Lily Tomlin is still stirring up trouble

Lily Tomlin’s voice is unmistakable, even over the phone. When I called the comedy legend at her California home, she answered in the slightly nasal voice that made Ernestine, her telephone-operator character from the late-1960s TV series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, so delightfully obnoxious.

But the 75-year-old actress is anything but obnoxious in real life. She is frank, good-humored and unafraid to laugh at herself — something, she admits, that often gets her into trouble, even now. Ahead of Tomlin’s Saturday show at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, we chatted with her about her Netflix series, her first starring role in a film and more.

The Pitch: I’d like to start with your recent Netflix series, Grace and Frankie. I’d like to ask you about your fun part, but I feel like I need to start with the whole pay–disparity thing between you and Jane Fonda, who have leading roles, and Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston —

Tomlin: Here’s the thing. As I recall, when I made that comment, I was trying to make fun of Jane and me, you know, by saying [pause] — we definitely get paid more than they do.

Here’s what I recall was my first statement to them, and then they leaped on it, they thought it was some kind of conflict. The guy said something like, “What’s it like to have your own series?” Or some inflated kind of thing, and I said, “Well, when I heard the guys were being paid the same as us, I wasn’t as impressed with our salary.”

Oh, yeah. There are petitions and everything. It’s all over the Internet.

Yeah, I’m afraid to even speak now. [Laughs.] I was joking around.

Well, it’s a relief that that’s not true. Anyway, so, Grace and Frankie has been renewed for a second season, and it’s so great because you and Fonda have such a fantastic on-screen chemistry. What it’s like to work with her and how has your relationship grown as you’ve been on the series?

Well, we’ve always liked each other, so we just kind of have fun. And having the opportunity to work with each other day after day and as supposedly conflicting personalities — that’s how it’s written — well, I’m supposed to be the free and open and tolerant one, supposedly. [Laughs.] And Jane is supposed to be more uptight and controlling and all that stuff. We just have fun with it. It’s like coming down and finding the bottles in the garbage can in the wrong way. I can’t explain it. We just lucked out, that we have good chemistry. A lot of times, you think you have good chemistry with another actor, and you do in real life, but it doesn’t show on the screen.

You recently starred in Grandma, which isn’t released yet but has received great press so far. This is actually your first starring role in a film, after nearly five decades in the business. What was it like to finally have a starring role?

[Filmmaker] Paul Weitz had written it with me in mind, and he just brought it to me. We had done Admission [2013] together. So it was just a gift. I mean, I didn’t expect to have any kind of a starring role at this point in my life. So it was a gift from Paul, really. Whatever it was he saw, he had a story idea that he felt suited me just fine.

In terms of film and roles, I’m usually just looking for a vehicle. And I just care about what the vehicle says. And so the fact that this story was driven by my character — I don’t expect it [a story like this] to come along again. It was a very low budget. We shot it in 19 days. And everyone that came on-board was wonderful — Marcia Gay Harden and Sam Elliott and Judy Greer. They were all first-rate. We didn’t know it was going to turn out as well as it did. Everyone making a movie, I think, kind of expects it to fail, but they make it because they love the script, usually.

The show at the Kauffman Center is being billed as “an evening of classic Lily Tomlin,” with some of your most well-known characters. This is a show that you’ve been putting on for a while. How has it changed over the years?

Ever since I got well-known, I’ve been doing some kind of a show or another. It was my partner Jane [Wagner]’s idea to call it “classic.” And it’s been billed as classic for a long time, and it changes and meanders and might become something else. This is just keeping my hand in. I get bids to play in different places, and depending on what else I’m doing, I might have 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 dates a year. It changes. I might do 20 dates next year, I’m not sure. We’ll schedule that after Grace and Frankie goes on hiatus. These dates were booked the year before, and I’m just finishing them out before we start the show. It doesn’t seem like such a load. I guess I’ve been doing it for so many years that I don’t think of it as that big a load.

I feel like you’ve been in this business for so long, and you haven’t stopped working. I think it would have been really easy to just retire and go live on an island or whatever. What is it that keeps you out there, keeps you creating?

Well, it really has been an extra-busy year. There’s been a lot of stuff going on, and I had the series hit and then there’s the movie and it’s doing well right now in terms of publicity — it won’t open until August, and at that point I’ll start the series again. It’s all fun and games. [Pause.] Did you want me to impart some heavy wisdom or knowledge?

No, not if you don’t feel up to it.

[Laughs.] Well, I don’t know that I have any to impart.