LOS ANGELES – At 75, Lily Tomlin is loving the roles coming her way, but not necessarily the spotlight.
Tomlin stars in the upcoming indie film “Grandma” and recently scored her first lead actress Emmy nomination for her hit Netflix series.
“Well, it’s kind of uncomfortable in the fact that everybody in our show ‘Grace and Frankie’ is so good,” said Tomlin of her nomination. “Everybody is great about it and they tease me about it. So that’s good.”
The veteran comedian teams with Jane Fonda for the streaming series about two friends starting over after finding out their husbands are in love with each other.
Tomlin relished the chance to break new ground in an industry obsessed with youth.
READ MORE: Jane Fonda And Lily Tomlin Talk ‘Grace And Frankie’
“That’s what we wanted to do … to show (older) women, to show our sexuality, to show our resourcefulness, our resilience to bounce back and start over again,” she said. “‘Grandma’ does the same thing.”
In the film, out Friday, Tomlin stars as an irreverent grandma road tripping around Los Angeles to rustle up cash for her teenage granddaughter’s abortion.
Sam Elliott plays Tomlin’s ex-husband in “Grandma” and joins her for season two of “Grace and Frankie,” where he’ll play Fonda’s old flame.
“It’s a treat,” said Elliott, 71, of working with Tomlin. “I think that we do a real disservice to ourselves and certainly to the audience when we think that these older people, it’s time to put them out to pasture rather than embracing what they may have picked up along the way.”
Dolly Parton recently expressed interest in reuniting with her “9 to 5” co-stars on “Grace and Frankie.”
READ MORE: Lily Tomlin weds her partner of 42 years
Tomlin said the timing simply isn’t right – yet.
“Dolly’s a wonderful person and we’ve been friends with her ever since ‘9 to 5,’ all three of us,” said Tomlin. “We just want to get ‘Grace and Frankie’ more established before we venture into something like that. … We don’t have any definite plans right now, but it’s always in the backs of our minds.”
Though Tomlin is quick to downplay her recent successes, she joked that she’s finally starting to believe the hype.
“It probably seems larger to other people on the outside because I’m sort of always working, thinking about what I’m doing. But I keep reading about what a year it’s been for me. You’ve finally convinced me.”
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