October 2009 More Magazine: Here’s the Sela Ward you haven’t seen: she kicks ass in her new movie, The Stepfather; she’s always working on her marriage; and despite her own beauty she finds photos of Demi Moore in a bikini discouraging. Ward sat down with More for a deliciously dishy October issue chat.
Excerpts of the story, on newsstands today, follow:
About being second in line for Demi Moore’s Charlie’s Angels villain role: Moore took the part, of course, and soon appeared on the cover of People wearing a bikini. “I’ll never forget it. I was 48 or 49, on a boat trip in the Caribbean. I looked at the picture and went, ‘I am never going to look like that again.’ I just got tired when I looked at the cover of that magazine. I just said, ‘Screw it, can I have another glass of wine?”
About her dream job: “I feel I’m so ready. I’ve lived enough life now to give an amazing performance if I had the material. I was happy The Stepfather came up, because I thought it would be fun and different enough. But I really need to do some gritty thing. I keep playing these moms who are so nice. I’d like to misbehave a little. I have a wonderful underbelly that I’d like to share.”
Would she be Vicky or Cristina? “You know the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona? Somebody asked me which of the women I’d be. I said, ‘I don’t want to be them, I want to be him [the lothario played by Javier Bardem]!’ I want to be the person who walks into the restaurant and looks at someone and goes, ‘Do you want to go away with me for the weekend?’ I envy that.”
About planning to leave L.A. after her son finishes high school: “I’m not sure why I’m still there. I’m not a part of that world. Everybody’s focused on things that are so ephemeral, particularly people’s looks. And I see myself aging. I can’t play the ingénue anymore – though in my mind I can – and I’m grappling with losing that part of my identity.”
About turning 50: “It’s not about aging, it’s just, wow, life is flying. I haven’t gone through menopause yet, but I know it’s coming. This Chinese doctor where I get acupuncture told me they call menopause the second spring. Which is the most fabulous way to put it. we’ve got a whole second life ahead of us to pursue our passions. We’ve been ambitious and driven, trying to find the right guy and have a family, and you get on the other side of that and you go, Now what?”
About growing up with an alcoholic father: “He got sober when he was 79, when my mom died. Which tells you what kind of relationship they had. Growing up in an alcoholic family…while it wasn’t physical abuse, there is a certain amount of neglect, because if you’re an alcoholic, you’re not there. Things I yearned for and wished I had gotten in my relationship with my father, or that our whole family unit had been able to experience, were not there, because of a disease.”
