I saw my older sister in a play there when I was a little thing-I must have been about 7. Specifically, I was raised in Oak Park, which had a really thriving theatre department at the high school. Was that where you started doing theatre? I see from your bio that you’re from Chicago. MARY ELIZABETH MASTRANTONIO: That’s why we made those movies. ROB WEINERT-KENDT: I may have watched The Abyss multiple times in the theatre when I was a younger person, so I guess I’d say I’m a longtime fan. Her costars include David Strathairn and Thom Sesma.
I spoke to Mastrantonio a few weeks ago, just after Ghosts had opened. Her most recent stage appearance was in the Roundabout’s The Winslow Boy in 2013.
Now, in a version of that same production at Seattle Repertory Theatre through May 1 (also available to stream), Helene is played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (she/her), a seasoned film and TV actor best known for a string of films in the 1980s ( The Color of Money, Scarface, and The Abyss), who got her start onstage at the Public Theater and on Broadway. In director Carey Perloff’s 2019 production at Williamstown Theatre Festival, with a new translation by Paul Walsh, Uma Thurman took the role, to good notices. But she has been brought to life memorably by the likes of Liv Ullmann, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench, and Lesley Manville. Helene Alving, the conflicted widow at the heart of Ibsen’s masterwork Ghosts, may not be as well known or as coveted a role as other iconic Ibsen heroines (Hedda, Nora, Solvieg).