Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bening-returns-to-stage-with-modern-twist-on-medea Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript After establishing herself as a star of the silver screen, Annette Bening has returned to her roots as a stage actor with a modern interpretation of Euripides' classical Greek play, "Medea." Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY BROWN: The story is an old one: in age, nearly 2,500 years; and in plot, a scorned wife who seeks revenge after her husband leaves her for another woman. ANNETTE BENING, actress: He was everything to me, and now he's the vilest man alive, my husband. JEFFREY BROWN: But Euripides' "Medea" takes revenge to a shocking extreme, killing her two children, and the role remains one of theater's most challenging. ANNETTE BENING: Forget you loved them. For one short day, forget, then weep. JEFFREY BROWN: Appearing in a new production at UCLA Live in Los Angeles, Annette Bening says the key is connecting to shared human emotions. ANNETTE BENING: I think most of us have felt a germ of what the great roles have. Most of us have. I think most of us have fallen in love. I think most of us have felt betrayed. Most of us have betrayed someone. JEFFREY BROWN: The production came about when Bening met Croatian theater director Lenka Udovicki at a dinner party. The two women, both working moms, hit it off im mediately. ANNETTE BENING: We started to talk, and then we just couldn't stop talking, basically. JEFFREY BROWN: But you weren't talking about "Medea"? You were talking about doing something? LENKA UDOVICKI, director: Well, we were talking about everything else, but… ANNETTE BENING: But — our families, our children. I have four children; she has three children. I have one husband; she has one husband. JEFFREY BROWN: That Annette Bening has a husband, Warren Beatty, is, of course, known to all. She's a leading Hollywood celebrity and an acclaimed film actress… ANNETTE BENING: You are seeing it. JEFFREY BROWN: … first getting attention in early movies like "The Grifters," later nominated for Academy Awards for performances in "American Beauty"… ANNETTE BENING: Your father seems to think this kind of behavior is something to be proud of. JEFFREY BROWN: … and "Being Julia." ANNETTE BENING: Perhaps we should punish you.