Acting With Character: Margo Martindale at the Texas Film Awards
At 71, the Texan is a bigger star than ever ... and just getting started
By Richard Whittaker, 2:31PM, Thu. Mar. 2, 2023
The Texas Film Awards can sometimes be about a body of work, applauding a long career. Sometimes it can be about an ascending talent at a new peak. Margo Martindale is managing both.
At 71, she has never been busier. A life on the stage and screen, working with directors like Tony Scott, Robert Benton, Neil Jordan, and Rob Reiner, has made her one of the most instantly recognizable character actors - the kind of talent that can move effortlessly and skillfully between roles. She's graced dozens of TV shows, and has become a household name her starring roles in The Americans and Cocaine Bear, as well as a version of herself in Bojack Horseman (as Character Actress Margo Martindale).
Now the Jacksonville, Texas native returns to the Lone Star State – more specifically, Luck, Texas – this Friday, March 3, to be honored by the Texas Film Awards, alongside actors Jonathan Majors (Creed III, The Last Black Man in San Francisco), Warner Pictures Group CEO Michael de Luca, and indie cinema's fairy godparents, Janet and John Pierson.
Ever the professional, she's also hoping that she can achieve a goal that has somehow evaded her: "I have to get a movie shooting in Texas. I'm gonna be campaigning."
Austin Chronicle: Not only have you done an incredible variety of stuff, you seem to love doing voice work and doing cartoons, and not everybody does. It's tougher than people acknowledge and it's a real skillset that a lot of people don't have.
Margo Martindale: It's much harder because it takes more energy. You almost have to be bigger. You know, it's hard to be real subtle in voice work. I'm working on a Netflix movie, doing Roald Dahl's The Twits and it is insanely fun. I've never had more fun with any voice thing except BoJack Horseman , which was really fun.
It's a nice thing that I did a lot in the early days, just regular commercials. I did a lot of voiceovers. Uh, but, it took a while really to make it, because I have a very low voice and, you know, sometimes you go, "Is that a man or is that a woman?" You know, it's a tricky kind of thing, but maybe people recognize my voice a lot more now.
AC: You've had an incredibly varied career where people go, "Oh, you were in that. Oh, I remember that episode. Oh, you were in that. I remember that. I remember that film." You seem to always want to be busy.
I also did the original Steel Magnolias, which sort of changed my career a little bit because everyone in Hollywood came to see it. And then I got into the movies. I got invited to audition for most all of the movies that came to town. So I played on my Southern Roots, my Texas roots. And then, and then finally people saw that I could actually do more than that.
It is been a gradual. I can act in other voices. So I've done a lot of dialect stuff, like Bella Abzug (in Miss America). I mean, wow. I mean, as far as that's as far from me as Texas is to New York
But it's really when people see that you actually have more. Like I say, I played the neighbor, the this, the that, for years. And then I did Million Dollar Baby. That sort of changed things. The Riches on FX, that sort of changed things. And then I did Secretariat, and then I got Justified, and that changed everything. And I did Dexter in all of that. And I must have done at least 70 movies in all that time as well. So it's just a gradual uncovering another layer of me. I'm very happy it happened this way.
AC: The film industry and TV, there were long periods where, if you're a woman and you're over 40, you probably weren't getting cast. How did you work through that?
MM: Well, you know, I was never one of people that would be thrown out into the gutter at 40. 'Cause I was always 40.
I went to University of Michigan after I left a small school in Texas, and I did Cat on a Hot Tin Roof playing Big Mama. Then I did Big Mama on Broadway with Ned Beatty when I was 50. Finally, I was the age I was supposed to be to play the part. It was so much easier, you know, so much easier. It's like I grew into my career. I guess that's what it is, and I'm continuing on. It's extraordinarily fun.
AC: When did you realize, like, this was it, acting was the thing for you?
MM: I think, when I was 16. I was always acting in my backyard, but 16, I did my first play and I thought, "Oh, well, that's, that's it. That's what I want to do."
AC What was the play?
MM: It was Bye Bye Birdie.It was a very small school in East Texas, Jacksonville, and I became the drama department. "So Margo, what do you wanna do next year?" So that was wonderful. I wanted to play Amanda Wingfield, so, okay, and I did Calamity Jane. And then I went to this little school in Texas, Lon Morris College, which was just a magical little Brigadoon place, and did many more plays. And then I went to the University of Michigan, then did a summer at Harvard acting, and then went to New York
And I never even thought of my path. All I knew is that I wanted to act. There was no plan.
The 21st annual Texas Film Awards take place March 3 at Luck Ranch. Tickets and info available now at austinfilm.org/tfa
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Texas Film Awards, Margo Martindale
