Kathleen Turner's Secret? Rage!

Speaking to New York Magazine contributing editor David Marchese, actor Kathleen Turner revealed what’s been motivating her all these years:

Rage.

And by that she meant:

I’m fuckin’ angry, man.

Re:

Everything:

She also had this to say about starring opposite Nicholas Cage in 1986’s Peggy Sue Got Married, for which she received an Oscar nomination:

Listen, I made it work, honey.

Beyond the gasp-inducing sound bites, though, lies a lot of insight into the mind of a woman who went from being revered as a sex symbol to reviled for being a “nightmare” on set.

On gaining a reputation for being “difficult” to work with, Turner said:

The ‘difficult’ thing was pure gender crap. If a man comes on set and says, ‘Here’s how I see this being done,’ people go, ‘He’s decisive.’ If a woman does it, they say, ‘Oh, fuck. There she goes.’

Perhaps it helped that, early in her career, she decided that she’d rather be a good actor than be liked.

My first Broadway show was Gemini in ’78. I played this spoiled white girl whose boyfriend is struggling with whether or not he’s gay. She can’t handle that, and at the top of the second act there was a scene where she’s saying how wrong it all is. I was not doing the scene well and I didn’t know why. Then it hit me: I’m afraid that the audience is going to think that I’m like this character. I didn’t want people to think that I was this stuck-up, privileged white girl. But there’s the choice: Do you want the audience to like you or do you want to be a good actor? That’s an easy choice for me.

Read the rest of the interview on Vulture, and please feel free to stan forever if you aren’t already.