By PJ Maytag

Being Sissy
Beth Grant spills on Sordid Lives and her favorite character

What would Sissy do...
It was the last question I put to actress Beth Grant, who was on the other end of the line, graciously allowing me to pick her brain about her career, her return as Sissy in Sordid Lives: The Series, her appearance in Palm Springs for the Cinema Diverse Film Festival and from her perspective, what makes Sissy tick.
For many Palm Springs residents, Beth Grant will always be Sissy Hickey—the rubber band-snapping, Valium-popping, chain-smoking, constantly worrying, hapless sympathizer and erstwhile gossipmonger in Sordid Lives. And we love her for that.
I certainly do. When Beth does Sissy she’s the incarnation of my ex-husband’s aunt—the spitting image—an archetypal redneck woman who lived in Hooper, Colorado—population: 92 (talk about a one-horse town!). For many of us, we recognize in the characters of Sordid Lives our own imperfect relatives we may try to keep hidden behind that closet door, even if it means we have to nail the damn door shut. They may not all live in the country, but chances are there’s someone you’re related to that embarrasses the hell out of you—it’s just human nature. And that’s the charm of Sordid Lives. The cast of quirky characters: Lavonda, Latrelle, Brother Boy, Noleta, G.W. and Bitsy Mae are more than mere caricatures of white trash in a small Texas town. Through the pathos of that modern day Peyton Place we can laugh at a family that is more screwed up than ours—and yet, their fabulously flawed humanity endears them to us, perhaps echoing some of our own backwoods ancestry.
Growing up in the South, Beth draws much of her inspiration to play rural characters like Sissy from her own relatives. “I was surrounded by characters. And every one was a character. There were no quote unquote normal people in my life. I always wanted to be normal, I knew people that were normal, I had some friends that were sort of normal. But we just didn’t fit in that way, it wasn’t who we were.”
When Beth plays Sissy, she admits she’s channeling her grandmother. “She smoked those Camel unfiltered cigarettes and Lucky Strikes. She worked at a cotton mill. She worked hard. She was a little bitchy and hypocritical and very funny. And I just loved her.” And, like her grandmother, Sissy’s heart is in the right place. “You know Sissy’s not perfect, she’s not a saint. She’s a good person, she tries hard, she’s got a sense of humor. Sure she curses a little. Takes that Valium,” she says with a gentle laugh. You can hear a genuine loving inflection in Beth’s voice when she discusses Sissy. She’s a part of Beth Grant, like an old friend and a part she’s happy to revisit in Sordid Lives: The Series.
For Del Shores, (see his interview on page 66) Beth Grant was always who he envisioned playing Sissy; in first the play, then the movie and now the series. When Del first offered her the part in his play, Beth was dubious. “I didn’t think I looked like a smoker should look.” It wasn’t until Del had Beth over to his house and showed her a picture of his real Aunt Sissy that she knew she could play her. “She looked like my grandmother. And I said, ‘Wait a minute, hold on, I got it.’ Those big glasses were my real key into getting into her. And I got it and said, ‘OK, I’ll do her. I know what to do.’” She quickly added, “You need to have a handle on the role, you know.”
If Beth’s filmography is any indication, she’s got the handle on a lot of roles. It was her performance in Picnic that opened the proverbial door in Hollywood for Beth Grant back in ’86. The producers of Rain Man were in the audience during one of her performances and were so impressed they had her audition for the role of Mother at Farmhouse, and since then she’s never looked back. She’s part of the rare breed of working actors—character actors—that affords her a constant paycheck.
And boy, can she play characters. Unlike many actors that eschew the title ‘character actor,’ she embraces it, long ago accepting she wasn’t going to be your typical leading lady. She recounted a story about hearing a speech by Francis Ford Coppola that brought her place in acting into focus for her.
“He said, ‘For all you artists out there, know that sometimes the reasons you get when you’re fired or don’t get hired are about the things that make you unique and different. And those are the things that will eventually bring you great success.’ And I said to my husband, ‘You know, that is absolutely my story.’ I didn’t fit in as an ingénue. I wasn’t cookie-cutter. I didn’t look like they wanted girls to look in those days. And lo and behold, those very things that kept me from having a career in my 20s and into my early 50s are now the things that get me job after job. It’s ironic isn’t it?”
She’s not exaggerating when she says she’s getting job after job in both screen and film. Beth has appeared on a number of hit TV shows: Malcolm in the Middle, The X-Files, Friends, CSI, Six Feet Under and My Name Is Earl, to name a few. Most recently, she played Gracie Leigh on CBS’ post-apocalyptic show, Jericho that, though a fan favorite, was recently axed by the network.
