Ditsy stage actress Olive Neal is playing a psychiatrist in the serious new Broadway production "God of Our Fathers" - but some of the dialogue is giving her trouble. In her dressing room, she complains that she can't remember the second half of that Shakespeare line from "Hamlet" her character is supposed to quote. You know, the one that begins, "To be. . . ."
Jennifer Tilly is Olive, and that's just one of many hilarious bits of business she gets to perform in Woody Allen's latest movie, "Bullets Over Broadway," a broad but dark comedy about eccentric show people who find themselves mixing with mobsters on the Great White Way during the roaring 1920s.Olive is a gangster's moll, and the gangster has provided financing for the new play, which was written and is being directed by idealistic young playwright David Shayne (John Cusack). There is one hitch, however. To get the money, he must give the extremely untalented Olive a substantial role in the play.
David Shayne is essentially the "Woody role," since Allen, who co-wrote and directed the film, does not appear on screen. Yet, despite the disappointment of not being able to act with him, making the movie was, according to Tilly, the highlight of her career thus far.
"It really was a dream come true to work with him," Tilly said during a telephone interview from her Los Angeles home. "I've always wanted to be in a Woody Allen movie. Really. I would call my agent and tell him I wanted to work with Woody, and he'd say, `Woody does not have auditions per se. He has a group of people he likes to work with, or he'll see people in films and he calls them. But he doesn't really watch a lot of TV or movies - he sees plays in New York."
Later, Tilly did perform on the New York stage, winning a Theatre World Award for Tina Howe's play "One Shoe Off." And Allen did see some of her work and felt she'd be perfect for the role of Olive in the new movie he was writing, "Bullets Over Broadway."
Tilly got the call last year while in Arizona shooting "The Getaway," with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. "I flew to New York, and he (Allen) came into the room and said, `I'm so excited to meet you.' He was excited to meet me!
"He gave me some pages to read, and a week later my agent called and said I got the part. I assumed it was a very small part, because it's usually such an ordeal for larger roles. I went through a month-and-a-half of auditions and screen tests for `The Getaway,' which was a very small part. So, I just assumed (the `Bullets Over Broadway' role) was a small part. Then, months later I got the script - and it was really amazing. If I'd known how big the part was, I probably would have been too nervous to audition."
Tilly calls Allen "the best director I've ever worked for."
"The script was well-written, it was very funny. And I thought, `Well, I won't have to do any ad-libbing or improvisation here, which you do sometimes to help a film with a lesser script. But on the first day, he encouraged ad-libbing, especially since he had this idea that Olive was someone who never stops talking.
"It was tremendously liberating to have that kind of freedom and trust. Some people in Hollywood are total egomaniacs. They will say, `Oh, she can't do a scene where she has to be angry,' so they pick a fight in the dressing room just to make you mad. It's so patronizing, you know? `Just slap her before she's supposed to fall apart!' But Woody hires actors he has total trust in, and he doesn't have to take you by the hand and create this Pygmalion complex that a lot of directors have.
"You learn really fast that if you don't hear anything from him, that's really good."
Born in California in 1961, Tilly majored in theater in college and began her career doing legitimate stage work in Los Angeles. She then moved into small movie roles, including some she refers to as "less than stellar," though she declines to name them (probably such forgettable comedies as "No Small Affair," "High Spirits," "Moving Violations").
After a wealth of experience, she moved to New York and won praise from critics as "best newcomer" for "One Shoe Off." "Best newcomer after being in the business for eight years!"
Still, that experience was also a career highlight, while she continues to be frustrated by movie casting directors who see her as little more than a stereotypical bimbo. "The New York theater critics hadn't seen my movie work, so they reviewed the play instead of my career - and it was a tremendously rewarding part - a sarcastic, urban, intelligent woman whose marriage is falling apart.
"A couple of years ago I played (an Eskimo woman) in (the 1993 movie) `Shadow of the Wolf,' and the critics said, `Jennifer Tilly, with her Betty Boop voice, is really miscast.' I felt I did a really good job, but people bring things to the party."
Despite the fact that Olive in "Bullets Over Broadway" is a variation of the stereotype, Tilly feels the character is so much better written and directed that this is the definitive version of her movie persona. "I feel like, `OK, now I can put this to rest.' "
Her sister, Meg Tilly, who is a year older, is also a successful film actress, most famous for "The Big Chill," "Psycho II," "Valmont" and her Oscar-nominated "Agnes of God." And though they are close, Jennifer concedes that having a movie star sister has not made her climb any easier. "If I had known my sister was going to be really successful, I would have changed my name.
"We run in totally different spheres and our personalities are different, but people call me `Meg' and get us confused. And it's really muddied the waters.
"Sometimes I'll hear, `We don't need to see Jennifer, we've already seen Meg.' And you don't want to be defined by who your sister is."