‘Trash’ talk is familiar to her

BETH GRANT is a strong, spiritual woman of the South, and if her drawl at times seems demure, the light in her eyes will set you straight.

“A man would never hit me,” she declares. “I’m not a victim. I said if I’m going to be the protagonist in this play, she has to be proactive. We can teach people how to treat us, and how to talk to us with respect.”

Grant, one of the most respected character actresses in Hollywood, plays Willadean Winkler, a battered housewife and mother in Del Shores’ “The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife” at the Zephyr Theatre in Hollywood.

The role, which she originated three years ago, brought her numerous honors, including an Ovation, a Garland and an L.A. Drama Critics Circle award.

Why would Grant, who has roles in five films scheduled for release this year, want to return to the 99-seat theater scene -- where she’s paid relatively little -- to reprise this role?

“I’m not finished with Willadean,” Grant says, sitting on a couch in her Valley Village home. “I’d just gotten to the point where I could really explore her, and we closed. I was revealing my soul, allowing the audience to see my pain, my heartache, and the times I’ve felt trapped and hated myself.

“Willadean is an archetype for so many women. Most of us aren’t the prom or homecoming queens. You don’t have to live in a trailer to see the dance of death that Willadean falls into. If we can enlighten people, we can be of service here.”

When Shores first offered Grant the lead role of Willadean, she was reluctant to accept.

“I told him, ‘Oh no, I’m pepper, not salt,’ ” Grant says, words spilling out nonstop. “My acting teacher said I was afraid to confront parts of myself, and afraid of the challenge. So I said, ‘Wait a minute, if it’s fear, I have to do it.’ ”

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A youth on the move

THE daughter of a father in the poultry business and a mother who worked in various office positions, Grant grew up in the South, moving from Fort Payne, Ala., to Atlanta to Charlotte to Wilmington, N.C., before finishing high school and going to New York to try her luck at acting.

“My mother always wanted to be an actress,” Grant says, “and as a child, I wanted to be a movie star. I thought if I could be Loretta Young or Joan Crawford, it would be wonderful. I was shocked when I got to New York City, at 179 pounds with this angular face, that I didn’t get the parts I auditioned for.”

When Grant couldn’t get an agent, she started her own theater company and put on some plays locally before moving to Los Angeles.

She started writing a comedy revue for the Improv on Melrose, took acting classes and was hired by the Jimmy Carter campaign to be a celebrity coordinator. Hollywood contacts led to a variety of behind-the-camera jobs until Grant realized that she wanted to return to acting.

So she began studying at the Beverly Hills Playhouse with Milton Katselas, who pushed her to embrace her talent and her physical appearance.

“He asked me, ‘Why do you keep trying to be a Rolex watch when you’re the salt of the earth?’ ” says Grant, 56. “ ‘Who are you to look down your nose at Maureen Stapleton and Colleen Dewhurst?’ I finally got it that the characters [I now play] weren’t to be looked down on, but to be lifted up. These women need someone to tell their stories.”

Almost immediately, Grant nabbed the part of an earthy mother in “Rain Man,” which has led to roles in more than 70 films, including “Donnie Darko,” “Speed,” “City Slickers,” “A Time to Kill” and “Matchstick Men.”

On stage, she’s appeared in more than 30 plays, including two productions at the Ahmanson, William Inge’s “Picnic” and Tennessee Williams’ “Summer and Smoke.”

Grant and her husband, actor Michael Chieffo, have one daughter, Mary Elizabeth, 13, whom they are raising to be a feminist.

“I’ve heard it said that religion is for people who are afraid of hell, and spirituality is for those who’ve been there,” Grant says. “That’s where Willi and I meet. Willadean is experiencing a newfound spirituality through talk shows, her friendship with her neighbor, LaSonia, and Dr. Phil. She has created a mantra to sustain herself through the hell that is her life with her abusive husband -- ‘I am not going to shrivel up and die.’

“As I begin to channel Willi each night, I seek to allow my human experiences to fill her up. I have worked hard to let go of my own self-hatred, old resentments and guilt, to disavow fear. To say to my inner suppressor, as Willi says to her abuser, ‘I am not worthless.’ ”

It was Grant’s spirit and face that Del Shores held in his mind as he wrote the character Willadean in “Trailer Trash Housewife.”

“I never considered anyone else for the role,” says Shores, who had worked previously with Grant in his play “Sordid Lives.” “She’s one of the best people and best actresses I get to work with. When we did this play three years ago, my producing partner, Sharyn Lane, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two weeks into the rehearsals. There was such turmoil and sadness, it was hard to be happy at winning all the awards. So it’s with great happiness that we return to it now.”

Six of Shores’ plays are rotating on alternate days at the Zephyr in “A Season of Shores,” beginning with “Trailer Trash Housewife,” “Southern Baptist Sissies” and “Sordid Lives.”

For Grant, playing Willadean again is an intense, and joyful, homecoming.

“I feel like I know her and love her,” Grant says. “I’m exhausted, but there’s also the exhilaration of creativity.

“I’d hope that any woman seeing this play gets that she’s always been somebody. We’re enough, and we don’t have to sell ourselves to the devil to have a man by our side.”

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‘The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife’

Where: Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays

Ends: June 17

Price: $25 to $45

Contact: (800) 595-4849