Q & A: Talking with Jessica Lange

The two-time Oscar winner plays a grieving widow in Bonneville, about a trio of friends who set out on a life-changing road trip.

What was most challenging about playing a widow?
Being specific. I wanted to present the role as a piece of music that I was composing. There were the adagio sections, the allegro sections, so that it had a tempo to it somehow.

Where did you draw your inspiration from?
That's where Joan Didion's book [The Year of Magical Thinking] came in. I kept it next to my bed and traveled with it every day to and from the set. I would sometimes pick it up, just open any page, and that would help inform what I was doing. It was amazing.

You have natural chemistry with co-stars Kathy Bates and Joan Allen. Are you friends?
We got really lucky, because that effortlessness doesn't always happen. I'd worked with Kathy only once before, and I didn't know Joan. But we found a way to work together that was really organic. And we are friends now. I speak to them often.

Is this a film all women can relate to?
Hopefully. I hope some men come to see it. [Laughs]. Women went to see The Bucket List, so maybe some guys will show up. It's about friendship — how it moves, how it evolves, what it means to these women.