As the unscrupulous Mrs. Meers, who drugs the orphaned young women in her big city hotel and sells them off into white slavery in Hong Kong in the Tony Award-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hollis Resnik practically dances off with the show. Mrs. Meers is the character that you love to hate and through song and dance and classic lines ('Sad to be all alone in the world'), Hollis Resnik brings her to vivid life. A veteran of the Chicago stage, Resnik returns home in this touring production, where her faithful fan base can see her in this delightfully different role.
Gregg Shapiro: When I was in Houston in January, I was staying with some relatives who had just seen Thoroughly Modern Millie the night before I got there. I was looking at the program and I was excited to see your name, a name that I recognized from the Chicago theater scene. How are you enjoying being a part of the national touring company?
Hollis Resnik: I love it. To do a big Broadway show is a great experience. It's a very warm-hearted charming show. It's a wonderful company. The traveling is difficult, of course. And doing one show for as long as I'm contracted to do this is a challenge because you need to keep it fresh. And it's also a very different role for me. It's a real character part, which I don't normally (laughs) play. It's taken me a little while to get into the skin of the character, but all in all I have to say it's a pretty great experience.
GS: I'm glad that you mentioned the character aspect of the part. As a well-established actress who has played many serious dramatic roles, how does it feel to be playing Mrs. Meers, a 'character part in a sordid tale of villainy'?
HR: Yeah, right (laughs) that's exactly what it is (laughs). It's always fun to play the villainess, because I get wonderful lines. I have very funny lines. It's been a real challenge because I have to play the little Chinese lady and then play the nasty villainess part. In terms of just working on my craft, that in itself has been a challenge—to create two different voices, two different physicalities. I'm almost unrecognizable because white make-up on with Chinese eyes and a black Chinese wig. (There is) nothing glamorous about this one at all, or serious drama. Each role you do has its own challenges.
GS: I'm also glad that you mentioned the comedic lines, because Mrs. Meers has some of the best lines and gets some of the biggest laughs in the show. Her slogan alone, 'sad to be all alone in the world,' is a laugh-inducing mantra. Do you enjoy doing comedy?
HR: I do! I do! I think that working on comedy from a basis of an organic truth as opposed to just being big and out there and presentational is always a challenge. I think it really works when you come from a state of honesty. Working in these large venues, that in itself is a challenge to keep it real. It'd be very easy to just go off on the left side of this character, but I really, really try to keep her as real as possible amongst the other characters in the play.
GS: You also previously mentioned the wig, and at one point in the play, the quotable Mrs. Meers says, 'Give me the right wig and I can play anything.'
HR: Yeah, she really believes that. She's a failed actress, for whatever reasons. I don't think she was a bad actress. I think her motives were improper and she got herself kicked out of the chorus. She didn't want to pay her dues. So I think she has all this burning talent inside of her that never went to use. She believes, like Olivier did, (that as) he said, 'It's technique. You can put on a big nose and all of a sudden you're somebody else.'
GS: That concept of getting the right wig and playing anything else, is that something to which you can relate as an actress?
HR: I think so. I think it's very important to be a chameleon as an actor (laughs). I think that as much internal work as you do, the external, when it finally comes to you in the process, is a great leap into the next step of your characterization. It's always exciting to get the costumes and the make-up and wig designs, because that transports you.
GS: So it's the sum of the parts?
HR: Exactly.
GS: Would you say that the original Mrs. Meers, Beatrice Lillie in the movie version, had any impact on your interpretation of the character?
HR: No. I don't remember the film at all. I haven't seen it.
GS: When I received your 2002 CD, Make Someone Happy, I was surprised to discover that it was your first.
HR: People had been telling me for years to make a CD, because everybody can these days. It's expensive and I really wanted to do it right and produce it well. It cost me a lot of money, as opposed to just going into a little tiny studio with a microphone and a piano. So it took me some time to do it (laughs).
GS: Are there plans to release a follow-up disc?
HR: I might. I'm on this tour for quite a while. I don't know where I'm going to end up. I might be going to New York for a while. So, I really don't know. It's sort of on the back burner, I have to be honest.
GS: It must be very exciting for you to be doing this show in the city in which you live.
HR: It's so wonderful to see the country and yet know that you are part of a great community like Chicago. I've been very blessed here. I have no complaints, none at all.
