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"   Throughout the big-screen adaptation of Tracy Letts&amp;#039; Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning stage drama August: Osage County, the vitriolic confrontations between Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep\u2014as distant, angry Barbara and her matriarchal, pill-addicted mother, Violet, respectively\u2014are often so cruel that the dysfunction is nearly suffocating. It&amp;#039;s remarkable to watch\u2014if exhausting\u2014but amid this devolving brood that&amp;#039;s gathered home in Oklahoma after a family tragedy, there is a faint light, a gasp of air in the chaos. Ivy, the middle-aged middle sibling among the three Weston daughters and Violet&amp;#039;s only local offspring, is &amp;quot;the watcher of the family,&amp;quot; says actress Julianne Nicholson of her character. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s there taking it all in, but still thinking about what she has to do to survive.&amp;quot; And it&amp;#039;s in her survival, fueled by a latent passion, that our empathy is most fully awakened. &amp;quot;I definitely felt something of Ivy,&amp;quot; says Nicholson, whose career has been full of supporting roles on TV (Jenny on Ally McBeal; Law &amp;amp;amp; Order: Criminal Intent) and in independent films (Kinsey; Shadows and Lies). &amp;quot;Like I needed to just watch in the beginning. But Meryl, Julia\u2014they never made me feel like I couldn&amp;#039;t be in a scene with them.&amp;quot; Roberts confirms Nicholson isn&amp;#039;t just playing nice: &amp;quot;I admit openly that I adore her. Julianne is the kind of talent you didn&amp;#039;t realize was missing but you now know can&amp;#039;t be lived without. I remember George Clooney saying to me before filming, &amp;#039;Jules, trust me. You will love Julianne.&amp;#039; Little did I\u2014or soon the world\u2014know.&amp;quot; Here, the eternally girlish 41-year-old actress (who&amp;#039;s also appearing in two of TV&amp;#039;s most addictive dramas, Masters of Sex and Boardwalk Empire) talks to ELLE about finding her place as Ivy\u2014Osage&amp;#039;s most sympathetic character\u2014especially among those heavyweights, who will surely be chasing Oscars (Nicholson included) come awards season. You just ripped my heart out! Your character, amid all the turmoil and dysfunction, holds the little bit of hope left in the family. I know. It&amp;#039;s tough work. I remember seeing the play [version] of Osage on Broadway, and from the first words to the last I was just riveted. It&amp;#039;s so recognizable\u2014and fucking exhausting. But also hilarious! I find it really gratifying to feel like you&amp;#039;ve been through something, or had an experience when you go to see a play. When you went in for casting, had you heard the names that were being thrown around for the leads? I knew pretty much everyone who was going to be involved. So for me it felt like such a long shot. And you always say you don&amp;#039;t have hope, but you have to have a little, otherwise you wouldn&amp;#039;t do it. I still can&amp;#039;t believe the company I kept for two months. How did it feel once you started filming with such a cast? At first it was excitement. But then once it got closer, it was sheer terror. Like, &amp;quot;Oh shit, now I actually have to do this!&amp;quot; Did you get any pointers from Julia about the role? Well, I fell in love with Julia the first day I met her, at our table read. We were all sort of sitting around chatting, and then we moved over to the table with our scripts to take our seats. Julia stood up to kind of kick things off, and said\u2014sort of to the room but sort of under her breath\u2014&amp;quot;Oh my god. I&amp;#039;m terrified.&amp;quot; Not everyone heard it, and she wasn&amp;#039;t saying it to me, but I just thought that was so gorgeous and revealing. It just made me feel less nervous. And what about Meryl? Meryl is just\u2026Meryl. It was a lesson every day. Her energy and her generosity whether she&amp;#039;s on-camera or off, it was inspiring. She never made me feel like I couldn&amp;#039;t be in a scene with her. But I was also terrified of her! When I saw what she was going to look like, I was just like, &amp;quot;Whaaat?&amp;quot; Then she puts those glasses down, and you see those piercing eyes. I was like, &amp;quot;Jesus Christ.&amp;quot; Without giving too much away, how was it finding the character of Ivy? Well, I obviously don&amp;#039;t relate to the specifics of her life, but I understand her. She&amp;#039;s quiet but has her passions. And she&amp;#039;s always thinking about what she has to do to survive in that family. And I have to say, personally, I felt a little bit like Ivy. She&amp;#039;s sort of the watcher in the family. She&amp;#039;s a bit on the outside. And I kind of felt like that, stepping into this role with all of these women. Like I had to just watch. What she does have to do for survival is pretty provocative, wouldn&amp;#039;t you say? It is, but as I got more and more into her I was actually kind of\u2026fine with what she had to do. Also, as people, we make things okay for ourselves. If we need something so badly, we find what we need to justify it. Speaking of justifying things we need\u2026you&amp;#039;re on &amp;#039;Masters of Sex&amp;#039;! Yes! My character was just introduced. I play Dr. Lillian DePaul, who comes from Cornell to join Washington Hospital&amp;#039;s obstetrics department \u2026and I don&amp;#039;t take my clothes off! You&amp;#039;re one of the few! I know! Every time I tell someone I&amp;#039;m on the show it&amp;#039;s like, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s called Masters of Sex. I don&amp;#039;t take my clothes off,&amp;quot; like it&amp;#039;s the whole title. A necessary preface, I guess. Right. But I love playing this character. It&amp;#039;s the 1950s and there aren&amp;#039;t a lot of female doctors to begin with, and she&amp;#039;s very strong-willed and determined. And as such, she becomes intriguing to Lizzy Caplan&amp;#039;s character [Virginia Johnson]. You&amp;#039;re also back on &amp;#039;Boardwalk Empire.&amp;#039; Yes, as U.S. Attorney Esther Randolph, another sort of strong, sort of stern woman finding her way in the world. I guess that&amp;#039;s sort of my thing? When I read my character description for Masters of Sex, it was &amp;quot;Stern, middle-aged woman,&amp;quot; and I was like, &amp;quot;Oh Jesus! Is this my new niche?&amp;quot; I guess that doesn&amp;#039;t have the best ring to it\u2026 Also there was a line in the script where another character says of my character, &amp;quot;You have a face for radio,&amp;quot; but thankfully they took it out. I was beginning to think I had a totally warped self-image. But there&amp;#039;s a lot of good material for &amp;quot;stern, middle-aged women.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;m going to work it as long as I can. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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