All photos: Alan Mercer
Being a 'country girl' may not be the first thing that enters your mind when thinking of the beautiful, glamorous and talented Sean Young. She displays some pretty down-home qualities for someone with looks that rival any top model and the natural grace of a ballerina. I was fortunate enough to spend some time on a recent afternoon with Sean and her family. It's easy to see in just a few minutes that she is a devoted mother to her two teenaged sons and the full-time caretaker of her home. The first thing she wants to do when Richard Levi and I arrive is show us the bunnies in the back yard. We are also introduced to her rescue dog named Rainer, featured in these photos. She tells us she is "Just a farm girl who loves nature."
Born as Mary Sean Young in Louisville, Kentucky, she attended Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and then transferred to and graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan. She has also attended the School of American Ballet in New York.Before becoming an actress, Young worked as a model and dancer. She is best known for her performances in films such as 'Blade Runner,' 'Dune,' 'No Way Out' and 'Ace Ventura.' Most of the 1990s she resided in Sedona, Arizona, while her career slowed down a bit. Since 2000, Young has appeared in a variety of independent films and guest appearances on television. She caps it all off now with a guest starring role on the CBS Daytime Drama 'The Young and the Restless' starting this June. During the last 20 years she has had her share of bad press and misunderstandings. If this 'SeanYoung' who received all this unwanted attention for her attitude and behaviour still exists, I didn't see her. The 'Sean Young' I met is a down to earth, practical, joyful and saavy woman in the prime of her life. Her recent decision to go sober has forced her to face many challenges in the last few months and she appears to be winning this latest battle. I know a lot of people are interested in learning more about Sean because I received numerous requests to feature her on this blog so it is with great pride that I share these photos and conversation with one of the most captivating actresses today.AM: First I want to tell you that you are one of my very favorite actresses of all time!
SY: Thank you.
AM: You were born in Louisville, Kentucky correct?
SY: Yes but I didn't live there. I mostly lived in Ohio. In 1976 I went to Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. I didn't go to college. I went straight to New York City and became a model. At nineteen I got my first job with James Ivory and Ismail Merchant working on 'Jane Austin in Manhattan.' Not a very good movie but a very good experience. It was my very first time.
AM: You auditioned and won the role?
SY: Yes, and then I did 'Stripes' and 'Blade Runner.'
AM: Doing 'Blade Runner' had to change your life.
SY: It certainly did. It did take about a year before I did 'Dune.'
AM: Were you ever concerned about being typecast in Science Fiction at this time?
SY: I look back on my career, especially in the nineties, and I think it would have been great if I had been a little more concerned. Not so much about being typecast in Science Fiction movies, but in the nineties I had children, so I made choices in films that were based purely by money and not what the role was. I still feel grateful that I had those opportunities to take care of my family, but there's a couple of movies in the nineties I'd like to delete from my roster of hits!
AM: But you love 'Ace Ventura.'
SY: I love 'Ace Ventura.' That was in 1992 so that was good. You know how difficult show business can be. I'm certainly not the only person who has ever had difficulty. Sometimes I have a tendency to feel a little more of a victim than I would have liked to have been in show business. It's hard because I'm not a very good social network climber. I didn't pay as much attention to that part of it as I might have because I just didn't have that aptitude.
AM: But your aptitude is for acting. Did you always know that?
SY: Yes, I always felt like acting was the easy part.
AM: You've always received accolades for your acting.
SY: No one ever criticizes me there, that's for sure.
AM: Where do you think your place is in Hollywood history?
SY: That's a hard question. I don't know. I certainly will be remembered. In terms of where I fit now....I don't think I really fit in anywhere now.
AM: Why not?
SY: This is because of instances where I blabbed my mouth, like getting drunk at the DGA. That didn't help. The business isn't particularly fair to women. I've always been guilty of being way too honest and way too sensitive. Also on the other end of that scale, there is something to be said for being a normal person, because I am a very normal person. I live a pretty nice life in that regard. You do hear a lot of stories about people who hit the fame game and it leaves them dried out, dead and not able to appreciate life. I think there's prices to pay for everything. In a perfect world I would have liked to have handled everything perfectly! (laughing) I didn't handle everything perfectly.
RL: If you had been a guy...
SY: Oh it would have been much different.
RL: You wouldn't have been held up to the same scrutiny.
SY: Oh not at all. There's an old phrase, I don't know if you've ever heard it, but beautiful women get absolutely no compassion. Everybody assumes that you are coming from a place of arrogance and actually that's not true. I think there are a lot of beautiful women who have to face aging and kind of lose it at a certain point because they feel that their currency has run out. It's very hard to negotiate that.
