You can find Miss Scarlet in the Studebaker with a microphone this November. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1985 movie Clue, actress Lesley Ann Warren is hitting the road on a screening tour across the United States in 2025. Warren will host a live question-and-answer portion of the program to give fans a behind-the-scenes peek at the classic mystery movie.
This esteemed performer has cultivated a career over six decades long and is still going strong. She began as a ballet dancer at the age of six and was the youngest applicant to be accepted into the Actors Studio at age 17.
She made her Broadway debut in 1963 for 110 in the Shade and musicals have highlighted her singing abilities on the small screen with Cinderella and on the big screen with The Happiest Millionaire.
Other film credits include Burglar, Pure Country, The Limey and Secretary. After Clue, an episode of Psych had her reuniting with cast members Christopher Lloyd and Martin Mull. She joined Colonel Mustard again on TV for a guest-starring role with Mull on Community.
Her body of work has earned her a Golden Globe Award and several other award nominations over the years.
She talked about this and much more before her return to Chicago.
JN: (Jerry Nunn) Hi, there. Are you excited to come to the Windy City soon?
LAW: (Lesley Ann Warren) Yes, I love Chicago. I did a play called Vanities at Drury Lane Water Tower for months with Elizabeth Ashley and Barbara Sharma.
JN: This is part of a tour to screen Clue around the United States?
LAW: Yes, I was surprised how responsive people were to the idea of showing the movie again and doing a personal appearance. I think it’s fantastic.
JN: People like hearing behind-the-scenes stories.
LAW: I love that too.
JN: You have had a huge career. How long has it been?
LAW: I was 17 in 1965, so six decades.
JN: I saw a picture of you from your early days as a dancer and you reminded me of Natalie Wood.
LAW: To this day, Natalie Wood is my idol. I knew I looked like her. I went to my first Hollywood party when I was 18 and she was there in the corner. She kept staring at me and then she came over to say, “You look more like my sister than my actual sister does.” I told her it was a big compliment because I just loved her and I still do.
JN: Let’s talk about the movie Clue. Did the script allow freedom for improvisation?
LAW: It was very scripted, but it wasn’t about the lines. We did behavioral improv. We took the clearly defined characters and brought them to the scene, which dictated the staging involved.
JN: Was it competitive within the cast?
LAW: Not a shred. You might hear that and not believe it, but the truth is we were so appreciative and enthusiastic about each other’s performances. We made it really difficult for the director, Jonathan Lynn, because we would laugh uncontrollably at each other’s stuff. So no, there was absolutely no competition between each other on the set.
JN: Was Carrie Fisher going to play Miss Scarlet originally?
LAW: She was and I was supposed to portray Mrs. White. Carrie and I were buddies. She had to drop out for personal reasons and they came to me with the part of Miss Scarlet. I was sad that Carrie had to drop out, but I was happy to have the role at the same time.
JN: You did a great job of playing Miss Scarlet with seriousness and well-rounded jokes in a cast full of zany characters.
LAW: I am glad her sly sense of humor came across. What I continue to love about this movie is that these were some of the best comic actors, not comedians, at that time. We had a strong sense of each character that we played. Some of it was crazy and out there, but there’s some seriousness in the context of the plot.
JN: Many queer people like the camp that came with that movie.
LAW: I absolutely agree.
JN: When the Clue movie came out, I went to the movie theater to see multiple different endings designated by the letters A, B and C. Wasn’t that brilliant marketing?
LAW: Yes, it was so unique. The movie’s box office was okay at the beginning, but nothing spectacular. Some people loved the different endings and some people didn’t like it. There was a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of it. Then the movie took off in an incredible way and it has become an iconic cult classic, which is so fabulous for all of us.
JN: Did you see the stage play touring version of Clue?
LAW: No, I just didn’t want to. I wanted to keep what I loved about my experience sacrosanct. Did you see it?
JN: Yes and not having multiple endings was weird to me. I talked to a cast member about that fact and he said that audiences wouldn’t pay big prices to see it multiple times.
Let’s move on to musicals. Do you have a favorite musical of all time?
LAW: I love All That Jazz and also Chicago.
JN: So you are a Bob Fosse fan?
LAW: I guess I am and Rob Marshall has become a friend. I grew up on ‘50s movie musicals like Funny Face and that shaped my idea of romance. I wanted my love life to be like the movies and I fell in love with that whole genre. I auditioned for Bye Bye Birdie in New York at age 14.
JN: Was that a Bob Mackie jumpsuit that you wore on The Carol Burnett Show?
LAW: Yes, it was. Wasn’t it fabulous? [laughs]
JN: Yes!
LAW: Those were the days, let me tell you. It was backless and a beautiful costume.
JN: How did it work? Did they just invite you and offer a wardrobe?
LAW: Yes. I was very young and on Broadway at the time. I was in awe of Carol Burnett and excited to be a part of the show. I said yes to whatever they wanted. I wore another outfit towards the end of the show and loved all of it.
JN: A Night in Heaven was Magic Mike long before that came out.
LAW: Exactly. So nine months before that, I won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for Harold Robbins’ 79 Park Avenue. After that, I didn’t get an offer for anything of value for the next nine months. I wanted to work and this script for A Night in Heaven came along. Joan Tewkesbury was the writer and she was the screenplay writer for Nashville. John Avildsen was the director and had done Rocky. Even though the material was dicey, I went down to Orlando to see where it would be shot. These clubs were exactly how it was and I found it to be interesting.
JN: They didn’t have intimacy coordinators back then for that intense love scene.
LAW: No. Chris Atkins and I were really nervous about it. Joan Tewkesbury was a dancer on Broadway in the original Peter Pan and Mary Martin’s understudy. She suggested we choreograph it like a dance. It was Joan, Chris and I in a room deciding on what to do. She took the scary intimacy part out of it and made it a choreographed movement. That was really helpful for both of us.
JN: It doesn’t surprise me that a woman made that scene work. There’s a scene in Clue where a character grabs you from behind and it made me think of all of the misogyny you must have faced over the course of your longtime career.
LAW: My stories would curl your hair. First of all, I came up when I was very young and it was during a time when there were no holds barred. People took advantage of that all the time. I was terrified of that, so I never acquiesced and instead started crying, then went home.
It was traumatic to go through all of that.
JN: You are a survivor and have shown professionalism over the years. Has there been one project that meant the most to you?
LAW: That is hard to say because, honestly, I take such great pride in my work and I celebrate all that I have done. I am so grateful for the career that I have had. I think about that a lot now in this time of my life. I really do. I am blessed and I feel that way.
I have a new short film called Olive and it’s getting spectacular reviews. The director of it, Tom Koch, won a Silver Screen Award at the Young Director Awards at Cannes
JN: What has the LGBTQ+ community meant to your career?
LAW: The LGBTQ community is huge in my life and that started way back. I received a letter from Lee Daniels once and it was incredibly moving. I can talk about it because it was printed in Vanity Fair once. He stated that he would lock himself in the bathroom and sing “In My Own Little Corner” from Cinderella. I feel like that community and I have resonated in a very particular way. I always felt I didn’t quite belong. I felt that way in school and in Hollywood. I don’t feel that way now, but it took me a long time to move past it.
The iconic female characters I have played, like in Clue, Victor/Victoria and now in 9-1-1, are larger than life in certain ways. I am so grateful for the community that has supported those projects. I love them and I feel aligned with them in a lot of ways.
Lesley Ann Warren hosts a screening of Clue: The Movie on November 16, 2025, at the Studebaker Theater, 410 South Michigan Avenue. Search for your seats at tickets.fineartsbuilding.com and scottstander.com/clue.html