EDITOR’S NOTE: More than two decades after its premiere, The Karen Carpenter Story remains a campy favorite among fans of the TV-movie /biopic genre. In 2008, while completing research and interviews for Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter, I had the pleasure of interviewing the two lead actors from this infamous “Movie of the Week.” The following interview excerpts didn’t make it into Little Girl Blue, but I feel they are still quite relevant and even entertaining.
How did the two of you come to be cast?
Cynthia Gibb: My agency sent me on a meeting with Richard Carpenter, who was doing the casting. It was not the typical casting call where you’re one of many actors sitting in a waiting room. It was more like a business meeting. This was very close to the time they were going to start shooting the film, and it was unusual to be called so late for this kind of film. I was cast about ten days before we started shooting.
Mitchell Anderson: I had worked with the director, Joe Sargent, in Jaws: The Revenge, which was a terrible movie! Joe went and fought for me at the network. Cindy and I worked together on the script, went in for our network audition, and had the right chemistry. They’d auditioned a lot of people, but I think we were the only two that they took to the network.
Did you know the Carpenters’ music or story before then?
CG: Not at all. I was coming into this knowing very little except the broad, general facts. I knew that she and her brother were a music team and that they were enormously successful around the world. Also, I knew most of their hit singles. I knew that Karen had had an eating disorder and that she’d died because of it. Beyond that, I knew nothing.
MA: I knew of their music from the early 1970s because my parents listened to the Carpenters on eight-track tapes. I remember “We’ve Only Just Begun” was my sister’s senior class song in high school. That was 1976.
What research and preparation did you do for the roles?
MA: I was able to do my preparation in the same way I did for any role. I looked at the arc of the character as it related to the story and to the relationship with Karen. It was important for both Cynthia and me to stay grounded in the moments of each scene. The hardest thing was not “playing the end” before we got there.
CG: Any role involves a great deal of character research, whether it’s fiction or the truth. You have to figure out the character—their background, their strengths and weaknesses. You have to figure out who the person is in a three-dimensional way. On top of trying to create a character, I began researching the clinical aspects of anorexia. I tried to connect the dots between what happens in clinical cases of anorexia or bulimia and the aspects of Karen’s life.
What went into preparing for the musical aspects of this movie?
MA: They knew they were going to cast us, but they didn’t make the deals until a week before. We only had one week to prepare and do all of the things we needed to do, like taking piano lessons and so on. I also played a little piano and was comfortable with the singing, so faking the posture and hand position was something that came pretty easily. The rest of it was done with tricks. In one scene, Richard literally put his hands under my arms so he could play the keys. The camera panned from my face to his hands. It was pretty low-tech, but it worked given the intense shooting schedule. We didn’t have much time for anything elaborate.
CG: As far as the singing was concerned, I was trying to learn about twenty songs well enough to lip-synch. I am a singer and had been on Fame for three years, so I was familiar with lip-synching. Every week, we had at least one or two songs on that show that were recorded and then lip-synched. I knew I could do it, but that doesn’t mean it was a fast and easy thing to do. You can’t do it quickly. You must really memorize the songs in absolutely every way—every breath, where the vibrato is, the nuances of the performance and so on. You have to really absorb and memorize until it becomes a part of you.
MA: Yes, the hardest thing for me was getting the lyrics to the songs down enough to be believable. Fortunately, I had a lot of “oohs” and “ahs,” so it wasn’t as hard as what she had to do.
What about the physical transformations?
CG: The script contained scenes showing Karen becoming thinner and thinner and I knew there wouldn’t be a body double. When I found out I would be wearing her real clothes, I knew I would have to get as small as she was. We weren’t going to shoot in sequence, so I needed to get down to the thinnest I could right away and then they could pad me up. I had two sets of padding so that I could be different sizes throughout the shoot. In real life, I was the smallest I could be but still in good health when I showed up to the set.
I recall there was some criticism from people when they learned you had to lose weight to play Karen. To them, it seemed like that expectation for you was similar to the pressures to be thin that Karen had faced. Did you see it that way?
