Actress Kathleen Turner has been a friend to Planned Parenthood and People for the American Way for many years, but this weekend she's coming to town to support a new cause -- gun control.
"It was very much [due to] Newtown," she told Yeas & Nays Thursday. "It's such a grass roots kind of response, it just came about from everyone's shock and horror at the murder of all those children," she continued.
Turner explained that Arena Stage artistic director Molly Smith called her up to see if she would come and speak at Saturday's March on Washington for Gun Control, something that Smith helped organize. Turner, who spent two months working at Arena playing Molly Ivins in "Red Hot Patriot," said absolutely.
"Obama said that he needs the will of the American people to make this sort of thing happen, so this is a response from the American people," Turner explained, adding that she is for limiting the magazine size of guns and tightening up background check loopholes, and would happily follow up with Congress.
As for returning to the local stage, Turner also said that she's thinking of returning to D.C. in 2014. "Molly's asked me to come do 'Glass Menagerie' in 2014 and, you know, Amanda's a role that I probably should tackle so I said yeah, I would definitely consider that," Turner said, referring to the Tennessee Williams' four-character play. She did, after all, have a good time living in the District. "I had a great little apartment on Eight Street in between the Portrait Gallery and the Archives and all those really good restaurants over on Seventh Street," she added.
The March on Washington for Gun Control will step off at 10 a.m. Saturday from the Capitol Reflecting Pool and travel to the Washington Monument.
