From child star to leading lady,
you’ve got to give Martha Plimpton an A
When Martha Plimpton reached the podium in her striking black gown to receive the 2012 Primetime Emmy Award for Guest Actress in a Drama series (as Patti Nyholm) on CBS’s The Good Wife, she seemed in complete shock. Instead of listing off the usual thank-yous often heard at awards ceremonies, Plimpton’s heartfelt speech revealed just how privileged and fortunate she felt to be a working actress for over 30 years.
Appearing in over 30 films since her youth, she has graced the screen with performances in The Goonies, The Mosquito Coast and Running on Empty (co-starring River Phoenix, Plimpton’s boyfriend at the time). Plimpton, 42, a native New Yorker, currently stars as the no-nonsense, matriarch, Virginia Chance in the quirky hit FOX TV comedy, Raising Hope.
Added to the list of Plimpton’s accomplishments are three consecutive Tony Award nominations for her roles in The Coast of Utopia, Top Girls and Pal Joey – she has acted in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shoes, and is a member of the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble, where she was recognized for her noteworthy performances in Hedda Gabler (2001) and The Libertine (1996) starring opposite John Malkovich.
Given that this compelling actress began her career at age 8, what’s even more astonishing is Plimpton’s ability to remain grounded and real in a notoriously competitive entertainment industry and celebrity-obsessed culture.
“I feel that I am privileged and lucky. It’s not all luck though – it’s also hard work,” she says over the phone letting out a raspy laugh, “ You can’t really hang on to or rely on constant employment in this business. It’s more important for me to take pleasure in the work that I’m doing at the moment rather than wrap my ego up in what it’s doing for me.”
“There’s something incredibly modest about her and charmingly evasive,” her Coast of Utopia director, Jack O’Brien told the New York Times in 2007. “ She doesn’t lead with her ego. It’s sort of a camouflage that she uses because, truth to tell, she’s the real thing, and everybody knows it. ”
Plimpton was born on November 16, 1970 to a family dynasty of actors. Plimpton’s parents, Shelley Plimpton (a retired actress) and Keith Carradine (son of the late prolific actor John Carradine, brother to Robert and David Carradine), met while performing in the original Broadway production of Hair. She is a distant cousin of writer/actor George Plimpton and cartoonist Bill Plympton.
Although Plimpton claims that while she was certainly aware of her family history, and knew that her grandfather, John Carradine, was famous, she didn’t feel “entitled” to the fame that came along with the Carradine name. She saw little of her father, Keith, who lived in Los Angeles after she was born, and was raised by her mother in an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where she still lives today. Plimpton has always thought of herself as “her mother’s daughter ”and credits Shelley, for helping her stay focused on the things that mattered in life. Plimpton believes that living in the New York, growing up in the theatre community, and attending the Professional Children’s School helped her keep things in perspective.
Entering the world of theater was certainly not a conscious decision for young Martha Plimpton. Her mother was working with Elizabeth Swados, an avant- garde, downtown theater director, and asked 8-year-old Martha to audition for the workshop of the play, The Haggadah; a full production was later staged, with a different cast, at the Public Theatre. Plimpton says that her mother was always by her side, making sure that she was having fun while working as a child actor, and letting her know that if she wasn’t having fun, she could stop anytime, no questions asked.
“My mother had – and still has – a very specific idea of how to approach one’s life and work. You should remain humble and hardworking, and eschew the trappings of show business in favor of the richer rewards of an honest day’s work.” Coincidentally, Shelley gave up acting just as Martha was beginning her own acting career.
When asked if she preferred the stage over film and television or vice versa, Plimpton says that she embraces all mediums and is thrilled to be working on Raising Hope, now going into its fourth season – the longest job she’s had so far. Confessing to not being much of a morning person, and the long 12- to 14-hour days on set, Plimpton thoroughly enjoys this regular gig and the benefits that go with it. “It’s a fleeting security but a security nonetheless.”
She especially adores the people whom she works with and the bonds that she has formed with her “little family”, as she affectionately calls them. Raising Hope, created by Greg Garcia, is about a twenty-something kid named Jimmy (Lucas Neff), who is handed his 6-month-old daughter by the mother, who is on death row. Jimmy’s mother, Virginia (Plimpton), a house cleaner, and his father, Burt (Garret Dillahunt), who owns a pool cleaning and lawn maintenance company, attempt to pitch in and help Jimmy raise his baby daughter, Hope. They all live together in a house with Virginia’s grandmother, Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman), who wanders in and out of lucidity.
Plimpton is ecstatic to be playing Virginia, whose character came easy for her right from the start. She loves that Virginia is not a typical sitcom mom, and celebrates her character for being “hilarious and smart, and a woman who maintains her own personality and doesn’t try to fit into the confines of her family.” Plimpton definitely sees elements of herself in Virginia, which is understandable when you’re playing the same character every week.
Being passionate and engaged off-screen is also an integral part of who Plimpton is and has always been. Referring to herself as “politically curious” since a child, Plimpton at 14 volunteered to register voters and participated in anti-nuclear and pro-choice rallies. She is involved with the 52nd Street Project which brings together kids (9-18) from the Hell’s Kitchen area in New York with theatre professionals to create original free theatre for the public.
Plimpton believes that it’s her job as an American citizen to be engaged and to care about things. “I’ve always had a very acute sense of injustice and have been raised by a long line of single moms (mother, grandmother, Nana and god-sisters) who worked and supported their children on their own, and who were opinionated and spoke their minds about politics around the dinner table. “
Shortly after the 2010 elections, when Plimpton and her friends noticed that women were conversing in public and on Twitter about state legislation called “personhood” bills that proposed to redefine when life begins. They decided to enter the conversation and co-founded a non-profit organization A is For, an advocacy arm that raises funds to support organizations on the front lines like the Centre for Reproductive Rights and NARAL Pro-Choice America. Plimpton was recently honoured at the 2013 Champions of Choice awards luncheon for her work with A is For.
By selling $5 red ribbons in the shape of an A, the non-profit has rebranded the original letter A that Hawthorne’s 17th century fictional heroine, Hester Pryne was forced to wear as a sign of shame for her adulterous affair, and illegitimate child, and has turned it around as a sign of support.
Plimpton hopes that one day everybody will be wearing these ribbons.
“We’re not going to allow men to dictate our reproductive lives without our input. A is For whatever you want it to be.”
> This article by Rena Godfrey appeared in the 2013 Fall issue of Lifestyles Magazine.