This article is written in conjunction with the release of the movie, Other People's Money, written by Kevin Phinney, and transcribed by Glenn Abernathy.
In her first few scenes in Other People's Money, Piper Laurie gave director Norman Jewison a mild case of the jitters. "We started filming," he says, "and I wasn't sure there was enough in her performance. I mean, it was so subtle, sometimes it seems like she's doing absolutely nothing." But when Jewison watched the scenes on film, his concern quickly gave way to elation. "I looked at the rushes," he says, "and I couldn't take my eyes off her, "and I couldn't take my eyes off her. She brings a sincerity and reality to everything she does."
Piper Laurie has made a career out of confounding her collaborators. Now she has leapfrogged from ABC's cult hit (and recently canceled ratings disaster) Twin Peaks to Other People's Money, alongside Gregory Peck, Danny DeVito, and Penelope Ann Miller. "It's a romantic comedy with overtones of greed and lust," she says.
After four decades in front of the camera, Laurie has seen her share of both vices. Born Rosetta Jacobs, she was placed in a Los Angeles children's home by her parents when she was six. "My sister had asthma, and I was sent to keep her company" she remembers. "I got the message- I was expected to go" Early on, acting became her refuge. By seventeen, she was under contract to Universal Pictures, which began casting her in roles that demanded everything from her but acting. "They put me in a movie with Donald O'Connor, even though I'm not a dancer." More fluffy films followed, until Laurie got fed up and broke her contract. "Some of those movies were charming things that did well at the box office," she says, "but it wasn't what I wanted to be an actress for.
Laurie moved to New York in 1955 and acted onstage and in some early television dramas. When she did return to Hollywood it was on her own terms. She made the Hustler with Paul Newman in 1961 and was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress. Unimpressed, Laurie quit acting altogether. "There seemed to be other things in the world more important," she says.
Laurie married, studied art, and raised her daughter, Annie. One day while she was sculpting, she felt a familiar twinge. "I was really high with the pleasure of carving stone, and I thought the only thing better would be to go to the theater," she says. "That's how it was. There were fifteen years between The Hustler and Carrie."
No publicist could have dreamed a better comeback that the Brian De Palma film. "I thought it was a comedy when I started working on it," she says. "In the scene where Carrie's getting ready to go to the dance, I'm literally tearing my hair out- or at least trying to. I thought I'd pull myself across the room by my hair." Her performances earned her a second Academy Award nomination.
Since moving back to Los Angeles in the mid 70's, Laurie has worked steadily as an actress. Still, she says she never thought of herself as special. Mark Frost, her former Twin Peaks producer, disagrees. "Having someone of her caliber is one of the reasons the show worked so well." he says. Last January, she won a Golden Globe Award for Twin Peaks, then Frost cast her in his feature film directing debut, Storyville, which wrapped in June, and she recently agreed to do a Bruce Beresford film with Alfred Finney.
"I have been watching her most of her adult life," says Frost. "Someone as good and versatile as she is will always be able to find what's interesting in a scene and make it work for her.