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Marcia Gay Harden on a role you may not know: herself
One Marcia Gay Harden role you may not be familiar with? Amateur potter. The Oscar-and Tony Award-winning actor had come on vacation with her kids – Eulala, Julitta, and Hudson Harden Scheel – to Faenza, Italy, where local artisans been making ceramics since the first century B.C.
Harden’s love of pottery began in the 1990s in New York, while in a Broadway show. “I’m a practical potter; I like to make things you can use,” she said. “The main thing our teacher said to us was, Calma, calma. ‘Cause we’re all Americans who are, like, ‘Ooh, hurry it up!'”
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At Faenza Art Ceramic Center, they were revealing a week’s work – and another side of Harden. “When I think of my mom, I think of her in her, you know, clay-covered pants and bandana and, like, some old sweatshirt, throwing pots,” said daughter Eulala. “Sort of being that, like, down-to-earth person that we know intimately.”
Harden’s playful side does not often come across in her roles. “I used to say it’s ’cause I’m brunette; you always cast brunettes as the serious woman,” she said. “But that’s not necessarily true. But I just think I’ve been cast in a way that has a lot of gravitas.”
Harden got her break playing the femme fatale in the 1990 film, “Miller’s Crossing” opposite Gabriel Byrne.
Watch a scene with Marcia Gay Harden and Gabriel Byrne in “Miller’s Crossing” (1990):
The Coen Brothers gave her a chance for the world to see what she could do. “Yeah, they opened a door,” Harden said. “They gave me a chance to play. You know, you want to be seen. And I think that’s one of the best gifts we can give to somebody, is to see them: I see you.”
And she’s been seen in a lot. She won her Oscar for portraying artist Lee Krasner in “Pollock.”
Watch a scene with Marcia Gay Harden and Ed Harris in “Pollock” (2000):
She got the Tony for “God of Carnage” on Broadway. On TV she’s been a socialite (“Uncoupled”) and a hard-edged reporter (“The Morning Show”). There have been crime dramas (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), medical dramas (“Code Black”), and just drama-dramas (“Mystic River”). “I’m a bit of a workaholic,” she said.
But she’s never counted up her credits. “Hell, no,” she said. “I think I’m not interested. Is that awful?”
She’s now on to her next role: lawyer Margaret Wright in CBS’ “So Help Me Todd.” Harden’s character hires her son to be a private investigator for her firm. “I like that she is hoity-toity and flawed at the same time,” she said.
Family drama, and a fair share of mishaps, ensue, with lots of physical comedy. “Isn’t it fun? I love the physical comedy,” Harden said. “For me, it’s a blast. After a cut is finished, I just feel like I can hear someone going, ‘Shameless. Shameless.’ ‘What do you mean it’s too much? What do you mean falling over the chair and showing my panties is too much?’ You know what I mean? Like, ‘Well, was it funny? Was it funny?'”
Watch a scene with Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin from “So Help Me Todd”:
Until now, that side of Harden’s personality has largely been reserved for her off-screen life. “This is the first time I’ve sort of opened up my private life to so many people,” she said.
Why? “To protect me and my kids. Because [going public] seems more like a celebrity than an actor to me. An actor works. An actor has a script. An actor approaches the role. A celebrity is sort of – it’s who they are, it’s their life. And to me, they don’t really need to go together.”
But Harden has been uncharacteristically public about her family recently, sharing, during a televised fundraiser, that all three of her kids identify as queer. “Of which I’ve been accused of being a groomer,” she said. “Wouldn’t we all be so lucky if we could just groom our little children to be whatever, like, it’s such bulls***. As if people’s gender identities are able to be manipulated.
“My eldest child uses they/them pronouns. And my son is gay. And my youngest daughter, I would say, is fluid, understands loving a human being. So, I love that about them.”
“But it was a process for you?” asked Doane.
“It’s a process to be the parent I wanna be in it.”
Marcia Gay Harden
So, what guides her? “They, they guide me,” she said. “And my love of them guides me, because what’s the alternative? Well, you be who you are and go outside of this house then. Where’d my kids go?”
Harden divorced in 2012 from director Thaddaus Scheel. Now 64, she calls herself a single mom.
From what we saw, on the Vancouver set of “So Help Me Todd,” the role of caregiver comes naturally – chocolates for the TV crew in her fake office. “When I come back after a week or two and they are empty, I feel so happy,” she said.
They can be long days of shooting, And she’s on location sometimes for months. So, she finds community in something familiar: a local pottery studio in Vancouver.
