Woman's Day, July 11th, 2006
JANE: I know we’re here to talk about a serious topic, and one that’s close to your heart. But let’s start off light. I love what you’re wearing.
BLYTHE: Oh, thank you. It’s Max Mara. I ran out of the house this morning—I actually thought I grabbed my daughter’s jacket.
JANE: Can you wear the same clothes?
BLYTHE: Well, this is a little snug.
JANE: Doesn’t look it! You’re currently starring as Isabelle Huffstodt, the head of a pretty dysfunctional family, on the Showtime drama Huff. And you just won an Emmy for the role. Congratulations—you must be having fun.
BLYTHE: Well, it’s much more fun to play a crazy, dysfunctional mother than a normal one. [laughs] I’m enjoying it.
JANE: So what’s up next for you?
BLYTHE: I just finished shooting a film with Zach Braff called The Last Kiss [coming this October]. And I might do a play in London. I would love to get back in the theater—I haven’t been on the stage in five years. Follies is the last thing I did, which I just loved.
JANE: You were also in one of my favorite movies, The Great Santini.
BLYTHE: Oh, thank you. You know, a lot of people tell me that. Lillian was such an interesting character. She was very Southern, but she had a core of steel. And I just loved the house we filmed in, in Beaufort, South Carolina. It’s the same house they used for The Big Chill. Bruce and I actually talked about moving down there. We took the kids down and rented a house in the area. It was beautiful, just an ideal place for children to grow up. I ended up doing two or three films in Beaufort, including Forces of Nature [with Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck].
JANE: You’re a busy woman—you’ve got a hit show on TV and a number of films in production—and you’re taking time out to educate people about head and neck cancer as a result of your husband’s death. Why now?
BLYTHE: Bruce had oral cancer, which is a type of head and neck cancer, and it’s something people aren’t really informed about. There are about 40,000 Americans diagnosed each year. When detected early, there’s a very high cure rate. But because head and neck cancer is so underrecognized, more than three out of five newly diagnosed cases are already in Stage III or IV. So I’m doing this now, for Bruce. I know he would have wanted that.
JANE: I think your husband’s death has resonance for a lot of us, because we’ve all had symptoms that we ignore. I’ve actually been nagging my husband to go in for a checkup.
BLYTHE: Keep nagging him. Although I always say, be selective about your nagging. Make it just for things that are really important. I think women have a tendency—as much as we love our husbands, and as much as they love us—to be a little annoying. [laughs] You know, constantly saying, “Do this, do that. You must take care of yourself. Why don’t you eat a carrot instead of a pretzel?” I found I was doing too much of that. But I wish I had been more adamant and made a doctor’s appointment for Bruce. I wish I had just said, “Look, you’re getting more hoarse, and it’s not getting better.” But we didn’t realize that hoarseness was a symptom of oral cancer. It was something that should have been checked. Everybody should have a yearly screening. Even your dentist can check for oral cancer.
JANE: How's the screening done?
BLYTHE: They sort of pull out your tongue and observe and feel all around the mouth and neck. Regular screenings are so important, because this disease can be so hidden. Bruce’s cancer wasn’t found until Stage IV, and he had a tumor wrapped around his carotid artery the size of a tangerine. Unfortunately, head and neck cancer just hasn’t been covered in the mainstream media enough. In 2004 I did a few public service announcements for the Oral Cancer Foundation, which was great—millions of people saw them. But there’s been a drop in awareness.
JANE: I was struck when I realized that we’ve only done maybe one story on oral cancer in Woman’s Day, because we do such extensive health coverage.
BLYTHE: I think there’s a stigma around head and neck cancer, and oral cancer in particular. People just assume that it’s one of those cancers you get when you smoke. But the fact is that, in women, half of oral cancers are attributed to factors other than smoking. And as someone who has worked on behalf of the environment for 30 years, when you see that such a high percentage of these cancers aren’t attributed to tobacco, you have to say, “Wait a minute. There’s other stuff going on here.” So it’s really important to be aware of the other potential risk factors, including heavy consumption of alcohol, poor diet…
JANE: You know, I think we’re learning that even if you don’t have the risk factors for almost any disease, we need to be more aware. That’s not something we really want to hear, but there you have it.
BLYTHE: And that’s why early detection is so important.
JANE: At what age should you start being screened regularly?
BLYTHE: The majority of people diagnosed are over age 40, but I don’t think you can start too early.
JANE: Had you even heard of the signs and symptoms before?
BLYTHE: No. That’s why I wanted to do this. Head and neck cancer is so underrecognized.
JANE: And you’re clearly a health-savvy woman.
BLYTHE: Nutrition is really important to me. I used to make Bruce vegetable drinks every day. I’m not even a macrobiotic person, but my daughter has encouraged me to try eating a macrobiotic diet. So nutrition is really important.
JANE: You did that before he was ill?
BLYTHE: Yes. He was very funny about it. I’d say, “Honey, try this macrobiotic thing. It’s so great. It’s tofu.” And he’d say, “Yeah, it’s great. It’s like biting into The New York Times.” [laughs] Now I make these macrobiotic cookies for my daughter and my granddaughter, Apple. They’re really quite good. Would you like the recipe?
JANE: Absolutely! [See below.] You know, I read somewhere that Bruce and Gwyneth would enjoy coffee time in the morning, except Bruce would drink his coffee and Gwyneth would have her macrobiotic tea.
BLYTHE: [laughs] She couldn’t get him to stop the coffee—she tried desperately. I would make him fresh vegetable drinks every day, but he still had to have his coffee. We miss him.
The Facts About Oral Cancer
More than 7,000 people die each year from oral cancer. Because it’s often not discovered until late in its development, oral cancer has a particularly high death rate. Symptoms often go undetected and routine screening is recommended for individuals at high risk. Symptoms include: ● Sore throat or lingering pain in the mouth ● Trouble or pain with swallowing ● Change in voice quality (hoarseness) for a prolonged time ● Ear pain ● Unhealed sore or lump that does not go away ● Blocked sinuses that do not clear
Find out more by visiting speakouthnc.com, oralcancerfoundation.org or acs.org.
Blythe’s macrobiotic thumbprint cookies Makes 38 Active: 15 min/Total: 30 min 2 cups barley flour 11⁄2 cups sliced natural almonds 1⁄2 cup each canola oil and pure maple syrup 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon 1⁄8 tsp salt 1⁄3 cup strawberry (or your favorite flavor) All Fruit spread 1. Hheat oven to 350°F. Hhave baking sheet(s) ready. 2. Put barley flour and almonds in food processor; pulse until almonds are finely ground. Aadd oil, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt; pulse until mixture forms a dough. 3. Rroll level Ttbsp of dough into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheet(s). Make indent in balls with thumb or end of a wooden spoon. 4. Bbake 12 to 14 minutes until slightly golden. Rremove to a wire rack to cool slightly. 5. Fill indentations with fruit spread. what is macrobiotics? Macrobiotics is a dietary practice, derived from Japanese medicine and philosophy, that emphasizes unprocessed and organic foods, such as locally grown whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and soy products, and some fish or seafood. Celebrity followers include Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna.
