>> oh, that its the first time i stopped hugging first. i like that. >> and a third time in 1994. >> don't you sometimes just bust to share the joke. >> what joke? >> well here is your friends thinking we are unmarried and into all sorts of wickedness when all along we are married and up to nothing at all. >> tonight i will talk with debra winger about why she walked away from movie stardom and what she was walking toward, what she learned dating then governor bob kerrey, the life she has built with her fellow actor and picking up her movie career in recent years. the strange way jonathan demi wanted to direct her in rachel getting married and landmark documentary she worked on that changed the national debate on fracking. debra winger tonight "up late." >> you did a film in which if i am not mistaken, an epiphany, you did a film and said, i don't want to dupe tho this any more. >> arliss told me this story, one day his father had come home and taken apart a truck engine and left it in pieces. on the garage floor. said to his son, you know put the together. and that's how, and the guy is like the greatest mechanic today. because if you want to learn really a lot about something you have to figure out how to, it has to be taken apart. that was done for me. because this film was dismantled. so it sort of is like "wizard of oz" if everything goes well on a film, you know, you never know, you never know where the money comes from, you never know really, really never know all of the tentacles. and you don't know all the back stories you. don't know. you don't. you hardly know who painted the set unless you make a point to meet him or her. so i was by nature the person who wanted to know that all the time. i wanted to meet. show up when i wasn't working. i could meet the guy who was painting the set. because -- i'm interested in this -- in this unbelievable collaboration of artists >> you realize how collaborative it is the more you do it. >> it is beautiful. at some point it was. i'm sure now on another level. if i was interested in the technology then i would love to go and meet the people that work the computers that do cgi. it is not my particular area of interest. but i respect it. and so, i just was always interested in that. and when -- it fell apart, when it fell apart -- one fell apart that i happened to be on. it wasn't quite so beautiful. like there were a lot of faking things. things that were not legal. thing that were hurting people. people that got hurt. >> i had the same experience. for me one of the turning points. i had a producer come up to me. i was a producer on a film. i directed the film. the only film i ever directed. >> what was that? >> we had the rights to do a remake of the devil and daniel webster. >> oh, yeah. >> i got, bill condin right before he won the academy award for gods and monsters. we joke and say we got him affordable, we got him cheap. and wonderful cast of people. the financiers committed bank fraud. had people represent to get a loan from the bannic they hk th money. >> it happens a lot. if they can keep it rolling to show dailies. the dailies will generate fund. >> you get it. so i am there one day. this producer who was still in this business now and has a very prominent job. >> in jail -- >> two of our producer want to jail. >> we are laughing abut th ingi. >> we are never going to work together or in the business again after this. that's what the show is for. >> host a talk show on msnbc. >> the guest, established you come on the show you won't do movies ever again. >> that is okay for me. i'm learning from you. >> no, i want to do movies. i see young filmmakers that i really, really want to work with. so i have a -- i have a new enlivened sense that there is now enough disparity between that business and the one i want to be in, that i think -- >> you want to start over? >> i don't think it is all one thing anymore. i think there is a world i want to play in, if, it's not up to me. >> when demi called you were you happy? >> yeah, i was happy. >> you hadn't worked in so long. when the phone call came, what was different that day when you said yes. >> he said i need you to create a character. >> did you know him? >> yeah, knew each other years ago. we deidn't work together. we were in the business at the same time. at one point we had the same agent. way he came at it. i never worked on dv. i always look to know if -- what something is like, before i decide whether -- it is a good thing or bad thing. >> when you got back on the set of the film, what was it like? >> interesting enough, alec, because of the nature of the character i was playing, i didn't really get on the set. because -- basically, first of all, the way jonathan shot that was fascinating. he had dv cameras. all over the place. he even gave guests of the wedding cameras, roger corben was a guest at the wedding. cameras where he was actually going to use. what they filmed. >> sure. >> so they were able to film the crew. filming the movie. just making me crazy. >> so i just decided, first of all, i am, you know, i am -- i am -- i am game but i didn't really get when it started. did it start before some one said action. i am very simple-minded. and i put on the