Shirley MacLaine’s Playing ‘Old’ and Having the Time of Her Life

Since Shirley MacLaine hit her 40s--in this life at least--she’s been playing older, often cantankerous characters: the alcoholic movie-star mother in “Postcards From the Edge,” the tyrannical piano teacher in “Madame Sousatzka,” the grumpy Ouiser in “Steel Magnolias” and her Oscar-winning Aurora Greenway in “Terms of Endearment.” It doesn’t seem a stretch, then, that now, nearly 60 (her birthday is April 24) she’s playing a grouchy, imperious former First Lady in “Guarding Tess.”

The fact that these characters have had such similar temperaments isn’t entirely her choice, as she explains; it is, instead, simply Hollywood myopia. “They (movie executives) seem to have this attitude that if anyone is over 45, she’s cantankerous,” says MacLaine, alternately eating and dropping chunks of a bran muffin on the couch of her suite in a Manhattan hotel. “It’s like no one can think of what anyone from 45 to 60 does.”

That she typically has to play up her wrinkles and pull on a gray wig is usually part of the deal, but she says it doesn’t bother her. Part of the reason is how she looks; in person she’s so vibrant that you practically have to squint--neon-red hair, startling blue eyes, pale, fine skin. She’s wearing a short tight red suit and high heels showing off a trim figure and long dancer’s legs.

The other reason she’s so willing to take on these less than flattering parts is the overall tone of her 40-year career--she was always known for character parts (“The Apartment,” “Some Came Running” and “Sweet Charity”), not glamour turns, as she explains. And in service to a character, you have to abandon your vanity.

“I know a lot of people look at parts and think what will the public think,” she says. “But I never think about whether the public will love me. I’ve always been smearing lipstick and accentuating the lines (on my face). When Mike Nichols (director of “Postcards”) said, ‘We want the wig off and your face like a peeled onion,’ it was nothing to me. I’ve seen Debbie Reynolds with her wig off. That’s what the character would be.”

As Tess Carlisle, crusty presidential widow, she doesn’t look quite as drastic this time--the overall look, tight hairstyle and pearls, is rather Barbara Bush. Other characteristics are lifted from several First Ladies the politically active MacLaine has known, among them Rosalynn Carter, her favorite, who contributed Tess’ resilience and steeliness, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who contributed the sense of equality with her husband.

In fact, MacLaine has a great deal of respect for the work of the current First Lady, but she still passes along a bit of advice. “I really think she should relax and have more fun,” she says. “That’s what I’ve found in my old age--that you can facilitate change faster if you relax. I was so much more intense when I was younger.”

Apart from her familiarity with the political milieu, MacLaine was drawn to “Guarding Tess” because of its central relationship, the antagonism/affection/devotion between Tess Carlisle and Doug Chesnic (played by Nicolas Cage), the lead Secret Service agent assigned to protect her. “I thought it was sweet; it made me laugh,” she says.

A similar interaction occurred between her and Cage. “She’s very outspoken,” says Cage. “If she thinks something, she’ll say it. She’ll tease you, point it out with a very frank attitude, but always in good humor. She also loves to mimic people and she’d imitate me just before my take. So I would joke with her about her magic powers.”

Cage may have been joking but he took some of what she had to say seriously. “He asked me for advice about everything,” says MacLaine. “Child-rearing, comedy, what he should do after this. After all, I’ve lived 3,000 years longer than him.” She roars with laughter.

When MacLaine first publicized her explorations into spiritual phenomena and past lives in the third of her seven memoirs, 1983’s “Out on a Limb,” she was attacked as a New Age eccentric. As a result, she had to develop a sense of humor about it--which she displayed in Albert Brooks’ “Defending Your Life,” as the hostess of the Past Lives Pavilion. But now, she says, she feels redeemed. “Everyone from Jesse Helms to the President is saying we’re in a spiritual crisis,” she says. “So the stuff I’m writing doesn’t make your eyes roll anymore.”

Her explorations and her writing are the most important things in her life, she says. She describes a recent meeting in which she discussed extraterrestrials with a Zulu shaman consulted by both Nelson Mandela and South African President F. W. De Klerk, a trip to Rio with the Dalai Lama (who, she says, is something of a flirt) and a visit to Cambodia with companion Andrew Peacock, the former foreign minister of Australia, to talk with the U.N. commanders about the democratic elections. “Now that is a life,” she says proudly.

She is also looking forward to reprising Aurora Greenway again in the “Terms of Endearment” sequel, “Evening Star,” set to begin production in Texas in May. And she’s trying to figure out whether to have a big party for her 60th before she moves out of Los Angeles to take up permanent residence on her New Mexico ranch.

But, as always, otherworldly voices interrupt. “I just had a revelation,” she says, her eyes flickering. “If I act on it, I’ll tell you about it.” Then she smiles. She is, after all, writing her next book.