AM: Do you feel this applies to you?
SY: There was a certain point in my career where the sex symbol thing applied to me. That doesn't really apply any more. It's about trying to figure out where you fit in.
AM: Where do you think you fit in?
SY: I could fit in real easily in my mind. I could play a person from Louisiana or an aristocrat, but what other people envision for you is very different. There's a kind of a herd mentality to the business out here in Los Angeles. People get an idea in their head and then they hear it from somebody else and if you get behind the wrong eight ball you have to pay a price for that. And if you're a beautiful woman that's going to be harder than if you are the typical guy that gets away with these kinds of things. There's a long list of guys that have gotten away with that. They can shoot their mouth off and it's ok.
AM: Why do you think you've "shot your mouth off?"
SY: The moments I have shot my mouth off generally came from having alcohol. That's one of the things that made it possible for me to show up at a lot of Hollywood events because I'm not a person that really likes to go. I'm too sensitive to go so that was sort of my walking water.
AM: Are you more of a home body?
SY: I feel comfortable in my own home. I feel comfortable with people one on one. I always have, but the larger the group, the more uncomfortable I get. There's something about Los Angeles and being a recognizable person, being somebody that other people judge, or gossip about, that has never been my cup of tea. I wish it had been. Maybe one day I'll get better. I'm certainly better than I used to be.
AM: That's saying a lot since you've changed your lifestyle so much.
SY: It's learning little baby steps on how to feel safer in a large group of people and in a business that's particularly rough anyway. Age actually helps that process.
AM: Do you think producers and directors are afraid of you?
SY: Yes and not just them. A lot of just normal people are too.
AM: Why would a normal person be afraid of you?
SY: I don't think it has that much to do with me. Let me give you an example. I love Jeff Bridges and he won the Oscar this year, but there is something about leading men that is just empty. That emptiness works for them. They get to be whatever anybody else is projecting at them. That's kind of what's going on with me except that I'm not terribly empty. People are projecting stuff onto me that doesn't have that much to do with me, possibly based on my image of alcoholic obnoxiousness here and there in the past.
AM: Some of these things are fifteen and twenty years ago!
SY: And they aren't even that big of a deal. My obnoxiousness is yelling and that's pretty much it. It's not the serious Courtney Love obnoxiousness. It's pretty tame when it gets right down to it.
AM: It really is.
SY: There's a lack of tolerance. One theory is when you have a person like me who looks kind of graceful and has a kind of classic look with a certain kind of sophisticated look, you don't want to see them in any other way than that. We saw you like this once and this is what we want you to be. It's an image that gets put in people's heads. In addition to this I haven't been that great of a game player.
AM: What are you good at?
SY: What I am good at is being a good cook, a good mother, a good housekeeper, I'm a good organizer for my family, keeping them focused on what I think is important. I won't hold back even if it's bitching at them. I'm a taskmaster when it comes to that. Those are all the things that are real to me. I haven't been able to grasp the show business thing very well. For one thing, my reputation got slammed, so that didn't help.
AM: Do you think you can change that?
SY: Hey I've tried and it hasn't come very easily.
RL: I've always thought you got a bad rap.
SY: A lot of people do agree but nobody really in a position to hand over a nice role has ever felt that way. That's a key position.
AM: Why do you think this is?
SY: I think one of the reasons that is, is because when you do get slammed, and your reputation is in any way maligned, and mine was quite intentionally maligned, that happens! Twenty years ago I was in show business and thinking that nothing bad can happen because you assume people are decent, that people will not tell lies about you. I have a very tender hearted personality. Anything that has come out of me in a more egotistical nature, I either drank it in or I came up with it as a learned response because I saw so many other people being egotistical. I learned it, but it wasn't my nature. Most people who meet me sort of realize that, the closer they get.
AM: Do you think people saw you as arrogant?
SY: That's something I didn't have any control over. People might have been perceiving me to be arrogant, but what was more true is I am just really shy. I wouldn't say much and held my nose up, so that would be considered arrogant. I was a dancer and dancers are always really intimidating to people. When you see a dancer, even though she is sweating bullets inside, she doesn't show it.
AM: What assumptions do people have wrong about you?
SY: Well one thing I realize that people inside the business have RIGHT about me is there's a part of me that actually doesn't really care. Do you know what I mean? That's not really accurate. I do care. I'm just tired of caring and being rejected so I learned not to care too much.
AM: Do you think that is threatening?
