Kathleen Turner’s new autobiography from Send Yourself Roses

Kathleen Turner, the sexiest baritone on the block, was in Toronto recently to promote her autobiography, Send Yourself Roses. The 53-year-old actor, who won Golden Globes for Romancing the Stone and Prizzi's Honor, and was Oscar-nominated for Peggy Sue Got Married, recently dazzled New York and London in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and directed an off-Broadway comedy.
Q: When we last spoke (six years ago, in New York, before Turner appeared in The Graduate), you said that people often accused you of being an alcoholic because of the side effects of the medication you were taking for rheumatoid arthritis. But a few weeks later, you got publicly drunk and wound up in all the papers. What was the worst part of that?
A: The hardest thing was when I had to tell my cast that I had a problem with alcohol. I felt so ashamed. It was really, really hard. But I did it because it had to be done. I showed them a bottle of pills that made it impossible for me to drink without getting sick, gave them to the stage manager and he made sure I took one every day.
Q: You eventually went into rehab. What helped you get sober?
A: I believe in a higher power, yes I do. I mind the thought that we're it, that mankind is the epitome of goodness. I don't think that's possible. But I don't believe in a judgmental God.
There's also a phrase I cling to: "Well, you just have to, don't you?" It's my mantra. It's a sort of acceptance, but it's more than that. There's a kind of defiance about it that appeals to me.
Q: You describe your long and painful struggle with RA, which is in remission now. But are you afraid it might recur?
A: Yeah, I'm afraid. Terribly afraid. If something starts to ache or if I trip and hurt my knee, I think, 'Oh God, no, please! I couldn't go through it again.' What would I do if it came back? I don't know. I just don't know. I can't believe God would let that happen to me.
Q: In the book, you claim one of the most important things that happened to you in recent years was your mother calling you up after she read an interview where you said you blamed yourself all your life for your father's death from a heart attack and her telling you that it wasn't your fault. Is that true?
A: Absolutely. And it was our conversation she was talking about. I was just about to go onstage in Toronto when she called me and told me. I kept it together through the show. Then I raced offstage, sobbing, with the relief, the tears. After a while I thought, "Why the hell didn't she tell me before?" But in the end, I realized it wouldn't have made things that much different.
Q: You say your life has been about "taking risks and making choices." What have some of those risks and choices been in recent years?
A: The biggest risk was playing Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ... but it paid off, baby. I proved something to myself and to everybody else: that I could still do it. And choices? The toughest one was leaving my husband Jay (Weiss) after 21 years. We're still wonderful friends, but we had to break up so I could figure out who Kathleen Turner really was.
– Metroland newswire