From “Beaches” to “First Wives Club” and “Hocus Pocus,” Bette Midler has starred in a number of projects where women aren’t just at the center of the story — but also female friendship is a major theme.
“The most fun ones are the women ones, I have to say,” said Midler in a recent interview.
Her latest project is working alongside Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally in “The Fabulous Four.” Midler plays Marilyn, a widow getting married who wants her besties from her 20s to be bridesmaids. The production was granted a waiver to film last year during the Hollywood strikes which meant they had to be nimble and open to last-minute changes to get the job done quickly.
“It was like someone blew the whistle and we all got on a plane,” recalled Sarandon. “It really was lucky that we had four women who were such pros and who were game to go under those circumstances.”
While she and her co-stars were focused because they were working under a special circumstance, Sarandon says they made a point to cheer each other on for a big on-camera moment or scene.
“When it was somebody’s time to be celebrated, we celebrated that person. And when somebody else had their scene, we were all standing around while they got their moment,” Sarandon said, adding that on some sets, actors choose to “not be really involved when it’s not about them.”
As for friendships, Midler says “there’s nothing like having an old friend because they knew you when.” Two particular people come to mind when she thinks about her own friendships. One is the sister of a close friend who died. “The other is the girl that I came to New York with when we were both 19.”
“They don’t take any bs from you, and you really can be yourself,” said Midler.
Sarandon relies on “six women” and “scores of gay guys that have been in my life for 30, 40 years.”
“We’ve been through kids and divorces and whatever, and I definitely count on them and sometimes disagree with them, but they are definitely in my tribe,” she said.
Ralph, an Emmy winner for her role on ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” still keeps in touch with her childhood best friend, Elizabeth. “I’ll hear from her on social media every now and again,” she said.
“My friend Carol — we met at the Miss Black Teenage America pageant. We’re still friends to this day. All the ladies from ‘Dreamgirls,’ — Loretta Devine, Jenifer Lewis, Jennifer Holliday — we still talk. There are just so many of those relationships, and you don’t have to start from the beginning. You can just pick up right where you were.”
It’s her appreciation for her own longtime friendships that made Ralph want to be in “The Fabulous Four.”
“I loved the fact that they weren’t 19, 20 or 30 or 40. These were seasoned women, or, as we say in the vernacular, grown (expletive) women living their lives.”