Big TV Week for Annette Bening

It was a joy to watch Annette Bening on two television shows last week. She appeared on TCM to talk about her new movie, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, and was also interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel on his show. In her latest film, Bening plays film noir actress Gloria Grahame, so she gave TCM viewers important insights into Grahame’s career before introducing In a Lonely Place, a film co-starring Humphrey Bogart. From Bening’s articulate presentation, it became clear why she was chosen to play Gloria Grahame.

On the Kimmel show, Bening discussed her own acting career and seemed to have a great time bantering with this popular talk show host. She was very calm when Kimmel asked for her reactions to husband Warren Beatty’s handling of the “envelope glitch” at last year’s Oscar ceremony. She answered, “He handled it very well” –  of course.

      

But, to me, the icing on the cake of that discussion came when Bening mentioned attending San Diego’s Mesa College. I was fortunate to be Dean of Humanities at this community college for a few years after she graduated.  Because she was achieving such acting success, I asked Bening to return and conduct an acting workshop for our current drama students. Her enthusiasm for acting delighted everyone. “My goal is to become a very old woman playing all sorts of character parts,” she told the students. She also expressed a desire to play Hamlet, reminding the group about Dame Judith Anderson’s success in that leading role.

Bening had just completed filming Bugsy with Warren Beatty and appeared very careful when answering questions about him. Those two must be up to something, I thought to myself. So when they married each other within the next few months, it failed to surprise me. 

I feel certain that Bening’s fans and friends at Mesa College are still proud of her splendid contributions to the cinema.