Patti LuPone weighs in on ‘Beau Is Afraid’

Patti LuPone revealed her character in Beau Is Afraid is not the villain, as many believed.

“You can’t play a villain unless you show their good side,” she added.

“And I don’t think you can think villainously unless you have really good reason, and the reasons usually aren’t villainous — they come out of some sort of hurt, some sort of miscommunication, something that changed them. In this particular case, I think she does say that it was the most important thing in her life to have a child and Beau lets her down.”

“You can interpret Mona in so many different ways,” adding, “I choose to think she loves her son and he just constantly disappoints her,” the actor said.

The musical theatre legend also opened up about her friendship with filmmaker Ari Aster and lead star Joaquin Phoenix amid the film’s shooting.

“Ari, me, and Joaquin, we were put in a wedding destination hotel that had three balconies that faced the lake,” the 74-year-old remembered.

“In the morning, I would go out in my nightgown with some French coffee, and I would pour Ari and I would pour Joaquin and myself coffee, and we would just sit there and talk as human beings.

Usually on movies it’s, ‘How do you do?’ and then you go at it. We got to spend a little time together as people and that helped us, helped Joaquin trust me as an actor and as a human being, so it was a wonderful shoot.”