Welcome back to the deep dive. This is where
we take your source material, we really plunge
into the details, and hopefully give you the
most, you know, comprehensive and maybe even
surprising overview possible. Yeah, and today
we're looking at an artist, Martha Plimpton,
whose most famous role, maybe the one everyone
knows first, it sort of acts like this historical
marker. Right, like it freezes her in time for
some people. Exactly, and it kind of obscures
this, well, this huge and really rigorous body
of work she's built up over decades. Okay, so
we're talking about Martha Plimpton. For a lot
of people, she's Steph Steinbrenner, right? Really
pragmatic, maybe a bit exasperated, goony from
back in 85. That's the one. But that role, I
mean, it definitely established that sort of
rebellious teen thing in everyone's mind, globally
even. Yeah. But it's really just the first footnote,
you could say. Her whole career after that is
marked by this absolute dedication to the craft.
Which led to what, three Tony nominations back
to back? Three consecutive Tony nominations,
an Emmy win, and this whole other identity as
a, well, a pretty powerful political. activist.
OK, so that's a massive trajectory to unpack.
We've got this comprehensive biographical deep
dive, basically tracing her evolution across,
what, four decades and different mediums, too.
That's right. So our mission, really. for you
listening is to kind of connect those dots. How
do you get from that reluctant 80s adventurer?
Steph. Steph, yeah. To this really celebrated
New York theater titan and then an award winning
TV star and now an independent film actor known
for these really deep dramatic roles. Or basically
exploring a career that's defined by her just
refusing to be stuck. refusing to be typecast
by how the industry first saw her. Absolutely.
And I think to really get the scope of that career,
you first have to understand just how deep her
artistic roots go. She was born in New York City,
November 16, 1970. And her family tree, it's
essentially a masterclass in American stage history.
It really is. I mean, the DNA is practically
tailor -made for the stage, isn't it? Yeah. She's
not just a Carradine. Right. Her parents, Keith
Carradine and Shelley Plumpton, were both actors.
And they met performing in the original Broadway
run of Hair. Which is such a telling detail,
right? Care. That massive counterculture moment.
Exactly. Her foundation is like right there in
the 60s counterculture revolution and specifically
the stage. Precisely. And that legacy, it goes
even further back. Her paternal grandfather was
John Carradine. The legendary character actor.
Prolific doesn't even cover it. No kidding. So
this background, it kind of explains why maybe
she never saw acting as just, you know, a hobby.
It was more like this profound, almost inherited
thing, a vocation. And it's not just the Carradine
side either. That Plimpton name connects her
to another whole strain of American cultural
history. That's right. The sources confirm she's
an eighth cousin twice removed of George Plimpton.
The writer and editor. Wow. Yeah, they share
a common ancestor, Captain John Plimpton, way
back in the 1600s. That's amazing. And just as
a fun little aside, she's also related to Bill
Plimpton, the cartoonist, even though the spelling's
a bit different. Ah, okay. So this theatrical
destiny was kind of laid out for her. And she
embraced it like right away. She went to the
professional children's school in Manhattan,
you know, the place where lots of young working
actors train. And her very first stage appearances
were, well, technically they were during her
mom's curtain calls for plays like The Leaf People
and The Ass and The Heart. She wasn't just sort
of around the stage. She was like part of its
fabric from the start. But before she became
a screen regular, she actually started out modeling,
didn't she? Early 80s. Yeah, that's right. She
did some high profile stuff like an early Calvin
Klein campaign. Oh, I remember those ads. Yeah.
And that period, it sort of established her initial
public image. The sources describe it as a sophisticated
but tomboyish little girl. That mix, that kind
of intellectual vibe, but also rugged independence.
You can see how casting directors would jump
on that. Totally. Her actual feature film debut
was. Tiny. A role in Roll Over, that political
thriller in 81. But her first really notable
screen role was probably Johnsy, the daughter
in The River Rat in 1984. Critics back then even
noted her Hoyden -ish quality. So that persona
was there early. And then, then came the one,
the game changer. The role that just cemented
her as this 80s icon, Steph Steinbrenner in The
Goonies. Yeah. 1985. Yep. Richard Donner's film.
