Interview Magazine
Mamie Gummer | July 2007


Critics think that this young actress's mother walks on water. Mamie Gummer actually has.

To say that 23-year-old actress Mamie Gummer has big shoes to fill is to insuit size 12s everywhere - she's the daughter of noted sculptor Don Gummer and Meryl Streep. Gummer's first major role is in "Evening", an art-house piece about two daughters (Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson) dealing with their ailing mother (Vanessa Redgrave). The mother's mind keeps drifting back to the 1950's, to the wedding of her best friend, Lila (Gummer, with Claire Danes standing in for Redgrave). Far from appearing daunted by her pedigree, Gummer endows Lila with the sort of quiet dignity that her mother is known for, which is a very good thing, as Streep herself eventually shows up to play Lila in the contemporary portion of the movie. Here, Gummer - who'll be next seen in Kimberly Peirce's "Stop Loss" - talks to Interview about acting for candy, walking on water, and hanging out with hunky co-stars.

BILL VOURVOULIAS: I'm sure that every interview you've ever done starts out with the equivalent of "Your mom..."
MAMIE GUMMER: You are correct. [laughs]

BV: When Meryl Streep is your mom, what kind of goals do you have as an actor?
MG: Oh, you don't really bother doing any of that. [both laugh] You just sort of try not to fail, flounder, I can't really set standards higher than that, 'cause they're really impossible. I just do it on my own terms and hope for the best.

BV: Stop Loss has quite a cast. Ryan Phillippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
MG: Yeah, it's pretty stellar

BV: Kind of hunky.
MG: [laughs] Oh, I know. I was watching football with them all summer. I know all too well about them and their hunkiness.

BV: What feels fresher, doing stage plays or movies? What feels more fun?
MG: I'm still figuring out this whole film buisness. I'm geting my footing and trying to ignore all the things that are suspended above my head and hanging all over the place and those 50 people who aren't supposed to be there but actually are. It's all very new. But I've been doing theater since I was a little kid.

BV: But you must have been 2 years old when you were in Heartburn (1986).
MG: I was 18 months old. I don't know if we can really count that movie. They gave me candy, I smiled; they took it away, I got very upset. Maybe that's what I draw on now. [both laugh] I actually just went to the premiere of the first film that I ever stepped onto without being attached to my mom.

BV: What was that?
MG: The Hoax. My first day on the set of that flm, I had some tricky steady cam shots. I had to hit four different marks going through this one corridor. It seems like it should have been really simple, but I thought my head was going to explode. [both laugh]

BV: Well, I just can't get over how affecting "Evening" was. And Lila's such a sad, dignified character.
MG: Michael Cunningham's adaptation [of the Susan Minot book] is sort of like a novel itself in that there are all these characters who are not to be overlooked. There's the sexual preference issue that Buddy is dealing with and Toni Collette's story and just so much.

BV: How present on the set were Michael and Susan?
MG: Susan cam to visit a couple of times but Michael was there all the time.

BV: Did you meet him when your mom was working on "The Hours" [based on Cunningham's novel]?
MG: I believe I met him, but that was the extent of it. I never hung around my mom's sets that much. We were sort of raised outside of all of that. We lived for some time in L.A. but moved back East and sort of remained separate.

BV: Three or four years ago I saw your mom on the street in New York City. She was walking briskly, and there was a woman who looked a little, well, nuts following her. [Gummer groans] The level of fame that she has opens up to a lot of things that the rest of us never have to experience.
MG: I know, I know. I don't really think about it. I don't want to be a superstar in Hollywood. I would like to be able to act and make a loving doing it. And if it gets to be too much, then I'll fall back. But it's easy to just roll with it, to get your picture taken when you're asked to, rather than thinking, Do I want this to happen? [laughs] I mean, what girl really doesn't like getting dressed up for a photo shoot?

BV: Tell me about the set of "Evening". Was there a lot of camaraderie?
MG: Yeah. We were all camped out at this beautiful old inn in Newport, Rhode Island.

BV: What was the most ridiculous thing that happened on the set?
MG: Do you mean on-set antics?

BV: Not necessarily. More like someone being sent out at midnight to try to find the right toilet seat to put into shot. [Gummer laughs] That sort of thing.
MG: Well, my favorite memory from "Evening" is from the firt night that I met Michael Cunningham. We went for a smoke break outside the inn where this fire hydrant had exploded. There was water just gushing like a geyser. It was right under a streetlight, and Michael and I were like moths to a flame We started walking toward it, and we looked at each other and kept walking straight into the water, fully clothed. It was sort of like a baptism.

BV: So what does it feel like to stand in front of a spouting fire hydrant?
MG: Wet.

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