Joanna Cassidy has never fit neatly into one lane, and that is exactly why she is unforgettable. In this episode of Still Here Hollywood, Joanna takes us from Syracuse University as an art student to a cross-country leap that landed her in Los Angeles and changed everything. She talks about her first film set experience with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern, the shock of realizing she could actually act, and how her creative life has always lived in two worlds, performance and painting. We also dive into the legacy roles that keep getting rediscovered. Joanna shares what it was like stepping into Blade Runner as Zhora, working with Ridley Scott’s meticulous vision, and why that film’s impact only grew with time. She opens up about Six Feet Under and her love of dark humor, the craft difference between comedy and drama, the realities of aging in Hollywood, and what she believes keeps a creative person alive. Plus: animals, modernism, bungee fitness in Burbank, and the mindset that keeps her curious and working. Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko. New episodes weekly. Support the show and get early access and extras at patreon.com/stillherehollywood
Joanna Cassidy has never fit neatly into one lane, and that is exactly why she is unforgettable. In this episode of Still Here Hollywood, Joanna takes us from Syracuse University as an art student to a cross-country leap that landed her in Los Angeles and changed everything. She talks about her first film set experience with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern, the shock of realizing she could actually act, and how her creative life has always lived in two worlds, performance and painting. We also dive into the legacy roles that keep getting rediscovered. Joanna shares what it was like stepping into Blade Runner as Zhora, working with Ridley Scott’s meticulous vision, and why that film’s impact only grew with time. She opens up about Six Feet Under and her love of dark humor, the craft difference between comedy and drama, the realities of aging in Hollywood, and what she believes keeps a creative person alive. Plus: animals, modernism, bungee fitness in Burbank, and the mindset that keeps her curious and working. Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko. New episodes weekly. Support the show and get early access and extras at patreon.com/stillherehollywood
00:00 Intro: The unforgettable Joanna Cassidy
00:56 From Syracuse to San Francisco to Los Angeles
02:35 First steps into acting and a surprising first role
03:35 The Laughing Policeman: Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, and set nerves
05:19 Joanna the artist: painting, portraits, modernism
06:42 Almost quitting, and the many lives she has lived
07:51 Misconceptions: beauty, comedy, and being underestimated
10:29 Age, image, and America’s obsession with youth
12:29 Early work she is proud of, and Blade Runner’s slow-burn legacy
13:43 Acting vs art: the frustration of not being able to fine-tune
16:52 Roles she wanted but did not get
17:40 Blade Runner: first reaction to the script
18:32 Philip K. Dick, sci-fi love, and “the only actor with the snake”
19:18 Animals, cats, and the deep bond with them
21:22 Ridley Scott’s imprint and artistic vision
22:22 Six Feet Under and the joy of dark humor
23:36 Blade Runner stunts, revisiting Zhora, and the snake dance
25:10 New generations discovering Zhora
26:17 Cult status and Comic Con moments
28:54 Comedy vs drama: timing, speed, and stillness
30:57 Who she watches now: Emma Stone, Jessica Lange
32:07 TV’s best lesson: be on time, know your lines, hit your marks
33:17 Actors who made an impact: Gene Hackman, Nick Nolte, Bob Hoskins
35:42 Taking risks and going all-in
37:40 Dabney Coleman memories
39:58 Staying creatively alive: health, grounding, flow
41:05 Mentors, independence, and asking for a hand
44:01 Confidence, her father, and being an observer of Hollywood
45:45 Film talk and character-study movies
47:13 What brings her joy now
49:43 Directing notes and the on-set process
50:42 Roles she wants now, plus recent and upcoming projects
52:40 Worries that shifted with time
53:27 Dating, privacy, and a new chapter
56:16 Bungee fitness in Burbank and loving the feeling of flight
57:28 Closing
Steve Kmetko
Jen, yes, I'm still here Hollywood, coming up on today's episode, she's an actress with a presence so striking that once you've seen her on screen, you don't forget her. Over the years, she's built a career filled with fearless choices unforgettable characters and performances that help define entire eras of film and television. She's bold, magnetic, and one of those rare talents who never stop surprising you no matter the role or the genre. This is still here, Hollywood. I'm Steve kametko. Join me with today's guest from Blade Runner on buffalo, Bill actor, Joanna Cassidy. Joanna, thanks for coming in today. I really appreciate it My pleasure. You grew up on the other side of the country, right? Yes, what brought you to Hollywood originally?