She was the cynical one, the smart one, maybe
a little condescending. The grounding wire. For
all that chaos. Exactly. And that role, boom,
it solidified the rebellious tomboy typecasting
in Hollywood's eyes instantly. And the role she
took right after that seemed to lean into it,
didn't they? Oh, heavily reinforced it. In 86,
she played the Reverend Spellgood's daughter
in Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast. With Harrison
Ford, yeah. Right. Another cynical kind of intellectual
teen. Then she followed that up with Shy People
in 87, which was critically praised, but maybe
didn't make a huge splash commercially. But 1986
wasn't just about cementing that film. It was
also when her most high -profile relationship
started, right? That's right, River Phoenix.
She met him in 85, but they started dating seriously
in February 86 while they were making The Mosquito
Coast together. They really became the young
Hollywood power couple for a while there, both
seen as these really intense, serious actors
drawn to complex stuff. Yeah, they were. And
their professional work together peaked with
Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty in 1988. Oscar
nominated film. They played young activists.
And she got her own recognition for it, too.
A Young Artist Award nomination. But that partnership,
that intensity, it didn't last. No, it ended
in June 1989. And the source material is pretty
clear. The breakup was directly linked to Phoenix's
growing substance abuse issues. Yeah. Plimpton
actually gave this really... Quite poignant and
mature reflection on it later, she said she realized
that, you know, screaming, fighting and begging
wasn't going to change him. Wow. He had to change
himself and he didn't want to yet. That's a direct
quote. That's incredibly insightful for someone
so young dealing with that. It really is. And
despite how painful that breakup must have been,
they stayed close friends right up until his
death in 93. which really says something about
the depth of their connection. So that personal
chapter, it kind of closes out her definitive
80s teen period. Yeah, it really marks an end
point there. So the end of the 80s, she's famous.
She's got this rebellious tomboy label. How did
she start trying to shed that to move into being
seen as a serious adult dramatic actress? Well,
she started demonstrating versatility and also
staying visible. One of her biggest successes
right after that breakup was Parenthood, Ron
Howard's film. from 89. Huge movie. Commercially
massive. Absolutely. She played Julie Buckman
Higgins, Diane Weiss' character's daughter. Independent
teenager, yeah, but nuanced, grounded. It moved
her away from just being the tough kid. And people
saw her in that different light because the film
was such a hit. Yeah. Over $126 million, right?
Exactly. It proved she could handle major studio
comedy drama as an adult, or at least, you know,
a young adult. But if Parenthood was about commercial
success, her next move felt more like... Like
a statement of artistic intent. You're talking
about the German film, Zweifel. Yeah, released
here as Silence Like Glass in 1990. The commitment
she made for that role. Shaving her head completely
to play a young cancer patient. That's a huge
physical transformation. It really was. And it
sent this unmistakable signal to the industry,
didn't it? I'm not precious about my image. I'll
do what the role requires. Yeah, I'm here for
the serious transformative stuff, no matter how
big or small the film. Exactly. That one choice,
shaving her head for a relatively unknown foreign
film, it just screams seriousness about the craft.
Definitely. So throughout the 90s, she's doing
this balancing act, it seems, studio films, but
also these more demanding indie roles. That's
right. She was in Stanley and Iris with De Niro
and Jane Fonda in 1990, but then she took the
lead role in an independent... film called Samantha
in 91. Right. And later she was Allison and Josh
in S .A .M. in 93. The runaway character. Yeah.
And it's really in those indie roles where you
see her like flourishing and choosing stuff that
was maybe a bit more challenging, socially speaking.
Like I shot Andy Warhol in 96. Exactly. Playing
a close friend of Valerie Solanas, the radical
feminist. That's not exactly a mainstream commercial
choice. No, definitely a character driven choice.
Aligning herself with complex, maybe even controversial
stories. And even when the films themselves weren't
maybe huge hits, she was getting noticed. Like,
in 200 Cigarettes in 99. Right, the ensemble
film. Critics apparently singled her out. Yeah,
her performance as Monica described as a bundle
of neuroses. They said she got genuine laughs,
even though the film itself got kind of pan.