makeup. did my hair. got in my wardrobe before i got in the car. then when i got out of the car. >> compared to them-up are joan crawford. >> sounds like that. i showed up ready is what i am saying. and i never wasn't her because i didn't know who was shooting me. i thought what if he likes something i said but i am, out of character and he uses it? >> you thought you had how to get out of the car ready. they may be shooting. they were taking your breakfast burrito. >> i was commando. >> i didn't think -- >> i played rosemary's dewitt's mother, ann hathaway's mother. i play the mother now. >> you play the mother. >> i used to be the guy that kissed the girl. now i'm the cop that taps on the went shield to tell you to move on. i don't want you to kiss the girl. >> oh, that's not true. >> a great job. a great job. >> so old-fashioned too, kissing the girl. >> exactly. >> i play the mother, or i could if i wanted to. because nay look to do that to middle-aged women on tv. >> oddly enough, my first job in the business was on the other side of the wall, in the studio where i did the soap opera. i did it for money. my dad died. i needed to support my family. >> it was good money. regular money. you find out how rare it is. >> during the time i did it i begin to fall in love with it and doing it. i mean i wasn't really signed on. i begin to fall in love with it. and i did it. >> was it in your family? >> no, no. my father was a school teacher. and my point is that after a couple years oh, thought this is really hard to do this well. i really begin to enjoy it. i wanted to, you know, commit to it in that way. >> see, i love that. i love that. because -- it is hard to do well. it is also easy -- if you don't do it well. really easy. like what you can concentrate on. totally. do you know what i am saying? >> uh-huh. >> i love that is the neuron that fired off -- you know, that in you. was, oh, this is hard to do well. not everybody would have that -- particular -- synapse. so there you go. that's why you got so many. >> i did it. then i realized that, you know whatever you are looking for, truth, beauty, truth and beauty. and that -- that, two things i will say. i don't want to take up forever with this. the opportunities to embrace that were more elusive. a job, money. the scripts i wanted to do, were elusive. also another condition, mentorship. i had a guy who was my agent. my first agent when i started. my agent for 11 years. >> i bet i know the guy. >> michael bloom. a little agency here in new york. michael was my agent. he was a real mentor. some body who would say to me. we would run our agency like a small vietnamese coffee shop. but they did care lining up what you were interested in in life, you know where you were at in your life with, what you wanted to explore in a role. because -- we're living our lives, while we are acting. so, for me, i mean this may sound -- you know, people are now -- either turning the channel or rolling their eyes so loudly that the person next to them cannot hear. if i am doing this thing, with the same time that i am living, breathe might heart is beating, and i am taking in air, so -- i am not really making that happen. that's happening to me. i should be trying to sync them up. so i didn't really want to be doing things that, that -- didn't help me investigate something that i was interested in. >> dead you fiid you find that move sprees you we movies you were making? >> yes, magic that they came. i believed that, it was magical that i got to do what i got to do. and so when people ask me -- excuse me, but the stupid question of what i said no to or what i didn't do? you know what? i was busy doing this. and also, i didn't -- it isn't that i had any -- opinion. about other things. i just am focused on what i am interested in. like now. i am not walking away from anything. >> right. >> i am walking towards the thing that -- >> right. >> that i'm interested in. >> it may not concern you or involve you is the problem. you snow like it may be my children because they're at an age where i really want to be with them. it may be this cause because i can't understand going on without it if something happens to. >> i must address that. >> our water. nothing else will matter to me. >> i fuound that i would -- i would get to the point where he would say to me, his program, was here is -- here are decisions you are going to make. i want you to see how this is a short term decision and here is a long term decision. here its for the short term. here its of what the industry wants you to do. here are the consequences, see, see, see, see. nowadays, my agent i have now. >> everything is timeless. >> completely self-determining now. >> a pz tiositive way of puttin. self determination. >> well, because there is no -- i think in a way time its different. you know, time has been messed with. i mean -- if, because if you do something then -- it doesn't matter when you do it because it will be on the internet, you know, or anybody can google it on youtube, i have all these terms right? because you know i don't do any of these. you know this. that, you know you don't quote somebody anymore you retweet. so the whole -- the thing has changed -- the part that is