She showed Doane some samples, stamped with her initials. “My daughter gave me this little stamp that I have,” she said.
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Marcia Gay Harden does put her own stamp on whatever she does, even if it means removing a bit of herself in the process. “I like to garden, I like to do pottery. These are slightly isolationist things to do,” she said. “Because otherwise, I do think one can start worrying too much about what ‘they’ all think, right? What people say about me, and do they like my whatever? It’s not me.”
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Story produced by Sara Kugel. Editor: George Pozderec.
Former President Donald Trump regularly criticizes President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris over what inflation is costing families, citing one figure in particular.
At a Las Vegas rally on Sept. 13, Trump blamed Harris for causing “the worst inflation in American history, costing us and the typical family $28,000.” He also highlighted the $28,000 figure at recent rallies in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Under President Biden, year-over-year inflation — or the pace of price increases — peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, the highest monthly figure in about 40 years, but it has since cooled considerably. In August, inflation hit a three-year low of 2.5%.
Lower inflation means the rate of price increases has slowed, but not that prices themselves have decreased. CBS News’ price tracker shows the cost of everyday household expenses remain higher compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Economists told CBS News that Trump’s $28,000 figure is largely correct. Citing the figure on its own, however, ignores the crucial context that inflation led to income growth, not just price hikes. Data indicates that over the last three and a half years, many Americans have seen a net positive increase in their finances.
Where the $28,000 figure comes from
The estimate that inflation has cost the typical American household $28,000 since Mr. Biden took office is consistent with an inflation tracker from Republicans on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.
The tracker is based on government data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis of state-level personal consumption expenditures — one measure of spending on goods and services.
The study tracked monthly costs for the average American household in each state since January 2021. From that point through July 2024, the average cumulative increase in household costs among all 50 states and Washington, D.C., was $27,950, due to inflation. In an update for August 2024, the increase rose to around $29,000.
Economists told CBS News the estimate for the total increase in household costs in the last three and a half years is likely in the correct range. Experts generally agree that household costs have increased since January 2021, although the precise number differs depending on the specific metrics used.
Comparing price increases under Trump and Biden
The Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee told CBS News they did not do a similar analysis of how household costs changed under Trump’s administration.
Government data shows prices also grew under Trump, but by much less. The Consumer Price Index for all items increased by around 8% over Trump’s four years in office. By comparison, the total increase in consumer prices thus far under Biden is around 20%.
Of course, the two faced markedly different economic circumstances during their time in the White House.
While Trump’s administration enjoyed low inflation and healthy job growth for much of his time in office, the pandemic leveled the economy toward the end of his term. Early in the Biden administration, inflation reached modern highs as the economy recovered from employment and global supply chain disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many other countries around the world also saw high inflation due to the pandemic — in some cases far higher than the U.S.
The Federal Reserve believes keeping inflation at a low, stable rate of around 2% year-over-year is best for a well functioning economy where people and businesses can plan financially. It’s typical for prices to grow throughout a presidential term. A reduction in prices, or deflation, is generally not thought of as desirable by economists, and price increases are considered a feature of a healthy economy.
How incomes have fared under Biden
Economists say price increases should be compared to income increases to fully understand how inflation is affecting people’s finances.
Mark Zandi of the independent Moody’s Analytics told CBS News that due to inflation, the median American household spent $905 more in August 2024 to purchase the same goods and services than they did in August 2021. However, the median household made $1,073 more in August 2024 than it did three years ago.
Cumulatively, the Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee told CBS News that their calculations show the average family earned $35,390 in additional wages and salaries between the start of Mr. Biden’s term and July 2024 — a figure that’s more than $7,000 greater than the total increase in household costs over that time period estimated by the committee’s Republicans.
As of last year, Americans’ incomes had rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census, in 2023, median household income rose a healthy 4%, to $80,610, on par with earnings in 2019 on an inflation-adjusted basis.
Another way to measure the financial health of Americans is to look at government data on real disposable personal income, which reflects after-tax income adjusted for inflation. This income figure includes not only wages and salaries but also income from investments and government subsidies.
Disposable personal income has been higher on average during Mr. Biden’s term than it was in December 2020, Trump’s last full month in office. According to Gary Burtless, an economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, real disposable personal income per person has been above $49,407 — where it was in December 2020 — for 30 of the 43 months of Mr. Biden’s term so far.
“Given that Americans’ actual real incomes have increased over the course of the Biden administration, it’s a little hard to see the basis for claiming that ‘inflation under Biden has cost the typical U.S. family $28,000,'” Burtless said.
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