Mackenzie Phillips, who's upending expectations with her portrayal of a brutal inmate on "Orange is the New Black," deserves another look off-screen as well.
Phillips has battled addiction and made disturbing sexual abuse allegations well before such revelations were common, and she's forthright when asked to look back at those dark chapters.
But it's the work that's keeping her busy and fulfilled now — whether acting or helping people address addiction at a Southern California treatment facility — that she'd rather concentrate on.
This image released by Netflix shows Mackenzie Phillips in a scene from "Orange Is the New Black." (JoJo WhildenNetflix via AP)
Her personal life also is "fantastic," she said, including her relationships with her half-siblings (actress Bijou Phillips and singer Chynna Phillips are among them).
There was conflicting family reaction when Phillips alleged sexual abuse by her father, the late John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas musical fame, in her 2009 memoir "High on Arrival."
Phillips, 58, who gained fame in the 1970s on the sitcom "One Day at a Time" but lost the role as fallout from her drug and alcohol use, appears on the Netflix reboot as leader of a veterans support group. On Netflix's "Orange is the New Black," Phillips is nearly unrecognizable as Barbara, whose face shows her cruelty and self-destructiveness.
Drugs also are part of the character's life, a real-life parallel that Phillips addressed during an interview with The Associated Press. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: You mentioned viewers have been taken aback by how you look playing Barbara. Any hesitation to take the part because of ego?
Phillips: No, because it's a character. And I'm a woman of a certain age who hasn't had any plastic surgery and plans to keep it that way. Consider this: Had I been Botox'd and nipped and tucked and lifted, they never would have hired me. I'm very proud of my age because I never thought I would live this long.
AP: Did you feel removed enough from your own drug use to play an addicted character?
Phillips: People said, 'Weren't you triggered by snorting fake drugs?' I was like, 'No, I was absolutely filled with the deepest gratitude that I don't live that way.' It's very bleak, and there's nothing to look forward to but the next hit for Barb. So when she she's not getting high, she starts focusing all that beautiful energy that you could focus on wellness or helping people on revenge and resentment. It's pretty textbook that energy needs to be focused somewhere purposeful or you're going to get high again.
AP: How long have you been sober?
Phillips: Well, this is where it gets interesting. I have come to the conclusion, throughout many years of sobriety, that time does not treat nor does it barely heal this thing. Otherwise I wouldn't have relapsed and gotten arrested almost 10 years ago to the day. Demi Lovato, bless her heart, I'm so supportive of her, wouldn't have relapsed after six years if it mattered how long a person was sober.
AP: So how do you measure where you stand?
Phillips: What you're doing in the day that you've been given that's taking you away from a drink or a drug, and what are you doing that's taking you back toward one. Are you helping other people? Because in this whole world of recovery you cannot keep it unless you give it away. You can't like hold your recovery to yourself.
AP: Do you think your allegations about your father, which got sharp pushback, would have been perceived differently in the MeToo era?
Phillips: I think that if 'High on Arrival' came out now, people would not have been speculating on whether I was a liar or not. I remember watching one of those evening magazine shows and they actually had a body language expert who was looking at clips of me talking on 'Oprah' and seeing whether or not from my body language if I was lying. I don't think that would be considered appropriate today. So I think it would have been a very different experience. But I'm not sure.
AP: What else are you up to now?
Phillips: My life is fantastic. I've been in the same house for 18 years. I have a 31-year-old son named Shane, who is a spectacular human being. I have a bunch of dogs. I'm in relationships with my sisters. I mean, it's an incredible thing.
Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