So she's proving she can do deep character work,
comedy, drama, way beyond those early teen roles.
And while she's balancing all this film work,
she's also dipping her toes into television.
Though maybe the first attempts didn't quite
take off into long -running shows. How was that?
There was a Showtime thing. Yeah, The Defenders.
Payback in 1997, a TV movie. She played M .J.
Preston, granddaughter of the original E .G.
Marshall character, Lawrence Preston. Okay, so
the idea was probably to spin that off, right?
Leverage her status for a new series. That seems
to have been the plan. They made two sequels
in 98, Choice of Evil and Taking the First. Right.
But then tragically, E .G. Marshall passed away
that same year in 1998 and the whole project
just stopped. Wow. So that was a potentially
huge early TV lead for her that just got cut
short by circumstance. Yeah, a real what if.
But her dramatic chops were still getting noticed
on TV. She did a four episode arc on ER in 99,
Meg Corwin. ER was massive then. So that was
good visibility? Huge visibility. And then came
the role that really made the television academy
sit up and take notice, finally recognize her
talent in that medium. Which one was that? Her
guest spot on Law & Order, Special Victims Unit,
SVU, in 2002. Ah, okay. Those guest spots can
be powerful. Who did she play? Clay Renato, a
drug addict dealing with a really complex legal
mess. And the performance was just apparently
so raw, so powerful. Powerful enough to get nominated?
Yes. It earned her her first primetime Emmy Award
nomination. Outstanding guest actress in a drama
series. So even in just one episode, she made
that kind of impact. Exactly. It shows the power
of just. one really well -realized performance.
She took what could have been a cliche, right?
The drug addict role and just filled it with
so much humanity, so much depth that it immediately
stood out. It showed that all that commitment
she'd been honing in indie films and as we'll
see on stage, it could translate into major critical
acclaim on TV too. Okay, so that Emmy nomination,
it feels like a bit of a bridge maybe. Because
around the early 2000s, she makes this really
conscious shift, doesn't she, towards theater?
A huge shift. A defining choice, really, to focus
almost entirely on the theatrical world, which
you could argue is where her artistic heart really
was all along. And she went deep into it, particularly
in Chicago. Yeah, she got heavily involved with
the Steppenwolf Theater Company there. Really
influential company. Huge reputation. Absolutely.
She did acclaimed productions there, like Hedda
Gabler in 2001, and she even directed a show,
Absolution, that same year. Wow, directing too.
Yeah. She stayed part of their ensemble for nearly
two decades, only leaving in 2019. That dedication
to Steppenwolf really grounded her during that
period. And that focus on stage work paid off
back in New York too, right? Immediately. In
2001, she won an Obie Award. That's a big deal
for off -Broadway work, for her performance in
Hobson's Choice. Okay. And then Broadway itself.
2004. Her official Broadway debut in a play called
16 Wounded at the Walter Kerr Theater. And this
is where we get to that. That really staggering
period for her. The thing that just proves beyond
any doubt she's a theater heavyweight. The three
-peat. Three consecutive Tony Award nominations.
Just pause on that for a second. It's incredible.
Three years in a row nominated for a Tony. And
for wildly different kinds of performances too.
That kind of versatility back to back to back.
It's almost unprecedented. Okay, let's break
down that run because it really does show her
command. It started in 2007. Yep, 2007. First
nomination, best featured actress in a play for
The Coast of Utopia. Tom Stoppard's trilogy.
That was a massive event in itself. Huge undertaking
for everyone involved. Enormous. Required incredible
intellectual stamina, physical endurance from
the cast. And she didn't just get nominated.
She won other awards for it. She won the Drama
Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award
for that performance. She was basically the toast
of the theater season that year. Wow. Okay, so
that's year one. Then what happened in 2008?
Right back on the list. Nominated again. Best
featured actress in a play. This time for Carol
Churchill's Top Girls. Another major, highly
respected playwright. Feminist classic. Exactly.