CG: The weight loss was just a normal part of the preparation I have to do as an actor in any and every role I play. Sometimes I have to learn a language or learn a new skill. Sometimes I learn about a political situation in a foreign country. It’s just part of an actor’s research and preparation. In this case, Karen and I were approximately the same height. I am quite petite, so for me to fit into her clothes—even the very small ones—I just had to get thin but not sick. I ate well while preparing for this role. I just cut out the sugar and most carbs to get down to 103 pounds. At that weight, I fit into most all of her clothes. Although, I do recall a white lacy dress that she wore. I couldn’t zip it up over my rib cage, even at that weight.
Tell me about the wardrobe. There were so many recognizable outfits in the movie.
CG: I had a fitting with the costume designer right away. She brought me into a room with racks and racks of Karen’s real clothes, and we went through to find the wardrobe for the entire movie. There were many changes that spanned twenty years. At one point, when the designer and her assistant left, I started to put my hands through the clothes the way you would turn the pages of a book. I got a strong sense that Karen was in the room. I had an overwhelming feeling that I wasn’t alone. A bunch of people walked through the room with a bustle, and the sensation left me immediately. It was almost like she was there and, when people came in, she went away. I felt that throughout the shoot, too. I had never really considered ghosts or spirits or anything like that—that was not part of my belief system at the time—but I must say that I felt some kind of energy that could have been her in a few moments throughout the shoot.
Another instance was the day we were shooting at A&M Studios in the same recording booth where Karen and Richard had recorded a lot of their music. Herb Alpert had come in to say hello and pay his regards. Richard was there in the engineering booth. It felt like Karen was there with us.
MA: We were in the studio where she recorded her last song, and I just lost it—not as an actor but as a human being. I was hearing her voice and thinking of this horribly sad story. Hearing Karen’s voice and seeing Cynthia sing was emotionally draining and very moving to me. It was an incredibly sad story.
CG: It happened in her home as well, that feeling that Karen was with us. We filmed in her parents’ home in Downey, where her room was still intact and still decorated the same way it was the day she died. Her parents had preserved everything, even the stuffed animals on the bed. In the opening scene, where Karen is taken from the house on the stretcher, the paramedics who had actually taken her away were the same paramedics used in the movie.
What were some of the characteristics you noticed about Karen and tried to emulate?
CG: I attempted to learn to play the drums. Ten days to learn any instrument and actually look convincing to somebody who has played before is really tough. Learning to play the drums in a matter of weeks is really a joke. I am not a percussionist, so I can’t imagine the suffering that our poor editor must have gone through to find pieces that actually looked correct. In addition to synching the drums and lip-synching the music, Karen had a very distinct way of holding the microphone, so I practiced holding the mic that way.
What about Richard?
MA: Richard is a take-charge kind of guy. He really managed every aspect of their careers—the look, sound, press, schedules, and so on. He is definitely a type-A overachiever. I felt that was important to emulate since, in part, this was one of the causes of Karen’s illness. Still, I intentionally softened him a little. In a TV movie, you don’t have much time to fill in the nuances of personality, but I wanted to make sure he was a sympathetic person. I remember talking to the producer a few days into shooting and saying I thought I was getting it wrong. I felt that I was playing him much more emotionally accessible than he actually is. The producer told me he was glad I was adding the warmth, even though that may not be so apparent in Richard himself.
What was the production schedule like?
MA: We shot the whole movie in 19 days. Cynthia and I were working 16-hour days. Sometimes, when an actor says they’re working 16-hour days it means they’re sitting in their trailer most of the time. I know that part, too, but we were exhausted! At one point, I completely lost my voice. But that’s a TV movie for you. There’s no budget.
CG: And that is considered an extraordinarily long shoot schedule for a TV movie now. Most are made in less than thirteen shooting days. We shot a minimum of eight pages a day, and we did not shoot in chronological order. We jumped from scene to scene throughout the day, which meant year-to-year and age-to-age. I actually drew a map of Karen’s life for myself as part of my homework on the script. That way, I could keep track of where I was in her journey while shooting out of sequence.
What insight did you gain into the Carpenter family and Karen’s story as a result of this closeness to its subjects?
