"No actor doesn't like to chew the scenery, even if they don't admit it."
If you ask Bette Midler how she got her part in the new film The Fabulous Four, it wouldn't have anything to do with her legendary status as a performer, or that she's an Oscar-nominated actor. "I think they needed a ham, a big ole ham. So, I got that part." Midler plays Marilyn, a widow getting remarried who rekindles a friendship with her three college girlfriends, played by Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally. "No actor doesn't like to chew the scenery, even if they don't admit it. So, to have the permission to pull out all the stops is always great." What was also great was working with her three costars. "Working with these these girls...girls, girls, oh my God, we're 100! These women! Working with these women was really an eye-opener because everybody's process is different." Part of what makes Midler's performance so fun is that it gives longtime fans of hers another taste of her Divine Miss M stage persona, albeit through Marilyn. "Sometimes when I meet people, they expect me to be her, and I'm not her. I've got her, and then I've got me. And since I've taken a step back from that truly active life of touring and stage shows, I find myself getting quieter and quieter. I know people want her to come back. I do love her. And in a way, she's still tweeting, but in real life, you can't be on 24/7. You'll die. You'll just die."
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Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
What first appealed to you about doing The Fabulous Four?
I always like working with women. And I always like working with funny women. I've made several pictures with female comics and I just always have a ball. And the script was excellent. Jocelyn Moorhouse had a big hand in the script, and she is the director. I've seen her work for years and I really, really liked her, so when I heard it was her project, I was very excited. I was not the first call, Susan Sarandon was the first call because that's a fairly difficult role. And Susan brought Megan on. And then they asked me because I think they needed a ham, a big ole ham. So I got that part. Sissy Spacek was supposed to be in it, and then she broke her hip, so I suggested Sheryl Lee, and Sheryl turned out to be just a gem. Everybody in it is so terrific. When I watched it, I was so excited. Because you do your scene and you don't know how much of that scene is going to make it into the picture. It's bits and pieces. And for an editor and a director to string those pieces together and make this thing that's not only coherent, but entertaining and fun and beautiful to look at and moving. I mean, top drawer.
What was it like working with this cast?
I knew Susan from a long time ago. I used to have a ladies luncheon group with her, which was always fun. Megan, I didn't know except from Will and Grace. Sheryl Lee I knew from the theater because I was a big fan of hers from the old days. So, I had a lot of respect for these women. And I was drawn to them and excited to work with them. Everybody has a different process. Susan was really fascinating to watch because I actually did see her put her costume together. I had actually never seen anybody do that before. After all these years in showbiz, I've never seen anybody build a character from the ground up in terms of what the character looked like. I was just fascinated by it. And Megan brought her whole thing. She actually came fully prepared with her costumes, she was wearing her own clothes, she was wearing her own jewelry. She was very, very comfortable in what she had chosen. I was interested that she wore her own clothes. Sheryl Lee plays a pot dealer, someone who is, I mean, I don't think you could get any further away from a pot dealer than Sheryl. She was completely into it and completely into what that farmer would look like, how the farmer would behave with their children. And then there was me. I didn't wear my own clothes. I was kind of trussed up like a Christmas goose, as they say, because I'm not just comic relief, I'm also the biggest conflict. I'm the biggest mystery because I behave in ways that are so crazy. It has all the elements of farce. It has the physical comedy that people hope for and are surprised that women of a certain age are doing.
Well, your character is having this big wedding, something you and your real-life husband, Martin von Haselberg, famously did not. You got married in Las Vegas and recently got a photo from that day, right?
The man who owns a chapel said, "I'm closing my chapel and I want you to have this picture." And he sent us the picture. I did have a couple of pictures. This one was really priceless. A beautiful picture after the fact.
Considering that, would you ever consider a big wedding like your character has planned?
I don't think either one of us needs that. That's not in our wheelhouse. In fact, my daughter—and I don't mean any offense to anybody who had a big wedding—but my daughter got married during COVID and she had 10 guests, and two of them were me and my husband. She was married in the forest and a friend presided. All I could say to my husband afterwards was, "We dodged the roast beef bullet, the vegetarian bullet, we dodged the dress bullet. We dodged all of it." It was beautiful. It was really beautiful.
Anybody who knows you knows that you're more of a homebody. Your stage persona is just that, a persona. This character is certainly over-the-top. How does it feel to be called upon to be the ham, if you will?
