| Talk Show Appearances - 2008 | ||
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The Early
Show, March 18 Clicking on the thumbnail images will cause larger versions of the images to open in a separate window.
I did not learn of this interview until after it took place, so I didn't record the broadcast. However, it was available via the CBS News website. Russ Mitchell introduces Tracey, mentioning it's been a year and a half since became a US citizen [more like a year and a quarter, if she took the oath in December 2006 -- RR] and listing some of the characters she'll be portraying in State of the Union as a clip montage plays on the screen -- Cameron Diaz, David Beckham, Arianna Huffington, and Renee Zellweger. We see a short clip of Tracey as Renee promoting her new film about a journalist wounded in Iraq who develops "chronic narcisistic squint." Has anyone come back and put tacks in your chair, he asks Tracey, meaning has any of her targets ever objected to the portrayals. Not yet, because this is new for her, she says, for she's never portrayed real people on American television before. In the case of Zellweger, it's like she's sucking on a lemon ("you'll get a tack for sure" with that one, says Russ); but she is a terrific actress, Tracey says, and she thinks she'll take it well. Is America that funny, asks Russ. It's very diverse, Tracey says, as she explains the premise of the series: to try to go across America in a day, coast to coast, sea to shining sea, and drop in on everyone. When asked about Tony Sirico, she says she loves him and hopes he doesn't take out a hit on her. Russ mentions other characters, such as an Indian woman at a pharmacy counter and a TV news anchor ("your nightly dose of fear", says Tracey). Where did they come from? Her pharmacist is Indian, and with husband Allan in India producing a new sitcom, she's obsessed with India and Bollywood right now. Next we see Tracey as Arianna Huffington. Then we hear her as Arianna, sounding so much like Zsa Zsa or Eva Gabor. If ever Green Acres is remade, says Tracey, she should be cast for it. She thinks Arianna will be pleased with her portrayal. She's a good person to have on the show, says Tracey, because she talks about what's going on. We can see her at the start and at the end of the day -- say, in bed watching Charlie Rose, computer in hand, blogging. Next, Russ mentions that she (Tracey) portrays Andy Rooney, so they set up a split screen -- the real Rooney on the left, Tracey as Rooney on the right. She cracks up at this; she loves being him, calling it cathartic. She's watched him ever since she took up residence in this country and loves his honesty, the honesty of getting older and saying whatever you want. How does she move so effortlessly from one character to another, asks Russ. The answer: "I'm a happy schizophrenic." It also helps to have a brilliant makeup artist and a wonderful crew. She then mentions that the inspiration for Renee Zellweger came from Lamb Chop, Shari Lewis's puppet. And on that note, the segment ends. Later, at the start of the 8:30 segment, Tracey and the Early Show anchors are out on the plaza, bantering. Someone makes a suggestion that she should be an anchor or be on the staff. They do need a producer right now, she says, causing a slightly awkward moment (the previous producer left under a cloud of controversy). Then she throws it to Dave with the weather.   Sherri Shepherd introduces Tracey, who comes out and, after a moment, only hugs Barbara Walters, who points out that coming out and giving all of the panel a hug would take 2 minutes or so out of the interview segment. Sherri tells Tracey that she loves her accent (presumably she means her "regular" one), notes that she became a citizen in 2006 and asks if she did so in order to vote. Tracey responds firmly and emphatically, "Yes!" to the applause of the audience. After the 2004 election, she decided she really wanted to be part of it, to have her voice be heard. Also, she's been here 25 years now, her children were born here, and she's had a good career here, so it was time. She didn't relinquish her British citizenship, so she'll still have that European perspective. Elisabeth Hasselbeck asks if being a citizen has influenced the direction of her new show. Yes it has, she replies; it's a bit more daring, not that there's no longer any fear of having the green card revoked and getting sent to Guantanamo. Joy Behar points out that she hasn't done anything on Hillary Clinton; that's because she couldn't think of anything funny to do about her, Tracey responds. Sherri asks Tracey if she found out anything about this country in the course of doing the show that she didn't already know. She doesn't directly answer the question, instead talking about the philosophy of the show (going across country from dawn to dusk, from sea to shining sea), and this turns into a report about her swearing-in ceremony. She went to downtown LA with 5,000 other prospective citizens, and they waved their little flags and saw an inspirational film with the moon