 Beth’s impressive film resume includes: Flatliners, Speed, A Time to Kill, Donnie Darko, Pearl Harbor, Matchstick Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Flags of Our Fathers, Factory Girl, and last year’s Oscar darling, No Country for Old Men. She’s got roles in five upcoming films, including leads in Natural Disasters and Del Shores’ latest play to get the cinematic treatment, Southern Baptist Sissies—a fact she was quick to comment on. “Now as I’m getting older the parts are getting bigger [her voice cracked a bit like Sissy’s when she emphasized “bigger”]. Now I’m doing leading roles, for some reason when you’re older they will let you do a lead. And the other girls that I started with—they’re not acting anymore, a lot of them. I mean, the big stars are hanging in there. A lot of the women I was in class with became therapists or real estate brokers, and many have moved away. I find it very ironic.”
Beth has a career sprinkled with irony, perhaps none greater than the fact Sordid Lives has achieved cult status—thanks to Palm Springs. “I got to do the movie and then we thought that it was over—then Palm Springs changed all our lives. We can’t say thank you enough, we can’t say it enough because it’s a phenomenon that one place on earth, this theater manager made those flyers and they spread them around and the people came and came and came. And they kept telling me about it and I thought, ‘What are they talking about, that it’s still running?’ [Sordid Lives was shown at Camelot Theatres for close to two years] I had never heard of anything like that.”
She agreed to come to Palm Springs for a Sordid Lives celebration after the film was on the marquee for over a year. What she saw amazed her. “We pulled up to that theatre and there were people everywhere. And then they introduced us and people were throwing rubber bands at me. A guy came running down the aisle dressed as Sissy Hickey. I looked—and I had a spiritual experience.” Beth fell silent for a moment, perhaps reliving the memory. “To see one of your characters come to life before your eyes,” she continued, “and I tell you, he did her better than I do her. He was beautiful, he had every detail. Man, I just woke up to this experience. And the next thing we know is we have the series and so it doesn’t stop—it’s just the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. I’ve been in other cult movies, I had a film called Donnie Darko that has a huge following, but the Donnie Darko fans don’t compare to Sordid Lives fans. There’s a party atmosphere, people were having white trash parties and people dressed like me and people screaming—it’s just crazy and I love it.”
There’s a reverence in her tone that can’t be faked when she talks about the fans. It’s easy to tell that Beth has been moved by the devotion and support that she, the cast and the film have received from the adoring public. I asked her why Sordid Lives has such a following, why does the film move people? “I think we are all celebrating our families with this. Most of us weren’t born with a silver spoon in our mouths. We made our own, have built our lives, but we still share some element of our lives with these down to earth people. And every family, even if you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you still have relatives like that. I think that’s what it is. It’s a big celebration of family and love.”
There’s more to Sordid Lives: The Series than just the laughter. Beth thinks the new series can be a vehicle of cultural change—much like the TV show All in the Family changed her own father’s attitudes for example. “What’s exciting for me, in terms of the gay community, is that I believe this series can change the world. I think we have the potential, in terms of gay rights and civil rights, the timing couldn’t be better for this show. The marriage issue and this whole stupid thing about changing the constitution, which I don’t think will pass, I’m just sorry it’s yet to be one more hurdle to cross. I think it will help because people laughing at the show will go, ‘Oh my God, what am I thinking? This is a family member. This is my son. This is my daughter. This is my cousin. We’re all in this together.’”
Being part of a greater whole can certainly be said of being involved with the series itself. Coming back to do the series was a true labor of love for Beth, the cast and crew, who are working for less than scale because they believe in the project and, in Del. “I think Del outdid himself with this. I think the prequel is a great idea... . He’s a guy who is a true auteur and it needs to be done his way. That’s the key. He’s got to be the one writing the show. Very few people could’ve assembled this kind of cast for such a small budgeted show. I know I wouldn’t have done it, if it had been anyone else calling I wouldn’t have even considered it. Not because I’m a snob, but because of the time involved ... but it’s Del Shores calling. Del Shores should have an empire, he should be a Norman Lear or a Steven Bochco or a David Kelley. He’s got enough projects. I hope people really dig it and support it. It’d be cool to see a good guy win.”
Beth will be joining Del and some of her castmates for the Sordid Lives: The Series premiere to be held, naturally, right here in Palm Springs. The fete is at 7 pm, Tuesday, July 22 at the Camelot Theatres—where it all began. Several Sordid Lives: The Series episodes will be the opening night “film” for the inaugural Cinema Diverse—Palm Springs LGBT Film Festival. The official opening night party follows the screening and will be held at Hotel Zoso with Shores and members of the cast. It’s a fit homecoming for the series and Beth is looking forward to attending, barring any unforeseen filming conflict with her new movie. And if you can’t make the premiere you can catch the first episode of Sordid Lives: The Series the following night, July 23, on Logo at 10 pm PDT.
And the answer to Beth’s last question at the beginning of this interview—What would Sissy do…if she ever met George W.? Beth, a lifelong Democrat, considered for a moment softly giggling, “Well, she was for Hillary without question. I think she would say to him, ‘You just never really wanted to be President, did you honey?’”
God bless her, you can always count on Sissy to supply the chiding sarcasm. And you can always count on Beth Grant to breathe life into whatever role she undertakes—giving her characters a tangible existence of their own that resonates long after the last reel plays.