Jessica Lange says she feels like she is coming to an end as an actor, and she thinks her last film may already be behind her. In a new interview, she said that film could be Long Day's Journey Into Night, where she played Mary Tyrone.
That makes the timing of the interview matter. Lange has just returned for American Horror Story Season 13, revisiting and reprising four of her former roles after stepping away from the franchise for a few years. For viewers who watched her become one of the defining faces of the series, her comments sound less like a tease than a possible closing chapter.
Lange did not present the end of her career as a dramatic announcement. She said she has had decades of acting that were a joy, but also described the work of getting films made now as harder than it once was. She said she is less interested in the kinds of projects that are easier to make and wants to be remembered for some good parts, some good films, and being an honest actor.
Her remarks carry extra weight because she is not speaking from the edge of retirement in the abstract. She is speaking after one of her signature TV returns. In explaining why she agreed to American Horror Story Season 13, Lange said it was the idea of revisiting and reprising those four roles that pulled her back in. She called the experience of the original run new, crazy and wild, and said working with what amounted to a repertory company was a wonderful way to work.
But even that renewed connection to the franchise does not erase the uncertainty around what comes next. Lange said there are a couple projects that have been in the works forever and may or may not happen, which leaves her future in a familiar industry limbo: not quite finished, not quite settled, and with no clear promise that anything beyond the next possibility will actually get made. If this is the end, she is making clear she would rather it be defined by the work that lasted than by the jobs that never did.
