I’m always thrilled to see Olympia Dukakis pop up in a film, no matter how big her part is. I have been a huge fan of Dukakis’s work since her Academy Award-winning performance as Cher’s mother, Rose Castorini, in Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck (1987). Although she was already 56 years old with decades of great theater roles and a dozen movies behind her, that was a true “career-making” performance. She followed it up with a juicy performance as Clairee in the star-studded Steel Magnolias, getting to utter such delicious lines as “You know what they say: If you don’t have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me!” and “The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize.”
I spoke to Olympia Dukakis by phone from her New York home yesterday about her latest film, A Little Game, directed by Evan Oppenheimer. The film tells the story of a ten-year-old girl (Makenna Ballard) in Greenwich Village who gets the chance to attend a fancy private school but has trouble adjusting to her new environment. Her parents (Janeane Garofalo and Ralph Macchio) don’t know what to do, but her grandmother (Dukakis) has sage advice to offer. The little girl eventually meets an irascible old chess pro (Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham) in Washington Square Park who teaches her some important coping skills while transforming her into a devoted chess enthusiast. Ever the pro, Dukakis didn’t let the flu she was battling stop her from doing interviews for this film but I didn’t keep her on the phone for long.
Dukakis has made a career out of playing strong ethnic women, but this was the first time I could recall her playing her own nationality, a Greek-American “YaYa.” I asked her if she based her character on her own Greek grandmother. “Yes, my grandmother was wonderful,” she said. “She couldn’t speak English and she was nothing but a love. She thought that everything I did was fabulous — isn’t that all we need from our grandmothers? And, you know, I’m a YaYa myself now so, there you go!
I told Ms. Dukakis how we cheered the night she won the Oscar and took it as a good sign for her cousin, Michael Dukakis, who was in the middle of his 1988 presidential campaign. Take a look at the great closing salvo from her Oscar speech:
We talked about her memorable lines from Moonstruck that I still find myself repeating quite regularly. The great scene where Rose is tempted by an admirer played by John Mahoney but ultimately rebuffs his advances with a perfectly delivered, “I know who I am.” In Moonstruck, Olympia’s husband (played by the wonderful Vincent Gardenia) was having an affair. This scene in which she confronts him is one of the classic moments from the film:
We talked about opportunities for women on TV today and I told her how much I loved her performance as the trans character in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. “Oh, that was one of my all-time favorite parts,” she said. “I loved Anna. And remember what a hard time it had getting on the air? Jesse Helms went after the show in a big way.” I mentioned Jill Soloway’s Amazon series, Transparent, and told her that I thought of Anna Madrigal when Jeffrey Tambor won the Golden Globe earlier this month. “I thought about her, too,” Dukakis admitted. “Anna would have been a wonderful mentor to Maura!”
I told Olympia what a great rapport I thought she had with the young girl in A Little Game. I’ve always liked hanging out with kids,” she said. “I’ve got three kids of my own and a bunch of grandchildren.” I asked her if they were following in her footsteps. “Well, my daughter teaches and acts and produces. I have one son who’s involved with international distribution at FilmNation and other son who used to write and direct political shows on television but now reps politicos and social activists. I have a granddaughter who’s a ballet dancer and another one who wants to go to the Olympics so we’ll see! My 11-year-old grandson does stand-up comedy, if you can believe it. And my youngest grandchild is just a flat-out performer. So everyone is kind of involved tangentially.”
Olympia has been married to actor Louis Zorich for over 53 years. They have appeared in many stage productions together and will soon be appearing together in the film Outliving Emily. Olympia Dukakis will also be seen in the upcoming Seven Chinese Brothers and The Secrets of the Gods and she is currently starring in the series Sex & Violence.