Catherine Zeta-Jones Teases ‘Queen America’ Finale & Hopes for Season 2
Q&A
Catherine Zeta-Jones has long been considered Hollywood royalty, so it’s only fitting that the Welsh-born actress — aka Mrs. Michael Douglas — totally rules on her new streaming comedy, Queen America.
Zeta-Jones plays Vicki Ellis, a tyrannical pageant coach from Oklahoma who grooms her girls to win at any cost — and, as we’ve learned over the course of the first season, who also has plenty of skeletons hidden behind the sequins in her closet. With Vicki’s protégée, Samantha (Belle Shouse), vying for the all-important Miss America Starred and Striped crown, Zeta-Jones joins us for the interview portion of the competition.
How are Vicki’s cracks starting to show as pageant day draws near?
Catherine Zeta-Jones: At first, you get the sense she’s one-dimensional — this tough, ruthless pageant coach in a light and frivolous world. By the end of the season, we’ve gone much deeper: Her façade is just a façade. We see her fragility and desperation to make good not just in her own life but in Samantha’s as well.
Sounds like you’ve developed a soft spot for her.
Oh, my God, yeah! I want everyone to love to hate her and hate to love her. You may not like this woman, but once the onion layers are peeled away, you’ll understand her.
Beauty pageants have steadily fallen out of favor. Does that impact someone like Vicki?
She still lives in a world before political correctness and before all these great things that have happened for women, and she can feel that world slipping away. That’s why I’d love to do a second season, because there are so many directions we could go next with a woman who, at the age of 49, is saying, “OK, what do I do now?”
Speaking of changing times: Is there anything more new-school than a show on Facebook?
I’m very up on devices and social media and all that — my husband always says thank God for me — but still, this is completely new. Do I miss the old school? Yes, I do, because it’s familiar. But I have to let it go. Once Queen America started airing and I could see people’s conversations about it, their likes and dislikes, I got it.
You’ve been doing a lot of TV: Cocaine Godmother, Feud…
The last three options I’ve had were for TV, and they were great. At this point in my career, I want no a–holes, no egomaniacs. If I’m going to leave my 15-year-old daughter [Carys] and lovely husband, it has to be something I really want to do.
Queen America, Season Finale, Sunday, January 6, 9/8c, Facebook Watch
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