INTERVIEW: Sean Young offers an ode to Susan Cabot, the ‘Wasp Woman’
Photo: Ode to the Wasp Woman stars Sean Young as Susan Cabot. Photo courtesy of Maria Baranova / Provided by KSA PR with permission.
Sean Young, star of classic films like Blade Runner, Dune and Wall Street, is venturing into new territory with her latest project. The actor is currently making her New York stage debut in Rider McDowell’s Ode to the Wasp Woman, a new play that tells the story of four Hollywood B-movie stars, including their sensational and shocking deaths.
In the show, which continues through Jan. 31 at the Actors Temple Theatre in Midtown Manhattan, Young portrays Susan Cabot, who infamously played the title character in Roger Corman’s The Wasp Woman. One quick Google search will also let audience members know what eventually happened to Cabot; the tragic end to her life is one of the subjects of the play, which McDowell both wrote and directed.
“It’s been a really challenging and very fun experience,” Young said in a recent phone interview. “My agent brought it to me. He had gotten an offer, and it was really nice. I read it, and I thought it was pretty macabre. I thought, hmmm, and then I talked to Rider on the phone. And he gave me a lot of confidence, and I felt like this was something I could succeed at. I didn’t know Rider before this.”
Young said she gained confidence in the material as the project developed. She cited her long history of meditation in helping her get through those uneasy first days of rehearsal, when everything and everyone is brand new.
“I didn’t sleep that well before the very first day I met everybody because I was kind of excited, and that’s kind of normal for all actors, but definitely for me,” she said. “And then the second night, after our first day was over, we all showed up the next day and slept great. It’s the newness of something, not knowing everybody, but there’s great familiarity forming as we speak.”
Young, who also appeared in Stripes and No Way Out, didn’t know too much about the stories being told in Ode to the Wasp Woman. In addition to Cabot, the play delves into the history of Superman’s George Reeves; Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer of the Our Gang comedies; and Barbara Payton, who had a long career in Hollywood with numerous scandals written about in the tabloids.
“I had to do some research,” Young said. “I sort of looked at … the articles that appeared in the Los Angeles Times at that time. I looked up [Cabot’s] address from the articles, I thought just to get a picture. I thought that was really interesting. She lived in Encino, and then I tried to look up pictures of her son and the people that she knew. There aren’t really that many books about her, but there was some mention in some other material, but not a lot. So, yeah, I had to familiarize myself.”
She added: “Her career was the only thing that she felt maybe gave her any value, so I can’t relate to it exactly, but I can certainly understand how that Hollywood environment can get people to feel very desperate. And these characters in this play, the vignettes in this play, definitely demonstrate that. There are also songs in it, and there is kind of humor. It’s not just dun-dun-dun-dun [funeral music]. It’s got nuance.”
One connection that Young has with Cabot is that they both performed in a Corman movie. Young’s was Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader in 2012.
“He’s such a corndog,” Young said of Corman. “I saw him after the film was made and everything, and he said, ‘You know, you were actually too young to play the mother.’ And I went, ‘Oh Roger, silly.’ He likes those kinds of compliments. He’s got a funny sense of humor.”
Acting on stage is a different art form than acting on TV or in films. Young said the need to memorize an entire script and never hit the pause button each night can be challenging, but she is still relishing her New York stage debut.
“The thing I can compare it to is taking tap class because I still tap dance, and I started when I was 18,” she said. “I live in Atlanta now, and I even have teachers down there. But it’s quite fun to be back in New York because of all the teachers that I used to go to their tap classes. Well, it depends on what level you go in. I can go in a high-level class, and I can also go in a medium class. I can go to a beginner class just to enjoy myself, but if I go in a slightly harder class and about an hour and 15 minutes go by, my brain just won’t accept any more information. It’s like it’s taken all it can, and it can be counterproductive to go on past that. And in stage, it’s like you cram for all these lines in your head, and you have to remember them. There’s no stopping. You don’t really experience that in film. At least I never did because you can always do it again. … If you say, ‘I really need to do that again,’ you can. So that’s completely different on stage.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ode to the Wasp Woman, written and directed by Rider McDowell, stars Sean Young as Susan Cabot. Performances continue through Jan. 31 at the Actors Temple Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