Joanna Cassidy
I'll make it a short story instead of a long one. Starting out with I went to school in Syracuse, Syracuse University. I was an art student. I met a man there that was a medical student. We got married at the end of my first year of studying, and he said to me, we are going to be moving to San Francisco. Wow, that's interesting. So that's across country, and I don't know anybody there. All my people are in New Jersey or New York or whatever. He said, Well, that's where we're going, honey. It's kind of one of those things, yeah, and I didn't think much of it. Then he was an intern resident in San Francisco at Mount Zion hospital. We had two children. I felt that the marriage was not going to work for me, and I took my children and drove to Los Angeles, big move, because I didn't know anybody there. So that was interesting. And I was a model then, but that's how I got here,
Steve Kmetko
and it's worked out for you,
Joanna Cassidy
huh, in an interesting way. Yes, it has.
Steve Kmetko
How did you get into acting?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, in San Francisco, one of the photographers that I worked with always was doing little videos and scenarios, and he said, Oh, try this, you know, try that. And I really, you know, I'm trying to remember there was a comedy group there, and, of course, there was theater there, but I wasn't interested in that. I was an artist. I was a creative Not, not that acting isn't, mind you, in the film business isn't, but I'm not necessarily a group person, and when you're acting, you've got a very large group of people. So anyway, when I landed in Los Angeles, I started modeling again, just to keep afloat. And suddenly, though, one of the agents at the modeling agency said, you know this, this casting woman is doing a movie, why don't you give her a call? I said, is that what you do? You just call people up. Well, you know, give it a shot. Why not? So I did, and she said, Come over and I got that part. What was the project? That was the laughing policeman with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern.
Steve Kmetko
Oh, pretty heady company for a first job, I would say, yes, did you enjoy it?
Joanna Cassidy
I was scared to death. I didn't know what to do. I had never been on a set before. And fortunately, Bruce Stern was very generous, and said, Joanna, you know, this is what you do. You walk over here. There's a mark, there'll be a mark, and we'll talk, and then they'll do one over the shoulder, blah, blah, blah. And he walked me through it, and they had me back, actually to do another scene.
Steve Kmetko
What do you remember that surprised you about the experience
Joanna Cassidy
on that film? I guess what surprised me was that I was able to do it, that I was able to act. I only I really. I didn't study acting. So someone had told me about a man, and I cannot remember his name. It was doing some acting classes, and that was before I got that job. And I said, Well, I'm. To try that, just because I don't know that modeling is going to cut it for the rest of my life, which obviously it doesn't with people. So I had done a couple of classes there, I guess I was surprised that I could actually pull it off. And remember the lines,
Steve Kmetko
you are an artist? What medium Do you? Do you work in?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, in my garage, I have a whole set up of, you know, oils and watercolors and things on the wall that I can work back and forth on. I wish I had, I wish I had a studio that would be so much nicer and so much easier to and much more fun to make a mess. I don't want to make a mess where my car is right. I'll work in anything. I mean, I'll, I'll work an egg. That's what somebody wants me
Steve Kmetko
to do. And what is the subjects? Subject matter you use?
Joanna Cassidy
I like to do portraits. I like to do. I'm into modernism. It doesn't really matter. I'll just, you know, I just float it and see what comes up in my brain. But I tend to like, I went through a period of where I liked realism, and that was fascinating to me, but it's, it's very hard, it's very detailed. And so now I like things like splash color on and play with that, and play with things like, you know, images like Cubism and things like that
Steve Kmetko
was there a moment before your first big break when you seriously considered, you know, not pursuing acting
Joanna Cassidy
every day, really, and I'm still working, but Oh, every day I, you know, I think, Oh, what if I did this, and I have a really good eye with in photography, and really understand how to see people, so that I've tried. I had a small landscaping company for a minute. I had a I had a an antique business for a while. I've done many, many things. I love animals. I was training animals. I also was teaching students how to act, and I guess it's okay to do that if people feel that that's part of their calling, that they want to try it out and see how it goes.
Steve Kmetko
What's a misconception about your early career that that you've always wanted to clear up?
