Catherine Keener interview - Elephant Song

Catherine Keener is a veteran actress who is loved by her peers, critics and fans alike. The talented actress first made her big screen debut  with one line in About Last Night  (1986). Although she struggled professionally over the next few years one film offered her the opportunity to meet fellow actor and future husband, Dermot Mulroney in 1987 while working on Survival Quest (1989). She also guest-starred as an artist on an episode of Seinfeld called "The Letter". She played Jerry's girlfriend, an artist who painted a famous portrait of Kramer. Keener then earned her first starring role in Johnny Suede with the then unknown Brad Pitt. Her performance gained critical acclaim and earned her her first Independent Spirit Award  nomination for Best Female Lead. She went on to work with director Tom Dicillo, again, in Living in Oblivion  (1995). Two years later, she was once again nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Walking and Talking, an independent cult-comedy film directed by Nicole Holofcener. ( they went on to make five films together). In 2000, Keener earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Being John Malcovich.  In 2001, she worked with director Nicole Holofcener in Lovely and Amazing garnering her a third Independent Spirit Award nomination. She showed us her funny side when cast as the love interest of Steve Carell  in Judd Apatow's The 40 Year Old Virgin. Keener's performance as writer Harper Lee opposite the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Capote (also 2005) earned her several awards and nominations, including her second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  In 2008, she reunited with her close friend Phillp Seymour Hoffman playing his wife Adele in Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. She would later collaborate with Hoffman as husband and wife again in the 2012 film A Late Quartet.  Catherine Keener is currently starring opposite Bruce Greenwood and Xavier Dolan in the heart wrenching Canadian film, Elephant Song. She plays a nurse opposite Greenwood's  psychiatrist who is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.  I had the opportunity to chat with the always  open and candid Ms Keener about working on Elephant Song and her thoughts on how good roles are far and few between for women over the age of 25.