You probably know Elizabeth Perkins from her roles in movies like “Big,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “The Housemaid” and “The Flintstones,” just to name a few — but she’s also well-known for her work on television.
In fact, the Emmy-nominated actress currently stars in Dan Levy’s “Big Mistakes” on Netflix, which blends crime and comedy into one big family drama. “It’s so funny and it’s so scary at the same time. It’s just an adventure,” she told TheWrap ahead of last week’s premiere.
“His energy, his writing, everything that he promotes as a human being — I just love him,” Perkins added of series co-creator Levy. “So when he asked me to be a part of it, knowing there’s Laurie Metcalf, Queen of the universe, I’ve known her for 45 years, maybe close to 50 years, but I never had the chance to work with her; I had just seen ‘Adults,’ who is this Jack Innanen character?; I had just worked with Taylor Ortega on ‘Another Simple Favor’; and I thought, Well, this is just a dream come true. We’re shooting in New Jersey, it’s about organized crime, but it’s kind of not, it’s more about family. All of the pieces combined. It doesn’t happen that often.”
But this isn’t her first endeavor into prestige television, considering she starred as Celia Hodes for five seasons of “Weeds.”
“‘Weeds’ was one of the first TV things I had done and we were one of the first half-hours on cable. 2005. So my experience doing television was sort of not different than my experience doing film. I mean, we were nominated for an Emmy in our first season. We broke a lot of ground with that show,” Perkins recalled. “Somebody finally went out on a limb for me and let me do something really dastardly. It was nice to have Jenji Kohan notice something in me and I had a ball. She was the worst human being on Earth, and as an actor, that’s the most fun to play.”
Two decades later, streaming has become yet another platform for the veteran actor, who had her star-making debut in 1986’s “About Last Night…”
“Old filmmaking was in itself its own art form, I do sort of miss shooting on film and the preciousness of shooting on film. Right now, there’s just a lot of bleeding of the two, because everything’s being done digitally,” she said. “It’s completely different than it was 20 years ago. I don’t really approach them differently at all anymore, but in this particular case, it was really nice that we were doing a comedy/drama, that it was half-hour, that it’s fast, in your face — that was the best part.”
So what does make a project work, regardless of its cinematic medium?
“Everything has to meet at this great center point where everybody has brought their A-game. For me, that’s based on the creator. You can trust certain creators that they’re going to pull together the right cast and pull together the best writing,” Perkins explained. “What I’m seeing with Dan and this show is that everybody’s really excited.”
While “Big Mistakes” may serve as some much-needed escapism for viewers, Perkins made sure to highlight some of her fellow performers who are also using their platforms to make a difference in the real world.
“We’re all feeling it. I just want people to remember that life will go on and to stay strong and believe in the good, we’ll get through this … it’s a rough moment. I just hope that the arts and theater and film and ballet will survive,” she concluded. “For me, it’s artists who ultimately change the world. I’m really proud of what Bruce Springsteen is doing right now, because not everybody’s doing that; people like Brandi Carlile, who are helping reassure people that there’s goodness in the world.”
Make no mistake, “Big Mistakes” is now streaming on Netflix.
