We want to stay youthful in opinions and in our acceptance of new ideas. Harden and Scheel have three children: a daughter, Eulala. It has to do with attitude as much as looks. Harden married Thaddaeus Scheel, a prop master, with whom she worked on The Spitfire Grill in 1996. SL: Has your philosophy about aging gracefully changed? I enjoy going out, but I have yet to meet the person who would sweep me off my feet. I like adventure- that’s my favorite workout. I like engaging in things: riding my bike, playing volleyball, swimming, water skiing. You always have to have one foot on the brake and one on the gas pedal. When work is on the downhill slope, whoops, that’s another problem. When work heats up, that creates a thousand problems, because you’re so busy. I’ve found at this age that you just don’t get to a place where there are no problems. But right now, I’m off cigarettes, and I pray that I will stay off them. Sometimes I have to pick up a smoke, like in Magic in the Moonlight, and I start back up again. SL: What’s the best health advice you’ve ever received? The crickets are out, the lightning bugs.
Harden is on the verge of breaking out of the pack in a big, dark, sensuous way. We water ski on the lake and camp down at the bonfire. Roughly a decade after she moved to New York to become an actress, preferably in movies, the 33-year-old Ms. We call it Blueberry Hill, and in July, we gather blueberries and make jam. EXCLUSIVE: Production is getting underway on Evolution, a drama directed by BAFTA winner Nick Hamm (Driven) from a screenplay by David Hudgins (Friday Night Lights). I have property on a lake-we have a canoe, kayaks, a raft and a dock slide. Spry Living: Do you have a summer ritual? Read on to find out Marcia’s attitude on aging-and dating-and how she stays healthy. “It’s a bucket list thing to be in a Woody Allen film, to see how he works, how he will use you,” Marcia says. The star of ABC’s Trophy Wife (cancelled after its first season) and HBO’s The Newsroom says her new film marked a career goal. Just this month, she’s appearing as Emma Stone’s mother in Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight, and even plays the matriarch in 2015’s sultry Fifty Shades of Grey. Mom has become a recurrent role for Marcia onscreen, too. “It is as if I am trying to create a Norman Rockwell painting because that is childhood to me,” says the La Jolla, Calif.-born Harden. The Oscar-winning actress for the 2000 film Pollock, who turns 55 next month, takes time off in July to travel with her brood to the Catskills in upstate New York, where they take part in the simple joys of summer.
Thirty seconds into a conversation with Marcia Gay Harden, it’s obvious which of her current roles she enjoys the most: playing mom to daughter Eulala, 15, and twins Hudson and Julitta, 10.