Joanna Cassidy
That's an interesting question. A misconception about my guy. I think when I came in and I was, I came into the business right after, right at the end of the whole glamor, the real Hollywood times. I mean, I worked with my second job was with Robert Ryan and and that whole group of beautiful people. They were beautiful and elegant people. I mean, you didn't go to a party unless you were dressed to the nines, that was just the look in. And I loved that I all my life, my young life, I loved that. I loved going now this is beside you. Don't know of me beside the doing the art and all that. I also used to go to films when I was young. I was a teenager, not the films that my parents dropped me off at in front of that theater. I would walk down the street and go to the art theater and watch Bergman films. I loved the way people related to each other. I love they didn't talk so much. They just related in another way and misconception. Gosh, I think that at the time, I guess I was trying to say what people often thought was that beautiful actors couldn't be funny and and that's so not true. You don't have to be a character to be funny, and I think I proved that on six feet under, and then Don't tell mom the babysitter's dead, and many other things that people really haven't seen because I've done things. Did a series called i. I call me Fitz with Jason Priestley, and that was a combined Canadian and American film or TV series, and I won two Canadian Emmys for that, for my part. And it was funny, you know. So I think that's the misconception. Does that kind of answer your question?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, good. Do you consider yourself beautiful? Because you should?
Joanna Cassidy
I, I am getting more compliments now with with my white hair than I think I've ever gotten in my life. I mean, I, I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is, honestly, I I hear that a lot. And I'm Jake, you know, I'm an old lady. Oh no, no. Oh yeah. But, well, not my spirit. I have a very young spirit. I that I do know, but I'm, I don't know. It's constantly amazes me, but I work out I take care of myself. So do
Steve Kmetko
you think America has a misconception about age?
Joanna Cassidy
Yes, oh yes. People do, of course. They they determine that if you're over 50 year old, I think that's how it goes, really. And of course, you know, there are product lines to say, Oh no, no, no, you are no. This is what you have to use if you want to be Jane Fonda, or, you know, you want to have skin like an angel, or like a baby's bottom. Or say, you know, there are all these ads. I just feel that I don't care, honestly, what people you know, the misconception about it. I don't care really people are going to think what they're going to think. So you don't spend a lot of time thinking. I really don't. If people think that people in their 70s are old. That's That's unfortunate, because we're not and and it really depends on your mojo. If you're, you know, if you think of yourself as being a hot, vital human being, then you're going to be that. And whatever number you are, it doesn't matter you are that and you can stand out based on that too.
Steve Kmetko
Was there a performance early on that people overlooked but you loved, or that you were, well, like, literally proud of?
Joanna Cassidy
I'm um, there were a couple things that people know, obviously, when I took Blade Runner, that was such an outstanding movie, which didn't catch on for many years. You know, there were people in the industry that saw that film when, oh my gosh, gotta hire her, you know. And for a while, you know, my my career was really taking off based on that, and I did under fire, which didn't get seen really. I mean, that's captured a large audience. Now, the phenomenal movie, phenomenal. And based on that, I worked with Gene Hackman twice. I would have worked with him more, but he sort of retired after we worked together.
Steve Kmetko
So yeah, he slowed. He slowed down in terms of the number of projects he he would take on. What made you think, Okay, this is working for me here. Let's continue doing this. I
Joanna Cassidy
I never thought that, but I never really thought about whether it was working or not. It paid my rent and it enabled me to have a fun, interesting life, I have to say, with my kind of energy, which is a lot of it is scattered. It's sort of, I'm an ADHD person. It's really hard to pull it in. I am a multitasker, so in terms of something really working, I can relate this to a lot of the artists that I have studied and who never do anything else but paint that one thing over and over and over again, or stay into a movement like Picasso did. I mean, he would stay into a movement for years, and then he would go into another phase, which in his case was a blue phase. So those people that was they knew from the time. They were young, what they were supposed to do in life. This is a business that I really never chose. It chose me. I'm trying
Steve Kmetko
to think who did, who did all the water lilies, Monet Monet and he painted the same
Joanna Cassidy
that same garden and that over, that's right, but he had, because he had to find it, and he wasn't satisfied when, when you're an actor, you don't get to redo something over and over and over again, until you get it, until you fine tune it. It's fast and furious. You're working for somebody else. You're not working for yourself. So if you see something that you don't like on film after the fact, you go, darn it. You know, I wish I had done that. I wish I had gone down another road. And you don't get to fine tune it so there's, there's a moment of dissatisfaction and not quite happy this with what you're doing. I think awards, being awarded things helps. But then people change their tune, on on the look that they want. Or, you know, if, like Joanna Cassidy, had her moment. So let's go with let's see Emma Stone look. You know, she's another redhead, but you know what? I mean, it's all different look. So any of that makes sense?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, have Have there been scripts that came your way, that that you didn't get, or that you really wanted?