SY: In a way. It was a miscalculation on my part. If your income goes down because you don't make as many movies then you're going to regret that and that's what has happened for me. I wasn't thinking politically. Another thing my contemporaries have RIGHT about me is my lack of ability to be a calculator. I'm not particularly calculating.
AM: So what do they have wrong about you?
SY: In general what people have wrong is if anyone says I'm a nightmare that is just completely wrong. Anybody who really knows me knows that is not the case. I can't control that. Unless you get the opportunity to show up and prove them wrong, these kinds of rumors can take on a forest fire quality and people will believe it.
AM: Why is this do you think?
SY: Nobody wants their stock to go down. If you associate with anything that is considered a fallen stock, you don't want to have anything to do with it. Nobody wants to work with someone who has made a lot of mistakes and I have made a lot of mistakes.
AM: You've obviously made good choices as well.
SY: I've done a lot of things right. I've raised a good family and made good decisions with my money. It'd be really nice if the insiders in this business could just get over it and let me have a chance.
AM: Do you audition a lot?
SY: I don't even really get a chance to audition very much anymore.
AM: Really!?!
SY: Seriously, the casting people have kind of banded together and basically said no.
AM: That's horrible.
SY: Maybe that's based on the producers saying to the casting people, no way. Maybe it's based on the fact that I teased Julian Schnabel at the DGA Awards. A lot of these guys and even women, their egos are not able to cope with the slightest idea that somebody would ever make fun of them, or say don't take yourself so seriously.
AM: I'm sure that's true.
SY: All of that shows me once again really miscalculating powerful people's ability to not take themselves seriously. That's a Hollywood thing. I appreciate that now. Not everybody can be as 'down to earth' as I am and clearly that's not a type you're going to find a whole lot of in the Hollywood scene.
AM: What is the Hollywood scene?
SY: It's a phony scene and a status scene. It's an ego scene. It's about people and who they wear and who's doing their make-up and who's got the best car and who's got the best friends. It's all very much like that and it is what it is. I just ignored it. I didn't want to calculate on that level. It's never been my strength.
AM: How did you cope with the day after the DGA event?
SY: I went to rehab for eight days and that was nice. Eventually I started drinking again. I am winning my struggle now. It's still really hard for me because I do feel like I am a really nice person and a wonderful actress and I can add to the party and I'm not being given the opportunity.
AM: You're going to get the opportunity.
SY: We'll see. I remember hearing that twenty years ago when James Woods was doing his little number on me. I remember hearing people say, "People die, more people come up." That hasn't been the scenario that has worked out for me.
AM: What have you experienced?
SY: What's happened is that any of the people who are in the position to say yes to me whether they are gone or not have heard stories and people are taking those stories at face value without checking to see if they are true. I can't really fault anybody for that. Most of these people in a position like that, such as a studio person or a producer, are afraid to say yes because yes is opening them up for a mistake. No...you can't argue with. You're not going to make a mistake with no. It's yes that is the potential mistake.
AM: Why do you think that is?
SY: That's where the visionaries have died off. There are a lot of people from business schools in positions that were traditionally held by more creative people. Now the stakes have become so cut throat, numbers are ruling rather than visionaries. It's a system that isn't even working anymore. Most people in the business are trying to redefine the model now because of the internet. They've lost huge amounts of audience members. My kids don't even go to the TV anymore. They go to the video game or the computer. Everyone in the business is trying to figure out how to remodel it now.
AM: What do you think of webisodes?
SY: I think they're kind of cool because I end up watching the internet more now too. I watch a lot of stuff on youtube that's done by people that I regard and respect and that I'm learning a lot from. It's not based on some kid in a studio that is afraid for his job.
AM: Have you taken jobs over the past few years that you wish you hadn't?
SY: I haven't had a chance to do much over the last few years. I did a reality show that I probably shouldn't have done.
AM: The singing show.
SY: Yes, I enjoyed the singing part. I didn't have control over my drinking so they took advantage of that. That's my fault, it's not anybody else's fault.
AM: Do you think you're labeled a rebel or a bad girl or a problem child?
SY: I think people who don't know me say, "Oh I heard she was a nightmare." I hear this from my agent a lot or from friends who say that they are talking to people. I have a lot of friends who report to me the things they hear. I ask a lot of them now to not do that. Don't tell me I don't want to know. Unless I ask, don't tell me. I don't want to hear it. It would be nice to have a couple more doors open.
AM: I don't know why so many actors are having trouble getting roles now.
SY: Again it's that they are trying to redefine the business just like the publishing business. It's gone way down so they are going to publish what's on their shelves first. They're not buying anymore right now. Everybody is trying to clear their shelves, save money and redefine what show business is. We can make our own movies with a Flip camera now. It's a hard business to try and stay on top of. There are a lot of things changing rapidly now that are leaving a lot of people behind. They are going to have to figure out what they are going to do and what has meaning for them.
