Lori Singer

On Rachel Hendrix, cello music, and ‘staying footloose’

Dancer, cellist, and actress, Lori Singer grew up in Texas, Portland, Vancouver, and London. Her father Jacques Singer was a symphony conductor, and her mother Leslie was a concert pianist. Accepted to the Juilliard Performing Arts School at age 14, she became the school’s youngest undergraduate music student. A year after enrolling, she made her debut as a soloist with the Western Washington Symphony. In 1980, she won the Bergen Philharmonic Competition. Tall and strikingly beautiful, Singer also pursued a successful modeling career with the Elite Model Agency.

In 1982, Singer landed a role in the TV series Fame. She was a natural to play the tall, beautiful cellist Julie Miller, displaying her dancing and singing skills. Singer later portrayed a model in the TV movie Born Beautiful, winning a Silver Halo Award for her performance. Her breakout role was as Ariel in the 1984 dance feature Footloose, which grossed $80,000,000. In 1985, Singer was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead

By Alex A. Kecskes

in Trouble in Mind. In 1993, she won a Golden Globe Award for her outstanding performance in Short Cuts. Two years later, she starred in the sci-fi series VR.5. Singer still plays the cello regularly and devotes her spare time to the “DISHES Project” for Pediatric AIDS.

In the heartfelt drama Rachel Hendrix, Singer is Rachel, a creative writing professor who experiences a relapse of grief after losing her husband amidst the impact of COVID-19 on her beloved coastal town.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview. You are an accomplished cellist and worked as an Elite model. What film or actor drew you into acting?

Lori Singer: Well, my father was an orchestra conductor, my mother is a pianist, my older brother is a Shakespearean actor, and my mother’s second cousin is actor Raymond Massey. So there are a lot of actors and musicians in my family. When I went to Julliard, I spent a lot of time watching rehearsals in the theatre. So I began studying acting at HB Studio and with Jill Adler and Sanford Meisner. Of course, by that time, I was already working. But I continued studying at the Actor’s Studio.

Rachel Hendrix is a powerful film about finding one’s way through the grief of loss. How did you prepare for the role?

Singer: We were in the middle of Covid and I’d just lost a very close friend, Hal Willner. I also lost my mother not too long ago. Victor (Nunez) is an amazing filmmaker and he made this film as an ode to his wife who passed away. He really had a strong vision of what he wanted. He wrote, directed, and produced the film. He also shot, edited, and even AD’d the film. We were all very much in his rhythm. It spoke to layers of grief, and of Rachel not being present, no matter how hard she tried. She’s still teaching, seeing her daughter, and calling her son but she was disconnected. When Ann (Kim Sandwich) loses her boyfriend, Rachel sees her life mirrored in a very young person.

You were so convincing as a creative writing professor. I wanted to sign up for your class. Were you a teacher?

Singer: (laughs). Well, I did teach some acting classes, chamber music classes, master classes, and others at NYU. I also taught at a performing arts high school. I love young people and their writing.

You expertly captured those silent moments of distraction when Rachel reflects on everyday events that remind her of Carl. Can you go into those a bit?

Singer: That push-pull was so paralyzing for Rachel. And she didn’t even realize she wasn’t fully present. It’s not that she’s living in the past, but a past that wasn’t exactly the way she imagined it. This is very jarring because I think Rachel really is or wants to be a realist. Even when, in her class, she’s trying to change, understand, and deconstruct Jacques Derrida. What does that mean? What exactly is it? She completely steps away at that moment and steps out of herself. It’s that struggle. And maybe, in a certain way, we all struggled during Covid, to pull ourselves together and try to be optimistic for each other. Rachel has lost touch, not only with herself but with her family. And she can’t quite manage it until the very end when she realizes the beauty of the love that surrounds her.

What did you find most challenging about the role or being in the film?

Singer: This was a very personal film for Victor. Just to fulfill his vision was really it for me. There was a moment when Rachel listens to Beethoven, but other than that, during the rest of the film, he wanted to have her listen to music. That’s very rare. In every other film that I’ve done. I’ve always chosen to have music in my head. In this film, Rachel is just struggling to hold on to where she is. That was different because I had to accept Victor’s idea of what Rachel was going through. It made me understand his vision of Rachel, of being physically there but not present. In class, was she really hearing her students? That push-pull was so alive for Victor. That’s how Rachel lived and how she barely got out of it. For her, it was about reclaiming life and living.

Can you go into your favorite scene or scenes and why you like them?

Singer: It’s such a totality. Almost like Our Town. Is Rachel layering the people around her with their reality? What’s grabbing her? It’s something out of reach. She never says, “I see Carl.” She also never says, “I might be drinking too much.” She never says to her son, “When I think of you, I miss you so much. I only see you when you’re little.” Because her only memories of him are from when he was little. Maybe he was most honest with her. People move in and out of her life and she’s grasping at these various impressions. And when she gets back to writing, she writes about Carl. Even the report was her grasping and trying to seize control over something.

What have you learned about acting and show business that truly surprised you?

Singer: I always play characters that are a bit manic or crazy (laughs). Rachel Hendrix centers around a completely different tone. It’s an ode to Victor’s wife but it’s also about a very humble character. She’s a writer but she’s not trying to be a Hemingway. It was a surprise for me to play a wonderful kind of ‘every-woman’ person who loses her husband and doesn’t go overboard with emotion. When she goes to the ocean, she stands at the shore but doesn’t go into the water—a metaphor for her being at the edge of reality.

Many fans loved you in Footloose. Can you talk about what you liked about it?

Singer: (laughs). Well, I was a lot like that at the time. I was from Texas originally. My family was in the spotlight because my father was a performer. It’s similar to a preacher’s daughter. You’re supposed to stand up straight, do right, and be a model for the town. And that’s a lot of pressure. I had a very strong father and a very loving mother. We all got along so well that it was just very real. Christopher Penn could not dance. When I saw him practice dancing in the garage, I thought it was so interesting and true that I felt they should have used that. But in the end, Chris went to every Hollywood party and danced. And

Chuck (played by Jim Young) was a stunning cowboy type. John and Diane were like my parents. I sat with them for lunch and it was like being home. I loved being wilder than any of them. I did all the stunts. I stood for too long in front of the train—the stuntman had to pull me away. I choreographed the scene with the car and the truck. I wanted to be intimately involved.

What were you like in high school? The girl most likely to….

Singer: (laughs) I wanted to compete with boys in racing. To try to do something good, to contribute something to the world, to help people. I wrote letters to the editor when I was in the eighth grade—one was even published.