Joanna Cassidy
Yeah, there were, there were some, you know, I was going to play Superwoman, Supergirl, Superwoman, and Linda Carter got it. And I don't know that that would have been a good niche to fall into. I mean, she's, she did a great job. She was great. And there was another one. Oh gosh, what was it? It was it was a period comedy. We have to think about that for a second. Yeah, there have been a few that that I didn't that I didn't get
Steve Kmetko
back with more in a moment. If you'd like to be more involved with us at still here Hollywood, you definitely can just visit patreon.com/still here Hollywood. You can support us for as little as $3 a month. You can get our episodes a day before they post anywhere else, you can see what guests will be coming up and submit questions for them. You can even tell us what stars you want us to have on as guests. You'll see what goes on before and after the episode, plus exclusive behind the scenes info, pics, video and more. Again, that's patreon.com/still here. Hollywood. What was your very first reaction when you read the script to Blade Runner?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, I read a lot of Philip K Dick, so I I understood his writing. I understood where he was coming from. I was fascinated. I was a sci fi person, and that was my interest. I've always big reader. I love, I love sci fi. So you know, his direction and his comprehension of how humans work and how the world works, was fascinating to me, and my agent brought me that script, and I thought, well, this is easy. I'm the only actor in town that has the snake. So it was my snake. So I thought, This is my job.
Steve Kmetko
And you have two dogs now, right? I have
Joanna Cassidy
five cats, five cats. I always have multiples of animals. I adore animals.
Steve Kmetko
What What sparked that interest
Joanna Cassidy
people in the day and you know, before animals really got domesticated, people used to walk with wolves that was part of their habitat. They didn't separate an animal like a wolf, who is so ingenious and so completely intelligent, they were. Worked together. The wolf would lead them onto areas to plant. I mean, there was a symbiosis that went on it that, and I'm talking about, obviously, long, long centuries ago, but I think, I don't think that there's, there's something in our DNA that really, you know, in certainly mine is not detached from that concept. My I adore my animals. They're really intelligent.
Steve Kmetko
Five cats. Did you say? Yes, I did. Works for me, does it? You must have a big litter box. I have four litter box, four. Okay, what kind of cats are they?
Joanna Cassidy
Are they particularly, no, not at all. They're, well, there's only one that is a is a breed and and he is a violet Lynx Siamese, quite beautiful. I've never heard of that. He's white and he has two triangles of violet color.
Steve Kmetko
Sounds beautiful. He's
Joanna Cassidy
gorgeous between His eyebrows and his ears, and he's quite extraordinary.
Steve Kmetko
I working with Ridley Scott so early in your career. What imprint, imprint did that leave on you?
Joanna Cassidy
What did it leave on me? Oh, well, I mean, a British imprint, for sure. It was, he was, he's very special. He's an artist. And you know, when someone is an artist and they see things that he had such vision, I don't think I've ever gotten out from underneath that everything's Fast and Furious now, and like I said, I'm still working. But, you know, he took the time to explain his vision, how he saw the characters, what he wanted from them. And even though my my scene is very short, you know, fast lived it, it. It is striking in the movie,
Steve Kmetko
what did you like about the whole concept of six feet under
Joanna Cassidy
there was such a, well, I won't say, a play on words. It was such a play on bodies. It's just, I like, I love dark humor, and it was just hilarious. And I just liked being that mother. The funny thing was, is that I the person I was talking about at the beginning of this interview was, did end up being a psychiatrist? So that was I was sort of familiar with that mindset. And I just something about this mean mother that, or not, not even mean, just just didn't understand the world. She just really took it in her own pace, and she did the best she could. Sometimes highly intelligent people are the stupidest people. You know?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, I suppose that's true. Is there a behind the scenes moment from from the set of Blade Runner that that you've never shared?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, I don't know that I'm going to share it with you if
Steve Kmetko
I ask really nice,
Joanna Cassidy
but well, you know, they're there. We did, I did redo the scene going through the glass 25 years later. And then I did shoot a snake dance about 11 years ago. That's on YouTube. It's called Zora Snake Dance. And then the
Joanna Cassidy
you didn't see it, but I shot falling down before I got to the to the glass so many times, I don't know how I didn't break every bone in my body, but the stunt guys had laid out all this, you know, padded things, and I would run, and really said, Okay, down, and I would fall and slide, and I didn't get stunt pay on that, and I should have, I.
Steve Kmetko
Like maybe you could do it retroactively.
Joanna Cassidy
No, that's okay. I'm a little beyond the pale. Okay.