interesting to me is -- how it's messed with time. there is not the same chronology to a career because it its sort of they can dig up stuff. >> people don't understand who you are as one famous actor, i admire, he had this interesting -- >> if i guess it, will you tell me? >> off camera. you can write it down on a piece of paper. >> no pens here. >> no pens. >> you could write me notes. this very famous man who was going through reversal in his private life. he said the internet represents the death of forgetting. because there are some things that need to be forgotten. you can't move on. he said, we can't reinvent ourselves. >> don't think it's the death of forgetting. it's the birth of forgetting. because we don't have to remember anything. amke care of business. they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listening, planning, working one on one. to help you retire your way... with confidence. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. ameriprise financial. more within reach. since fleeing hollywood debra winger made a second act. as an activist, a vocal opponent of fracking the process to drill for deposits of gas pumping water, sand and unspecified chemicals into the ground to release the gas, fracking can have dangerous side effects. tainted water supplies, sickening cattle and triggering minor earthquakes. debra winger was a consultant on "gas land" which brought attentions to communities fighting fracking across the country. as a fracking opponent, i wanted to hear about her involvement in the fight against fracking and how she became passionate about it. >> i am pretty much down to one sentence about fracking. do you want the sentence now? >> yeah. >> i just feel, at this point, after, you know, six, seven years working on this issue and trying to find out and really because i kid consider it a pub health issue, i am not an environmentalist, per se. i have no other causes. >> you don't? >> i hadn't. i of course support a healthy lifestyle and the mother earth as, you know, pretty important thing to preserve. but i am not a tree hugger per se. so, i guess when this -- issue came up i saw that i remember from my childhood, which i think was your childhood, that the term public health was often used, right? and the term public health went out of parlance. you know, you don't hear it anymore, you hear environmental. so this to me took me back to the word public health. a public health issue. because once our water is tainted there is nothing to do. no way to clean it. so, from this -- >> how did that be dpgin for yo? that engagement? >> i live in the cat skills. a lot of the planning, pipes were being laid. still we still have the issue. the issue is open in new york state. i will say that i have traveled across the united states, you know, helped bring "gas land" into the world, had josh fox -- was -- the sole, you know, engine behind that film. the second one. but he had a lot of help from people that, you know knew it was the biggest cannon to fire. traveling across the country for this many years and understanding that the oil and gas industry are the wealthiest, they basically are. >> runt c the country. >> are america. >> they have had this much time. they have this, they have access off to anybody, any -- any resources, and they have not been able to make it safe. and in as many years. so i was not anti-fracking. i was anti-unsafe fracking which turns out to be an oxymoron, or red redundant. you can't say it there is no safe fracking. >> i think it is criminal. what if i took chemicals, took them to the boss and dumped them in his well. they would have me in the pen so fast my head could spin. look they can come out here and do whatever they want to. they don't even have to report and tell us that they're putting in there. >> i caught the tail end of the '60s. and my brother. followed my brother around. went to berkeley, and you know, shouted, threw things. and so i had that although i wasn't fully like on to my adulthood in the 60s. i caught the tail end of it. i did have enough awakening to say, oh, it is not the way that they told me it was. and the government -- does not have to look like grownups to me. in other word, we had this sort of daddy thing going on. where -- you know if they didn't look. and then i -- i, you know you live through nixon. and you, you go, why do i want somebody that is lying to me. >> i would quote the example. that it was a writer. he wrote a book about jfk's assassination. this year, 50th anniversary of his assassination. and wrote this book in which he said, let's view everything through the same filter, prewatergate. most watergate. there was watergate. that really taught us what was going on what the country was doing. it was going on before that. >> yeah. >> we weren't aware. we weren't able to see it as much. >> i think the war -- you know, for me, watching as a, young girl, when we used to be able to see it on tv, remember when they used to show us the bodies. instead of make us imagine them. that had a profound effect on me that -- that, things were wrong. >> military did the best to make sure that didn't happen again. >> which is a shocking thing if you think about it that we accept it