landings, the endless amber waves of grain of the wheat fields, the monster trucks, all set to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" [some of these scenes show up in the opening credits for State of the Union -- RR]. Daughter Mabel was there, somewhat agape at the proceedings (she's going for her master's degree in political science). Then when they left the arena, the new citizens were immediately confronted with registration booths for the Democrats and Republicans. Joy asks her about her impressions of Americans, now that she is one. She says it's exciting, a time of great change with the election coming up. Then she changes the subject back to the new show. She plays famous people and not-famous people, so you get a mix. One not-famous woman she plays is from the middle of America and doesn't want to be on a reality show, doesn't care about designer pants or that sort of stuff. She (Tracey) set her (character) in Plainsville, Nebraska; is there such a place? [no, but there is a Plainview, Nebraska -- RR] . Then she notices that she's accidentally touched one of Sherri's breasts (this was out of camera view). Several minutes of hilarity result from this incident: the observation that it couldn't be helped; Tracey's comment that "it must be jelly 'cause jam don't shake," which cracks Sherri up; Joy's comment when Tracey moves in her direction -- "Back off, bitch"; and Tracey's observation that she would never do this to Barbara -- "you don't touch Barbara's boobs!" Barbara says that one other thing she hopes Tracey never does is an impersonation of her because she does the best impressions in this series. They all really liked her impersonation of Renee Zellweger. Tracey mentions Gilda Radner's famous impersonation, Baba Wawa, and isn't going to do her own; it's been done. Gilda was a big inspiration to her, she says [it's too bad they never got to work together. Had Gilda lived, I bet they would have -- RR]. After she reaches over and pretends to cup Elisabeth's breast, they show the clip of her as Renee Zellweger. Afterwards, she says that the inspiration for her was Lamp Chop, Shari Lewis's puppet; it was all about the eyelashes and sucking on a lemon, she says. Barbara asks how she did Cameron Diaz. There was no way she could look as beautiful as Cameron, Tracey admits, so she just belched a lot. Asked if she can still go to parties with these people, she has no idea. Then Barbara mentions Arianna Huffington, prompting Tracey to go into Arianna mode and say that if Green Acres is ever remade, Arianna would be perfect for the part. She'll like the impersonation, Tracey says. Barbara then mentions that she's the godmother of Arianna's first child; they've been friends since she first came to America, but she (Barbara) still can't impersonate her. Sherri then asks about some of the non-famous characters she's created, and she mentions an ex-record company exec who's now reduced to living out of her car. She also mentions the Indian pharmacist, because she's into Bollywood now, having spent some time in India (husband Allan is making a sitcom over there now). And now she gets a little political: we (meaning America) have to put on a big face to the rest of the world; they're expecting us to -- this is a world election this year, the unspoken implication being that our choices at the polls will have a tremendous impact around the world, and that we'd better not screw it up. Joy comments that she must be an Obama fan, but Tracey says she's not telling [I do recall a news report that listed her as having given to the Obama campaign; that wouldn't preclude her from giving to others, though -- RR]. Sherri get the last quotable line in: "If you don't know this woman is crazy, you are crazy!" And after a quick mention of the premiere of State of the Union March 30, the segment ends. As the camera fades out, we can hear Tracey saying she's not a lesbian, referring to the breast incidents.     Tavis introduces Tracey and then introduces a clip of her as Renee Zellweger. He's impressed by her, for he finds her impression very funny. She looks a little like Renee, she says [perhaps facially; the wig and eyelashes are essential, though - RR]. She mentions that the impression is based on Lamp Chop, which cracks Tavis up. He asks how she is able to create such impressions. She mentions makeup artist Sally Craven [a.k.a. Sally Sutton -- RR], whom she's worked with since her BBC days, the eyelashes, and sucking on a lemon. This is the first show she's done where she's impersonating real people [first in America, anyway -- RR], and it's fun; there's more at stake now. For example, take Arianna Huffington; start with the accent and build onto that, and there's the character. Tavis asks why she's moved to real people this time out; "because I'm an American now!" she replies, firmly and forcefully (and he congratulates her on becoming a citizen). 