At the Biltmore Theater. So two years. Two major
drama nominations. Okay, and then the third year.
This is the one that really shows the range.
This is the curveball. 2009. Third consecutive
Tony nomination, but best featured actress in
a musical. Musical. Which one? Gladys Bumps in
The Revival of Pal Joey. At the roundabout. So
she goes from intense Stoppard, intense Carol
Churchill, to singing and dancing as Gladys Bumps
in a classic musical in three years. It's extraordinary
range, isn't it? And critics saw it too. Ben
Brantley at the New York Times called her performance
ever daring. He praised her, been there, frowsy
sensuality, and even confirmed she had a more
than passable voice for it. So that streak just
completely solidifies her dedication and her
success in a world totally separate from that
early film thing. Absolutely. Theater titan status
confirmed. And during this whole intense theater
period, she wasn't just doing Broadway shows,
right? She had other creative outlets. Yeah,
her energy seemed boundless. She co -founded
a production company called Everything is Horrible.
Okay, what did they do? Produced short. Kind
of provocative films for the Internet. It shows
that need for maybe continuous creative output
and having some control over it, too. And she's
still connected to her musical roots, her counterculture
roots, too. Definitely. In 2010, she did this
really well -received one -woman show, Martha
Plimpton Sings, part of the Lincoln Center's
American Songbook series. What was it about?
It explored her growing up in 1970s New York
City. have her unique brand of cultural commentary,
and she even performed John Lennon's really controversial
song, Woman is the Nigger of the World. Wow,
that's a choice. Bold. Very bold. And she's also
a known Bruce Springsteen fan, which kind of
fits, right? That love of American rock poetry,
storytelling. Did she perform his stuff too?
Yeah, she did a duet of Hungry Heart with Lucy
Wainwright Roche back in 2008 and later sang
Thunder Road on public radio on Studio 360 in
2010. That thread of music and Sting's performance,
it's just constant through this whole era. And
it's worth noting, too, how invested she became
in the actual institutions of New York theater
and culture during this time. Yeah, the source
has mentioned she's on the board of directors
of The Players. That historic club. Founded by
Edwin Booth way back when. That's the one. Founded
in 1888. It's like her whole life became interwoven
with the deep history of the American stage.
So all this visibility, this undeniable credibility
she built up over like a decade dominating the
New York stage, that must have set the stage,
so to speak, for her return to TV in a big way.
Absolutely. She wasn't just the former child
star anymore. She was a three -time Tony nominee.
That carries weight. And that prestige translated
pretty directly into TV success, didn't it, with
A Good Wife? Immediately. From 2009 to 2013,
she got that great recurring role, Patty Nyholm,
the opposing attorney who was just so... Sharp,
aggressive, often infuriating. Oh, she was brilliant
in that. You'd love to hate her. She appeared
across four seasons, right? Built up this real
rivalry with Julianna Margulies' character. Yeah,
and that performance as Patty Nyholm, it was
just a master class in taking that stage intensity
and translating it perfectly for the screen.
Nyholm had that sharp legal mind, but also this
weirdly deceptive, almost gentle way about her.
Until she struck. Exactly, masking this ruthless
drive and her ability to pull off that complexity,
which she had obviously honed on stage for. years,
it finally got her the ultimate TV recognition
for that kind of role. The Emmy. The Primetime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a
Drama Series in 2012. Totally deserved. She could
just steal every scene she was in, even with
limited screen time. So winning an Emmy right
after that Tony nomination streak, she must have
been a really hot commodity for a network lead
role then. Prime target. And sure enough, November
2009, she signs on for the main role of Virginia
Chance in the Fox sitcom Raising Hope. Right.
That premiered in 2010, ran for four seasons,
88 episodes. That was a big hit for Fox. And
it was a huge shift for her, wasn't it? Going
from intense courtroom drama and, you know, highbrow
theater straight into this working class single
camera sitcom. Yeah. How was that received? Critically.
overwhelmingly positive right from the start.
The New York Times didn't just praise the show.
They specifically said Plimpton was the main
reason it was so promising. Wow. High praise.
