Edie Falco on “Judy Berlin"

What the biggest difference between doing The Sopranos and doing an independent film?

EDIE: The budget on one episode of The Sopranos is higher than all the movies I've done, combined.

I know (writer/director) Eric Mendelsohn is a long-time friend. At what point in his process does he start to involve you?

EDIE: Usually he'll wait until a script is finished and then give it to me to read, which is what he did [with Judy Berlin]. After I read it and told him how much I loved it, he said “I would love for you to play the part of Judy.” I was flabbergasted, because he had not said a word to me about it.

I've read everything he's ever done and given my feedback, so I assumed that that's what this was.

What’s the advantage of doing a film like this with a long-time friend?

EDIE: A lot of the films I've done I've done with friends and family. The advantage is you go in there feeling no obligation to prove yourself. You're assuming that these people know who you are, at least socially if not more than that. There's a camaraderie and a trust that is inherent in just all of you being there together. I know they trust me and I trust them. It gets that all out of the way so we can get down to the work.

I know Eric kept you and Barbara Barrie (who plays Judy’s mother) apart before you shot your first scene together. Did that help?

EDIE: It sure did. Although I thought it was just a matter of scheduling. I thought, 'All right, I won't meet her until the day we shoot.' That's the way these things are. I think in retrospect it did help.

She was a woman around whom I was unfamiliar. You hold your body differently; eye contact is different than with someone that you're comfortable around. I think physically the relationship that Judy and her mother had sort of mirrored that of strangers. In that regard, the subconscious stuff that was already taking place probably only fed what was happening in the script. And I imagine that was his intent.

Is your preparation any different when you know you're going into a low-budget project?

EDIE: No, not at all. Really nothing about my preparation or involvement is any different on anything I do. The only thing that varies is, if I read something and I like it, I'll do it. If I read something and I don't like it, I won't. Once I've decided I'm doing something, I approach everything exactly the same, whether it's a play or a movie or a low-budget movie or a big budget movie. It's irrelevant.

How is working on a low-budget movie different? 

EDIE: You get a lot of directors who are nervous, and they don't trust themselves or they don't trust the process. So, they might end up doing a lot more takes than they need, as if the actor is an infinite source of these things. Because at a certain point I know I'm not doing work that I'm proud of anymore, I'm just exhausted. And they are just too afraid to say, 'Okay, let's move on.' And so you'll do another four, five takes, and I start thinking, 'Oh, this is not what I meant to do, this is not the take I want.' So that's a little rough.

But once you start doing things where they put you in a nice trailer, and you've got people running around and taking care of you, when you all of a sudden have to change clothes in the back of a Chevy again, you think, 'You know, this does kind of stink, come to think of it. I would prefer to be in a trailer right now.' 

So, I don’t know if I've been a little bit spoiled by some of the bigger budget stuff. And you realize there's a reason you're taken care of, because you want to show up and do the best you can each time you're out there. It does help to be rested and warm and all that stuff.

There are so many advantages to working on a low-budget project. I feel a totally comfortable with the idea of trying something and having it not work. I feel a sense of freedom to just go for it, because money is not at the forefront of everything that goes on in these things. You don't have a producer standing over you saying, 'We gotta make the day!' Everybody's just flying by the seat of their pants and I feel a sense of freedom that I don't when money is being talked about. 

Also, on a big-budget thing, there are a zillion people working on it. Oftentimes nobody knows who anybody else is and they don't necessarily care about their job, they're just trying to get enough days so they can become an AD. 

On these low-budget things, everybody's there because they want to be. They know the director, they love the work of the director, they're a friend and he needed a helping hand. You know you're not going to make money and you know it's going to be hard work and you're there because you love it. And that is infused in every moment you spend on the set of a low-budget movie. It's been my experience that nothing but good stuff will come out of that.

Judy Berlin has a really exceptional cast – Barbara Barrie, Bob Dishy, Madeline Kahn, Anne Meara, Julie Kavner. Was that intimidating at all?

EDIE: No. At a certain point, if you've dealt with a bunch of these people, you realize that they really are just people. And when it comes down to who's talented and who's nice, that's all I'm really impressed by these days.

Barbara Barrie was, I'm sure, thrilled to get a script that was so good. Doesn't matter what the budget is. You see this big budget stuff that's being made, and you read the script and you're thinking, 'How did this happen to this industry?' 

So you read a good script -- and my experience is, I don't care who's doing it, where it's being done, but I'd give my right arm to be involved in it. As far as I'm concerned, the most valued commodity in this industry is good writing. I was not at all surprised that he got the cast he did.

I was really sick for a good part of that shoot. We did mostly night shoots, because of the eclipse stuff, and I had a stomach virus. And I thought to myself, 'There's no way I can do this. There's just no way." And there was. I showed up and I felt sick and I was somehow able to get through the days. I was pleased to see that I can show up for stuff even when I think I can't. 

Do you want to work with Eric again?

EDIE: I would do so in a heartbeat. At the core of our friendship is this frustration and sadness that he has such a hard time getting his movies made. He wants to shoot it in black and white and people are scratching their heads, going, 'How can I possibly put money into that? I'm never going to make it back.' 

So, he's got a bunch of scripts, they're all brilliant and beautiful, and people are saying, 'Well, we're sorta interested, but re-write the ending.' And he's like, 'But that's not the story I want to tell.'  

I would work with him again in a second if somebody would give him the money to make a movie.