research material on her.
How does your own feminism manifest itself?
I don’t let it get in my way. I
don’t even think about it that much, and I have
the benefit of not having to, considering all of the women
who did before me.
In Top Girls you also portray Angie, whom
I’ve always considered a lesbian character.
No. People think that or ask that, but I
remember Caryl Churchill saying she really never
understood why that was. She’s just a teenager, and
she has a young friend that she has a strange, oddly
bullying relationship with.
Your first lesbian role was in 1992’s Inside
Monkey Zetterland. How did that
character’s sexuality inform your performance?
Honestly, I haven’t seen that movie in a really
long time, so I don’t remember if I made use of
that at all, but I don’t recall that I did any
really heavy thinking about it.
In that film you played a lesbian terrorist,
opposite Rupert Everett, who outs closeted gays in the
entertainment industry. How do you feel about the
media’s obsession with outing celebrities?
I feel like people’s lives need to be
their own. The whole point of liberty means being able
to make your own choices in terms of how you live your
life and who you want to talk to about it. Who am I to tell
anyone what to do?
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