The Time Jeanne Tripplehorn Got Starstruck

If a former rodeo queen riding an old money Oklahoma family for dear life sounds over the top, well, buckle up! Jeanne Tripplehorn brings a bold, fun performance as Betty Jo Washberg to The Lowdown, the noirish Tulsa TV show that’s already bursting at the seams with funny capers, cartoonish characters, and murky politics inspired by our goofy ass city. 

Viewers who tune in to FX and Hulu this week get a lot of screen time with Betty Jo, an alcoholic mom whose nuclear family’s reputation gets upended by the suspicious death of her oddball husband played by Tim Blake Nelson. I got to speak with Jeanne before the show premiered about the time she got starstruck as a teenager at a Tulsa party, working with Sterlin Harjo and her love for a certain local publication. Enjoy! 

Matt Carney: Hi, Jeanne. It's great to get to speak with you. I've watched the first five episodes of [The Lowdown], so I did my homework, I’m ready to chat. 

Jeanne Tripplehorn: I love The Pickup.

Matt Carney: Oh, that's so kind of you to say! I really appreciate that.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: I mean, I love This Land Press. I was a subscriber. I had all the issues [of This Land] when they were really big.

I had that great Gaylord Herron issue. I saved that. And even in my office—now it's considered old-school—but on the magazine rack that I have in my office, I have a This Land magazine with … what's his name? Heron Blank. With a little crayon drawing of Leon [Russell], I think.

Matt Carney: Harold Blank. 

Jeanne Tripplehorn: So did you work for This Land? 

Matt Carney: No, I wrote one story for This Land as a freelance writer, but I didn't work on the editorial staff. The connection between This Land and The Pickup is Vince LoVoi, the publisher of This Land, and he’s our publisher too.

We wanted [The Pickup] to be spiritually connected with This Land as a storytelling vehicle for middle America. But we wanted to have a different name because This Land was so synonymous with a beautifully printed magazine and [The Pickup is] fully online, which is kind of what you have to do nowadays.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: That's where it is. I signed up immediately. I don't know how I discovered it, whether it was through Instagram or whatever, but I immediately signed up. I think I might have been one of your first [subscribers], like, in the first few weeks.

Matt Carney: It means a lot to me for you to say that. I'm from Tulsa too and have been here a long time. I worked for the Tulsa World on their high school section way back in the day.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Where'd you go to high school? 

Matt Carney: Union. And then Metro Christian.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Yeah. Oh my God. Well, Tulsa has changed so much.

It's wild. And now, God … with this show. But it's been bubbling for the last—I want to say I don't know how many years—but it's just really been percolating and I think it's just hit a boiling point. Did you see that about The Today Show?

Matt Carney: No.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: The Today Show is going to be broadcasting from Tulsa next month. Their third hour. I don't know if that means we're jumping the shark. 

Matt Carney: [Laughs] Well, I think I've got some questions here and we'll kind of get to that since you have a particular point of view on Tulsa and its place in the larger national imagination. But I want to start by asking about your character in The Lowdown, Betty Jo Washberg. What drew you to the role in the first place?

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Well, I would have done anything for Sterlin. He could have said “You need to play a cat that’s laying in the corner,” and I would have done it. We got on the phone and he was telling me about Betty Jo, and that was it. I mean, it was like, “What woman doesn't want to play a former rodeo queen who's married into wealth and is just hanging on by her claws to stay in the family?” I mean, it's so rich right there.

Matt Carney: Yeah, watching the show that was in my notes that you get to be sexy and fun and a little bit chaotic as Betty Jo, as she's also grieving this loss.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Yeah, she's the original hot mess. 

My biggest challenge was to ground her. I didn't want her to be a caricature. And I know how Sterlin writes and directs. He really walks a fine line. Which is why he is so good and why everything he does is so compelling.

In life, there's humor in tragedy and vice versa. And it was really important that I ground Betty Jo in reality. And the whole rodeo queen of it all is such a rich base to draw from as a character. There's so much psychologically in what it takes to be a rodeo queen from a small town.

It didn't take much for me to use my imagination and to pull from it, just having lived in Oklahoma and [having] known people from all walks of life. But it was really important to me that she just wasn't some gum-smacking caricature that we've all seen through the years. I wanted to find her fire. I wanted to find her pain. I wanted to find what makes her tick and ground it. 

But then [in] wardrobe fittings with Alyssa [Blair Cawthon], who's this brilliant, brilliant costume designer on the show. I kept walking that tightrope of what she would be wearing.

And when I was staying in my hotel … I did a deep dive into the Cowboy Channel … [and] they had a reality TV show called Rodeo Queens, and I started watching it. I was like, “Oh my, pay dirt.” I hit gold. And I was watching it, and I called Alyssa and I said we need to bump [the costuming] up a notch.

But it was really important that I keep … what drives her and her fears. I wanted to be as close to the bone as I could.

Matt Carney: You said working with Sterlin was a big priority for you. Did something in Rez Dogs connect with you as an Oklahoman?

