Jessica Lange is thinking about retirement. In a candid interview with The Telegraph, the two-time Oscar-winner revealed that she is thinking of phasing out of filmmaking and offered some blunt criticism for the entertainment industrys direction over the past few years.
Creativity is secondary now to corporate profits, Lange said. The emphasis becomes not on the art or the artist or the storytelling. It becomes about satisfying your stockholders. It diminishes the artist and the art of filmmaking.
Lange, who has worked with heralded directors like Bob Fosse, Sydney Pollack, Bob Rafelson and Martin Scorsese since her big screen debut starring in the 1976 remake of King Kong, also shared that she has no desire to see 90 percent of contemporary releases. The actor cited big comic-book franchise films, frantic editing and ageism as particularly disagreeable elements of the modern business.
Theyve sacrificed this art that weve been involved in for the sake of profit, Lange continued. I dont know if its because the filmmakers think that they cant hold the attention of the audience anymore That kind of filmmaking drives me crazy.
Though Lange has mulled exiting entertainment Im sure they wont miss me at all, she told The Telegraph she has kept busy in recent years. She earned two Primetime Emmy Awards for her turns on American Horror Story and received a nomination for playing Joan Crawford in Feud. Upcoming, Lange will star in a screen adaptation of Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey Into Night and reunite with Kathy Bates in the drama Places, Please. This year, she appeared in Neil Jordans period noir Marlowe. She will return to Broadway in the spring to lead a production of Paula Vogels new play, Mother Play.