Tony and Emmy Award winner Judith Light is critically acclaimed for her film, television, and stage work, as well as a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star recipient. Television: The Politician,[…]
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Judith Light talks about a role she believes isn’t the highlight of her career is its own kind of “coming out.”
Question: How do you look back on your years on “Who’s the rnBoss?”
Judith Light: It was tremendously valuable forrn me. I think every time one does something that one says, “I will never rndo this,” you have to be careful because the universe is listening and rnbecause when you do something that you say you’ll never do, you have to rnlook at the reasons why you say you’ll never do them.
I was rnprejudiced. I looked down at the material. I thought: "I only want to dorn feature films and theater. That’s all I’m going to do." But when you rnare getting guidance from the universe and you listen to it, it changes rnyour life in ways that are magical and it did that for me. I never rnthought that I would get to learn, to the depth that I did, about comic rntiming, which is extremely difficult, over an eight-year period that hasrn held me in incredibly good stead and gotten me more jobs because of it.rn I learned so much by working with Tony Danza. I learned so much about rndoing things that I said I would never do that made me call myself on itrn and learn to listen to what was being shown me. Stop looking down my rnnose at material and brought me best game, my A game to every single rnthing, every episode of "One Life to Live," every episode of “Who’s the rnBoss?” and it was my continuing training of myself as a human being as rnwell as an actor.
So, I can never say, ever, that that was a rnmistake or the wrong thing to do and did I have to work to turn myself rnaround in the eyes of the industry? Absolutely. So, when I did a play rnlike “Wit” where I shaved my head and was naked on stage, it was a huge,rn very terrifying thing for me to have to do, but I had to do it. But, I rnwouldn’t have had to do those things if my plan had worked out which wasrn to only do theater and feature films. I would never learn about myself rnto the depth that I have. So, it was... and even to this day, the joy rnand the delight and the exhilaration of my having made those choices, I rnhave great pride in myself for doing that.
Judith Light: It was tremendously valuable forrn me. I think every time one does something that one says, “I will never rndo this,” you have to be careful because the universe is listening and rnbecause when you do something that you say you’ll never do, you have to rnlook at the reasons why you say you’ll never do them.
I was rnprejudiced. I looked down at the material. I thought: "I only want to dorn feature films and theater. That’s all I’m going to do." But when you rnare getting guidance from the universe and you listen to it, it changes rnyour life in ways that are magical and it did that for me. I never rnthought that I would get to learn, to the depth that I did, about comic rntiming, which is extremely difficult, over an eight-year period that hasrn held me in incredibly good stead and gotten me more jobs because of it.rn I learned so much by working with Tony Danza. I learned so much about rndoing things that I said I would never do that made me call myself on itrn and learn to listen to what was being shown me. Stop looking down my rnnose at material and brought me best game, my A game to every single rnthing, every episode of "One Life to Live," every episode of “Who’s the rnBoss?” and it was my continuing training of myself as a human being as rnwell as an actor.
So, I can never say, ever, that that was a rnmistake or the wrong thing to do and did I have to work to turn myself rnaround in the eyes of the industry? Absolutely. So, when I did a play rnlike “Wit” where I shaved my head and was naked on stage, it was a huge,rn very terrifying thing for me to have to do, but I had to do it. But, I rnwouldn’t have had to do those things if my plan had worked out which wasrn to only do theater and feature films. I would never learn about myself rnto the depth that I have. So, it was... and even to this day, the joy rnand the delight and the exhilaration of my having made those choices, I rnhave great pride in myself for doing that.
Recordedrn on May 10, 2010
Interviewed by Austin Allen
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14 min
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