15 years ago, she says, her friends would have said "Great!" to her becoming a citizen, but now they go "Why?" [presumably these are friends back in the UK or elsewhere -- RR]. Then she answers "Why?": she wants to vote, do more daring things, imitate people without the fear of being sent to Guantanamo. She recounts the citizenship ceremony: it was in downtown LA, they showed this film with scenes of what makes America great -- moon landing, wheat fields, monster trucks, waving flags -- then President Bush comes on to say a few words (silence), and then Lee Greenwood and "God Bless The USA". He asks what she made of the citizenship experience in light of her long time here. She liked the civics test, she says (which she aced, by the way, earning her high fives from Tavis). And she does want to vote. The Ken Burns documentaries served as her high school education, she says. Next, Tracey comments on the "very interesting" political scene this year, describing as "horrific" the tendency to overspeculate and overanalyze every moment, trying to time the news cycle just right to make the maximum impact. It is different from the UK, where it took her 3 years to realize that Margaret Thatcher was indeed a woman (the realization hit her one day as she was driving to work). All this hype about Hillary Clinton being the first woman to make a serious run for the presidency shows that we're living in a bubble here, she says, proceeding to mention the past and present women who've led their countries -- Bhutto, Gandhi, Merkel, Thatcher, etc. Tavis then tries to direct the conversation back towards State of the Union, but Tracey's not finished. Heaven forbid she should get more involved with politics, she says; there's nothing worse than an actress getting too involved. She won't be standing up at the Oscars ranting about the Zionists a la Vanessa Redgrave ("shut up!") Finally, the conversation turns back to State of the Union. In it, Tracey says, she portrays a wide spectrum of Americans, including politicians and political types, such as Nancy Pelosi, Arianna Huffington, Laurie David, etc. Tavis asks about her portrayal of Pelosi, but she won't say much about it because it involves a sight gag. He finds it hard to picture something about Pelosi that makes her a good subject for a portrayal; she elaborates slightly about her portrayal, saying that it has something to do with cosmetic surgery. We have a problem in this country with women aging with dignity, she says; you've got women taking bits of their ass out and putting it in their lips, and it doesn't look good. It shouldn't be done! She then demonstrates why it shouldn't be done, portraying a woman picking up her child in the carpool line, unable to be anything but stonefaced. Tavis asks Tracey when she knew that she had this gift for impersonation. She's loved doing this forever, she says. Others could play the piano or play soccer; she could imitate everyone around her -- friends, neighbors, family. Her father died when she was 6, and things were pretty grim at home for a time, so she used to put on shows for her mother -- Julie Andrews, Edith Piaf, etc. We're good at laughing at ourselves in England, she says, and what she does now is just an extension of that. Then she does a brief imitation of Tavis introducing one of the original O'Jays. She and husband Allan were in bed watching Tavis give this introduction one evening, and Allan says "How do we know it's not one of the original Chi-Lites?" [experts in early-70's soul groups would know -- RR]. Tavis cracks up, and then it dawns on him that he's just been impersonated. If you can impersonate a black man, he says, you can do anyone. She impersonates black characters on her show, says Tracey, such as the airport security guards ("iPods away, iPods away!"). At the checkpoints, they'll look at her in partial recognition and ask "y'all on TV?". Tavis then asks if she ever gets serious. She's quite serious when at home, she says; it's husband Allan who's the funny one -- he's totally talentless, yet he's hilarious. Her son and daughter are funny, too. Then comes a short pause, for Tavis thought she was going to do something else. Back to the show: it's a 5-episode season, Tracey says, shot in two weeks with the available budget. It was a crazy time, with lots of characters and lots of makeup -- Andy Rooney one moment, Renee Zellweger the next -- but she really enjoyed it. There's liberal use of stock footage to convey the sense of traveling across this country of ours. Tavis asks if she's ever crossed up certain aspects of her characters because she has so many of them. Yes, she says, but she doesn't directly answer his question. Instead, she talks of times when she's been so exhausted after a hard day on the set that she has difficulty breaking character, such as returning home as a nagging Jewish wife. and Allan has to snap her out of it ("stop it -- stop it and go to bed!") [crack that whip! -- RR]. And that's the end of the interview. Tavis invites her to come back any time. With one of the Chi-Lites, asks Tracey; no, but you can play one of the Chi-Lites, he replies. As a clip featuring Tracey as Tony Sirico plays, the segment ends. 4. The Tonight Show, April 18 Top Prepared
by Roger
Reini |
