In Sharp Objects, Patricia Clarkson Stretches Her Legs—and Her Claws

Patricia Clarkson grew up in the suburbs of New Orleans. Shes familiar with sweet-as-honey southern charm, Victorian homes, and the people inside them—who dont let anyone see the darkness behind their sunny façades. Shes familiar, too, with the character of Blanche DuBois, whom she played in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Kennedy Center in 2004: a delicate woman who appears put-together, but lives with a great deal of pain and remorse.

In Sharp Objects, HBOs adaptation of Gillian Flynns first novel, Clarkson plays another Blanche type: Adora Crellin, the disapproving mother of Camille (Amy Adams), a journalist whos come home to write about a series of teen homicides in fictional Wind Gap, Missouri. In order to do that, shell have to face Adora, whos orchestrated a world perfect as a dollhouse that simmers with horror just beneath the surface.

“Adora lives completely in a bubble and in her own world, and she thinks shes extraordinary,” Clarkson said during a conversation at Manhattans Smyth Hotel in early May. “She thinks shes an amazing mother that is all about love and care and taking care of someone.” Her stately Victorian home is a marvel of design; Adora also happens to run the town hog-slaughtering empire. “So shes perfect, and she wants the people around her to be perfect. Her youngest daughter is perfect, but her oldest daughter is not—and its disconcerting.”

Though the actress—who is warm and open and quick to praise the people she loves—seems miles away from Adora, “I just had to approach her in a way in that Im not here to judge her,” she said. “Im not here to in any way comment. I have to take the dark journey.”

Here, too, Clarkson has experience. She earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting performance in 2003s Pieces of April, in which she played a mother with breast cancer struggling to have a relationship with her absent daughter. Though thats the only time the Academy has recognized her (yet, anyway), Clarkson has a history of standout supporting roles; shes earned a reputation as the player who elevates everyone elses work, from The Green Mile (where she played another cancer-stricken wife) to Easy A (where she charmed as Emma Stones easygoing mom) to the most recent season of House of Cards, in which she plays a fierce, whip-smart D.C. operative. Though her stage career is filled with leading roles like Blanche and her Tony-nominated turn as Mrs. Kendal in The Elephant Man, her film and TV parts fit solidly into the character-actor category; many of them exist primarily as wives and mothers.

Adora, though, is no ordinary matriarch. “Adoras a very risky part, because it could have easily veered into camp,” explained Flynn, who wrote Sharp Objects in both novel and miniseries form, over the phone.

But Clarkson managed to keep her performance from going too far over the top, even as she fully embodied the part. Flynn was particularly won over by the actresss throaty purr of a voice, which added an extra dimension to her every line reading. “To me, theres such a cognitive dissonance,” she said. “When you hear these nasty words come out of [Clarksons] mouth in this absolutely honied southern voice, that makes it all the more frightening. You have to stop and say, Wait, did she just say that? Was that almost a veiled threat? Was that a totally cruel thing she just said to her daughter? It was, wasnt it?”

By Anne Marie Fox/HBO.

Clarksons first conversations with Flynn centered on her characters particular pain and secrets. After their chats, director Jean-Marc Vallée—who helmed all of Sharp Objects, just as he did another splashy HBO literary adaptation, Big Little Lies—helped her and Adams get “right into the center of the storm.” There was no turning back; there was only facing, head on, the hidden struggles of a suffering woman.

Though Clarkson has brought this kind of sweet-turned-sour behavior to life before, she has admittedly had a bit of trouble shaking this role—much like Adams. “Having played Blanche, you know you never really recover from that,” she said. “And this part, I dont know that I have recovered yet. Amy and I both.”

Even so, said Flynn, Clarkson always seemed ready to walk the tricky tightrope the role required, without ever betraying the effort that entailed.

“She has to be playing two parts at any given time, but she cant be letting the audience knows that she is,” Flynn said. “An important thing for her is that she can never let the audience see her sweat. She can never let the audience see this work that shes doing, which is tremendous: that beautiful, delicate, refined woman who at the same time runs a hog-slaughtering empire in the bootheel of Missouri.”

An actress like Clarkson can make a meal of those sorts of complications and nuances—and the actress is happy to say that shes now getting more offers for leading roles, as well as character parts. Soon, shell star as homicide detective Mike Hoolihan in the neo-noir thriller Out of Blue, based on Martin Amiss novel Night Train. Shell also be back for the final season of House of Cards, which will now revolve around Robin Wrights Claire Underwood rather than Kevin Spaceys oily Frank.

Not so long ago, an actress of a certain age might not have been so lucky—or so busy. But the 58-year-old Clarkson can see the industry changing, thanks in large part to the #MeToo movement and Times Up, an organization Clarkson passionately supports—and for which she once wrote a new slogan. Shes happy to watch as women in film and TV begin to take charge—and has confidence that this newfound parity will last. “Are you kidding me? Nobodys gonna fuck up this time,” she said with certainty. “Nobodys gonna be caught with their pants down—literally and figuratively—this time.”

She attacks every part with that same assurance—which may be one of the reasons Clarksons been sought after for 30 years, even if some of her meatiest roles are only just starting to roll in. As Flynn puts it: “She just does her work, and she loves her work, and I admire that so much about her. She just has that sensibility where it affects everyone else around her. When Im with her, Im just like, Goddamn, Im lucky to be doing what I do.”

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