Holland Taylor is looking back on one of her most iconic roles.
In a new interview with Vulture, the 77-year-old actress and playwright talks about her role in the comedy classic “Legally Blonde” and shares how she and partner Sarah Paulson have been coping with quarantine life.
RELATED: Sarah Paulson Reveals The Surprisingly Modern Way She Met Girlfriend Holland Taylor
“I have a house here in the low hills. I mean, I’m an elder, so I’m not supposed to be going out and about. And it feels very, very strange after only four months. I’m afraid we’ve got a while to go,” Taylor says of living through the pandemic.
“Sarah has a house about five minutes from me. So we spend the long weekend up at her house, and I’m by myself here for two days, and we spend one day together here. So we go back and forth,” she adds. “That’s actually good to be moving around, to have change, because it’s like — life is really, really strange. And of course, I won’t be able to work until this is over. Except for very unusual circumstances. I don’t know what it will be like when actors can really be in a big film production, 150 people.”
Remembering her part in “Legally Blonde” as Professor Stromwell, Taylor reveals, “I was actually sick when I did it, which is a great life lesson. I had a pretty serious bug, like a flu with body aches and you just want to die.”
Asked if she was sick during the whole shoot, the actress says, “Well, the part was not that large. I had that big scene in the classroom, which is my favourite scene. One of my favourite scenes as an actor on film is that classroom scene. It was so well directed and also well shot.”
She adds, “I was really under it that day. I remember thinking, I can’t believe I have this wonderful role and I’m going to perform it under these circumstances. I’ll be terrible. It’ll show. It’ll ruin everything. And when I saw the picture, I could maybe see a little bit of a dampening down thing, but otherwise, nothing.”
Taylor also has praise for her co-star Reese Witherspoon.
“Reese is just remarkable,” she says. “She’s one of our marvelous actresses who has brought a number of roles that will be indelible culturally, and this is one of them.