Yeah, they saw that her star power, but also
her grounding sincerity, just lifted the whole
comedy ensemble. And her performance as Virginia,
tough, pragmatic, but also really loving it,
brought her this huge mainstream recognition.
Again, probably unlike anything since The Goonies.
Definitely. It proved her versatility wasn't
just theoretical. It was commercially viable
across pretty much every genre. And awards followed
for that, too. Yep. Nominated for the Primetime
Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy
Series in 2011. And she won the Satellite Award
for Best Actress in a TV Musical or Comedy that
same year. But even with all this major TV success
happening, she didn't abandon the stage. Not
at all. Her loyalty there seemed unshaken. In
2014, just as Raising Hope was ending, when she
was arguably at her peak of TV fame, she went
right back to Broadway. To do what? Start in
the revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance,
a really demanding play. Wow. Who was she on
stage with? Giants. Glenn Close and John Lithgow.
She played Julia. So even at the height of TV
fame, she's choosing to go back and share the
stage with Close and Lithgow in an Albee play.
That says everything, doesn't it? It really does.
The stage wasn't a stepping stone to Hollywood
for her. It was like her home base. She kept
going back to keep those dramatic muscles strong.
Did she do another sitcom after Raising Hope?
She did. She starred as Eileen O 'Neal in The
Real O 'Neals on ABC from 2016 to 2017, so she
still had that mainstream appeal. And then she
branched out even further. Voice work. Yeah,
broadened the resume again. She voiced Yelena
in Frozen 2 in 2019, Disney's massive hit. Okay.
And just a couple of fun footnotes from that
decade. Didn't she sing at a World Series game?
Ha, yeah. During her Raising Hope success, she
sang God Bless America during the seventh inning
stretch, game three of the 2010 World Series
in Texas. Nice. And still doing literary stuff,
too. Audiobooks? Yep. Narrated Chuck Palahniuk's
novel diary, which is unsettling, fits her taste
for darker stuff, maybe. It was just a decade
of incredible output across every possible medium
for her. So moving into this current decade,
the 2020s, it feels like there's another shift
maybe towards really intense independent drama.
I think that's fair to say. A definite shift
toward, yeah, intense indie fare. Often focusing
on these deep character studies rather than big
commercial projects. And the prime example of
that has to be Mass. The 2021 film. Oh, absolutely.
Mass, which is it's a tough watch. It's basically
just two sets of parents meeting in a room years
after a horrific school shooting tragedy that
involved their sons. Almost entirely dialogue,
relying on just raw emotion and reaction. Exactly.
And her performance is Gail Perry, one of the
mothers. It was just universally praised for
its gravity, its sincerity. She got a bunch of
critics nominations for it. Like the Dorian Award
San Diego film critic. Yeah, but what's really
crucial about Mass is how the recognition focused
on the collective effort. The Robert Altman Award
at the Independent Spirits. Exactly, which she
shared with the director, the writer, and the
rest of the ensemble cast. That award specifically
highlights collective storytelling. It perfectly
mirrors her own, you know, deeply theatrical
belief that the ensemble is everything. That
makes sense. And she's adapted to the streaming
era pretty well, too, taking roles in different
kinds of TV projects. Yeah, she keeps working
steadily. She played a conservative mom in...
that HBO dramedy generation, though it only lasted
one season. Right. And she had a lead role in
Sprung in 2022. Yep. The comedy series Sprung.
Played Barb. And most recently, she was in that
big HBO miniseries, The Regime, wasn't she? That's
right. 2024. Star -studded cast. Shows she's
still very much in the mix for that high -end
prestige drama. And she's got more coming up.
Miniseries, films. Yeah. Several projects listed.
Miniseries called Prime, Target, and Task. A
completed film called Sovereign. And the sources
also mention her primary residence is now London.
London. Interesting. Maybe echoing that early.
German film experience that international focus.
Could be. A new chapter, perhaps. Okay, so parallel
to this whole incredible artistic career, we
absolutely have to talk about the other defining
aspect of her public life, her political activism.
