Elaine May Chats With Julian Schlossberg About Her Comedy, Acting, and Directing Careers | TCM

With her sardonic wit and keen insight into the human condition, Elaine May rose to prominence as one-half of an improvisational team alongside future director Mike Nichols before becoming a greatly revered writer-director-actor. In this interview recorded in 2023, she spoke about the making of her films A NEW LEAF, MIKEY AND NICKY, and ISHTAR with her close friend, producer Julian Schlossberg.
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Elaine May Chats With Julian Schlossberg About Her Comedy, Acting, and Directing Careers | TCM
• Elaine May Chats With ...
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[@ColleenD78]

Oh Elaine May... you Fascinating, Brilliant, Hysterical DIAMOND, you!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@kennethbradyla]

I worked with them both in the heydays of the 80s in New York. Two legends in entertainment.

[@ColleenD78]

Fascinating! I'm very envious! ❤

[@area51pictures]

On the eighth day God clearly made Elaine May. Best looking 92 year old I've ever seen.

[@tomada36]

92 ? Wow! I wouldn't have guessed that

[@MJ-dq8ik]

She's one of all my all time favorite talents & her film A NEW LEAF is so damn good!!

[@henrimatisse7481]

On her way to work: "you need to be vacuuummed!"

[@Avery_4272]

Elaine May: brilliant in so many ways. Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with us.

[@philippapay4352]

This is a terrific interview with some informative insights. Loved Mike & Elaine together & collaborating & separately. Brilliant.

[@sveerdlov1917]

Thanx so much for this interview. I think Elaine May is terrific.

[@jobysaad]

Love you Elaine, you seem to be the spoken and unspoken force behind my favorite comedies.

[@samanthab1923]

I love A New Leaf ❤

[@mercoid]

A big favorite of me and the wife! ❤️

[@samanthab1923]

@@mercoid Walter Mathieu never fails us. Just watched The Taking of Pelham 123.

[@jazzfan6]

At the film's climax, when Matthau's character has everything going his way but then cries "Dammit to hell! Damn, damn, damn! Nothing ever turns out the way it's supposed to be . . ." because he realizes that he needs Henrietta and couldn't stand to be without her, it is (in its irony) the most touching and genuine expression of true love in the movies.

[@sclogse1]

Yeah, you fall in love with her.

[@zovalentine7305]

I have the film and still watch it ❤

[@Brian-uy2tj]

I couldn't imagine anyone but Walter Mathau in A New Leaf but when Cary Grant came up... he is probably the only other actor who could pull it off because he was such a good comedic actor. Elaine May is such a force of nature. She has more talent than 100 ordinary people. And you know, she is still cute at 92, I'd enjoy having dinner with her!

[@mckavitt13]

But would she with you? 😂

[@Brian-uy2tj]

@@mckavitt13

[@mckavitt13]

@@Brian-uy2tj Me too! 🤣

[@jordanabeaulieu2530]

Wow! Elai😊ne May was gorgeous, still beautiful at 92!

[@oldmoviesinbwwithsubtitles3501]

Love this lady ! ❤

[@seanmoday9]

Love her comedy, been a fan since A New Leaf as well!

[@ronbock8291]

The first half of Ishtar is arguably the funniest movie ever made.

[@timothyanstine8272]

I have A New Leaf on DVD and I treasure it.

[@sclogse1]

You fall in love with her.

[@judypratt2868]

A New Leaf !!!!

[@sclogse1]

Elaine spoke at an event here in San Francisco quite a while ago. Civic Center. I went. But I also knew guests were usually taken over to the Hayes St. Grill before the event to get to know the interviewer, or presenter a bit. I really wanted to go over there, walk up to this table of people and say, "I've always enjoyed your films, Miss Riefenstahl."

[@MichaelAschner]

Why did they skip HEARTBREAK KID? It’s a comedy masterpiece.

[@gwenniegirl50]

Does anyone know the date this interview was conducted? Thanks.

[@ron9576]

2023

[@mckavitt13]

2023?! ❤❤❤

[@thomasndennis]

"You don't feel like anything can happen to you in a movie."

