“I got a call from Jamie Lee Curtis,” says revered character actor Margo Martindale over Zoom from her Connecticut dwelling, explaining how she scored the juicy lead position of Ruth Landry in Prime Video’s “The Sticky.”
The half-hour crime sequence launches worldwide Dec. 6, impressed by the real-life Nice Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2012, wherein thieves absconded with the contents of just about 10,000 barrels of the sticky stuff — price greater than $17 million Canadian — from Quebec’s reserve. At the hours of darkness comedy, created by showrunner duo Brian Donovan and Ed Herro, Martindale performs a foulmouthed, no-nonsense maple farmer who turns into the felonious trio’s chief.
“[Curtis] said, ‘I was going to do this, but I can’t, and I thought the only person that reminds me of me is you,’” continues Martindale. “I wanted to say, ‘In what world?’”
Martindale cautioned Curtis — whom she didn’t know — that she’d should assessment the fabric. “And she said, ‘No, I just want you to say yes,’” remembers the actor, who nonetheless insisted on studying the script. “I thought it was just wonderful. I really did. Because it’s so wacky and fun.”
“The truth is she’s way better at Ruth than I would’ve ever been,” confesses Curtis, who govt produced the sequence however bowed out of starring as a consequence of scheduling conflicts, taking a smaller — but nonetheless pivotal — position. “She has both the humor and the gravitas you need to be Ruth. The show has ‘Fargo’-like qualities, and at the same time, it has real depth, real emotion, real feelings.”
It’s this complexity that attracted Martindale. “I love that she swings so far from one side to the other. That’s one of the most fun things you can do as an actor.”
Acquainted with neither the true caper nor the importance of maple syrup to Canada’s economic system, Martindale rapidly immersed herself within the present’s world. The East Texas native’s best concern was perfecting Ruth’s Canadian accent. “I can hear that I succeed most of the time but not all,” admits the actor, who additionally targeted on Ruth’s look. “I was looking at hair. What does it matter? I wear a hat the whole time.”
Being a French Canadian born in Montreal and raised on maple syrup, this author can affirm Martindale and firm totally nailed “The Sticky.”
“We all just sat back and watched Margo Martindale drive that pickup truck, dragging that tree, and it just was fantastic,” govt producer Jamie Lee Curtis says of “The Sticky” star.
(Victoria Will/For The Occasions)
“I don’t think our expectations could have been higher,” says Herro of their star. “That usually ends in disappointment, but it did not this time.”
“What’s so important about Margo is you never feel like you’re looking at acting,” provides Donovan, who admits to a Martindale obsession. “As incredible as she is, I think this is her first time at the top of a call sheet, being No. 1.”
“When you allow someone to really shine, and really take the light, it’s beautiful to watch,” Curtis says. “And it happened here. We all just sat back and watched Margo Martindale drive that pickup truck, dragging that tree, and it just was fantastic.”
Does Martindale take into account herself a late bloomer? “Well, I won my first Emmy at 60,” she says, referring to the statuette she earned in 2011 for her supporting work on “Justified.” She has two others, each for visitor actress in “The Americans.” At 52, she was Tony-nominated for taking part in Large Mama within the 2003 Broadway revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” “In that sense, yes. But I’ve been working constantly through all those years.”
Martindale, 73, landed in New York Metropolis 50 years in the past and instantly started wowing audiences. She’s amassed greater than 130 theater, tv and movie credit. She was within the unique off-Broadway manufacturing of “Steel Magnolias”; has appeared on the sequence “The Millers,” “The Good Wife” and “Mrs. America”; and has roles in such motion pictures as “August: Osage County,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “The Hours,” “Dead Man Walking” and “Days of Thunder.”
She loves every medium however finds theater “physically hard, and you have no life.” But she’d love to do one other play. Possibly.
Films are one-and-done.
However TV is “alive,” a spot the place, over time, a savvy actor can wield affect on creators. “Television is easier, and a lot more money,” concludes Martindale with a chuckle.
One factor the veteran refuses to examine is retirement. She considers her husband and daughter her “greatest blessing” however says, “I love acting. It’s my joy. It’s my fun. It’s my social event. It’s all of that. I mean, the fact that you can go and sit in a hair and makeup trailer and talk to everybody, and howl with laughter, is just joy.”
Having labored with among the greatest, brightest stars within the universe — Julia, Meryl and Nicole, to call three recognizable by their first names — Martindale has been adjoining to megawatt fame however harbors completely no envy. “I like where I am. I get stopped a lot, but nothing to interrupt my life. You know, working with Meryl — I’ve worked with her four times — it got hard sometimes for her. I would not want that.”
But “Margo Martindale” may quickly lastly turn out to be a family identify. Ought to “The Sticky” — whose Season 1 ending is simply one other starting — show a success, Season 2 will certainly comply with. If that’s the case, Martindale’s all in.
“My biggest joy were the people I worked with,” she says, embracing the whole Canadian forged and crew however particularly her closest co-stars, Chris Diamantopoulos and Guillaume Cyr. “It was like we were the Three Stooges. I’m the brains, of course. Chris is the criminal muscle. And Guillaume is the heart. Together, we’re one thing, and I like that. The most fun scenes were the scenes where we were in the car all together.”
Her success is their success, so Martindale’s plea to audiences is to provide “The Sticky” an opportunity. “I really want people to watch it, and watch it all the way through. I think it’s different from almost anything I’ve seen. It will draw you in. It will draw you in. You just gotta give it a little tiny bit of time.”