Lily Tomlin: “Young people don’t even know who Bella Abzug was”

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:23:00 +0000

Lily Tomlin doesn't just play a feminist in the upcoming film "Admission" -- she's been a real-life pioneer, making her way in the movie industry and openly sharing life with her partner, Jane Wagner. In "Admission," Tomlin milks the movement for laughs as Tina Fey's mother, a woman who lives in isolation, building her own bicycle and reading up on theory; she even demands that Fey's character call her by her first name: "Mom" is too outmoded a term. We spoke to Tomlin about "Admission" and her life in Hollywood.

What inspired your performance as a radical feminist?

I was part of the feminist movement! I knew feminists who'd written important books. I felt I understood a little bit about where Susannah was coming from, how she'd lived her life, or tried to live her life. I didn't really input dialogue except in the most perfunctory ways. Ideally I wanted to have -- I'd had a double mastectomy as the character. I wanted her to have a breast plate tattoo -- that empowerment, that Amazonian response, was part of her statement too. But it was a demanding thing to get finished. I settled for a tattoo of Bella Abzug, even though young women don't even know who Bella was.

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Lily Tomlin: “Young people don’t even know who Bella Abzug was”