Tuesday, May 22, 2012
MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
By Amy Calder acalder@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
Julie Hagerty recalls her first acting gig in a small theater in New York City in 1979.
Actress Julie Hagerty, seen above in a shot from the film “Make Up,” will be screening the film Wednesday, along with “Airplane!” and “Lost in America,” in Waterville for the Maine International Film Festival.
Contributed photo
She was starring in the off-Broadway show "Mutual Benefit Life," at her brother's theater, The Production Company.
To get on-stage during performances, she had to go through the basement of the theater and out to the street, down a back alley and then enter stage right.
"If it rained, sometimes I'd come in drenched, actually," Hagerty recalled with a laugh. "It was a lot of fun."
"Fun" is how you might describe Hagerty's acting career, which includes her first film role in 1980 as stewardess Elaine Dickinson in "Airplane!"
That film, billed by the American Film Institute as one of the 10 funniest movies ever made, was just the beginning for Hagerty. She starred in many more films, including Albert Brooks' "Lost in America," "Woody Allen's "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy," and Robert Altman's "Beyond Therapy."
On Wednesday, Hagerty, 55, will bring her new short film, "Make Up," to the Maine International Film Festival.
"I'm so looking forward to coming," Hagerty said Monday from her summer home in the Sebago Lakes region.
"And I'm so thankful there's a film festival here and a celebration of film and the arts. I think it's so important to have arts in our communities."
Hagerty, star of films including "What About Bob?" "The Wife," "She's the Man" and "Just Friends," will be accompanied Wednesday by her husband, Richard Kagan, and "Make Up" screenwriter-director Scott Tuft.
The 14-minute film, set in 1961, is about a door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman, played by Hagerty, who stops at the home of a suburban housewife -- and everything is not necessarily as it seems.
"Scott sent the script to me," Hagerty said. "He got my address from the artistic director of the Roundabout Theatre Company and sent it. I was just knocked out by it. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it has many twists and turns. It's a period piece -- kind of Hitchcockian."
The film was shot in three days, on a small sound stage in "this little place out in the valley, in L.A.," Hagerty said.
Tuft, she said, was very involved in every detail, right down to the wardrobes and the fingernail polish used.
"He was so specific -- he just bowled me over," she said. "He's just a fine young director and screenwriter. It was so much fun."
On Wednesday, "Make Up" and "Lost in America" will be shown at 6:30 p.m. in the Waterville Opera House; "Airplane!" will be shown at 9:20 p.m. Hagerty and Tuft will introduce "Make Up," and take part in a question-and-answer session.
Hagerty, of Los Angeles, was born in Cincinnati. Her mother was a singer and model; her father, a musician who was on a local television show that aired for an hour and a half a day, five days a week, for 25 years, according to Hagerty (now 84, he still plays clarinet and saxophone for local events, she said).
While in junior high and high school, Hagerty took drama classes outside of school. Like her mother, she became a model.
"I'd always wanted to be an actress, but I never thought it would happen," she said.
While working in a department store in Cincinnati, she was discovered by the Ford Models agency and started modeling and traveling all over the world. She then began working for her brother Michael's theater company in New York, building sets and selling tickets before eventually starring in "Mutual Benefit Life," her first role.
"I was, like, so nervous but I had the most wonderful time," she recalled.
Then, she was cast in "Airplane!" -- her film debut, starring Robert Hays and featuring seasoned actors like Robert Stack, Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges -- even Barbara Billingsley of "Leave it to Beaver" fame.
"It was terrifying because the crew was bigger than any audience I had ever had," Hagerty said. "I was working with all my childhood heroes. They were all so lovely and willing to teach you and not sort of shun you. Bob Hays was the most darling guy."
She moved on to several other films after that, but she always came back to New York.
"I think theater's the best training ground and the best place to come back to and the best place to always be," she said. "I love theater, and I love film."
Friendly and upbeat, Hagerty obviously enjoys her craft.
"I love to work, and I feel very fortunate that I have the opportunity to do what I love," she said.
She said she has been working for 12 years with Wally Shawn and Andre Gregory (who wrote and starred in 1981's "My Dinner with Andre"), on Henrik Ibsen's play "Master Builder."
"We're going to have another rehearsal in October and hopefully we'll be doing it as a theater piece in the spring," she said.
Ken Eisen, programmer for the Waterville festival, said he is excited about Hagerty's special guest appearance.
Her new film, "Make Up," is a must-see, he said.
"It's really a fun and peculiar little film," he said. "I really liked it a lot."
Amy Calder -- 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com
Maine International Film Festival
Who: Actress Julie Hagerty; Director-screenwriter Scott Tuft
What and when: The films, "Make Up," and "Lost in America," 6:30 p.m. Wednesday; and "Airplane!" 9:20 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Waterville Opera House"
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