somehow. >> sure. >> also, i guess, i was just at west point oddly last month because we're trying to figure out some kind of program for what will be shakespearean in its tragedy the numbers of returning troops that will come home to an infrastructure that is not ready for them. that does not have programs for them. to employment that doesn't, a job market that will be. and we have nothing, you know, there are small -- in roads being made. but the, it's just not set up for it. and this -- guy that i spoke to at west point, the head of west point. this its so funny. i want to say, generalissimo. a lot of stuff on his plate. >> a lot of salad. >> a lot of salad. i said something about ptsd. >> he said we don't use the term? >> i am about to learn something. he said, because everyone comes back with it. that is the legacy of this war. because the it was about getting your brain rattled. and getting -- >> interesting to say it can't be a condition specific to people. everyone has it. how brilliant. >> you don't really need a diagnosis if you have been there. then i became overwhelmed by this idea that -- that ape lot of the guys are coming back, solomon county, we have a high percentage of returning vets. they grew up in a rural community. so many new organic farmers are trying to keep this land, you know, clean because, if we frack we will lose all of our organic, and a lot of these restaurants in new york city who depend on. >> blue hill stuff. >> what's the farm to table the biggest, wines, cheeses, our yogurt, that come from upstate. so the idea was that, maybe these vets could be trained in organic farming. and eventually they could feed west point. because west point is also in the hudson valley. this was my little idea that i had one night. i think i couldn't sleep. so that's huh i got to west point. awe hauch you ev have you ever wanted to run for office? >> no i run from office. >> that wasn't always the case? you dated people that were in office? >> i couldn't ask any one to vote for me. i barely think any one likes me. >> well that is not true. >> i think it is. and -- it's look do you get this a lot. >> make life easier for you. >> you get this a lot. i know you get this a lot. someone says -- i told so and so i know you. and they said, i like her. >> i get people say to me, you are so much nicer than i thought you would be. >> in a defensive, people half to be, defend the right to like you. >> ha-ha. >> am i right? so we are just in that category of that kind of person. >> opinion ated peop opinionate. >> i know a lot of people with opinions that people like a lot easier. we're any just offensive in some way. >> well, we'll get to that. we're going to got to that. but when you dated someone, a while back, who was a public figure in politics. >> buy, we are really going a while back. >> it is a while back. >> i have been married 21 years. >> what did it make you see about politics? >> that this hand wave is silly. >> right. >> really, what is that? >> were you doing a bit of that? >> is it saving wrist. oh, i have a -- >> can you get carpal tunnel that way? >> different. >> elbow tunnel. >> something up here. what did i find out? i found out that your life is not your own. because he was scheduled every 15 minutes. how can you hatch ofve a conver with a person in 15 minutes that, you know, i mean, in other word. and then you are right into the next one. so, i guess that was the first thing i learned was -- this its set up wrong. he has constituency, ostensibly, you need to get to know and be part of. >> the power comes from that. >> correct. >> those guys are always putting ten pounds in a five pound bag. very, very busy. >> then the fund-raising which is ridiculous amount. >> that's my primary issue was campaign finance reform. liberating them. >> citizens united. as you know is within of my -- oh, god. we really do have way too much. >> how did you get involved? >> i have so much free time. you know, i don't work enough as an actress. >> we will get to that. 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[ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. silence. are you in good hands? ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it. >> if i said yes over the summer to do your radio show which promptly it got canceled because i said yes. or because -- for frz. >> we changed it into this. >> lucky me. >> on radio. >> for a woman my age. >> you can't have the set. >> radio is a much better thing for me. >> why do you feel that way? >> kind of a -- it's also the culture we live in. >> right. >> i don't want to get into this. this is a quagmire. we are not going there. >> why is it a quagmire? what about the women that are your age that are thriving. which you very easily could have been. >> thriving. >> merle. >> yes, great actress. >> so were you. so are you. >> but that -- >> you choose. >> there is not a category of merle. there is merle. no, i think all actresses would agree there is meryl. >> you had a chance to have the category. >> i didn't see it. >> when you stop in '97. a couple years go by, did you go through the thing, that adjustment of like, who am i? and what do i want to do? >> i was always asking who am i? i think what happened