Patti LuPone landed 'Beau Is Afraid' role after 'terrifying' red-carpet interview
Spoiler alert! This story contains details about the ending of "Beau Is Afraid" (in theaters now). Stop reading now if you haven't seen it and don't want to know.
NEW YORK – Patti LuPone doesn't hold back.
Case in point: a 2017 red-carpet interview, in which she railed against Donald Trump. The viral clip ultimately led director Ari Aster to cast the Broadway star as Mona in "Beau Is Afraid," playing the dementedly overbearing mom to Joaquin Phoenix’s schlubby hero.
"Honestly, when we were thinking of who could play Mona, I saw a 30-second clip of her on a red carpet and she was just terrifying, in a great way," recalls Aster, a longtime fan of LuPone's theater work. "It was just clear that it was her."
LuPone, 74, laughs about the expletive-laden moment at the Tony Awards, when she was asked whether she'd perform for the then-president.
"It flew out of my mouth," she says. "I was actually annoyed with the interviewer for bringing that up. I should have said, 'Look at where you are! The Gay Super Bowl!' I was just so infuriated and he kept pushing me on it, so I went, 'You want the truth? Here's the truth.' "
Mona is 'the best role I've ever had on camera,' Patti LuPone says
LuPone is a three-time Tony winner best known for originating the role of Eva Perón in the musical "Evita," as well as for her indelible performances in revivals of "Gypsy," Company" and "Anything Goes." Although she's appeared in TV shows such as "30 Rock" and "American Horror Story," "Beau" is a rare big-screen outing for the brassy stage legend, who's been hailed by critics as the film's standout.
Mona is offscreen for most of the three-hour movie, as Beau embarks on a frequently absurd journey home after being told she was killed in a freak accident. But shortly after his arrival, Beau discovers that Mona has been alive all along, and orchestrated his entire perilous odyssey to punish him for canceling their last visit. And in the film's darkly funny final moments, Beau is literally put on trial for all the ways he's disappointed and disrespected his mother, and he is sentenced to death.
"It's the best role I've ever had on camera," LuPone says. Normally, "I don't get opportunities like this as an actor. It's so far out there."
Mona admonishes Beau for his lack of ambition, spies on him having sex with a childhood friend (Parker Posey) and later locks Beau in an attic with a giant penis monster, which may or may not be his father. But for all the character's extreme actions and withering remarks, LuPone could understand Mona's basic human desire to hold onto her child. She has one son, Joshua, 32, with husband Matthew Johnston.
"I worry about my son all the time," LuPone says. "I'm not a Mona, but things become heightened when you're a parent." In her, "I saw a woman who was trying to make a man out of her kid and he was constantly failing."
In the film's last scene, Mona watches Beau drown after he's found guilty of being a bad son. LuPone believes Mona has mixed feelings in that moment.
"It's sort of, 'He's gone, my child, the one thing I wanted more than anything in the world is gone,' " LuPone says. "Does she blame herself? No, she doesn't. She blames him. (Laughs.)”
She's now earning Oscar buzz for 'Beau is Afraid' and wants to do more experimental movies
LuPone makes a meal out of Mona, with a sensational monologue about Beau's ungratefulness and her fierce dedication to parenting. The performance already has many Twitter users beating the drum for LuPone's first Oscar nomination next year.
"That's great, are you kidding?" LuPone says. "But I would be disappointed (if it doesn't pan out), so I'm not even dealing with that."
Her most important critic – her son – has raved about her tour-de-force turn, saying he doesn't recognize his mom in the film.
"We have a really good relationship," LuPone says. "He's seen me play a lot of roles and knows who I am as a mother. He sees me cooking and cleaning house. He sees me as a regular person wandering around in a nightshirt."
She's currently shooting Disney+ series "Agatha: Coven of Chaos," a spinoff of Marvel's "WandaVision," but hopes to continue making more "left-of-center" films like "Beau" going forward.
After giving up her membership to theatrical union Actors' Equity Association last fall, she has no desire to come back to Broadway.
"I'm not missing the theater," LuPone says. "I won't do eight shows a week ever again. It's not that I can't, but I've done it for 50 years and there's no life there. You have one day off. I love performing live and I love developing characters, but I don't want to be on stage for the foreseeable future."
And if she does return to theater, it'll be far away from Times Square. "I would rather it be really interesting: Find a storefront. Go to the U.N. Finally come downtown. Do something (where) audiences will find you."
She considers "Gypsy" and "Company" among her proudest stage roles, along with 1975's "The Robber Bridegroom" and 2005's high-concept "Sweeney Todd," in which the cast doubled as the orchestra.
"When our stage management said that we were more like a band than a group of actors, that was my proudest moment,” LuPone says. “But there's several where I just felt as though we served the play and we served each other, and the joy just went right out into the audience. That's the ultimate."
Take a deeper dive into Patti LuPone's career:
'This character came from my guts': Joaquin Phoenix, Ari Aster talk new movie 'Beau is Afraid'
'No longer part of that circus': Patti LuPone gives up Actors' Equity Card, ends Broadway career
Bob LuPone: Patti LuPone's Tony-nominated brother dies at 76
The Tony Awards' biggest moments: Jennifer Hudson EGOTs, Billy Crystal sings with Samuel L. Jackson
'Who do you think you are?': Patti LuPone claps back at Broadway theatergoer for not wearing mask
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Beau Is Afraid' ending explained: Patti LuPone on shocking last scene