CG: In the Carpenters’ home, Richard was recognized as a musical prodigy from the youngest age. Karen was very young when Richard started to be described by the family and others as a prodigy. [Karen] hadn’t found what she was good at yet. She grew up feeling that Richard was the brilliant one and that Richard was the talented one and that Richard was the musician—which he was—but in some ways, this was discounting whatever value she had. Even though they were a performing team, Karen was out front. Karen was the one who was getting more attention. Karen was the one who was getting more praise. There was a tremendous amount of guilt for her because she was the one out in front getting that attention, when it should be Richard. She felt uncomfortable receiving that kind of praise because she felt that it usurped the praise from Richard.
MA: She was also looking for a place to control her life because everybody took over for her. They wanted her skinny. They wanted her to stop playing the drums. Everybody else made the decisions for her, and I think that was the only way that she was able to feel like she had some control. What I learned about Richard’s personality is that he had a somewhat closed-off, WASPy, unemotional approach to life—things happen, we deal, we move on. I think it’s a weird trait for an artist. Because Karen didn’t have that trait, I feel she internalized all those feelings and it manifested itself in a self-destructive disease. In other people, it might have manifested as a drug addiction or anger problems.
In his research for the teleplay, Barry Morrow interviewed the Carpenter parents and was shocked when Mrs. Carpenter introduced herself, so to speak, by saying, “I just want you to know I did not kill my daughter.” What would cause her to do such a thing? Do either of you have any insights you’d share?
CG: The family was more old-fashioned in their beliefs that “normal” families don’t need psychiatrists, only crazy people do. They really took offense to any implication of her upbringing being anything but perfect. As we evolve as a society, I think most people are willing to admit there’s no such thing as a perfect household. For their family, there was a tremendous amount of shame, as if they “killed” their daughter by not being perfect. But that’s the perfectionism right there! Maybe Karen’s issues with perfectionism were just that she was brought up with parents who thought they were supposed to be perfect.
Let’s end on a lighter note. What was with those wigs?
MA: They were horrible!
CG: The wigs were really a nightmare. They were absolutely awful!
MA: The hairstylist had totally underbid to get the job. She was trying to put me in cut-up old-lady wigs and make them look like men’s wigs.
CG: These things were like helmets. They were just enormous and had so much hair. I’m a pretty small person [and was] especially after losing all that weight. They put it on my little head, and I just looked ridiculous! There was room for two of me in there.
MA: My grandmother used to have plastic wigs for dress-up. They were like plastic helmets. That’s what we felt like we were wearing.
CG: I would sit there in the chair, near tears, thinking that I can’t let anybody watch this. I cannot let anybody see me like this. I am not going to tell anybody that I did this job or when it’s on the air.
MA: At one point, I was sitting in the makeup trailer looking at myself in the mirror going, “I look like a complete fool,” knowing that I’m going to be on screen. This is going to be preserved forever! I had a meltdown.
So you “wigged out” on them?
MA: Yeah, and I’m a totally even-keeled actor. I never created a fuss, but at one point, I just had a meltdown. Finally, the director said, “Okay, look. We have got to fix this. This is ridiculous.” They gave them more money, and they got slightly better wigs.
CG: I was actually so embarrassed about people seeing the movie that I left town when it aired. I went to my grandparents’ farm in Vermont and hid from the world. When I came home, I found out that it had broken ratings records. We got 30-something-million viewers, which is like Super Bowl numbers. Nobody gets those kinds of numbers anymore. TV movies don’t.
The movie aired twice on CBS and has since found a home on the Lifetime network, where it is shown periodically. It may never be released on DVD since Richard is no longer pleased with having participated in its making. Still, it lives on. Did you ever imagine people would be talking about this movie twenty years later?
MA: It’s funny to know that it’s become somewhat iconic in terms of cheesy biopics. But Cynthia and I have this amazing bond now after having done this movie.
CG: I cannot believe there are still so many people who remember it. I get asked all the time, “When is it going to be out on DVD?” I think that is a testament to how important the Carpenters were—and still are—to so many people. Looking back now, I am so grateful to have been a part of this movie. Playing Karen Carpenter was a gift and an honor.