Estelle Parsons is probably best known around the country for her recurring role as Beverly Harris, the amusingly overbearing, shrill mother of Roseanne Conner on the sitcom “Roseanne.” Others may remember her Academy Award-winning performance as Blanche Barrow in "Bonnie and Clyde." Astute theatergoers know that Parsons is one of our finest stage actresses and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2004. She has spent most of her professional life in the theater, which is her passion. Parsons made her Broadway debut in 1956 in Happy Hunting, a musical starring Ethel Merman, and over the course of her 50-plus year career has been nominated for four Tony Awards.

How did you wind up doing the role on Broadway?

Rondi Reed (who originated the role of Mattie Fae Aiken, Violet’s sister) and Laurie Metcalf, both of whom belong to Steppenwolf, are friends. I’ve worked with both of them at Steppenwolf, and with Laurie on “Roseanne.” We were out one night, and they said, “Deanna (Dunagan, the original Violet) is leaving. You should play that part.” I had seen the play a couple of weeks before, and I said, “What are you talking about?” And, they said, “Ever since we read this play we thought you would be perfect for the part.” And of course I’m still wondering why they thought that. Anyway, after a few days, I called Rondi and told her I was interested. She said, “Okay, I’ll put it in motion.” And she did. I went to meet the director, and they hired me.

Did you audition?

I did. I always prefer to audition, because very often when you’re saying the words out loud, you really can tell whether you want to do a play or not. The audition was the dining room scene, which is really, really tough. So I thought, “Let me work on this for awhile, and see if this is something I really want to be up there doing.” The more I worked on it, the more I loved it. And then when I auditioned, it just came alive, like whoosh. I thought it was wonderful. 

You’ve said that you didn’t go into the play with the intention of making the role your own. Please elaborate?

The play was a very big hit. Tracy Letts won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award, and Deanna and Rondi also won Tonys. Quite aside from the prizes, I think that if something is a hit, then the hit should be maintained.

I thought my job was to replace what was there, to do what is there. I had seen Deanna do the role, and I’ve spent my whole adult life looking very seriously and concentratedly at actors. So I just felt I was her doing the role. People laugh at me when I say that, because I’m nothing like her. But I don’t usually try to put my personal stamp on things. I try to play the play the way it is written.

Why do you think audiences have such a profound response to the August: Osage County?

What I do is tragic comedy, that’s what Tracy wrote, and that’s why I wanted to do it. I call it entertainment rather than a drama because essentially it is theatrical entertainment with a universal theme — family, something everyone can relate to. The audience is excited from the beginning. If you do a drama, you have to take a certain amount of time to warm people up. This play is not like that. The audience is there from the beginning, you go out there and, whammo, they are with you and you’re with them. There’s no getting into the character, preparing or anything, you just go out there and entertain. The audience is a palpable part of the evening, that’s what the theater is all about.

How does the role affect you physically and/or emotionally?

I am really into collaboration in the theater and that’s the kind of relationship we have in August: Osage County. I think director Anna Shapiro’s genius really is in understanding that this play works if each actor is free to create his or her own character. Though it may not be exactly what Tracy has had in mind. But, if each actor who comes in fully expresses himself through the character, the play works, it just constantly works. It is a very vigorous role, but I’m used to doing musicals and I’m used to doing very vigorous stuff. I wouldn’t say I’m exhausted by it. But I do think that it takes up your whole life.

Everyone marvels at how you go up and down those stairs. How do you stay in shape?

I’ve been very physically active all my life. Dance lessons, yoga, running, hiking. I would have loved to have been a skier or a tennis player if I weren’t an actor. I run or swim or go to the gym every day, and also do yoga. I started doing weights when I got into my 60s, and have had a lot of trainers. When you get older, your strength dissipates very quickly. It probably starts in your 60s, but when you get into your 70s, if you don’t walk a mile for a couple of weeks, pretty soon it’s hard work to walk a mile. So I’ve always kept up with it, not because I thought it would be particularly helpful in my work – though I do think actors should be extraordinarily self-aware physically – I just can’t help myself. My husband is like that too. That’s our lifestyle, which came in handy when I started this show.

Millions of people know you from “Roseanne.”  It was taped in front of an audience. Was the experience similar to doing a play?

No. The audience was there, but they were manipulated – laugh now, applaud now. So it’s not like a theater audience. It’s a completely different experience. You don’t have that long with a script. A good play is so dense that it takes you three or four weeks to figure out what you’re talking about. That’s never true in films and TV, which is cool because you’ve got to get up and do them, and there’s a certain fun in that – but not enough to make me want to do it instead of theater. It’s hard work in the theater. Eight shows a week of anything is hard work, and you give your life to it.

I do think that a large part of working with live theater audiences is that you can educate them in ways that are not like school education. You can open people up to new things and send them on new roads in life and people are profoundly affected. Things that are meaningful to you in every choice that you make in everyday life.

For more on August: Osage County, click here.

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