was the music, underneath, the background music became. >> sound track. >> yeah, the whatever, the -- the mantras, go in any direction with it. became louder. and so that's what i was listening to. and you have been through, my mother passed. and then my father passed. i was listening, watch might kids grow up. and, i wasn't watching them from afar. it became compelling to me this life. and it wasn't that there wasn't room for acting. it was just i would get a script to read and it was so small. the story scum paired to -- the story that i was getting to live. and i also got so, i got very present oriented because i was working on this fact that i had gotten ahead of myself. as we, i will take aback to i wasn't as well adjusted as i could have been. >> how did that manifest itself? >> oh, you can read all those stories. i was holding on for dear life. friend that i am friend with. got that. i was not frying trying to hurt. i was like a wild animal. >> yeah, yeah. >> and i think jim bridges who was really my mentor quoted -- i would love to know who he quoted, so any way, it's i never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. it was one of the most important things said to me. because i, you know i had this wildness, a ferocity to survive whatever -- whatever i had to in my psyche and physical life. but i didn't know how to drop it. to be civilized and to take others in and -- you know? so there was a point where i would have kept going. and i think you could probably imagine that -- had i -- stayed in -- the business and kept doing roles. >> on that conveyor belt. >> that would be fine. >> i love what you said. and you would read the story, it was so small compared to the story i was living. some one lent me this phrase. would you rather play it on film or live it in real life? someone -- i dated a woman. >> when they're the same, that's the magic. i want to know does that still happen? i am pretty sure it does. >> for a very rarified few. >> they aren't asking me to work with them yet. >> i hold that. i don't care. you only need to do one every once in a while. but i, i know that they're there. i see their films. and i still cry in the thelteat. i love the terrence malleks of the world. i only want to work with people who want to work with me. i don't know when that happened. when i first started i would show up on people's doorsteps and be undeniable. you are hiring me. i did it first time out because of whatever unfortunate series of events i wanted to change. and i read this article in -- in the magazine called urban cow boy. and i thought, wow, i should be doing that. they're making a movie out of it. and they hired sissy spacek. i thought she is perfect. but i really could have brought something -- different to it. >> look what? >> would have been good too. >> i don't know what i felt. i nauknew i felt it. >> i used to read the trades. did all that stuff. >> you were in the game? >> i was going to figure out how i could get a part. >> how do you do that? >> i dent waon't want to be fam. i wanted a part. then i read that it was postponed. and that they were recasting. i didn't know at the time why. and i didn't even have an agent. so, i snuck on the lot. that was the whole thing. paramount lot. >> back when you could. >> i was waiting on the steps. too bad, jim bridges is not alive for a lot of reasons. he told the story better than me. when he came back from lunch with aaron latham, i was sitting there, dressed as the character talking with a texas accent. i got the screen test. i got the screen test. i didn't get the part. once i got the screen test it was all right. so, i'm any just saying -- i don't hatch that, i don't know when, i don't have that because stom where along the line i realized it was better to work with people that really wanted you. >> yeah. yeah. >> because if you sold yourself. and you were always selling yourself it would show in the performance. you are going to have love me written all over. just gross to watch. >> i had a producer say to me -- i will say the story. to do the movie, glen garry/glen ross. with bloom, not a big ticket agent, and, bloom said to the producer, he said, you want alec to play the smaller part. and pacino was cast to play ricky roma, pacino likes to play, you know, red light/green light. and my agent, i will never forget. he said if for any reason al doesn't make the deal and doesn't show up, would you cast al as ricky roma? they said yes. they get a phone call. he is not going to do the movie. can't close the deal. they said alec is cast in the role. wait, this speaks to what he said. they said alec is cast in the lead role of the movie to play ricky roma. i thought this is great. then they called back a week later. they go, alec came back wants to do the movie. what i realized. they said would you mind -- we will rescind your deal. who wants to do the movie where the director is looking down the barrel of the lens wishing some one else would be there. >> the thing i want to talk about getting older, we are all decaying at the same rate. no, it is okay. it is okay. i am saying if we don't tell the story of that. who are we. if we are telling another story on our face. i say, us girls as a pep