Jessica Lange Discusses Her ‘Long Day’s Journey’ To the Screen [VIDEO]

“I Could Play This Part For The Rest of My Life And Never Exhaust The Possibilities.”

Jessica Lange is a true icon of screen, stage and television. She’s won two Academy Awards (six nominations), three Emmy Awards (five nominations), five Golden Globe Awards (17 nominations) and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Long Day’s Journey into Night in 2016.

It was quite the long-decades-journey for the O’Neill play to reach the screen a second time (the first adaptation was Sidney Lumet’s version in 1962), and to finally be picked up for distribution by Quiver. But getting the film seen is proving to be an arduous, uphill battle. In the below VIDEO she discusses the challenge as well as her love for O’Neill and this masterwork and the beloved character she first played in London on the West End, then on Broadway, and now, on the big screen.

Lange’s filmography reads like a list of some of the best films of the ‘80s and ‘90s, like All That Jazz, Tootsie, Frances, Country, Sweet Dreams, Crimes of the Heart, Music Boxand Titus. On TV she’s etched some of the best character portraits of this century with Grey Gardens, American Horror Story, Feud: Bette and Joan and The Great Lillian Hall.

And on stage she fully embodied two Tennessee Williams’ classic heroines, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie as well as Eugene O’Neill’s legendary Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey. She performed all 3 in London and on Broadway. Her last stage appearance, to date, was in Paula Vogel’s potent, Mother Play, for which Lange received her second Tony nomination.

You can read all about my take on Jonathan Kent’s film version of Long Day’s Journey Into Night and how I strongly feel Lange’s breathtaking performance should be in the Oscar conversation here:

Why Jessica Lange Deserves Oscar Consideration For Her Transcendent Work In ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’

She can currently be seen in American Horror Story: 13 on FX and HULU.

The film had a one-week Oscar-qualifying run in L.A. and a special screening via Film at Lincoln Center in September. More theatrical release dates to be announced soon.

The Contending had the privilege of a VIDEO zoom chat with this true legend.