As she hits the stage in an anarchic comedy about a family in freefall, the once-Oscar-nominated actor talks about her 2019 fraud conviction, why she’d never play a trans woman again – and being defended by David Mamet
Not everyone who sees the new revival of Taylor Mac’s anarchic comedy Hir (pronounced “here”) will realise that the play was named by the New York Times as one of the 25 most influential works of postwar queer literature, alongside the likes of Angels in America and Giovanni’s Room. But there is one thing that every audience member will know about the show’s star. “Yes,” agrees Felicity Huffman, who plays Paige, the manic, liberated mother of a transgender son. “I walk into the room with it. I did it. It’s black and white.”
The “it” to which she refers when we meet in the deserted auditorium of the Park theatre in London is her 2019 criminal conviction. Huffman, who is married to the Fargo actor William H Macy, pleaded guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud after paying $15,000 (£12,000) for an improved SAT score to help their eldest daughter win a place at college. Huffman recently said that she would have felt like a bad mother had she not done it.