AM: Why do you think you are succeeding in your change of lifestyle this time?
SY: Two things. I gotta say Facebook has been great. It's actually made me feel like I'm not alone. It's like a floating idea.
AM: What way of thinking is helping?
SY: It's having been in a place where you know you can't be, where you've been, and you haven't been able to go to this place where you know you belong. Among sober people is where I belong.
AM: So what changed in you?
SY: I just didn't want to be sitting in the middle anymore. In terms of not drinking, before I always knew I could drink again if I wanted too. If I want a drink I can have a drink and that's all there is to it.
AM: That doesn't sound like a formula for success.
SY: I'd always been rehearsing for sobriety by going to the meetings. I was familiar with it by having a Dad that drank too much. There's a lot of people in show business who have alcohol problems. I always felt pretty compassionate for them. I remember once when I was working on 'Dune' with Aldo Rey. I have a shot of him that I got on Super Eight and I'm editing it now. Have you seen my videos on youtube?
AM: No I haven't.
SY: Go to Youtube and it's under msypariah. There's one called my 'Childhood Recollections.' I'm doing this one now with David Lynch and the making of 'Dune.' I shot a lot of everybody on there. It's just so cool. We are all in Mexico City. Well anyway, Aldo Rey got in the car to go with me to the set one day and he was plastered like no tomorrow. He was reaching and grabbing at my crotch. Finally I put my foot on his neck and I held him back to keep him away from me during the whole ride. When we get to the studio I get out of the car and grab my eight millimeter and it's the scariest shot. You see him kind of walking, just toasted. His face was so gone. I think he must have died shortly thereafter. I've heard a lot of different stories about people's alcoholism.
AM: How does this make you feel about your own challenges?
SY: I've always viewed my own alcoholism as pretty garden variety. It doesn't matter anymore because what it really boils down to is...is it stopping me? Maybe I feel a little more able to cope with the feelings that come up as a result of not medicating with it.
AM: You are maturing.
SY: Yeah I think that's probably what it is. I couldn't cope with all those feelings. I'm also working on another video because my Dad shot all this stuff when we were younger so I really have a lot to edit. I was a farm girl. I was a very outdoorsy Tomboy. I never wore any shoes and could play with the sheep, goats, chickens, hens, and had friends that lived in the country. That kind of earthy environment is an environment I'm comfortable in.
AM: Do you have any advice for anyone else in the same situation?
SY: Avoid show business if at all possible! (laughing) Wait a minute now, let me think. Honestly one of the things I'm looking at is really returning to the Earth. Really returning to things like a water supply and planting things. Since everyone is seeing their world change so rapidly now, we need to return to nature. Unplug a little bit. Get that static electromagnetic TV off and unplug for a while. I tell my kids the same thing, "You're a kid, you gotta go out and skate. Go out an do things that kids do. You get so much time with the computer and that's it. You don't get all day. You get to be out in the sun and you get to help me with my garden. You have to pet the bunnies with me and feed them."
AM: They are lucky to have a Mom that cares like that. Is there anything else you want to share?
SY: Put a log in the fireplace and have a conversation. Stop living in virtual worlds. Spend time in the real world. Being a real person is something I feel I've done well in. I haven't done that well at being a fake person. That's put me at a disadvantage. If you get any of my contemporaries and put them in this room away from all their bullshit I'd be totally at home and they would too because I would put them at ease. That's the kind of person I am. It's an irony.
AM: How did you get this guest spot on 'The Young and the Restless?'
SY: I'm a good friend of Eric Braeden. He put me in a Western movie that he did. It ended up being a ton of fun. I told Eric the casting person at 'The Young and the Restless' is saying I can't come in and meet about these parts because they think I'm difficult. I told him he had to go over her head and talk to the producers. So he did and that was all there was to it.
AM: Did you know this woman before?
SY: I've never met this lady and I don't know who she is. This is a woman in her mid-twenties who's had no direct experience with me but is saying no to my manager because she's heard something somewhere. It's very frustrating and heart breaking for me. People tell me not to take it personally but that's very hard not to take personally because it's hitting me in the primal instinct level. I'm being told I can't go in and earn a living. That option is closed to me. Now wait a minute now, do I get a chance to stand up and defend myself here. Anyhow we probably won't be the closest of friends!
AM: That's alright. At least you got a start. This should do the trick.
SY: Well, I like to take it one day at a time, as they say.
