The Envelope: Patricia Clarkson thrives on acting in her 50s

Within 30 seconds of meeting Patricia Clarkson, it’s easy to feel as if you’ve known her a lifetime. The star of “Learning to Drive” is complimentary, smiling, gesturing — all while offering a seat at her favorite restaurant: Café Loup. Native to New Orleans, Clarkson has learned to fit in perfectly here and she’s just as adaptable to her projects, whether they’re big-budget films like “The Green Mile” or thoughtful indies like “The Station Agent” and “Pieces of April” (for which she earned an Oscar nomination). She shared a glass of wine with a visitor and talked about taking the wheel, gravity, and being bangin’ in your 50s for The Envelope.

Café Loup pops up in so many press clippings about you I wondered if you were the owner.

I own it in spirit. Everything important in my life, personal and business, has happened there. All the first-time directors I meet here before I go on to make their films. And I’ve had some big dates here. I’ve kissed some incredible men in this restaurant.

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Was it hard coming to New York from New Orleans years ago?

It was a struggle to take me out of Louisiana State University and put me in a New York school [Fordham], and I’m always going to be indebted to my parents. I lived at the YMCA for about three months — I bathed in a big old pink tiled, open shower. I learned more about anatomy in those days — and more about gravity.

You went on to Yale Drama where you had an incredible set of classmates: Chris Noth, Dylan Baker, Jayne Atkinson, Richard Greenberg….

Dylan and Chris were like my guys at Yale. Such craziness. Dylan was my ambulance driver — I was always breaking my finger, getting sick, all in the course of acting. Richard, he was my roomie at Yale. I had this brilliant, genius man as my writer. Yale helped me redefine the craft of acting, which is only what can be taught. Sadly, nobody can help you with the art of acting. You aim for it, you always want it, but you have to have the craft.

Do you consider yourself a character actress now?

I don’t. I’ve done more leading parts in my 50s. I wish my face was a little … I wish things were a little higher. But hey, I was just naked on Broadway [in “The Elephant Man”] with one of the biggest stars in the world [Bradley Cooper]. He does think I’m bangin’, thank God. He was raised well. I find these very large stars — at the core they are true to themselves because they have a life, they have love. They’re egalitarian. I have to battle not to become precious and particular and superior because we are coddled and fondled every damn day of our lives.

Did you learn your admiration for egalitarian thinking at home?

It’s how my mother was raised; we got doses of it. I had no real concept of prejudice until I was kind of old. I know that sounds odd. I never saw the world as black or white or brown. We had friends of all colors. That’s maybe the greatest upbringing you can offer.

Yet there’s a lot of discussion about the lack of egalitarianism in Hollywood now.

I’m continuing to work now — I have offers on the table and I’m 55 and wow. But if I was a woman of color, forget about it. To be a woman in her 50s is one thing; to be ethnic is another battle. It’s two ladders to climb. We can talk about it, but we have to do something about it. We have to implement programs and studios that will say, “I’m going to make this amount of movies directed by women.”

Did you actually know how to drive before you made “Learning to Drive”?

My father taught me as a teenager. But I became this New Yorker, and I lost the ability to drive. So [co-star] Sir Ben [Kingsley] was like, “You do know how to drive.” I was like, “Oh, yeah! Come on!” Most of our driving scenes together were like life and art coming together in a precarious way.

Driving is such a metaphor, literally and figuratively, for freedom — as it is in the movie — so I’m amazed when some people never learn it.

My neighbor is a powerful executive at Ogilvie and he doesn’t drive. There was an article with Gloria Steinem and Lena Dunham, and they don’t drive. For me, this is how I know I’m a New Yorker — getting in a car and driving with a friend, it’s woo! My hair in the wind! But that’s if someone else is driving. Not me. I’m happy not to be in the driver’s seat.