Kathleen Turner Takes the Stage, on the Road

NPR

Published February 4, 2007 at 1:38 PM EST

When she made her first movie 25 years ago, Kathleen Turner wasn't convinced she could produce a drop-dead sexy stare.

"My greatest fear doing Body Heat was that I would cast a smoldering look at Bill Hurt and people would giggle," says the actress. Today, she still commands attention but does most of her work on stage.

She plays Martha in the touring version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? a role she first noticed in her early 20s.

"I thought, oh, when I'm 50 I have to do Martha," says Turner. "So when I was 49, I started to lobby."

While movies offer precision, on the stage, she says, "I can use all my power, all my voice, all my energy, and nobody can step in front and say, 'Cut!"

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