Laurie Metcalf, currently starring in the hit Broadway revival Death of a Salesman co-starring Nathan Lane, speaks emotionally about the show’s producer (and her frequent collaborator) Scott Rudin in a lengthy New Yorker profile out today.
Schulman writes, “When I asked Metcalf about her decision to work with Rudin again, she fumbled for words before taking a piece of notebook paper from her fanny pack. She had reread his [New York] Times interview and jotted down notes. ‘He talked about his therapy, he apologized, he owned what he said, he reflected on it,’ she said, haltingly. ‘He was in the process of rehabilitation. So I just think that, unless we think there is no possibility of real rehabilitation, then we shouldn’t ask people to try and do it.’ She sighed, unsure of herself. ‘I knew you would ask me at some point.'”
Rudin recently returned to producing on Broadway following what proved a temporary hiatus prompted by bullying and workplace abuse allegations in 2021 from former staff members. His first post-break Broadway production was Little Bear Ridge Road last fall, starring Metcalf and directed by Joe Mantello, who also directs Salesman and has worked frequently with both Metcalf and Rudin. Watch on Deadline
Little Bear Ridge Road premiered at Steppenwolf in 2024, and an impressed Rudin offered to transfer the production to New York; the Chicago theater company, where Metcalf began her career decades ago, but Steppenwolf refused to collaborate with Rudin. Metcalf, according to the New Yorker, threatened to quit her longtime theatrical home unless it gave up the rights to the play to allow the Broadway staging, which ultimately was produced by Rudin and Barry Diller.
Metcalf, who at the time was in New York performing in the Edward Albee play Three Tall Women, learned of the series’ cancellation from a news chyron. On returning for the re-branded The Conners, Metcalf recalls, “There was just a general sadness around the whole place.” She says she has not spoken to Barr since.
Source: deadline.com