talk, if we start telling this other story and -- and we can't tell the stories we are going to get less and less, it's not about -- you know, i'm not against anything. i am just saying, i want -- i want us to -- not lose complete touch with the fact of where we are because we stand for something -- you have a little kid now. i want my kids, we are a society, we have boys. we have a society that put older people in homes. we don't want to look older. we don't want to act older. we don't want to talk about being older. a we don't like the in between. >> rotting. >> decaying. but whatever. it's a beautiful thing if you watch sped up like, you know, thing in a -- if you never watched though shows on tv. but nature is beautiful. we don't want it to be beautiful on us. we want it to be beautiful on something we are looking at in a gully. but it is kind of beautiful if we start writing beautiful stories about it whevenlt y. i use vanessa redgrave. i see her eyes. i'm not worrying about, what did she do? what is going on there? how old is she? why does she look? i am just -- oh, i get it. you get to that point, you are telling a [ bleep ] story. you are telling the story. so i brought this picture, but then i forgot it. because it happens to be this, this photographer took this picture of me when i was very young. the head is actual size. so i -- i wanted to bring tight you to start, you know, with my actual size. photograph of myself. i was about 18, 19. and you know i'm a pallet, i'm an open canvas. and it's -- you know, beautiful that my husband has the picturen his office. he likes looking at that picture because now -- i have painted, you know life on here. i don't want that. i didn't want to be that again. i want to. >> i don't want to be who i was either. >> you know what i mean? i did that already. i wanted to be that. i got here. but i am really curious about where i am going. and what it will look like. so if i -- if i, you know i'm not talking about that except on this show. i love having a free checked bag with my united mileageplus explorer card. i've saved $75 in checked bag fees. 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[ male announcer ] always made with real cream. the sound of reddi wip is the sound of joy. don't be shy! try some p-- shh! >> you had a story you wanted to tell about me -- did you want? >> i thought we were going to ease into this. >> let it rip. we'll cut it out of the show if i don't like it. >> no, the story is this. barbara walters didn't make me cry. so you are not going to get sappy on this. so i may get tougher than i need to got to compensate. i will tell you. >> don't scare me. >> you did something for me that you may not know that you did. although i told you you did it. you may not have heard me. i told you when you got off stage. but, i did a broadway play last year. and you -- you came backstage. i knew nothing about broadway. it was my debut, which is hilarious to have that word in your -- in your lexicon for the year of, you know, that you are, the age i am. so that was a beautiful thing. i was having an enormous experience. but i dent knidn't know any of protocol. used to ask the guy at the door, what do people do? and he would go, oh, yeah. those guys. so he basically. >> change your own lightbulb in the dressing room. >> i had no idea. putting on my own makeup. that was fun for me to figure it out. on a broadway stage. and you came backstage. i think my kids were there that night. and you were -- >> the last night. >> you came in as i was getting to that. >> you're messing my story up. it wasn't the last night. that i knew of. it wasn't the last night. you dent come idn't come on clo night. you've came the night before we found out we were closing. so anyway you came, i am like wow this is cool. this is cool. what's going on? why is alec baldwin in my dressing room? gosh, i haven't seen him in so long. can he just walk mine dressing room. you are there. later. >> where is winger! >> i look people ike people to that you have that as part of you, a character you have played. it is not who you are all right time. you definitely were doing it that night which was great for me. it was like you just needed a cape. congratulations, darling. >> debra, darling. >> do you want to go for a drink? >> forward my calls to the hotel. >> patty get up here. it was wild. >> i was watching all this going on. part of it, part of i'm part of. and they came and told us we were closing. >> that is so funny. welcome you abroad. with an apple. barrymore. the next day. >> the next day which would be our first performance without the director present. which as you know in a play, means a lot. when you get to open the director leaves. in this case it was writer/director, david mana. could do a whole another show about. let's not go an inch over there. hi, dave. this is, dave story. this ring. dave mana story. the producer met us at the door that night. >> richards. >> jeffrey richards. and said, i'm sorry. it was a full house. it was sold out for some night to come. but can this happen it? is like when my first kid got stuck in the birth canal. i said "can this happen?" so then i went up to my dressing room. i was in shock like physical