'I've Now Got the Bug to Do Something More': How The Roommate Made Mia Farrow Love Acting Again

In The Roommate on Broadway, Mia Farrow is currently doing something she hadn't done in a very long time. Even though in the past few years, she's done small parts in some television and movies here and there, the Rosemary's Baby star admits that The Roommate is the first role in a long time that truly demanded everything she had as an actor. It's not a small part—Farrow doesn't leave the stage the entire time (aside from "the fastest clothes changing in the world" during scene breaks).

"It's been a true gift," enthuses Farrow about the two-hander play by Jen Silverman, which Farrow currently stars in opposite Patti LuPone. "[Jen] asked a lot of me, and that's what every actor longs for. It's comedy, it's light. And then it's dark, and it's mysterious, and then there's grief and longing and love and the deeper things of life. It's a gift for an actor, and certainly it's been a gift for me. And I'm extremely grateful to have been asked to do this, to do Jen's work. They've written something for women that is, I think it's unique—we're women, we're not teenagers."

Indeed, in The Roommate, Farrow plays Sharon, who is a recent divorcee and empty nester living in Iowa. Lonely, she finds a roommate named Robyn (played by LuPone). Vivacious and up-for-anything, Robyn reminds Sharon that just because she's in her '60s, she isn't yet on death's door. "You are actually younger than most U.S. presidents," she tells Sharon, in a bid to convince her to finally live a little (the line also gets regular laughs).

Like Sharon, leading a Broadway show has reminded Farrow that—after putting her career on hold to be a mother to her 14 kids—she still has time for a second act. "Old pieces that were left lying around have risen up to say, 'Hey, you know, this is something you love doing. Don't forget,'" she tells Playbill this week after a recent Wednesday matinee of The Roommate, as she was heading back to her hotel room to rest (Farrow normally lives in Connecticut).

Before she finishes up her run in The Roommate December 15 at the Booth Theatre, Farrow reflected on what LuPone taught her about doing comedy, and how she "now [has] the bug to do something more, but we'll see." The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow in *The Roommate* Matthew Murphy

I've seen this play twice, once years ago when it first premiered. I told people after I saw The Roommate this second time that the play makes you want to call your mother. It just reminds everyone that these older women who society views as invisible, there still is so much life still, and so much you can still do.
Mia Farrow: Yes, yes, all of that, all of that. I'm not somebody who has worked full time—unlike Patti LuPone, who sort of never stops with her multiple gifts. I'm okay with being a mom, being a grandma, being in the country, working in the garden. So when this came to me from [director] Jack O'Brien, I just thought, "I don't know if I want to make that commitment." And then I thought, "Gosh, depending on who else does it (because it is a two-hander), I should welcome this as an opportunity, it may be my last one at my age. But certainly, it's uncommon to be offered a play or movie for that matter, of such scope. And something in me wanted to do it.

And then, when it was Patti LuPone, that closed the deal. I'm a friend of Jack's and an admirer of his direction. I've been a friend of Patti's for, like, 30 years. And, of course, who doesn't love Patti LuPone and her work? I thought, "There is no downside. It's an excellent play." And I'm very, very grateful. To be back on Broadway is a huge gift. It's the best community I could ever ask to be in the midst of, you know, I love everybody on Broadway. There's such a team spirit of all the actors—the lights go out when a wonderful actor leaves the earth. And everybody's happy for everybody else when a play opens. Every play gets a welcome from the other plays on Broadway. It's just a wonderful community, and I just feel profoundly grateful.

Working with Patti, have you learned anything new about how to act on stage?
Well, two things. One, I was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company [in the early '70s]. I did a lot of plays while in England trying to sort of not handle the fame that came with a TV series [Peyton Place] and Rosemary's Baby and so forth. So I was in England with my husband André Previn, and I did a lot of plays there. And I had done a play for a year on Broadway [Romantic Comedy in 1979]. But nothing like what Patti has done.

She told me to get this book that was about humor. It was a letter exchange between two actors about comedy. And I learned a lot from reading that. And also from Patti and talking about volume—you project enough to reach the back row. But then for comedy, she felt one can project more and do it faster. And I didn't know that little trick. Other actors may disagree, and I'm probably oversimplifying, but I tried and then the laughs came more easily. There's a lot of laughter in the play from the audience. And Jen wrote it, and it gets laughs. Let's just say, it's all there from Jen. When you saw the other productions, were they different?

The structure of the play is—like you said, it's so tight and so the laughs are naturally there. But I think because you have a very particular quality to the way that you play the role, your Sharon is a little bit more fragile. And that's different.
We had to find that because our director wasn't sure who the characters were, and we tried different ones. And all of us have played a variety of characters by this time in our lives. But I wanted to be the person who didn't know if carrots were part of this "don't eat meat thing"… The line [in the play] is, "Oh, I don't know what vegan is," she says. "I'm a vegan," says Patti's character. "No meat." And I'm like, "Or eggs?" And she says, "Right, eggs would be an animal product."

"But like, carrots?" So you've got to be the person that can say that. And also whose mother would say, "She's a little slow, you know?" That made a certain kind of character who, obviously, has got a great gift for a fantasy life. She has lived in this Iowa setting with these book club ladies, but she's able to launch into a fantasy; it's World War II London. Or talk in a French accent to get money from people. And it's unclear that she has any conscience at all. She's happy to send a 12-year-old to school to sell dope, no matter what the consequences. It's a fascinating character, so I had to find who that was. And I hope I was successful in that. I'm obviously not playing myself, but this character of Sharon is a joy to play.

Ronan Farrow, Mia Farrow, Patti LuPone, and Joshua Johnston

How does it feel to hear Ronan's voice every night? [Farrow's son, New Yorker journalist Ronan Farrow, makes a cameo in the play (via a voice recording) as Sharon's son.]
It's so sweet. Jack, he had that conversation because he wanted to do it. And Ronan just goes, "Sure." And then I heard, one day in rehearsal, I heard his voice on the phone. I said, "Oh, is it Ronan? Could I ask him something?" And they said, "Yeah, it's a recording. He just recorded it." And I said, "Oh, for the actual play?" I didn't know that their conversation had evolved to that point. And Jack said, "Yeah, and it's perfect. It's exactly what I want." He read it once, and that's what you're hearing.

Ronan, he's been to the play four times, each time he comes with a bunch of his friends, and it's very, very sweet. He's so protective and supportive of me. Jack said he wouldn't have done the play if Ronan hadn't liked it, that's how much he respects Ronan. And me, too. I said, "Should I do this, Ronan?" And he read it, and he said, "I think you should do it. I think it's really clever and uniquely so." So yeah, Ronan had a hand in, certainly in my decision. And I love hearing his voice. It's great.