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Alum Profile COM’90

For filmmaker Chiemi Karasawa, the documentary Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me marks a milestone Þin her career: the film is her Capturing a directorial debut. Broadway Legend on Film COM alum’s documentary shows why Elaine Stritch is one of a kind

Most people know Elaine Stritch mainly as ’s mother on the NBC comedy . And that’s a shame. Because while the role of Col- leen Donaghy showcased the legendary actress’ considerable comedic talents and her irascible, commanding persona— and brought her an Emmy—Stritch is first and foremost a stage actress, who over the course of a seven-decade ca- reer has earned a reputation as a fear- less performer. She garnered rave reviews for her work in ’s Bus Stop in 1955 and left an indelible impression in Broadway musicals, among them Noel Coward’s and Stephen Sond- heim’s , where she introduced one of his best-known anthems, “Ladies Who Lunch,” and later, in revivals of Hammerstein and Kern’s and Sondheim’s . Stritch has proven equally adept at drama, star- ring in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? and A Delicate Balance, both by (Hon.’10). But Stritch’s greatest triumph has always been playing herself. She won

a Tony Award (and later an Emmy) at Stritch speaks can- age 77 for her critically acclaimed one- didly in the film woman show, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, about her diabetes and her long battle which recounted her career and personal with alcohol. successes and tragedies. A born raconteur with flawless tim- ing, the 89-year-old actress is the subject of a documentary by Chiemi Karasawa, titled Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me. Karasawa (COM’90) met Stritch when she was working as a script supervisor on the set of the film Romance and Cigarettes, where the actress played PE FILMS O

T ’s mother. “The day she O

F IS came to do her scene, she blew everyone O away with her incredible energy and charisma,” says Karasawa. “It was like a URTESY URTESY

CO tornado blew through town.”

66 BOSTONIA Summer 2014 Karasawa’s documentary, which debuted at the 2013 , won strong praise from critics. Karasawa says Stritch was thrilled with the reception.

loading everything she could find about her. “I fell down the rabbit hole researching her,” the filmmaker says. It took a bit of courting to convince Stritch to allow cameras to follow her around once their hairdresser formally introduced them. The actress kept putting her off, saying, “We can start next month.” After four or five months of that, she finally relented, leaving a message on Karasawa’s answering machine at 2 a.m. saying they could begin. In Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, the actress tary, but Stritch didn’t want anyone else speaks candidly about her diabetes (the around and insisted Karasawa direct the film includes several harrowing scenes of film herself. “She believed in me, and that her confronting medical crises), her long was incredibly inspiring,” she says. “She battle with alcohol, and her decision, after has great confidence in people. It’s infec- 24 years of sobriety, to resume drinking (one tious. She knows what it’s like to be given cocktail a day, despite the fact that she says an opportunity.” nothing scares her more than drinking). She The film, which debuted at the 2013 also forthrightly expresses frustration at no Tribeca Film Festival, earned strong longer being able to recall the lyrics to songs praise from critics. The Village Voice’s she’s performed for decades. Alan Scherstuhl called it “a gift of a docu- The documentary is also hilarious. At one mentary celebrating its subject’s brittle point, the ever-candid Stritch runs into an brilliance.” ABC News described it as “an old friend and exclaims, “Your hair looks irresistibly entertaining documentary.” good for a change.” In another scene, after Stephen Holden, reviewing the film in the being kept waiting on the set of 30 Rock for Times after its national release, Baldwin to arrive, Stritch refers to him as wrote that “on a deeper level, Shoot Me “Alec Joan Crawford Baldwin.” And there’s is an unflinchingly honest examination plenty of the kind of dishy stuff you’d expect of a woman who is aware that the end from an actress of her stature, most notably is approaching.” her story about picking up a very young What was Stritch’s reaction to the final JFK, asking him to dinner, “because he was film? Karasawa says it was hard for her too attractive to leave behind,” and getting at first. “She is terribly hard on herself. dumped by him after their second date when She said, ‘I love it, it’s well shot, it’s well she wouldn’t put out. edited, it’s entertaining and engaging….I

SE Karasawa had extraordinary access, fol- just don’t want to be in it!’ She initially U lowing the actress over 18 months as she thought it was sad.” But at each subse- completed a national tour of her one-woman quent screening, seeing how inspired and DAM KRA DAM

A show, rehearsed and performed a new show invigorated audiences were leaving the of Sondheim songs at her longtime home theater, Stritch has been thrilled by the She recalls a scene with the actress, at the in New York, reception. “Secretly, I think Gandolfini, and Steve Buscemi in a hos- battled growing health scares, and WEBB EXTRA she loves it.” pital room. “She was scolding Jim for made the decision to return to Watch a Filmmaker and actress have something he had done, and one of her to be closer to family. trailer for the remained close since work on lines was ‘Shuuuut Upppp!’ Karasawa The COM alum acknowledges documentary the documentary ended, and says. “I think the craft service guy on the that there were a few prickly mo- Elaine Stritch: Karasawa says that Stritch has next stage dropped his knife, it was so ments when shooting began “be- Shoot Me inspired her in countless ways. explosive and intimidating.” fore we understood each other’s at bu.edu/ “She’s incredibly courageous Several years later, Karasawa spotted rhythms and some after the edit bostonia. and inspires people to have Stritch at the hair salon they both frequent- was completed, and she wasn’t ex- the same courage,” she says. ed, and she began to think about directing actly sure if she liked it.” But at the end The filmmaker believes the project left a documentary about her. Karasawa had of the day, she says, her subject “allowed me her with a greater appreciation for her recently started her own company, Isotope the freedom to create something about her own parents, who are 80 and 90. “Elaine Films, and was looking for nonfiction mate- without ultimately standing in the way.” gives a very articulate voice to the aging rial to produce. For Karasawa, the film represented a process,” she says. “She allowed herself At the time, she says, she had only “a lay- milestone in her career. Elaine Stritch: to be documented in a way that makes man’s knowledge” of Stritch’s career, but she SShoot Me is her directorial debut. She had the experience palpable, entertaining, went home and Googled the actress, down- intended only to produce the documen- poignant.” John O’Rourke

Summer 2014 BOSTONIA 67