Steve Kmetko
How does it felt seeing younger generations discover your character and instantly latch on to her?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, what's interesting to me is that, over the years, in a lot of the movies that I've seen, I see actresses replicating my character in so many ways, in a stunt way, or an attitude way, or even a kind of look, you know, severely pulled back, you know, the look, or the whole scene I've seen it replicated. So that's really interesting to me. Gratifying. Yes, yes, it is. I don't know that people are really they, they do. They are seeing it again because, of course, the second Blade Runner was shot, and now they're shooting a series overseas, so it will be rediscovered all over again.
Steve Kmetko
In fact, the the film has only gotten bigger with time. That's right, people are just discovering it in some cases. How did you feel about a, you know, a cult following
Joanna Cassidy
developing who doesn't love it? I would rather it were
Joanna Cassidy
top executives following it, but I'll take a cult works for me.
Steve Kmetko
Do you go to Comic Con appearances because of it.
Joanna Cassidy
Sometimes I do those signing things. Yes, I do. And what do people
Steve Kmetko
usually say when they come up to you, apart from, boy, are you beautiful?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, a lot of people have questions. A lot of people ask me to say, I'm right on top of that rose.
Joanna Cassidy
They're just very appreciative and very grateful. Some people say, you, I had one girl that, after, oh, that became an ENT, after they saw me in 240, Robert. And she became, yeah, she became that I've inspired people to go on to different jobs that have had to do with a character that I've portrayed, which is really cool. I love that.
Steve Kmetko
Who did you work with that really made an impact on you?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, aside life, aside from Gene Hackman, I have to say that, you know, the females, Rachel Griffith, in six feet under, was very impactful. She was an amazing actress, I mean, to the point where she was so
Steve Kmetko
Australian, right? NIDA
Joanna Cassidy
used to really piss me off, because she, they have a certain way of interacting with actors when they, once they get on the set, it's sort of actor, actor studio, kind of way she, I think she was Mensah. You know that? I know Gina Davis was Mensah is Mensa. She was very good. I'm trying to think, I'll think about that.
Steve Kmetko
Okay, you've moved between comedy and drama effortlessly. I might add, what does each give you as a performer?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, you know, timing is everything. Yes, you've got to work it. You've got to understand that. You have to be able to hear it. I don't like to talk fast. I like to think about things. So comedy, to me, is much harder, like the way they rattle off things in the new James Brooks movie Ella McKay, they talk so fast. I I just, I know that I could never do that. I couldn't do that. My just, I just don't talk like that. I don't think that's funny. I think even though Albert Brooks is in that and he is a riot to me, he's outstanding in that movie. He's talking fast too. But, but he also is very grounded with comedy, I find that, at least, I will speak for myself, that I tend to fly out of my mind when I'm doing it. It makes me so high, I literally almost have an out of body experience when I have to get the lines out that fast drama. You can, it's going back to the Bergmann film. You can take a moment. You can stare at someone for 20 seconds before you say something, so that by the time you've it's come out of your mouth. It's you really mean it. And I like that. But of course, you know, if you're saying things fast and you're not thinking about it, you're going to say what you really mean too, sometimes to a very bad ending.
Steve Kmetko
Who do you admire? Who's on the scene today? Actors and is there anybody who you'd say, Oh, they're in this film. I'll go. I'll go see that.
Joanna Cassidy
Yeah, I'll see anything with Emma Stone in it, will you? Yeah,
Joanna Cassidy
there are so many new actors now, a lot of foreign actors that I just adore. Now. She doesn't do much anymore, but I would always go to see something that Jessica Lange was in.
Steve Kmetko
She seems to be working a lot more in television these days.
Joanna Cassidy
That was her last I won't say her last hurrah, because I know she'll come back again. But yes, that seems to be a direction, but that's, you know, that's good, because she can kind of command and say where she wants to shoot it, and so on. So anyway, she makes her life comfortable, and she should, she's worked very, very hard, really hard,
Steve Kmetko
and she has two Oscars to show for her. That's right, yeah, she is a very talented actress. What's the greatest lesson television taught you
Joanna Cassidy
be on time, know your lines,
Steve Kmetko
hit your marks,
Joanna Cassidy
and don't think about the process. Know your lines so well that when you get there, the you get you have an opportunity to play with the other actor. Otherwise you're struggling.
Steve Kmetko
Is there a character you played who changed you, personally in some way? No, no, no. Nothing's changed. Nothing has changed you,
Joanna Cassidy
not at all. I'm still the, I'm the, shall you say, curmudgeon. I'm not a curmudgeon, though I'm I'm still a girl from New Jersey,
Steve Kmetko
just a girl from New Jersey. You've worked with some of the biggest names in the business, Gene Hackman being one of them who taught you something that you'll carry with you, or that has carried that has stuck with you.