Jeanne Tripplehorn: I've admired him and have been drawn to his storytelling since he did This May Be The Last Time.

And I knew him all the way back to when he and Lee Roy had Public Secrets … the visual media portion of This Land. I would watch those videos. I loved them because I missed Tulsa so much and I think I just had my son, so I just was really missing Tulsa and I couldn't get back as much as I wanted to. It was really important that I stay connected. So I was an admirer. On to him from the very beginning.

I saw Mekko. I saw, you know, his documentaries and then Reservation Dogs. And [then] we met in LA at this event. We were introduced by Jeff Moore who had started OKPOP. And then we, you know, through social media, kept in touch and I could not tell enough people about Reservation Dogs. I think it's one of the most important shows in the last 50 years. It’s beautiful and funny, it’s just everything. 

Matt Carney: I was going to ask you about the guerrilla journalism of Lee Roy Chapman, the real person the Lee Raybon character was inspired by. Do you remember the Tate Brady story coming out and the public reckoning around it?  

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Oh yes I do. [Lee] was so important to Tulsa, which is why I think this show is really important on a macro and a micro level. I mean, you know, what we're going through as a nation and journalism and Lee Roy was dealing with this … I think Tulsa probably still has a few more secrets.

I wish Lee Roy was still here. We have the Center for Public Secrets. I just think his work was so important and it was a real loss when we lost him. And I think [The Lowdown is] such a beautiful tribute to a friend.

That's why there's just so much incredible energy swirling around this project, because of that. It's such a beautiful tribute to a friend. It's also a reminder of how important journalism is and finding these truths and holding power accountable. It's all of that. But oh, yeah, I read all of Lee Roy's pieces. I followed the whole Brady thing. That was jaw-dropping. 

Matt Carney: Watching the show itself … one thing I noticed is every frame of [The Lowdown] is slathered with Tulsa easter eggs.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Oh yeah. When I read the first script, I was just laughing and smiling. 

The analogy is some of the great cartoons, animation from the ‘30s and ‘40s, even the ‘50s, where it was geared to kids, but it was also geared to adults.

You know, we had a lot that went over the kids’ heads, but as adults, there was a lot for us as well. It's very much like this for Tulsa in that you don't have to be from Tulsa to love this show, but if you are from Tulsa, it's nirvana. It's so delicious.

And the minute I read it, I knew that Lee Raybon was Lee Roy, for starters. Oh my god, the white van. I hate to use the word “tickled,” but I was completely tickled. And then even Raybon. I knew Bill Rabon.¹ 

I have a Bill Rabon painting that I see every single day in my house. So that and Sweet Emily's—I knew Emily Smith.² Leon and my dad and Emily, I mean—it was the biggest, biggest deal when I was younger—Emily used to have the best Christmas parties.

Everybody who was anybody in Tulsa was [there]. And I, of course, was really young and I was never going to be invited. But one year—I want to say it's one of her last Christmas parties—I went to her party and I was still really young. And I don't even think I stayed long because my dad didn't want me there. Back in those days, you didn't want to be at the same party that your daughter was showing up at. But I did. It was a big damn deal to be at Emily's Christmas party.

Matt Carney: Tell me more about these Christmas parties. Set the scene. Did she host them in her home? Like, who was on the invite list?

Jeanne Tripplehorn: She had them in her home. It's been so long, I don't remember. I just remember being in the kitchen [and feeling like] I'm too young for this, you know what I mean? Like, I'm way out of my league. These people are so incredibly cool. And I’m really young. 

I just walked in and I stayed for a little bit. I don't even think I really drank. But, badge of honor. 

And Sterlin … [the show] is a real love letter. He knows his Tulsa. He knows it. He goes really, really deep.

Matt Carney: Yeah there are QuikTrip cups scattered across every surface in the show.  

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Yes! [laughs]

Matt Carney: It goes beyond the building blocks of setting or character. It’s like Tulsa is the aesthetic dressed across the entirety of the thing. 

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Absolutely. I think it's going to connect. And like I said, you don't have to be from Tulsa to love this show, but, boy, if you know Tulsa, if you grew up here, if it's in your bones, it's going to be a comfort show.

Matt Carney: Yes. 

Jeanne Tripplehorn: And it's not all pretty.

Matt Carney: Yeah.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: [Sterlin’s] not sugarcoating it at all.

But there's some very loving … I don't know what you would call it. It’s like you said, the QuikTrip cups. You just see it and you feel good, you know?

Matt Carney: You feel familiar and kind of at home.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: Yeah. You feel home.

It’s rich. It's a tapestry of past and present and future and reality and myth. It's just a rich tapestry that Sterlin weaves in all of his work. And this one … it makes me emotional in the best possible way. 

And Sterlin, by bringing me home again in so many ways … this experience was like no other professionally that I've had.

Matt Carney: That's wonderful.

Jeanne Tripplehorn: It really is. And, yeah, Tulsa's having a moment, and I'm really proud. I'm so proud to be a part of that moment. 

Just when I thought I couldn't have a deeper connection to my hometown, this just took it to a whole other level.

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