Actress Illeana Douglas comes to Macon

Q: Do you know much about your grandfather’s early life in Macon?

A: Not really. Only that he was born there and his father was a musician. His father was actually a concert pianist and was on the vaudeville circuit, and I think they may have traveled around and maybe relocated to Chicago.

Q: Did you see him much growing up?

A: Very much so in terms of staying with my grandparents. I also had the opportunity to visit a couple of his movie sets and see the respect he had among his peers. I wish he could have lived longer to see me go into show business. But he was very influential as far as my going into acting and becoming an entertainer.

Q: As a kid, you were on the set of “Being There,” and recently you did the DVD commentary for the 30th-anniversary edition. What was that like?

A: As I said on the DVD, it’s a very strange memory. I was very young. I had posters of “Pink Panther” movies. And I was obsessed with Peter Sellers. So, for me, it was all about that. But it was just amazing to see how a movie was made. That particular film set just created an indelible impression in my mind. It was very, very serious. It was dead quiet. It was like walking into a play or something. The director, Hal Ashby, would go talk to the actors and everything would happen. I thought, “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

Q: How would you compare your career to your grandfather’s?

A: In many ways, I think our careers are similar. I started doing theater and sketch comedy, things my grandfather did. I had an established film career, and then I did more independent movies, getting into writing and producing, which is something my grandfather did. Later, he started getting into more of what they call “character acting.” When you’re an actress in Hollywood, after you turn 40, they call you a character actor. Which leads me back to a quote from my grandfather. He said, “All acting, if it’s any good, is character acting.”

Q: So now you are the “indie queen”?

A: I don’t think anyone can put me in any sort of box, but I prefer indie actress because I make independent choices. I’ve tried to be very entrepreneurial, and I’ve tried to make movies that I think my fans would like. My grandfather’s career was like that. I don’t think he was really discovered or appreciated until movies like “Hud” or “Being There.” He kind of had two careers, and I feel like my career is that way.

Q: Where does “Easy to Assemble” come from?

A: It comes from a real place. I’ve been doing this since I was 16. And I was thinking I don’t want to do this anymore. But you can’t escape it. Wherever you go, you are “carrot girl from Seinfeld” or “aren’t you that girl who got her cheek bitten off by DeNiro?” It’s not like the old days where you could be Garbo and say now I’m going to retire. Once you’re famous, you’re always famous. That’s our new kind of society.

Q: Ready for the lightning round?

A: Sure.

Q: Peter Sellers?

A: He’s my guardian angel. Before I write anything or do anything, I have a few people I call upon, and he’s one of them.

Q: “New York Stories”?

A: That was me trying to act without smiling because I couldn’t believe I was in a movie. Every scene I was in I had a huge grin on my face.

Q: Martin Scorsese?

A: Again, another iconic presence in my life and my career and love of movie making. He has really influenced me. Just the atmosphere of laughter and focus on his sets was amazing.

Q: “To Die For”?

A: What Marty was able to do was tap a natural talent that I didn’t know I had. I was just a kid and I didn’t know what I was doing, and he was able to see a quality in me that I didn’t see. But Gus Van Sant was able to create an identifiable thing. People now call that character “an Illeana Douglas-type character.”