Q&A with Mariel Hemingway

The 41-year-old actress and granddaughter of one of SI's most famous writers (Ernest's pieces on hunting and bullfighting appeared in the '50s) has a new memoir/yoga manual, Finding My Balance.

SI: Could a volatile athlete such as Rasheed Wallace benefit from a little yoga?

Hemingway: Yeah, some of these guys who are clearly higher amped, overadrenalized and have too much testosterone might benefit from a bit of silence.

SI: Is yoga a sport?

Hemingway: Well it can enhance sports activity hugely, but it's not meant to be competitive. One thing about yoga is that you're not supposed to be checking out a chick or the guy next to you, wondering why you don't look like that in a pose.

SI: You were remarkably convincing as a pentathlete in the 1982 film Personal Best. How obsessive were you about getting into shape for the role?

Hemingway: For four months I did triathlete training: I would swim in the morning for a mile, run about 15 miles and bike for 30 miles. I did that six days a week. Yes, I became obsessed.

SI: Do you think Personal Best helped make it easier for lesbian athletes to come out?

Hemingway: I don't know about lesbian athletes, but lesbians in general, maybe. I sort of represented all of my generation and a little bit younger. [The movie] sort of gave them the ability to say: 'It's OK.' I gave a lot of women permission to come out of the closet, which I think is cool.

SI: You write that Woody Allen took you to some of his favorite museums and restaurants during the filming of Manhattan. Did he ever take you to a Knicks game?

Hemingway: No, but he took me to see the Yankees in the [1978] World Series. I've never been to a World Series since, but we were right behind the dugout, and you can't do better than that.

SI: We paid your grandfather famously outlandish sums for his stories. Think we got a good deal?

Hemingway: I think you got a good deal, and I think I should write the sequels. And prices have gone up.

SI:Do you share Papa's love of boxing?

Hemingway: I love boxing, which is very odd. Everybody says to me, "You're into yoga, yet you want to see people bash each other in the face." But there's just some sort of elegant, dancelike quality to it.

SI: Have you been in a bookstore where Finding My Balance is sitting next to a book Ernest wrote?

Hemingway: Yes, at a book signing and lecture in New York. Then during the lecture I looked up and saw a poster of my grandfather as I was talking about writing. I had to put my hand over my eye in order not to look at him.    

SI: You were a very good skier as a kid, right?

Hemingway: I did ski from age 7 to 16. I was working toward the junior Olympic team. Acting just sort of happened, and I found myself more into it than skiing. Skiing made me so nervous. I'm competitive with myself, but when I'm competitive with others, it's just awful for me. That's why yoga was a natural course for me and is a good balance for those who are too competitive. It kind of softens the edges.

SI: Your daughter Langley runs track. Have you ever raced her?

Hemingway: No, I haven't raced her. Langley is much faster than me, but I'm really good at coaching form because I'm good at mimicking stuff.

SI: Your father Jack was a renowned outdoorsman and the author of A Life Worth Living: The Adventures of a Passionate Sportsman. In the book he talks about how fishing played a paramount role in his life. Did you share that passion with him?

Hemingway: I don't fish but I share the passion for the outdoors and I learned it from my father. I love nature because of him. But I'm better off in an inner tube. I would get the fly caught in everything and basically irritate my father.

SI: Did you have to kiss Al Gore to prepare for the role of Tipper Gore in VH-1's Warning: Parental Advisory?

Hemingway. God, no.

SI: How much better do you know yourself at 41 than you did at 31?

Hemingway: I know myself now more than I did five minutes ago. After talking to you I am so much more knowledgeable about myself.

SI: You participated in one of the most highly publicized and controversial kisses in television history when you kissed Roseanne on her show in 1994. Looking back, how tame does that seem compared to Temptation Island and Joe Millionaire?

Hemingway: Do you know what's so sad? I've never seen Joe Millionaire and I've only heard about Temptation Island. My kiss with Roseanne was probably incredible tame compared to what happens on those shows. If you brought out Personal Best now, everybody would have to be naked throughout all the high-jumping sequences.

--Richard Deitsch

Issue date: February 17, 2003

 

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