News / Published 2026-10-31

Jessica Lange Says Her Acting Career May Be Coming to an End

The 77-year-old Oscar winner told Rolling Stone she feels she is coming to an end, and that the film she has out now would not be a bad place to stop. Neither report says she has retired.

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Conceptual editorial illustration; not a photograph of the people or event described.

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Lange told Rolling Stone she feels her acting career is coming to an end; Variety and Deadline both quote the line, published a day apart.
  • She said the last film being Long Day’s Journey into Night and playing Mary Tyrone would not be a bad way to end, and that the kinds of films she likes are hard to get made.
  • Variety records two Oscar wins, a 2016 Tony and three Emmys; Deadline adds that roles for women and the difficulty of setting up projects shaped the remark.

The remark came in a Rolling Stone interview

Jessica Lange told Rolling Stone that her acting career may be coming to an end, and Variety and Deadline carried the remark on consecutive days. Variety describes her as a 77-year-old Oscar winner who returned to film and television this year with Long Day’s Journey into Night and the thirteenth season of American Horror Story. The outlet frames the remark as a tease of retirement rather than an announcement. Deadline dates the interview to the day before its own story appeared.

Neither report says Lange has retired. Both present the line as an answer to a question about what she still wants to do, and neither carries a statement from her representatives or an announcement from a studio. The remark is the news; the retirement itself is something she described as a feeling rather than a decision.

An ending measured against the film itself

The exchange, as Variety prints it, began with a question about the projects she still wanted to tackle as an actor. Her answer opened with the line both outlets quote. “I actually feel like I’m coming to an end,” she said. Deadline adds a detail Variety leaves out: she had just finished a dual role in Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story 13.

Variety carries the rest of the answer, in which she measures the ending against the work. “Maybe it’s not a bad way to end, that last film being ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ and playing Mary Tyrone.” She said a couple of projects had been in the works for years and might not happen at all, then closed on financing: “It doesn’t seem easy to get things made anymore. At least not the kind of films that interest me.” Deadline cuts the same answer slightly differently, and the two transcripts diverge in punctuation rather than in substance.

Roles for women and films that are hard to get made

Deadline reports that Lange tied the feeling to two things: the shortage of roles for women and the difficulty of getting projects off the ground. The outlet notes that the theme ran through Feud: Bette and Joan, the Murphy series in which she played Joan Crawford opposite Susan Sarandon’s Bette Davis, and that it also shapes a Marlene Dietrich biopic she has been trying to get made for some time. Deadline does not say when that film might be made, and neither outlet names a financier attached to it.

On the first of those, Deadline quotes her directly. “That was the theme with Bette and Joan, [and] that is a recurrent theme for a lot of women, especially of that period.” She said the Dietrich film would centre on “what she did, where she moved on from when Hollywood was kind of finished with her.” Deadline describes it as one of a couple of projects that may or may not happen, and treats the observation about age and roles as the reason the subject keeps returning.

How she wants to be remembered

Variety asked how she wants to be remembered once the retirement becomes official. Her answer began with “For some good parts. For some good films. For being an honest actor,” and she did not name a single role she considered her best. Neither outlet asks her to rank the films she made between 1976 and this year, and neither puts the question to a co-star or a director on her behalf.

The same answer turns into an account of the work she has had. “I’ve been incredibly lucky. I love acting, and I’ve had decades of being able to do it, which has been a joy for me.” She mentions the difficulty of balancing family, career and locations, and of moving her children from one place to another, then calls the whole of it a great adventure and says she is grateful it came her way.

Two Oscars, a Tony and three Emmys

Variety sets out the record that answer refers to. Lange began acting in 1976 with her film debut in King Kong, which brought her the new star of the year award at the Golden Globes. Four more Globe wins followed from 16 nominations, along with six Oscar nominations and two wins, for Tootsie in the supporting category and for Blue Sky as lead actress. The same list keeps the nominations and the wins apart and gives the category for each.

The same account counts a Tony award for Long Day’s Journey into Night in 2016, nine Emmy nominations and three Emmy wins, for Grey Gardens and for two seasons of American Horror Story, Murder House and Coven. Deadline mentions the Tony as well, and notes that the film version arrived six years after she played the part on Broadway, with the same director.

A thinner schedule, and what the reports leave open

Both reports describe a lighter workload in recent years. Variety notes that the Long Day’s Journey film opened in theatres in September but was shot in 2022, and that Lange has appeared in only two other films in the past decade, Wild Oats in 2016 and Marlowe in 2022. Deadline names Jonathan Kent as director and Ed Harris, Ben Foster and Colin Morgan as her co-stars. Neither report mentions a new project going into production.

Neither report gives a date for a final role, and neither says the Dietrich project has been set up or dropped. What is on the record is the remark, the two reasons she gave for it, the career both outlets tally and the way she asked to be remembered. Related coverage on this site includes Elke Sommer’s death at 85, the BFI London Film Festival 2026 winners, the Broadway revival of A Few Good Men and Patrick Stewart’s obituary.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. Jessica Lange Retiring From Acting Soon: ‘I’m Coming to an End’ — Variety
  2. Jessica Lange Says Acting Career Might Be “Coming To An End” — Deadline
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