"Five foot two, with eyes of blue" are phrases from a song that accurately describes Frances Green, an actress, singer, song writer and grandmother in southern California. It seems that I've spent the day in her home eating - first a brunch, and then a dunch. Brunch included eggs, sunny side up, ham, watermelon, Greek yogurt, brownies, sunflower seeds, Cheerios, Pepsi cola, tea, toast and milk, as well as chicken and lettuce. Then, for dunch, there was more of the same, including the chicken, but not the eggs or ham, with the addition of pork chops and corn on the cob. Based on years of experience, if you go to Frances Green's home, there are two things she's going to do almost incessantly: Feed you, and talk!
Silky gold bedding adorns her twin-sized mattress. Red leather serves as the upholstery for her couch - one of the most comfortable I've ever sat on. Food and tableware seem to smother her brown, egg-shaped dining table, but at one end, near the front door, her black, Acer laptop indicates where her office is, as well as a rolling, beige, secretarial chair; the two other chairs at the table are white plastic.
A foot-tall, white Christmas tree adorns one small end table; what appear to be plastic, red earrings adorn it. It's a hot summer day in June, even after the sun has gone down. Oil lamps, similar to those used in the Eighteen Hundreds, provide light. Musical instruments, such as keyboards and guitars lurk in the shadows.Frances usually dyes her long, wavy, gray hair a color that she calls "super blonde," but tonight, she's trying on various wigs, which she might wear in an upcoming role.
I first met Frances four years ago in southern Virginia, where she served me eggs, sunny side up, and ham, just the way I like them, on a cool, February morning outside a tobacco shack. Tobacco has been an important part of her life. So have the military and the entertainment industries. She used to issue ammunition to the soldiers at Fort Pickett, which her father helped construct. She considers herself a sort of queen of all media - except the new. She has belly danced at Dolores Del Rio on the San Antonio Riverwalk. She portrayed a suffragist in "Iron-Jawed Angels," starring Hilary Swank; a protester in "Hello Herman," starring Rob Estes and Norman Reedus; and a zombie in "Zombie Apocalypse 2012," starring Ving Rhames. More recently, she appeared in a short film, entitled "Homestead: Manifest Destiny," a Western in which she portrayed a cowgirl holding a gun on a man to keep him from raping another woman.
Frances is the only woman I know who talks baby talk to her god when she prays.
Frances: '80.
La Libertad: Who were your parents?
Frances: That's not the kind of thing they ask in interviews.
La Libertad: How much education do you have?
Frances: None. Seriously, six months at the Jefferson Professional Institute/Holden School of Art, in Charlottesville, Virginia. I don't know where I went.
La Libertad: Did William Holden have anything to do with it?
Frances: No.
La Libertad: So, you never obtained a degree?
Frances: No, but I'm not finished yet. John H. Daniels Community College, Cristianna Community Campus/College, Longwood University... It was a college when I attended it.
La Libertad: Where were you born and raised?
Frances: Nutbush, Virginia.
La Libertad: You were raised in Nutbush?
Frances: Yes. I was born in Farmville, but raised most of my life in Nutbush.
La Libertad: Who were your parents and siblings?
Frances: Lee Roy Hawkins and Edna Gertrude (maiden name) Driggs were my parents. Merle and Shirley were my two older sisters.
La Libertad: Any special friends when you were a child or a teen?
Frances: Two special friends: Alice Holt and Rita Townsend.
La Libertad: What was your first job?
Frances: We're not going to count when I worked in the fields. I was a paid, professional newspaper columnist for a local town newspaper, for five years. I started when I was in the Seventh Grade. I wrote advice and stuff.
La Libertad: What city was that in?
Frances: Victoria, thanks to a teacher who took an interest in my writing, and got the job for me.
La Libertad: What was your next job?
Frances: Shoe factory. I touched up the shoes, where the leather met the sole. And I've worked in four factories: three sewing factories, and another factory that made zipper tape. I had to lift a 60-lb. bar while I was pregnant, and no one knew I was pregnant. I went uptown everyday, to get a shot for nausea, while I was pregnant, and then I'd go back to work.
La Libertad: How many children did you have?
Frances: Two living, one dead - a miscarriage, or whatever you want to put.
La Libertad: All by the same man?
Frances: No, and none of them was I married to.
La Libertad: Did you ever get married?
Frances: Oh, god! You never let me finish my work. I worked at K-Mart, and Grant's Department Store.
La Libertad: You issued ammunition at Fort Pickett?
Frances: I'm ashamed of that, because it involved killing. I issued ammunition and TOW Missiles. Before that, I worked as a singer at the Golden Zeus, and some other small clubs. And I worked at the Broadway Restaurant as a hostess. That was right beside the theatre where Yul Brenner was playing "The King and I."
La Libertad: That was on Broadway in New York City?
Frances: Yes, I worked on Broadway, and I lived on Broadway and 36th Street, in Astoria, where a lot of Greeks lived. That's where I lived with the father of my oldest daughter, who was a Greek named Nicolas Katsoyannos.
La Libertad: Where all have you lived?
Frances: I was an office manager for cable television. I never worked at McDonald's. I went to work at Wendy's, but they wanted me to use the same rags to clean the toilets as the clear containers where you picked up your own salads. This was in Maryland.
La Libertad: What year was that?
Frances: Late '80's.
La Libertad: What is your religion?
Frances: Methodist. Christian. Protestant.
La Libertad: Have you ever practiced a non-Christian religion?
Frances: Witchcraft. That's a joke.
La Libertad: How often do you go to church?
Frances: Regularly. I used to go regularly, but the preacher asked me to have sex with him, so I quit church.
La Libertad: What have you written?
Frances: I worked as a D.J. I've worked in every media, except the new media. I've worked in newspaper, radio, TV, film, music videos, and I did instructional video games.
La Libertad: What States and countries have you traveled to?
Frances: States? It would be easier to list the ones I haven't been to. [Getting a notepad and pen to write them down...] I haven't been to Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, but I have been to Alaska and Hawaii. I'm not sure if I've been to Oregon, 'cause I had a friend from there. We did go into Washington State. I've been to Mount McKinley in Alaska. That's the highest place in the United States. Countries, I've been to eight outside the United States: France, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, West Germany, Italy, and Holland. Make that nine.
La Libertad: Which places did you like most, and the least?
Frances: Oh, God. Brussels, Belgium I loved. The Grand Square - all gold-painted buildings. At night it looks like all the buildings are all solid gold, like in a fairytale. The least? Probably Canada. I liked Spain. I loved La Costa Brava. I loved Madrid and Barcelona.
La Libertad: Was Canada too cold?
Frances: I went past Vancouver, to Anchorage. I brought back a little husky sled dog named "Husky." I'm not crazy about the wilderness. They have Dahl sheep. We have them in the States. You'd see them up on the mountains here and there. I stood by the ice begs and glaciers in Alaska. I like the red mesas here. I saw black plateaus in Italy. Milan was my favorite place in Italy. But I haven't been to Venice or Rome. I've always wanted to see a bull fight, but I don't suppose I'll ever get to see one.
There's not so many things I haven't done, but seeing a bullfight is one of the few things I'd like to do that I haven't done.
In Alaska, I got a job writing for the largest newspaper in Anchorage, but my husband, at the time, told me he would go somewhere else to work if I took the job, so, regretfully, I didn't take it.
La Libertad: What is your political persuasion?
Frances: I don't have any. Whenever I voted, I voted for the person. I think I'm a combination of liberal and conservative. It depends on the issue.
La Libertad: Where do you stand on abortion?
Frances: I don't believe in it, except in cases of rape and incest, or maybe to save the mother's life.
La Libertad: Where do stand on homosexuality?
Frances: I have friends that are gay.
La Libertad: Where do you stand on immigration?
Frances: [Laughs...] Don't ask me about that one.
La Libertad: Are you a potty mouth?
Frances: Yep!
La Libertad: Is your hair naturally curly?
Frances: Yep! My father-in-law used to call me "the curly-headedest baby in the county-oh." I didn't hardly have any hair until I was over two years old. I had one curl on the top of my head.
La Libertad: Who have you enjoyed working with the most in the entertainment industry?
Frances: Hillary Swank and Patrick Dempsey.
La Libertad: What movies were they in that you worked with them on?
Frances: Iron-Jawed Angels... I want to put Chris Rodrick [The Horror Of Barnes Folly] on there, too, and Gabriel Alvarez [Taking Autumn]. Bob Gunton, also in Iron-Jawed Angels. I should mention Angelica Huston.
La Libertad: Who have you worked with that you didn't enjoy working with?
Frances: No one famous. The bitchiest people are the ones who aren't famous - the nobodies. Stars are usually nice. Of course, among the actors I like, you should put Graham Mackie, Sr. and his girl friend, Rosie. Oh, and directors I like: I like Vebe Borga; his father was Victor Borga, a famous musician and comedian. I'd watched him earlier, so it was a thrill to be directed by his son. Jonathan Rach and Nick Lyon. Nick was a lot of fun. I didn't do what I was supposed to. I was so intensely acting, I didn't know what he had said. I liked Ving Rhames, but I didn't work right with him. Gerald Webb was one of my favorite actors to work with. With Hillary [Swank]; I worked right with her, and walked with her. Hillary was a real sweetheart to work with. I wish I could remember the name of that old guy from Cabin Fever; I danced with him. He chose me to dance with him. I danced with him a few minutes, but asked him to select someone I thought was more appropriate. Oh, and I liked "Nate Dawg."
La Libertad: What are your goals, besides attending a bullfight?
Frances: To find true love! Oh, and to finally publish my songs.
Sites for Frances Green
http://franceshgreen.webs.com/
http://www.modelmayhem.com/1272560
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2581675/
by William Mortensen Vaughan
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| Photo by James Green |
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