Elaine Stritch Talks Onstage Orgasms & More on Baldwin Podcast

Tony and Emmy Award winner Elaine Stritch who recently wrapped up her final show, "Elaine Stritch at the Carlyle", joined her "30 Rock" son, Alec Baldwin on WNYC's podcast 'Here's the Thing' for a candid chat about Kirk Douglas, "30 Rock", her first org*sm, her retirement and more.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

On doing the TV show "30 Rock"

ES: I ended up liking Tina Fey an awful lot. And very quietly all by myself.

AB: Right, did you enjoy doing the show?

ES: No.

AB: You didn't? Why?

ES: I didn't have any fun with comedy. I did with you for a while but then it got a little bit too routine for me. And I wasn't -

AB: Challenged.

On Kirk Douglas

Elaine Stritch: He was a great actor and he loved me. He flipped over me. I have known him for years. And he took me half way away for the weekend and then I discovered that I shouldn't go.

Alec Baldwin: He took you - wait, I'm sorry.

ES: Half way away to Palm Springs and then I said I shouldn't be going. So that he said I'll take you home...Well, I said I'm getting nervous because what do you want me to do when we get up here? And he went, "Oh, Elaine." He knew I was a virgin so he was dealing with that.

On Stritch's first org*sm

ES: But I wanted to tell something intimate about myself to John [Turturro] about when he was interviewing me. I told him that when I was doing Virginia Woolf and when George and Martha had their scene together and George said, 'Our son is dead.' You know, that big scene? 'Our son,' he yells in my face, 'is dead.' And I went 'No!' At the height of my force, I said no to him. And I had an org*sm for the first time in my life.

AB: You did? Really?

ES: Yes. So this is how important that moment was on stage to me. This is unbelievable, you don't know.

On leaving New York City for Michigan

ES: About a month ago, I really said I want out of here. I want out of New York. I shouldn't live in New York anymore. It's not for me anymore. It's too fast for me or no, it's not too fast and then I changed my mind about that. It's not this, it's not that. It's just not for me. This is New York; taxi, lo! And it's dinner and tonight and tomorrow -

AB: A very full day. It rattles your nerves.

ES: And I can't handle it anymore because I'm not interested in handling it.

AB: Right, you just don't want - you could do it, you just don't want to do it.

ES: It doesn't give me any satisfaction. I don't go home and say I guess I told them.

AB: So about a month ago, it had been an idea and then a month ago, you went 'I'm doing it.'

ES: I called up my nephew who is a great buddy of mine in Birmingham, Michigan and I said, 'I'm coming home.'

For full interview and transcript, go to: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/heresthething/2013/may/13/

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos