Never Doubt My Commitment To Beth Grant

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I don't know if I'm just having an especially emotional day or what (I am star-sign Cancer after all), but this interview with my beloved Beth Grant at The AV Club is just hitting all my buttons, making my mood ricochet everywhere. I'm laughing hysterically one minute and then suddenly she goes and makes me tear up. What an awesome woman. Seriously, I thought I just loved her because of the wacky gallery of characters she's inhibited over the years but this proved once and for all that she is as awesome as all of them put together. I love you, Beth Grant!

Here's a bit I just gotta share though, with regards to her most (in)famous line in Donnie Darko (of course):

"People ask me to say it all the time. I’ve given it to people for their answering machines, I’ve done it on telephones, videos, other movie sets. People come up and say, “Would you do it for my girlfriend?” I love it, because it is a great line. It’s one of those lines that’s deceptively simple—what’s the big deal? But it’s so complex, because she’s self-righteous, and she’s kind of pitiful at that point, because her hero has fallen. She’s arrogant and she’s sincere, because she really does think we all should be committed to Sparkle Motion. I also like the line leading up to that: “I made your daughter the lead dancer, and you’re not committed!” It’s how people in their own little narrow worlds get so bent out of shape over the silliest things. I’ve seen it all my life, especially growing up in the South—the tempest in a teapot. She’s vulnerable, self-righteous, a combination of so many things in that one line. It’s Richard Kelly’s brilliance, because he led me to that performance. He wanted sincerity, he didn’t want it to be one color, and he made me go vulnerable, and I think that’s why it works. When you can get all those different colors and levels in one line… [Pauses.] Time Out New York voted it “Best Line Of The Year”—which is crazy, because how many words is it? “Sometimes. I. Doubt. Your. Commitment. To. Sparkle. Motion.” Eight words. It’s crazy."

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I'm also glad to now know from a different part of the interview that you don't want to offend Bonnie Bedelia. Good to know! Just in case. I wouldn't want that to be the way I died. Here lay JA, he offended Bonnie Bedelia.

ETA And this is what I get for quoting bits before I'm even done reading the whole interview. More bits I must quote! Also about Donnie Darko:

"You know, Donnie Darko’s very controversial. Not all of my friends like it. Honestly, it’s almost become a test for me. If somebody says they don’t like [Donnie Darko], I think, “Oh, I don’t know you as well as I thought I did.” One friend said, “That movie was weird!” And I thought, “Hmm. I don’t think we’re as good of friends as I thought.” It’s not like I disliked him for it; it just meant we weren’t on the same page I thought we were. Because I can’t imagine watching that film and not being moved to tears. I’ve seen it however many times, and I cry almost every time. If you just think it’s a weird movie, you don’t want to think. You don’t want to feel your feelings. So yeah, I do want to shake ’em up."

Me too, Beth. Me too.
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