EXCLUSIVE Lily Rabe Opens Up About her Mother & How She Helped Inspire her Performance in The Tender Bar

A prominent character in George Clooney’s The Tender Bar, Lily Rabe’s Dorothy is not only a strong standalone character, but she is a character who has a major influence on her son, and the film’s lead, J.R. (Tye Sheridan).

We got the chance to hear from Rabe about her role in the film, working with her incredible cast, her mother’s role in her performance and so much more. Check out what she had to say below

Can you describe what it was like working with this cast?

“I think it’s something that was so remarkable about this group of people. Sometimes you walk onto a set and you’ll be with other actors or a director or someone in the group or multiple people where you feel there’s a kind of defensive posturing, that people have come in and they’re sort of there to give their performance that they’ve made these choices about and you can be there with them. But this was the opposite experience in every single way. It was like every person, every actor, George [Clooney], everyone, Grant [Heslove], sort of arrived to the set with these wide open hearts and this incredible curiosity and this incredible trust. There was no second guessing, there was just an openness that was really palpable and remarkable to experience across the board. And I think in the telling of a story like this, which is so heart forward, it was such a generous experience.”

What was is like working with George Clooney?

“George is such a generous director to his actors. I think he’s also very generous director to his audience. He doesn’t try to control what their experience is going to be, and he’s never trying to control you as an actor. And so, gosh, my hope is to always be able to come in from that place to a set, but it’s a lot easier when you’re just surrounded by that kind of energy and genuine collaboration. I think also just a sense of we all felt very privileged to be telling such a quiet story and such a delicate story.”

What would you say were your biggest sources of inspiration in coming up with your characterization of Dorothy, besides obviously the script by William Monahan?

“The script and the memoir. The memoir, like he said, was just sort of a mine of riches about… It’s dedicated to his mother and there were so many beautiful things to sort of fill my suitcase with before showing up to start shooting. I had a very wonderful mother. And something that she had, which she’s very different from Dorothy, but my mother was someone who really from the beginning of my life… There is these periods of time that we have where we sort of feel like we are in waiting for the good things to start happening, to figure out who we are, to figure out what we love, to figure out what we’re going to do next. Between breakups, or between jobs, or at the age that J.R. is in the film, trying to figure out what that is. My mother was so brilliant at pointing me in the direction of realizing that there’s so much life to be had in those moments in between. There’s so much opportunity for joy in the down moments and those moments of stillness and that feeling of waiting which you feel so much as a young person. And then throughout your life. So that was such a remarkable quality in my mother that I hope I was able to carry through in the playing of this part.”

The Tender Bar will be released to Prime Video on January 7.

Photo credit: CLAIRE FOLGER © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity