Interview: In ‘genera+ion,’ Martha Plimpton plays against type and embraces it [VIDEO]

I feel like I grew up with Martha Plimpton, probably because I did. Being only a month apart in age, I watched her as a teen in films like The Goonies, The Mosquito Coast, Parenthood and more as a teen myself.

Following her fantastic career that’s navigated feature films, multiple starring and guest roles in television (including three Emmy nominations and one win, for Guest Actress in a Drama Series for The Good Wife), a robust theatre career that includes three Tony Award nominations in a row (2007-2009), one could talk to Plimpton for hours about any one of these elements and mediums of her work.

This year, Plimpton co-stars in HBO Max’s teen dramedy genera+ion as the uptight and homophobic Megan, mother of twins Naomi (Chloe East) and Nathan (Uly Schlesinger), the latter of whom comes out as bi in a wildly public way. Megan, in her conservative enclave of Orange County, rebuffs Nathan’s coming out but also leans on her gay friends for guidance but also presents a “I can’t be homophobic, I have gay friends” shield to defend herself.

Through our interview, Plimpton and I discuss how she managed during the early stages of COVID quarantine, connecting as latch-key kids of the 1970s and 80s, working with a cast of largely Gen Z actors and how she thinks her character Megan would describe herself. Plus a little about her new film Mass, coming out later this year.

The first half of season one of genera+tion can be streamed on HBO Max. Martha Plimpton is Emmy eligible for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. The second half of the season kicked off June 17 and will be eligible next year.

Photos: Warrick Page / HBO Max

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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