A 30-year-old influencer suddenly finds herself in the body of her 70-year-old self in the body-switch comedy “Mack & Rita” starring Diane Keaton. In her new (older?) incarnation, she’s surrounded by a group of friends who become something of a Greek chorus. One of those women is played by Wendie Malick.
“It’s a great celebration of women friends at any age, and a reminder that women can stay fabulous right up to the end,” said Malick. “The allure of this movie is that so many of us had role models that were older. My grandmother, for instance, was an opera singer who gave it up to raise her kids, but my grandfather owned a hotel and she would go in and sing songs to people in the tavern. She celebrated life in her own way and seemed comfortable in her own skin. And now more than ever, with young people being judged on social media, it’s very hard to get to that point.”
As an actor, Malick is known for her perfectly timed sardonic line readings. It’s a talent she’s brought to everything from “Dream On” to “Just Shoot Me!” to “Hot in Cleveland.” Was she like that even as a child? “My mother and her friends, who played bridge together and raised their kids together, all had a similar sarcastic sense of humor and I could do all their voices and their mannerisms. One night my mother said, ‘So I understand you do us — let’s see what you do!’ And I thought, oh dear, they’re going to be mad, but I showed them and they loved it. Those women have filtered through so many of the characters that I have done.”