[@sebeckley]

Why did she stop directing after Ishtar? Maybe in part because it was such a bomb no one would hire her. But her talents are massive regardless.

[@simplenough]

A New Leaf wasn’t easy either

[@gerrydooley951]

what a smart person

[@tolanstout]

How did they get her to sit down for an interview.

[@renzo6490]

Why doesn’t anyone talk about “In The Spirit “??

[@sandrashevey8252]

May might be the last New York Jewess from my generation. Lee Grant would appreciate this comment inasmuch as her mother and aunt always shopped at Altman`s for `cashmere` in the sales. May remains NYy `pencil thin`. She also always pulls up her dress to cover the bra especially when having been reunited with Mike Nichols. A kind of NY false modesty. It is May who made that disquieting comment about Nichols who was born with some complicated German Jewish name and who apparently was the result of Nazi medical experfiments on Jewish children. Age7/8 when he arrived in America Nichols was already bald and had male organs the size of a fully grown male. I met Nichols when he was doing standup with May at the Golden Theatre late 50s. Liked him enormously. Did not realize within a few years time but maybe back then (May could have been covering for him) Nichols had or was having a long term relationship Richard Avedon. Schlossberg`s brother is married to Caroline Kennedy or maybe it`s Julian himself???? Did not know Julian himself had gone into `interviewing celebs` but then everyone wants to do it. Glad I no longer have to. See sandrasheveyinterviews KZbin and subscribe to the channel. I have done over 500`A` list celebs as from the Sixties to date. Schlossberg and I were regular fixtures on Joe Franklin`s `Memory Lane` programme. It is on one of these sbows that I mentioned my affection for Fred Astaire. A couple of funny things happened to us in combo when doing Franklin`s shows. I can recall (this was a radio show. I have also done his tv shows) on this occasion when the host had to take a pee. (This was live radio) He told us to `keep talking` while he exited the studio. He returned about 5-8 mins later but hell what were Julian and I supposed to talk about during the interval? I`d like to listen to that show again just to see what we did talk about?

[@sandrashevey8252]

Actually it was 1960 when they played the Golden Theatre. I was age 17. Believe Mike was in his late twenties which is why I recall he impressed me as an `older man`.

[@zeltzamer4010]

Shame about the dearth of the Heartbreak Kid.

[@ImnotassweetasIusedtobe]

It's free on KZbin and the high seas....

[@zeltzamer4010]

@@ImnotassweetasIusedtobe I meant they didn’t discuss it here.

[@classiclife7204]

It's typical of our times that "Ishtar" can be discussed, but let's hide "Tootsie" in the dark with the other fungus, lol. (May was the co-writer on that one.) Of course, "Ishtar" and "Mikey and Nicky" have been "reevaluated", an unnecessary action when one considers that they weren't that bad to begin with, particularly "Ishtar". I think "Mikey and Nicky" is a bit harder to argue for - and yes I mean the restored version - because two Method actors jabbering at each other may be of minimal interest for general audiences. The Wiki entry on that movie certainly indicates a lot of the interaction between Falk and Cassavetes was improvised, but fine, it wasn't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In fact, the Wiki article on May herself is often unhelpful - a lot of digital ink is expended on how everyone had a crush on her in the 1950s, along with quotes from famous people about her awesomeness. Which is fine for Tiger Beat, but more facts on that website would be appreciated. The fact is, her half-improvised comedy skits with John Nichols was truly groundbreaking, and you can watch their spreading influence of realistic, comic arguments in movies of the period and TV shows like "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Some are uploaded on KZbin and they're worth your time. They influenced Baby Boomer comics almost uniformly, and in turn influenced what came after, the stuff I grew up with. But, TV comedy sketches are not TCM's bread and butter; movies are. And May's record there is notoriously spotty. For example, I'm in my fifties - why have I never seen "A New Leaf"? Why did it not "survive", despite it being generally considered her best directed film, and by "survive" I mean still belonging in the public consciousness? Why do her most successful films that she wrote or directed seem blandly, safely commercial? "Heaven Can Wait"? "Primary Colors"? I'm truly not hating; I just feel she's being interviewed about the wrong things here. Well, you know what they say about opinions: everyone's got one!