Yeah, you really can't understand the full picture
without it. It's been decades long and deeply
committed. She's primarily known as an abortion
rights campaigner. Right. And very outspoken
about. Extremely outspoken. And it's not new.
Like you said, she's been politically active
on this since she was a teenager. She lobbies
Congress for Planned Parenthood. She's on the
board of A is For. What's A is For? It's an organization
that works to advance women's rights in the media,
challenge stigma. And her advocacy is notable
for being really personal. Really direct. Incredibly
frank. Yeah. Directly challenging the shame and
stigma around reproductive health care. In 2014,
she wrote this major article basically in response
to two Supreme Court decisions that year. Which
ones were those? Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. Right.
The contraception coverage case for corporations.
And McCullen v. Coakley, which was about buffer
zones around abortion clinics. OK. So in response
to those, what she saw as chipping away at rights.
Exactly. She decided to share something incredibly
personal. The fact that she herself has had multiple
abortions. Wow. That's a very public declaration.
It is. And her stated reason was very clear.
She wanted to, and this is her phrasing, contribute
to the dismantling of an oppressive, artificial
and unfair shaming of women who seek abortion.
Try to normalize it. Remove the stigma. Yeah.
Encouraging women to be. unashamed and come out
of the abortion closet as she put it presenting
it as a common sometimes necessary choice and
and that kind of very public personal stance
it's generated attention obviously and some controversy
too yes in 2017 she reiterated her experiences
and maybe controversially for some, said that
one procedure she had at Planned Parenthood in
Seattle was her best one. Her point seemed to
be emphasizing the importance of having accessible,
professional, non -judgmental care. Right. And
her activism isn't just limited to reproductive
rights. No, she's also a committed advocate for
LGBT rights. She made a statement back in 2016
linking transgender rights and abortion rights
as part of the same fight for bodily autonomy
and civil rights. So that activism, it feels
like a direct extension of that same rebellion.
this maybe intellectually rigorous spirit we
saw right from the beginning. I think that's
exactly right. It runs parallel and is just as
much a part of who she is publicly. Okay, so
let's try to wrap this up. What's the big takeaway
from this deep dive into Martha Plumpton's, well,
incredibly varied career? We've gone from the
iconic, but maybe limiting role in The Goonies.
That rebellious youth image. To this performer.
whose whole professional life seems fueled by
this constant demanding commitment to her craft.
Yeah, and you see that dedication most clearly,
I think, in that unprecedented stage career.
Those three consecutive Tony nominations at cross
-plays and musicals, that just cemented her as
a top -tier, legitimate actor, no question. And
that stage prestige, it really enabled her to
make that masterful transition back into high
-level TV, getting the Emmy for The Good Wife,
which was so intense. Right, and then achieving
huge mainstream success. critical acclaim as
the lead in a broad comedy like Raising Hope.
The range is just phenomenal. What really stands
out, I think, is how she consistently used her
platform, her fame, not to coast, not to take
the easy role. No, always seeking complexity.
Yeah. Whether that meant, you know, physically
transforming by shaving her head for that indie
film or committing to these really complex stage
ensembles or even using her public profile for
deeply personal, sometimes challenging political
advocacy. She always seems to choose the path
that requires more thought, more grit, never
the easy route. Yeah. And like we mentioned,
she's now apparently based in London, still choosing
these intense, limited run dramatic roles, including
that upcoming East of Eden miniseries, which
sounds. fascinating okay so that brings us to
the final maybe provocative thought for you the
listener given that her career has been this
incredible balancing act right between huge screen
roles and these really deep theatrical commitments
how will this current focus on intense character
-driven limited series often filmed overseas
How will that shape her ultimate legacy? That's
the question, isn't it? Will she circle back
to Broadway eventually, maybe shoot for that
legendary fourth Tony nomination? Or is her future
now really about crafting these very specific,
maybe darker, dramatic roles for the global streaming
audience? Where does she lean next? What area
of this already multifaceted career will define
her next chapter? Something to definitely keep
an eye on. Absolutely. A trajectory we leave
with you to ponder.