I'm really lucky, because no actor doesn't like to chew the scenery, even if they don't admit it. So to pull out all the stops, to they have the permission to pull out all the stops is always great. The wheels start turning right around. "Oh, I could do this. Oh, I could do that." It's great. And I want to say one thing about being reserved and then being retiring, sometimes I feel like I made up a character. I was fortunate enough to have a character to bloom somehow on the stage. She just sort of emerged, I didn't really plan it. But she came to life when she came onto the stage. And I sort of kept her. She got a nickname right away [The Divine Miss M.]. And I sort of kept her separate from myself for so many years. And sometimes when I meet people, they expect me to be her, and I'm not her. I've got her, and then I've got me. And since I've taken a step back from that truly active life of touring and stage shows, I find myself getting quieter and quieter. And I know people want her to come back. I do love her. And in a way, she's still tweeting, but in real life, you can't be on 24/7. You'll die. You'll just die.
In recent years there have been a number of films that have celebrated women of a certain age. Films like Book Club and 80 for Brady. When you first started, they weren't making movies like this. What do you think has changed that showed Hollywood that people want these movies and they can make money?
I think the audience has changed. The audience has aged, too. They have grown up with us, they have aged along with us, and we're part of their family. So for them to come, it's like coming to see an old friend. That's part of it. And the other part of it is they also have children and grandchildren that they've kind of brought along with them. So I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful for it. It has been a great ride. And it has been the most fun, of course.
Considering that there is an audience for films like this, it does make me wonder, could there ever be a sequel to The First Wives Club?
You know, I have been asked many, many times and we've all been asked, but it didn't work. It never worked out. We tried to craft something that was for the three of us called Family Jewels that was many, many, many, many, many years ago, and that never took off. But I really enjoyed working with them. That was a really happy time. I thought they were absolutely brilliant in that movie. I mean, "I'm an actress. I have all of them." I can do many of the lines.
It's true. I still repeat your line, which is ridiculous. It's just the way you said it. "Who? Guns N' Roses? It's musical, in a way. Lyrical.
I'll tell you the truth, a lot of it is musical. And in [Hello] Dolly, when I had to do all that in Dolly, that was really new. Not the songs part, but the actual spoken part where you're told dialogue. That was all musical, too. That's something that actors in America don't pay so much attention to, they do in England, because they're trained in that tradition. But I have to say working with these these girls... girls, girls, oh my God, we're 100. These women! Working with these women was really an eye opener, because, like I said, everybody's process is different. And yet, when the final when the final piece is seen. There's no process. It's utterly seamless. You can't see the wheels turning. I find that really truly impressive, because it's often when I go to a movie, I shouldn't tell you this, I go to movies, and I can see the craft table from from my seat. I'm looking at the movie, but in back of me is the craft table and the camera, so I'm sort of doing what the camera does. Because I've been there. I've been doing it for quite a while. But it's fascinating. The business is fascinating. The screenwriting process is fascinating. What gets made and what doesn't get made is utterly fascinating. And I only bring this up because these really are our myths. This is what our culture is based on, these stories are what keep us from falling off the deep end.
It's how we share and connect with people.
That's right. That's exactly right. These things are the things that give us relief from the truth of everyday life. So I'm very, very high on movies. And I'm really high on seeing movies in a theater. I really believe in that. I believe in sitting with a bunch of people you've never seen before and you'll never see again, and having communal experience. I think it's unbeatable.
So, we know you get asked about sequels to films like Hocus Pocus and The First Wives Club, but I wanted to know if there's any other film of yours that you'd like to revisit?
Ah, that's a good question. That is a really good question. I don't think I have an answer to that. I would have liked to have seen a sequel, we lobbied very hard for a sequel to First Wives Club. And the picture I made with Billy Crystal was great [Parental Guidance]. That was a great experience. I kind of would like to revisit Beaches. I kind of would like to revisit her, but in a completely different way. I mean, obviously the years have taken their toll, or whatever. I've aged, the character has got to be my age. That and the songs, the music that would be available to me at this point. Those catalogs are so vast, and these are all songs that people, three or four generations haven't heard of now. Never heard. And of course, they don't really seek it out because it's not cool. So it would be great if I could revisit that character at this age. I think it would be marvelous and the songs would be great.
I think you just made a lot of people happy with that response.
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A writer/comedian based in Los Angeles. Host of the weekly podcast Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott, every week H. Alan is joined by a different celebrity. Past guests include Tom Hanks, Keke Palmer, Melissa McCarthy, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Probst, Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curtis, Idris Elba, Bette Midler, and many more. He also writes the Parting Shot portion of the magazine, the iconic last page of every issue. Subscribe to H. Alan's For the Culture newsletter, everything you need to know in pop culture delivered to your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. H. Alan has previously appeared on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Ellen, CNN, MTV, and has published work in Esquire, OUT Magazine and VICE. Follow him @HAlanScott.
A writer/comedian based in Los Angeles. Host of the weekly podcast Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott, ... Read more
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