"Yellowjackets" star Juliette Lewis
You ready? Actually, before we go into the black recesses of my soul, I just mean a minute. Of course. Thanks. She's a star with many talents and a growing list of callings. Luke Burbank talks with the always surprising Juliette Lewis. So you're at this phase of your career, like you're still finding out things and interested in these characters. Look, as a leaf falls, what was that? The only predictable thing about interviewing Juliette Lewis.
This is a Dodge Challenger. Man, I wish I could spout out all the facts about it. Is that there's no predicting where things might go. What is the story on this car? It comes from the midlife thing of enjoying one's, what's it, the fruits of their labor. This is your midlife crisis car? Don't call it a crisis. So I'm not going to dump all my issues like driving through the rain, coming from the mountains and in between projects. No, I'm actually honored that you're picking me to do a profile on.
That's cool. Cool and unpredictable. Two words that could accurately describe both Lewis and her Hollywood career over the years, where she's played characters who are menaced. I need to follow me here. You know me pretty well, don't you, darling? Yeah. You're going to get to know me a lot better, too. Stop! Characters who are doing the menacing.
Aimee, maine, maimee, moe. Catcher, redneck, bi, sto. And just about everyone in between. It's really interesting that to this day, the handful of movies I did when I first started still resonate and are still being seen by new generations. Lewis grew up in LA watching her father, Jeffrey Lewis, act in countless movies and TV shows. So I wanted to know my meditation routine, you know. Often opposite Clint Eastwood.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently because I'm in a cowboy-ish movie for lack of a better word. It's a weird Western, but I feel like my dad because I'm like in the gear and the boots and I got to ride horses. And my first sets are those kinds of sets. That was my first time on this playground. But Lewis says the acting bug didn't actually bite her until her teenage years. When with no formal training, she started going out on auditions. I did sitcoms, which they like everything straight and really high energy.
Where I almost got fired from a sitcom early on. For what? For behaving naturally. You were basically being too good at acting, essentially? I mean, Marty said so later, but they did not like my style. Marty is, of course, Martin Scorsese, who cast a teenage Juliet Lewis in the movie Cape Fear and changed the trajectory of her life. You're not the drama teacher, are you? Maybe I'm the big bad wolf. The performance earned an 18-year-old Lewis an Oscar nomination and launched a run of memorable 90s films. Oh, look, to Frank Mannus! You know how they made? Including What's Eating Gilbert Grape opposite Johnny Depp.
And then when they're done, she'll eat them. Strange Days and Oliver Stone's hyper-violent satire, Natural Born Killers with Woody Harrelson. Hey, fix me on my nails! I think I scared a lot of people who make business decisions. They can't keep making money from me. People didn't walk around thinking Woody was crazy, but they did of me. Isn't that funny? The tabloids branded Lewis a wild child and breathlessly covered her high-profile relationships. Yeah, I'm wondering what it's been like for you to live such a public life.
I mean, to be a celebrity, to have people kind of know who you are. Did you know what you were signing up for? No, I'm laughing because what if I just started weeping and fell apart? That would make this a really good special. At 22, Lewis got sober. She says through the Church of Scientology, and then started pursuing a quieter life off-screen. I made a decision early on to reclaim my existence on my own terms. I've taken time off from movie making. I started my band when I was 30.
Shake, shake, shake, any way you want it. Her punk band, Juliet and the Licks, toured extensively, giving her a chance to live out a different childhood fantasy. I had always wanted to be a singer when I was a kid. The things that inspired me were Rocky Horror Picture Show, fame, flash dance, the musical hair. These were everything to me. They had all the things. Drama, you'd weep, the music, dance.
Five years ago, the band announced they were recording new music together once again. But any future projects with the band will have to split time with Lewis' busy acting schedule. I mean, at least on do one, I am starving. Including starring as Natalie in the hit Yellow Jackets. Natalie, time for group. Earing on Showtime, which is part of our parent company Paramount Global. The show is about a high school soccer team from New Jersey that gets stranded in the wilderness.
After they rescued us, I lost my purpose. I love the idea of when you think someone's one thing and they're another. What you reveal and what you conceal and that dance is what's interesting to play. And as we neared the end of the interview. Okay, I start crying. Something else I wouldn't have predicted. I'm not trying to have tears this interview.
The moment, the one moment Juliette Lewis grew visibly emotional. In a conversation spanning life, love, family, addiction and acting. It was the mention of one of her very first movie roles in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Isn't it viewed Audrey? She'll see it later, honey. Her eyes are frozen. I'm curious if you had a sense what a like cultural touchstone this would be. I mean, it's obviously required viewing around Christmas.
It is so moving to me that to do something that when I was 15, no, I had no idea that every year families talk to me. People who have lost their parents who tell me this is a tradition that my little 15 year old sarcastic self is in their lives every year. That's a really remarkable and a blessing and just getting lucky. If luck is the residue of design, then Juliette Lewis's career appears to be the result of taking chances, staying true to yourself and never ever being predictable. Yeah, it's weird. Middle age is weird because what sustains you in your 20s is not necessarily what sustains you in midlife. However, I don't ever want to lose it.
Lose a certain kind of fire, seizing the day, you know, all that good stuff. But no, I'm not a mania. Like, meaning if we weren't doing this, I would just be at home. Yeah, I would just look at the mountains and listen to the birds and throw a ball with my dogs, you know, stuff like that.
CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, yellowjackets, juliette lewis, cape fear, juliette and the licks, hollywood