shock as well. i was in shock. like a little kid. i think that that is an important thing to reiterate. that i -- i have a lot of things that still respond from a very little small young place. that's just become so okay. so i was in my room about 9, 11 years old. taking in this news. like, this could happen? i mean we only were doing a short run anyway. now we are only going to do 40? and suddenly, you, you appeareden front of me. having been there the night before. you were so friendly and so warm and, i remembered that night instead. of where i, what i was feeling. i got over it. and i'll never forget how kind that was of you to just ignore whether i let you in my dressing room or not, that you knew that it was going to be a good thing to come in, tell me i did a good job, and congratulate me, because you know, we don't know what's going to happen the next day. i came to your show to tell you, to see orphans, and you were amazing in that show. you were -- you were really transcendent as was ben foster. really. i dug the show. but i bought my tickets at the last minute. i took my soon to be daughter-in-law. and we were sitting in like the third row on the left side. so i kind of had a weird seat. you go upstage you are offstage if you had a normal seat. i didn't have a there mall seno. i saw the platform, that was the fake upstairs. i saw you drop to the ground and do pushups. and my heart just, my heart melted. i thought this is it. i don't care what it means. i don't care, it's just not, not to, that you at our age, we are still just figuring out how to do it the best way we can. and not cheat people out of their money. and you know, some time we get there. some times we don't. but the effort is so beautiful. so thanks for giving me the behind the scenes, the bat, the dressing room, and that's why i am doing this show. ♪ [ engine revs, tires squeal ] [ male announcer ] since we began, mercedes-benz has pioneered many breakthroughs. ♪ breakthroughs in design... breakthroughs in safety... in engineering... and technology. and now our latest creation breaks one more barrier. introducing the cla. starting at $29,900. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] united is rolling out global, satellite-fed wi-fi to connect you even 35,000 feet over the ocean. ♪ that's...wifi friendly. ♪ they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listening, planning, working one on one. to help you retire your way... with confidence. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. ameriprise financial. more within reach. >> i want to thank my guest, filmmaker/activist, debra winger. thank you for watching. i hope you will joan us nein us week when we talk about food. why we don't eat what we should and do eat what we shouldn't. who is getting rich off americans getting fast. my guests, mark bittman, author of "food matters guide to conscious eating" and dr. neil barnard president of the physicians committee for responsible medicine and leading add voe scvocate for higher sta. hope you will join us. we will wrap with the story debra winger wanted to end our interview with about her broadway debut in "the anarchist" and its abrupt end. >> i remembered one important thing. i wanted to meet the people in the box office. i hadn't met them. >> what is this obsession, you had this obsession with the lalt is wo -- lattice work of the pro ducts. the guy that paints the set. >> i'm one of them. >> you know if you are in nasa you can't get out of the capsule. >> you absolutely can. you just can't untether. >> go on, the box office. >> went up to the box office. it was a golden theater, which stayed empty after we closed. i won't go into that. and, the manager -- his father head run the theater before him and his daughter was about to take over for him. three generations of a family that had run that box office. so, already i am like, he is taking down newspaper clippings, he is telling me story, and it is fascinating. and i am out of my own deal. that's all you have to do to feel better something about something you feel bad about. get curious about some one else. he is telling a story. i need to till you a story. you are feeling confused and maybe a little bad. there was a show at the golden, this theater in 1958. i know, my dad was running the box office. he said. >> that tells you a lot about the theater right there. awe o >> it ran 40 performances which is what you will run when you close. and there were terrible reviews. and that, you know, it only got to run the 40. and the reviews in fact i remember i have two of them here. and the headline read -- the headline begged the writer to never write again. i mean that mean. and he said "i tell you this story because the play had two characters as ours did. and it was -- kind of didn't have a beginning, middle, end, per se, it was two people talking for 80 minutes." and what was the -- and the play closed after 40 performances. and the play was waiting for goodeau. i don't know that i did it. i love that. i got that story. ♪ ♪ i'm christina caradona, i'm a fashion blogger, so style is my thing. and i'm not gonna let my period get in the way of what i want to wear! 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