In an industry where actresses face fewer options as they get older, Patricia Clarkson has defied the odds. Years after making her debut in Brian de Palma's 1987 crime pic The Untouchables and landing a breakthrough role in 1998's High Art, she's hit her stride and become one of Hollywood's most popular character actresses. In the decade of the '00s alone, the plaudits and awards have come left and right: an Oscar nomination for Pieces of April, two Emmy wins for HBO's "Six Feet Under,"and critics' awards for Far From Heaven, The Station Agent, Good Night, and Good Luck. (In 2009, the Year of the Cougar, Clarkson was also handpicked to star in Saturday Night Live's "Motherlover," an honor of another kind.)

So when Cinematical met Clarkson during last month's Savannah Film Festival, we jumped at the chance to talk with the actress about her career – past, present, and future. She was dressed to the nines and in town to accept an award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema for her turn as an eccentric, conservative Southern belle-turned-Manhattan artist in Woody Allen's Whatever Works. Minutes before taking the stage to accept her award, Clarkson sat down to answer Cinematical's Five Questions.


Cinematical: Your character in Woody Allen's Whatever Works is a Southern gal who comes to New York City but stays and reinvents herself, falling in love with the city. You were a Louisiana gal who came to New York to study drama and stayed, apparently also a New Yorker at heart. Was Marietta's experience familiar to you?

Patricia Clarkson: It was very similar – I mean, I was not a fundamentalist Christian, but I had a very similar path. I was a nice Southern girl hitting the big city for the first time with my big hair; I still have my big hair. My big hair and my non-black clothing. And that's how I began. I went off to Fordham University; I had never lived in New York. I had been on the East Coast once when my father was stationed in Newburgh, New York but that was it. I've lived there now for a long, long time, pretty much since I was 19. So almost 30 years. I've spent a little time in L.A. here and there but I've basically lived in New York. I just had this feeling. I called my mother one day when I was at LSU and said, I have to go to New York. I'm not coming back. And she said, ok – as long as you go to school in New York, finish up your bachelor's degree.


Cinematical: Do you consider yourself a "character actress," and what does that term mean to you?

Patricia Clarkson: I think I certainly do character work, but I think all work is character work. But I do play leading ladies, so I'm in the perfect position to kind of do anything I want. I still look relatively good – and I still have my own real face – and I think often directors seek me out because of that, because I still look like myself and yet I am the age I am, and I've never tried to hide it or be anything other than what I am. But it's interesting how I've become more of a glamorous actress the older I've gotten. I take it where I can get it, so I'm lucky.


Cinematical: Veteran actresses often talk about how it gets harder as the years pass to get quality roles. Do you share that sentiment?

Patricia Clarkson: I have been offered great things; I've been offered remarkable things and I'm forever grateful to the people who have given me these beautiful parts. Sometimes they've been small parts, sometimes they've been large parts, but they've always been great parts. That's the common denominator, and I'm lucky, lucky. I've been fortunate enough to have the smarts to say yes and to be available, and I've often worked for not a lot of money, not a lot of amenities...and sometimes we have a lot of amenities, shooting these beautiful parts! So it just depends.


Cinematical: You and Susan Sarandon starred in a SNL Digital Short entitled "Motherlover" with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg. How did that come about?

Patricia Clarkson: [Laughs] That was simple. I just got a call. I guess Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake had me and Susan Sarandon in mind as their mothers. I was a little shocked at first; I didn't really understand. I was like, what are we doing in the video? Remember, I'm a nice Southern girl. Then when I found out what it was, I was like, Oh my gosh. They [Timberlake, Samberg, and Lonely Island cohorts Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone] were lovely, lovely. We shot it in one day – I just showed up in the morning, we shot all these videos, we shot that night, and boom! The next night it was on "Saturday Night Live!" It was wild. It's crazy how they do this, they work so long and such long hours, and they're brilliantly talented. They're all just geniuses, the Lonely Island guys.


Cinematical: You've got a big Martin Scorsese film coming up early next year, Shutter Island. Since it's a mystery, what can you actually tell us about your involvement in the film?

Patricia Clarkson: Well I have a small part in Shutter Island, but it's kind of a key scene. I can't give too much away. I am a woman on the lam, and I'm in a cave. It's just me and Leo [DiCaprio] in that cave. And that's all I'm going to say.