Joanna Cassidy
Well, funny. I mean, you mentioned gene but when I did that film under fire with Nick Nolte, I watched his process. Of course, his process is quite unique, but this was, this was a man that lived that character. He didn't play at it. He he lived it
Steve Kmetko
unique in a good way. His process a difficult
Joanna Cassidy
way for him and sometimes the other actors, because he wouldn't be so much in character. Where is Nick? Where is the actor that I'm working with here? Who is this guy? But it's all right, you know, everybody does their thing. You just have to be very accepting of what it is and try to find a place with them. You know, he was one. I could think of someone else that I just I loved, Bob Hoskins. He was he was great. He was so approachable and funny. There are a lot of people
Steve Kmetko
that you worked with him and Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
Joanna Cassidy
yeah, and a lot of people don't under understand that you don't have to be on all the time. You can take a break and and enjoy your day. No. But then again, it really just depends I I like to have fun. It doesn't mean that I'm not serious. I just, I think that life is serious enough, you know, you don't have to make it rough. You know, you don't have to make it anxious. There was an acting teacher that said one time, you don't have to be crazy to be good, whatever that means,
Steve Kmetko
we'll be back for more in a moment. What's a risk that you took that paid off driving down to Los Angeles sounds like
Joanna Cassidy
to me, yes, you're right. I think just thinking that I could be in this business. It's huge. No one in my family, no no relative, no one ever even entered that arena or thought about it, and then come to find out years later that both my mother and my sister had wanted to be actors, really. I didn't find that out until I was in my 50s and all this information came out, I just went really well. You should have done it. You know
Steve Kmetko
is that your motto about life is that the what you stick to your creed, yeah, if you want to do something, do it
Joanna Cassidy
well, yes, because it really gives you an out. If there's something that interests you don't fiddle around, get to it. I mean, make sure you've done all the other, you know, the little things that you want to do. But I think find something you love and and go deep with it.
Steve Kmetko
Well, you know, it's been said many times if you, if you find a job that you like, you'll never work a day in your life, something along those lines, and probably screwing it up.
Joanna Cassidy
But, well, because you're not working at it. There's the word the verb to work at something you do. Yeah, you don't work at something you love. You just do it. You happen along the line of that thing that you've chosen.
Steve Kmetko
How was it working with Dabney Coleman?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, I just went to a memorial for Dabney not too long ago, a few months ago, and I did a lot with him. I did two movies with him. And then, of course, oh, he was fabulous. He was fabulous. Oh, then comedy wise, I have never, with the exception of, interestingly enough, Jason Priestley, was a riot to work with, and a great director, really great. But dad being was so highly intelligent, funny. He was wonderful. Yeah, I mean, there aren't words to describe how what a genius he was.
Steve Kmetko
Were there? Do you remember the moment when you first thought this is going to be an interesting day on set?
Joanna Cassidy
No, I don't. I don't remember that, because I to me anything that was interesting was terrifying. So if it was a big scene, or, you know, something that was complicated, that involved a great deal of emotion, some people would call that interesting. I could never really separate myself that much. For me, it was terrifying.
Steve Kmetko
If it was terrifying, how did you get past that to get the work out.
Joanna Cassidy
Well, I don't think we should really talk about my many, many nervous breakdowns. I'm kidding. I just, I've just been, I guess, one of those people that if I say I'm going to do something, I do it, and if I'm hired, I'm going to do it, you know, I have to do the job. I can't run away from that. So that's sort of my philosophy.
Steve Kmetko
Um. Um, you've reinvented yourself many times. What's the key to staying creatively alive?
Joanna Cassidy
I think, I think what really matters, and it's pretty basic. It's, it's simple. You have to, I believe you have to keep exercising. I think you have to eat well. I think you have to take care of your physicality, and you have to stay grounded. You have to stay stable, because it's it's too easy to disintegrate in a creative world, in the sense that you can allow people's judgments or their their non interaction with you as something that's horrible, you just have to accept The Times and and move along with it and flow like a river.
Steve Kmetko
Is there anything you wish somebody had told you when you were younger, any piece of advice you'd been given? Well, I always that you knew now
Joanna Cassidy
Adam Arkin wrote a book about a man that was his mentor and his savior, basically someone that he met along the line that schooled him in the art of being okay. And I kept that. I still have that book. It's an old book, and I, I have dragged it with me in every move that I've ever made, and I and the pages are worn out. I've written on them and folded them, and I just, I think it's really nice if someone can find, if you can find someone to hold your hand through your process, and those kinds of people are not easy to find,
Steve Kmetko
who's held your hand.
