The role of mother - in-law or otherwise - is no stretch for JoBeth Williams, but her character in the new TBS comedy, "Your Family or Mine," had a trait unlike her previous matriarchs - "bitchy."
"I've played a lot of nice ladies so I thought it would be fun to play somebody who really had some unlikable qualities about her," Williams tells Headlines & Global News. "I think in the end you like her, but she's tough."
"Your Family or Mine" follows a young couple, Oliver (Kyle Howard) and Kelli Weston (Kat Foster), and their two children as they take turns visiting each other's in-laws. Episodes alternate between trips to Oliver and Kelli's sides of the family.
Williams plays Oliver's mother Ricky, a snobbish and aspiring socialite, who is the classic mother-in-law: The sun rises and sets with her three sons, and her daughters-in-law will never be good enough for them.
"She's upper-middle class, aspiring to be thought of as the wealthy class, which they aren't quite," the 66-year-old actress says. "She calls poor people, 'the poors.' Not in a cruel way, but that's how she thinks of them. She feels she's right about everything."
Her pretentious demeanor contrasts with her more easygoing husband Louis, played by Richard Dreyfuss. Indulgent to his wife's lifestyle, he prefers sitting in his chair and watching the game all day.
"I think they love each other. He lets her go off into her flights of temper and then he reels her back to reality. I think it's a nice balance of two people who really care about each other, who understand each other's shortcomings, if you will," Williams says.
Ed Begley Jr. and Cynthia Stevenson play the other set of in-laws, and the two families will come together in the season finale. Williams enjoyed working with Dreyfuss and Begley Jr., whom she has known for more than 30 years.
"It was really fun to do a show with both of them. And Ed is hysterical," Williams says.
"Your Family or Mine" marks Williams and Dreyfuss' first time working on-screen together, but the two veteran actors are founding members of L.A. Theatre Works. Started as a stage acting company more than 30 years ago, its members now perform radio plays. Each performance is recorded before a live audience and syndicated nationally and internationally.
"The problem was, we were always all working in television and in film. We could never carve out a chunk of time where we could get enough people together to rehearse a production for four weeks and then do a show," the Oscar nominee says. "It was actually Richard Dreyfuss' idea that we do radio plays."
The company has performed more than 400 plays, spanning from Shakespeare to Arthur Miller. Performers have included Ed Asner, Stacy Keach, John Lithgow, Hilary Swank, Neil Patrick Harris, Laurence Fishburne, Annette Bening and Begley.
Williams other recent work includes the unfinished movie "The Last Film Festival," which is Dennis Hopper's final performance. Linda Yellen, the writer-producer-director, shot all the footage for the film, but needed additional funding for things such as special effects and film clips from old movies.
After an investor fell through, Yellen launched a Kickstarter campaign and reached her goal of $90,000 to complete the movie. She has a six-week post-production plan and will send the completed film to festivals this year.
"She resisted it, and then a lot of us said, 'Look, it's been successful for a lot of people, and I think with Dennis' name attached you can get people interested,'" Williams says.
"The Last Film Festival" tells the story of a producer (Hopper) who submits his terrible movie to 4,000 film festivals and only gets accepted by one, which is held in small-town America. Williams plays the town mayor who can't resist the seduction of the Hollywood producer.
The importance of film festivals is not lost on Williams. Seven studios turned down the Oscar-nominated "The Big Chill" before Columbia Pictures and Carson Productions (established by Johnny Carson) decided to make it.
"The studio really didn't think they had [anything]. They just thought it was a little movie," says Williams, who starred alongside Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, William Hurt, Tom Berenger, Meg Tilly, Mary Kay Place and Jeff Goldblum.
The film, directed by Lawrence Kasden, found an enthusiastic audience at the 1983 Toronto International Film Festival where it won the People's Choice Award. The recognition convinced Columbia that it had a marketable film, which would go on to enjoy great success and receive a Best Picture nomination.
"Because of that film festival, [the studio] threw money behind 'The Big Chill' for advertising. That's how that movie became as successful as it was," Williams says. "So you can see that film festivals really can have a big impact on whether a movie is taken seriously, particularly by its own studio."
Asked whether there are too many film festivals, Williams answers, "Maybe, but people love to give awards and stars love to get awards. If it brings more interest to the smaller movies, I say go for it."
"The Big Chill" is a film that fans want to see more of and they clamor for a sequel that revisits the eight college friends. Williams and her co-stars have no interest, if for no other reason than they don't want to be compared to themselves 30 years ago.
Director Gil Kenan has resurrected one of Williams' other big movies, "Poltergeist," which will premiere next month. Kenan chose to not cast Williams or Craig T. Nelson, who played her husband in the original horror flick, but the actors did receive a courtesy call from Sam Rockwell, who plays the father in the new version.
"The director didn't want it to seem gimmicky, but Sam Rockwell called Craig, which I thought was incredibly classy," she says. "He said, 'Rosemarie [DeWitt] and I have nothing but great respect for you. We really feel that the way you guys played the family was what made that film so special, and I want you to know that we're not trying to imitate you or recreate that. It's with great respect we're doing this.'"
Williams initially wanted nothing to do with the first movie, but she quickly changed her mind when she learned about Steven Spielberg's involvement.
"They said they were sending me a script called 'Poltergeist,' and I went, 'Oh, no way. No way will I be doing that movie.' And then they said, 'Well, Steven Spielberg is producing it.' And then I went, 'Oh, well, maybe I should read it,'" Williams says with a laugh.
She hated the face-peeling scene in the 1982 movie and acknowledged the special effects are nothing like what she's seen in the trailer for the new film. Williams still believes the family's relationship is what holds the audience.
"Given Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt and the caliber of actors that they are, I'm sure that they'll be terrific, and I'm sure it will be very much the situation where the family in jeopardy is what really holds you," she says.
Like many movie fans, Williams thinks a film that worked well the first time should not be touched. She has seen a lot of cringe-worthy remakes, but she has high hopes for this reboot.
"I think this will be pretty classy from all the people that are involved in it," Williams says. "I hope that it's not more successful than our version, of course. But I wish them well."
"Your Family or Mine" premieres tonight, April 7 at 10 p.m. EDT on TBS.
