ÔDon't Trot Off Into the Sunset. Age Disgracefully'

Actress Rue McClanahan won an Emmy in 1987 for her role as the man-hungry Blanche Devereaux in the television sitcom The Golden Girls, which ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992. On May 31, she took over the role of Madame Morrible in the hit Broadway musical Wicked. In June 1997, McClanahan was diagnosed with breast cancer. The following year, she began a lecture tour, speaking to audiences about her fight with cancer and delivering another talk, titled “Aging Gracefully”—though she likes to say: “Don’t trot off into the sunset. Age disgracefully.”

McClanahan spoke recently with Susan Q. Stranahan about her presentations, her acting and the important things in life.

Q: What other messages are you delivering in your speech “Aging Gracefully”?

Rue McClanahan: I tell my audiences that there are aging myths we have followed for many years, and that a myth is a belief system—“B.S.”

There are four myths not to buy into: The first myth is that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. You can, but you have to keep yourself healthy. The second is that the horse is out of the barn—that it’s too late to undo the damage caused by eating poorly, smoking or not exercising. The third B.S.: Successful aging depends on your genes. Choosing your lifestyle wisely is more important. And the final myth: The lights may be on but the voltage is low, referring to sex. Health, not age, makes the difference in enjoying sex.

I give tips on things to eat, lifestyles to stay young and vigorous and healthy, certain carcinogens to stay away from.

Q: Describe your audiences.

RM: Generally they are predominantly women over 40 and into their 80s or 90s. I’ve spoken at a lot of hospitals, when they dedicate a new wing to something special. I also speak to a lot of breast-cancer survivor groups. I give them this advice: when you first get diagnosed, on that instant, make up your mind that you’re starting to get well now. I talk about visualizations—relaxing into a meditative state as well as you can, visualizing your immune system killing the cancer cells. I visualized mine as a Star Wars-like machine. It was shooting laser beams like death rays at these very clumsy, stupid cells that didn’t know the time of day, destroying them, and the white cells were rushing in to take them off to the dump heap.

My doctor told me he always knows which cancer patients will survive by their response to the diagnosis, then and there. Some people respond by saying: “Oh no. Why me? Now what do I do?” The others say: “Okay, what do we do first?”

Q: Do you think your audiences relate to you because you are a cancer survivor, or because you are a very skillful actress who can deliver a message well?

RM: Thank you. Both. When I’m speaking to cancer survivors, I have that in common and it makes me more credible. When I’m talking to a more general audience—homemakers, working women—I don’t talk about cancer. I talk about growing old gracefully. I talk about health and good eating.

Q: You have just opened on Broadway. Tell us about that role.

RM: The play is Wicked, and it’s a huge sell-out and a big success. I’m replacing Carole Shelley, who originated the role of Madame Morrible, the head of the college where the two witches go as freshmen. In the second act I get promoted to be the Wizard’s press secretary and start spreading the news about the new Oz they are creating.

Q: Why did this role appeal to you?

RM: I thought, There’s a lot I can do with that part. It would be fun. It’s very appealing because Madame Morrible comes on like a good, benign person. In the early scenes, we think she’s okay, but we begin to see she’s not so benign after all; in fact, she’s rather wicked. By the end of the second act, she’s quite villainous. When the opportunity comes for her to blossom into power, she and the Wizard do that together. I was quoted in the paper as saying, “What Blanche was to sexy, Madame Morrible is to wicked.”

Q: What do you get from performing?

RM: I have always loved, from very early on, figuring out other characters and portraying them, figuring out what makes them true to life—what makes an audience believe that they really are not you [acting]. I’ve dedicated my life to learning how to do it. It’s just fun. I don’t know why. I guess it’s the same reason a pianist loves to play the piano.

Q: Do you get pleasure from an audience’s reaction?

RM: That’s why I like doing stage work the best. It moves quickly; two and a half hours and it’s done. A TV sitcom takes five days to put together. That’s the next best thing. Movies, if you get 30 seconds of film per day, you’re lucky. It’s boring.

Q: In your speeches, what is your favorite line?

RM: I have two. One is, “Remember that every day God is saying to you, ‘May I have this dance?’ ” The other is a quote from Winston Churchill: “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.”

Q: Why are those your favorites?

RM: I think the attitude that Churchill talks about is just a wonderful thing to strive for. It keeps you from being dejected and depressed. We all get disappointed, of course. We all have failures. But we’re succeeding if we can go on without a loss of enthusiasm.

I find the quote about God very uplifting. Every day is full of marvelous opportunities to do something, even if it is just making a good pie. There’s your opportunity to fulfill the day, not waste it—to dance with God.

Q: You also have humor in your speeches. Tell me one of the jokes.

RM: George Custer, on the morning of the Battle of Little Big Horn, is up before dawn and walks his horse to the embankment that overlooks the river separating him and the Sioux camp below. He stares down and sees a few stirrings, a few wisps of smoke. Then he hears a drum going boom, boom-boom, boom, boom-boom. His aide walks over to him and says, “General, I don’t like the sound of that war drum.” Then, from across the river, they hear a person calling back, “He’s not our usual drummer.”

Q: What do you see yourself doing 10 years from now?

RM: [She laughs.] I’m writing my autobiography. I hope to God I’ve got it finished by then! I just want to keep doing what I’m doing, being active and writing. I’m also watching my son develop his career. He is a jazz guitarist and his name is Mark Bish. He lives in Austin, Texas.

You never know what’s coming along, what little movie is going to materialize and what’s going to come along that you didn’t dream of.

Q: Is that what keeps you young?

RM: It helps. So does sleep.