Elizabeth Perkins On Weeds, Kevin Bacon & People Asking Her For Pot

By Quendrith Johnson
Fancast.com

Fancast’s three-part bold interview with Weeds star Elizabeth Perkins wraps up with this final installment about the show, the nomination she received for her work, and reaction she gets to the series. You can also watch Fancast’s special presentation of the first episode from the new season by clicking here.

Do you think the series transcends the drug scene and becomes art?
I loved the season finale of Season 2, where Nancy is standing in the kitchen and there are six guns pointing at her head. She is on a cell phone going ‘help me.’ Here is this scared little suburban housewife surrounded by Romanian thugs, and the Compton thugs. The pot is gone, and she is completely on her own, and she is lost. I thought that really exemplified WEEDS.

All the guns, violence, the much-hyped “brick dance” with Mary-Louise Parker dancing on a pool table with drugs — do you ever feel the show is off the hook?
We’re always going too far. We’re always worried that we are going too far. And we do go too far. It took me a long time, a couple of years, to realize: ‘we are going too far, I get it!’ We are going to be that show that people are watching, where they go ‘they’re not going there, oh yes they did!’ There are no holds barred with Jenji — if there is a politically incorrect line, she is going to cross the line. That’s the kind of writer she is.

Compared to making movies, is doing this series a marathon?
I love doing this. I could never make a movie again, just stay on WEEDS for the rest of my life, and be perfectly happy. I really enjoy my job. Throughout a 25 year career, there have only been a few times I could say that. This has been a blessing. I shoot here in Los Angeles. I have a great cast of people to come to work with, between Mary-Louise and Justin and Kevin Nealon, who I love working with. I think Kevin Nealon is one of the funniest people on television. I have a daughter and three stepsons, so I get to spend time with my family. They love the show. How often do you get to play somebody so off the wall, particularly at my age — I’m 48 this year.

How many degrees of Kevin Bacon are you?
I’m one (from the movie “He Said, She Said“). I say that with pride!

Do you keep in touch with Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks, any of the people you’ve worked with in the past?
Sure, whenever we run into each other at these functions (award shows), that we’re all forced to got to. You have a huge connection. Especially with Tom, we’ve stayed in touch over the years. He’s the nicest man in show business.

Diane Lane is one of your close friends; is she going to be on the show?
She’s literally my best friend. We’re very, very close. I don’t think she’d want to be on the show. I don’t think this is her cup of tea!

When you got nominated for the show, at the Emmy’s and Golden Globes, did you feel like it was a vindication for WEEDS?
What I felt, when the show got the recognition that it did, was: ‘they got it.’ The show we are trying to make is ironic, metaphorical, an examination — even though the examination is sometimes really ugly. We were really nervous whether people would get the joke. The minute the New York Times reviewed the show, even before we premiered, it was obvious they were getting the joke. A lot of this is hyped reality, social metaphor about examining the dirty underbelly of pristine American society that we are so desperate to protect. There is drugs, killing, a lot of dirty laundry.

Are there any political or religious groups coming after you guys?
We get nothing. We’re surprised. We keep thinking ever time we put something out there, we will get this huge response. So far nothing.

Do people on the street come up to you and give you a hard time about the show?
They tell me, ‘I love you on Weeds’ — or it’s always the stoners coming up to me asking ‘hey, do you have any dope?’ I have to say ‘no, I don’t carry it around with me. I am on a TV show that has dope.’ I guess some people find it hard to separate the two. Whatever… there are a lot of stoners who get high and watch the show.