Best known for her iconic performances in Grease and Maude, actress and author Adrienne Barbeau has had major success entertaining audiences on screen and on stage for decades. In today’s episode, we sat down with Adrienne to discuss the start of her career, how she transitioned from stage acting to screen acting, portraying feminist topics on Maude, and her experience having twin boys in her fifties while working full-time.
First, we asked Adrienne how she first got started in the industry. She told us that initially, she began acting in junior high. She performed in community theater, and after her first professional job moved to New York to pursue a career. By age 25, Adrienne was performing in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway.
Growing up, Adrienne was not very interested in film or television, so she always wanted to perform on stage. However, after booking her first television role on a series called Maude, she shifted into screen acting. Adrienne explained how initially, it was a big transition. While Maude rehearsed like an onstage play, it still took her time to adjust from performing in front of live audiences on stage to working in front of a camera.
While working on Maude, Adrienne tackled many topics and storylines that were considered radical at the time. When asked what portraying those stories taught her, Adrienne told us that it gave her a new perspective on her own life.
During her childhood, Adrienne did not grow up in a political household. It was not until she started playing carol and was made to be a feminist spokesperson by the media that she began analyzing her own life. She began to see not only the power her mother had as an independent woman but also the power of fellow women.
In two episodes of Maude, the plot centered around abortion. At the time, the network refused to film the second episode until the first aired. Had it gotten bad ratings, they would not have gone ahead and would have scraped the story entirely.
However, it ended up being filmed, and Adrienne realized how the story reflected the lives of real women experiencing those issues. Unfortunately, women’s issues in Hollywood also involve instances of harassment. During her time in the industry, Adrienne has been lucky enough to have not had any “casting couch” experiences. However, she did share with us a time when she was asked to enter someone’s home to try on a costume and felt unsafe.
