Interview - rosie o'donnell plays a bipolar grandma in 'smilf' - tv for grownups

Rosie O'Donnell waited until age 55 to take her first regular series role, as Tutu, a messed-up grandmother on _SMILF. _Actress-director-writer Frankie Shaw (_Mr. Robot_, _Stronger_)

created this semiautobiographical TV show about a single mom that is adapted from her Sundance Film Festival award-winning short film. The series premieres Nov. 5 on Showtime. O'Donnell

tells AARP that, like Showtime's hit _Shameless, _the show feels authentic to her experience. WHY DID YOU WAIT UNTIL _SMILF_ TO BECOME A SERIES TV STAR? I have five children ages 4 1/2

 to 22 and couldn't go to L.A. for a show. And there wasn't a role that spoke to me. As a young actress, I knew that as I got into my 60s, I'd be able to do the Geraldine Page

roles, like _The Trip to Bountiful —_ the kind of Irish standard character I always knew that was in my future. So when this role came up, I thought, _Here we go!_ I was stunned by

Frankie's unique voice, the birth of a major artistic voice in our culture. The reality of an Irish Catholic working-class family — struggling with poverty and mental illness and all

that comes with it — is accurately portrayed in this beautiful show. It's a woman-oriented, woman-powered series about a mother and daughter and how their lives mix and don't.

It's like a feminist manifesto. Frankie grew up with a feminism that never existed when I was a kid, and it empowers her to write truthfully and expose the gritty underbelly of life

with compassion, and not with disdain or self-loathing. WHAT WILL ROSIE FANS SEE  THAT'S  NEW IN YOU? Tutu suffered in a family where emotions were never discussed and people often took

to the bottle, rather than address their feelings. There's a stoic madness, and my character is mentally compromised, with either borderline personality disorder or severe untreated

bipolar disorder. [O'Donnell has been public about her own different struggle with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.] We explore the reality of her loving

her child [Shaw] more than anything and yet not being able to be civil to her or maintain a relationship. It's very honest, and I felt I could bring a lot to it by dying my hair gray

and letting the gray grow out and having no makeup — being as authentic as I can be. DO FANS RECOGNIZE YOU WITH THAT LOOK? People don't notice me with gray hair. They go, "Are  you

 Rosie O'Donnell?" I say 'Yes.' "No, you're not." I say, 'I swear to God I am.' "Oh, my God! You _sound _like you." The freedom of a

55-year-old woman is to show herself in this invisibility cloak that people think is really horrific and dehumanizing. But for me, it's provided a freedom that I haven't had in a

couple decades. My teenagers were not so happy about my gray hair and looking like a grandma. Embarrassing for my 14-year-old. Horrible for her. YOUR KIDS MUST SUFFER FOR YOUR ART! My kids

are suffering more than me. For me, it's the beginning of what I hope to be my second-chapter acting career.