Holland Taylor portrays larger-than-life ex-Texas governor in ‘Ann’

Although actress Holland Taylor has played everyone from Nancy Reagan to a tabloid queen, she says she never thought she’d aced it.

“I never felt that I was a master,” she says. “I have felt that I was a member of the wedding, pretty much.”

While most people know her from her spot-on performance as the self-absorbed mother of the “two men” on “Two and a Half Men,” Taylor says it wasn’t till she wrote her own role that she felt validated.

That play was her one-woman show, “Ann,” in which Taylor portrays the late, larger-than-life Texas former Gov. Ann Richards. PBS will air that portrayal on “Great Performances” June 19.

“I had met her once,” recalls Taylor. “I had, actually, a private lunch with her and one other person. And I fell in love with her. But I was already in love with her from her persona in our culture because she had been around by then quite a while,” says Taylor.

“And I think that that knowledge of her is what really fueled my desire to write the play. I felt she was a very valuable, necessary hero in our culture. And that’s why I wrote it. And I researched it, deep immersion, for three years before I put pen to paper.”

The outspoken Richards served as governor of the Lone Star State from 1991 to ‘95. Taylor was attracted to Richards’ candor and commitment.

“Ann Richards inspired people on a one-on-one basis as a live person,” she says. “And so I thought if I can recreate the persona, some of the inspiration will come along with it like a hologram.

And it did. And so I know her very well … Because of all that study, I could write a play. I wrote everything that she says in the play. There are a few sentiments of hers that are in the play, but they aren’t like great quotes. They are how she felt about things … I used direct quotes, but not (for) those lines, because everybody knows them. So I wanted to be fresh and new.”

Richards was a devout people person, says Taylor.

“She was always the life of any party. And she was a convivial person who wanted to be amongst people. In fact, she even said, ‘I feed off of people. People give me energy.’ She said, ‘I just suck everything out of an audience and out of my friends. I absorb them into my being.’ So she needed that,” reports Taylor.

The actress says she was profoundly affected by Richards’ death in 2006. “I was so mournful when she died, and I realized as I experienced it, that I thought this is a terrible loss for America as well as me. I felt like a child. I couldn’t accept it. So after some months of that, I thought, ‘I have to do something creative.’

“And long story short, I realized I had to do a play about her because she was a live performer herself. And then I thought, ‘I can’t pay somebody to research this and write this. I have to research it anyway. I’ve been in a billion plays. I know what makes plays work. I’m a handy writer.’ So I wrote it.”

Creating your own role has its perks, says Taylor.

“I’ve had situations where I’d audition for things where they would say to me later, ‘We’ve made such a mistake, we’re sorry we didn’t go for you for this other reason.’ Or sometimes it’s not a mistake, it just doesn’t go your way. It has nothing to do with your abilities. They say, ‘We actually needed a brunette.’ I’ve had that said to me and justifiably. There are very stupid reasons why you don’t get work … That’s one reason why the creation of ‘Ann’ was such a major creation in my life,” she says.

But that creative process took its toll.

“I had a physical collapse after. ‘Ann’ had a really long run, eight a week, a three-hour show. It ran longer than we ever thought. When it closed, that period of my life came to an end in one day — it’s over. Then all those people were gone.

“I literally think I had a true case of PTSD. I’d lost 20 pounds on that job. My doctor said, ‘You’re unable to eat enough to support this work.’ I became really frail after that long run. Then my world disappearing, all those people gone, all those people gone, all the joy gone, I had a serious, serious depression afterwards which I believe was physical as well.

“I was in the hospital for a while. I just needed time, contemplation — and then back to work.”