Joanna Cassidy
I I have to say, for many, many of the decades that I've been through, I didn't have anyone holding my hand, and maybe part of that is because of my my independence. I just felt like, no, no, I gotta Well, I gotta do this myself. I said to somebody the other day, I'm, I'm not needy, I'm wanty,
Joanna Cassidy
and I'm, I'm not I'm and yet, I've had to look at all sides of that self proclamation, because I think it's okay to be needy in this business. I think it's okay to want a hand, and it's all right to declare it as well. I wish I had reached out more. You know, I think that someone like a Bruce durton who held my hand at that first movie, I wish I had stayed in contact with him. Actually, we sort of did. We've done three movies together now, and we have one movie that is coming out called homebound.
Steve Kmetko
I do you know Laura Dern?
Joanna Cassidy
I knew Diane.
Steve Kmetko
We just lost her not long ago. Is there a chapter of your life that you'd love to turn into a memoir?
Joanna Cassidy
I guess, yeah, I think, I think so. I I think people would be interested in reading, reading my life, I do.
Steve Kmetko
You've, you've always kind of carried a strong, confident presence. Where does that come from?
Joanna Cassidy
My father, yes, big Irish guy. He, he really believed in himself, and he, he didn't have a lot at all, but he, he told the truth. He said exactly how he felt about you, if he didn't like you, you knew it. He took care of things. What did he do? Oh, he did many things. He worked for a company called RCA for many years. It was in that he worked for a chemical company. He had his own printing company, blah, blah, blah. Maybe he worked for the mafia. I don't know.
Steve Kmetko
How has your relationship with Hollywood changed over the years? I
Joanna Cassidy
I think my relationship with Hollywood is just I've become more of an observer rather than a participant. And it's not saying that I don't participate, because I'm at every screening that they have now I'm over the hill every night going to a screening, because I love film. I love it.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, I do too. Have you seen this new movie with Ethan Hawke
Joanna Cassidy
H, no, I haven't. I have not. It's called Blue Moon. No, I have not. No, should I see that?
Steve Kmetko
It's interesting. It's a lot of dialog. Okay? Most of it, it takes place in a in a bar where he's talking to a bartender, okay, about his life as the lyricist, Lorenz hart of Rogers and Hart, it's, it's an interesting I guess you'd call it a character study. And the difficulties he encountered
Joanna Cassidy
kind of like my Dinner With Andre, yeah, sort of thing, yeah, which, which I I love that. That's what Bergman did. Two people talking. I think that's I will see that. Thank you for telling
Steve Kmetko
me Blue Moon is the name of it, and there's been a lot of awards talk already. He has to carry the whole damn movie, but
Joanna Cassidy
he probably wrote it right.
Steve Kmetko
I don't think so. No, I don't think so.
Steve Kmetko
Help yourself,
Steve Kmetko
what do you prefer? Television or film?
Joanna Cassidy
I just like good, good writing. It doesn't matter. No, there used to be a stigma with it, but it doesn't matter at all.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, there did used to be a stigma. What brings you the most joy today?
Joanna Cassidy
I um, probably my animals.
Steve Kmetko
What is it about animals that you cling to?
Joanna Cassidy
They're they're a comfort. Many people use them as a touchstone, as something that is their nature. And if you want to say it's their job, you could do that too. But I think that's the exchange that people have. You know, there's so much we don't know right now about the world and how the workings of the world I'm I feel like that's really not been delved into, but I know that all through the decades, again, my animals have been my source of of joy. I mean, I have parrots for a while, and I've always had dogs. I've I just I relate to that.
Steve Kmetko
There was a young woman sitting on the plane across from me yesterday who had her French Bulldog with her, and it's, it's a little jarring at first, because they don't seem to require you to carry them in a, you know, carrier, carrier. And it was, he was just on a leash, and he was so attentive to her. And I found myself being envious because I have two dogs, and I usually have to leave them at home, but I know where the comfort comes from. You know, back to the business, what's the most surprising thing a director ever asked you to do? I
Joanna Cassidy
One, I'm I surprising thing. I don't think there's been anything surprising really, not, not really, because you read the script and you see where they're going and. I think that if I had worked with the director like Nick rogue or Adrian Lyon, who always took his actors another 1000 steps ahead of where they thought they were going to go, I haven't worked with anyone like that. In fact, I find it interesting because a lot of directors will not come over to me and talk to me. They'll just say, again, let's do it one more time. Maybe I'm off putting I don't know. I doubt that.
