Carolyn Choe talks taking on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s villain
Out of Box Theatre is debuting their rendition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest March 15-23 at The Alley Stage. Carolyn Choe is playing the authoritatively cruel Nurse Ratched. Choe, who was previously nominated for a MAT Award, takes on this complicated character and makes it her own. Below, she talks about what she put into the role, what was the hardest part of playing the villain, and being a control freak.
Q. You are playing Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Out of Box Theatre, a role that, in film, was made famous by Louise Fletcher. Was it difficult to make the decisions needed to make this role your own?
A. As an actor, I always work to make any role my own. I don’t watch a movie or base my work on a performance I have seen before. So no, it never is difficult to make the decision to make a role my own.
Q. What was the hardest thing about taking adapting this role from film and putting Nurse Ratched on stage?
A. The play Cuckoo’s Nest was written just a few years after the book and long before the movie came out, so I don’t really feel like I am adapting the part from the movie. In fact, I am not playing Louise Fletcher at all. One of the things director Barbara Rudy and I discussed right away was releasing me from the need to do that. The same goes for Travis Young playing McMurphy. If people come to the show to see Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, they will be greatly disappointed.
Q. One of my favorite things about Nurse Ratched’s character is that she is so complicated and uses subtlety to adhere to some cruel treatments. What is it like to play someone who is manipulative, and not everyone’s most loved person?
A. It is both delightful and scary. The hardest part for me is to “live in her skin” as I like to say. I don’t like to “act” as if I am enjoying tormenting the patients. I want to enjoy it as the character. Feel it as she does. And that is a very uncomfortable place for me to sit. But, I am getting there, I think. But it is very challenging.
Q. What was your guilty pleasure about playing this character? Are you used to playing the villain?
A. I do like playing complicated women, I have played Annie Wilkes in Misery before and I loved finding the person in her. I could relate to. For her it was love. Love for Misery and love for Paul Sheldon. That and a very skewed sense of right and wrong. For Nurse Ratched, I have to say I do enjoy being in charge. I am a little bit of a control freak myself.
Q. There is a lot of humor in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but there is also a lot of pain, sadness, and desperation that was based on real treatments at actual mental institutions. What was it like to deal with such diverse emotional content and yet still hold true to Ratched’s disconnected persona?
A. I don’t think she is disconnected at all. She hides her pleasure in their pain behind a facade of “caring.” And she definitely uses the treatments to maintain her sense of order and discipline. And I find that very repulsive.
Q. And, of course, the Lipton treatment:
1. What is your favorite word? Yes
2. What is your least favorite word? No
3. What turns you on? exceptional acting
4. What turns you off? cruelty
5. What sound or noise do you love? laughter
6. What sound or noise do you hate? screaming
7. What is your favorite curse word? shit
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? artist – painting
9. What profession would you not like to do? snake handler
10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? “Well done.”