Steve Kmetko
Adrian Lyne, I believe, didn't he do Fatal Attraction, yes, that was quite a film. What kind of roles excite you now?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, I don't, I don't get offered the roles that I love to do Helen Mirren gets them all. But anyway, that would be the kind of thing like the Helen and mobland. I would love to do something like that, but I have another film that was just out, called Killing faith, and that was a period piece. It was Western horror movie with Guy Pierce and Bill Pullman and dewanda wise. And that was a blast to do. Loved that played a woman driving a wagon across the country to hunt for gold. So I'll do anything.
Steve Kmetko
Guy Pierce is another Australian, yeah, a lot of Australians. Oh yeah, they have a good industry down there, good film industry. What are you proudest of when you look back over your entire career?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, I'm just going through it now because I have, I have very good files that I have kept over the years, but I forget to look at them. And my Emmys and my Golden Globe and my my Oscar from Spain, sort of sitting in a cabinet. I don't, I don't look at them as well. I really don't. I don't think much about it. But if I write this book, I'm going to have to delve into my past. That's hard.
Steve Kmetko
It's hard. I think so,
Joanna Cassidy
yeah, oh, I think so too.
Steve Kmetko
Is there something that no longer concerns you, or you no longer care about that used to keep you up nights?
Steve Kmetko
You kind of go with the flow, don't you?
Joanna Cassidy
I do? I do. I think that my concern is for the world. It's really outside of myself. Now that's that's what I find, the direction I go in. I'm concerned about humanity and overpopulation, and loss of parks and
Steve Kmetko
green spaces, that's my concern. Can I ask how your dating life is?
Joanna Cassidy
You can and what'll you tell me? Well, I am dating someone. I'm dating actually, he's a he's a widow, and it's really interesting, because I didn't date for a long time.
Steve Kmetko
How come
Joanna Cassidy
I just, honestly, I, I don't know, just didn't, it just didn't enter my life. And I, Lord knows I'm out there.
Steve Kmetko
Oh, really, you're open. Sure
Joanna Cassidy
I'm always looking. But this man I ran into a year ago, and it's, it's, it's going well,
Steve Kmetko
does he have a name? He does. Do you care to share it or
Joanna Cassidy
no, oh gosh. Where is this going to air?
Steve Kmetko
Just, you know, a podcast. It airs on YouTube, things of that nature and a podcast channel.
Joanna Cassidy
I'm so private. Well, his name is, is he? Alan Hamel, who was married to Suzanne summers for
Steve Kmetko
many years. Did you know Suzanne?
Steve Kmetko
Is that awkward at all, or does it not at all? Not for me? Okay? Do I think that's all I have to ask you. Is there anything that you'd like to talk about that I have somehow overlooked or missed?
Joanna Cassidy
Well, I'll just talk about what's coming out. I just did a movie with Pedro Pascal for Disney, and I can't talk about it, because it's a big secret,
okay, Disney, right?
Joanna Cassidy
And then I did another movie with Beverly D'Angelo, called other hand and that that will be coming out in a few months. And then the, as I said, the killing faith you can find streaming the homebound, will be coming out with Bruce Dern. And so I'm busy.
Steve Kmetko
You are busy. If you weren't here today, where would you be? What would you be doing?
Joanna Cassidy
I would be at my bungee class.
Steve Kmetko
Bungee class, going to new heights, going jumping. Yes, I love it really. Where do you take a bungee class?
Joanna Cassidy
There's Air Fit bungee in Burbank, yep. And I just love it. I love being suspended like that. I love the feeling of it's like being on a swing. I don't know whether when you were a kid, you ever went out to not a swing but a single rope and you held on to it, and you spun yourself around. Did you ever do that?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, I think so, yeah. I remember in high school, you had to climb a rope that was tied to the ceiling of the gymnasium. Well, there you go. That scared the hell out of me. Well, I did it.
Joanna Cassidy
You did it. And it's that kind of thing, you know? It's a two pieces of a gadget that you strap around yourself and you fly. I like to fly. Well.
Steve Kmetko
Thank you very much. I appreciate you coming in today. You're welcome and continued success in your career and your artist. Artist, I love your earrings. Is that turquoise it
Joanna Cassidy
is like a one earring thing. That's my deal, okay, whatever it means in which I switch it sides. I don't know what that means.
Steve Kmetko
Thank you. Still here Hollywood is a production of the still here network all things technical, run by Justin zangerly, theme music by Brian sanoshin, and executive producer is Jim Lichtenstein.