Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress

by Olympia Dukakis

Book Overview

Something about Olympia Dukakis just speaks to people. In her signature straight-talk style, she tells the story of her own history and career. Olympia Dukakis, internationally known movie and theater star, was born into a Greek family in Lowell, Massachusetts. As a first generation Greek-American, Olympia "lived in the hyphen" and struggled to reconcile her American desires with her family's old-world traditions. ASK ME AGAIN TOMORROW tells the story...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060188219
• ISBN13: 9780060188214
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Honest, moving account of an actress who became an overnight star after 28 years

Heard ASK ME AGAIN TOMORROW--read and narrated by Olympia Dukakis, the actress who became an overnight success in MOONSTRUCK (after 28 years of hard work). Dukakis is brutally honest in telling her story . . . in doing so, I got a feel for what it was like growing up as a Greek-American and, also, about the difficulties she faced in helping to run The Whole Theater Company in Montclair, New Jersey, for 19 years. I also was moved by her tale of alimentation from and eventual reconciliation with her mother, who eventually developed Alzheimer's and had to be cared for by Dukakis and her family. There's humor in the story, too . . . she tells of the time when her Oscar was stolen and how she eventually made over $9,900 as a result of the theft . . . in addition, I was laughing out loud when I heard how she "borrowed" a cat to make some money from a commercial . . . all was going well until her mother walked in and asked, "Where'd you get that?" A quick response saved the day: "She always forgets!" This is one book that I'm glad to have heard rather than read, largely because of Dukakis' outstanding narration . . . it left me looking forward to Part 2 of this fascinating woman's life, which seems to have been promised by the subtitle: A LIFE IN PROGRESS.

Fascinating Woman

I don't usually read many biographies but enjoyed this one...Olympia is a fascinating woman.Reading her accounts of her childhood, her honesty about theproblems with her mother and about finding herself was not onlyinteresting but made me wish we were friends.

Beautiful

She is a beautiful woman and that is a beautiful book. Truly inspiring, this isn't the story of an "overnight success". Olympia deals with alot of adversity, both from outside and her own inner struggles. A surprisingly meaty book. The last few chapters actually had me crying.

The Passion to Act!

Long before Olympia Dukakis became well-known for her Academy-Award-winning supporting role as Rose Castorini in Moonstruck, I was a fan of hers based on the outstanding performances she often gave at the Charles Playhouse in Boston in the 1960s. One of the misperceptions that I had about her was that her remarkable control on stage was a reflection of a rock-solid personality. Ask Me Again Tomorrow helped me to see how acting has helped her to get control over her life. It was an unexpected twist for me.The book opens with the experience of becoming an "overnight" success after thirty years when she won the Academy Award. The event doesn't seem worth dwelling on, except that Ms. Dukakis clearly showed her values were in the right place by using her success to help the Whole Theater, which she had been involved with for 18 years in New Jersey. For me, the book became interesting when she recounted the story of her family's life before she was born. Several friends of mine who are Greek-Americans say that non-Greek-Americans can never understand what it is like in their families. As I read about Ms. Dukakis's family, I began to get a sense of what they mean. A dominant story from her childhood was about a teenage girl in Greece who had lost her virtue to an overseer. To avenge the dishonor, her brother shot and killed her. The pressure on her to be a "good" Greek-American daughter was unrelenting. Her relationship with her mother was very difficult as a result. Ms. Dukakis was a free spirit as a child, teen and a young adult which set her up for lots of family problems. Having several family members who would like to act for a living, I also wondered what had drawn her to the profession and what had made her so good at it. The story is very much one of a late bloomer, but a determined one. I was surprised to learn that she had become a physical therapist helping polio patients as a way to pay for her education. During those terrible days, she even contracted a mild case of polio herself. Her story about this work is gripping, and added much to my understanding of that period in time before vaccines more or less eliminated polio.Lastly, I was curious how a hard-working actress balanced home and family over the years. With difficulty . . . is the answer. Ms. Dukakis also reveals a lot about how her self-discovery has occurred, especially through her reactions to roles she has been asked to play, therapy and seeking out the origins of Goddess-based spiritual beliefs. I came away from this book having even more respect for Ms. Dukakis, both as a person and as an actress. I think you will, too.My main reservation about the book is that Ms. Dukakis is a bit overly circumspect about how much she chooses to reveal about herself in many places. You just get a sense that something might be going on, and . . . you are pushed off into another subject. For instance, after first being married, Ms. Dukakis and her husband Louis Zorich had

Dares Of Self-Doubt Never Altered Her Name For Success!

If you are a struggling actress, actor or anyone pursuing their dreams to do what they love against all odds, this book is for you! I would recommend it for required reading in any theatre class. A Star's light needs to brighten up the path of others to see too. The book is not what I expected, a series of memories about the entertainment business mixed in with life's loved one. Instead you get the real deal from a real person from a perspective that can enhance your own reflections and without pity of confessions, concessions or the conceit of 'look what I have done!' More like this is how it happens to me with thoughtful self-doubts and all! Olympia's life is not just one of just pursuing her dreams but backing up her doubts and decisions while clashing with her sense of worth, fears of family and friends second guessing her, lecturing her and offering advice that often makes one stumble rather than risk it all. She had to deal with her not just her cultural and femininity preconceptions and others during the Age of Social Self-Reliance that made many women often cry in quiet anguish. As if something is wrong with them but ignoring the restrictions in society for you and your dreams, until you find out on your own it is up to you change it for yourself. The book talks about how one often responds sometimes in measured half steps trying to please more people she could like choosing to take advantage of earning an education as a Physical Therapists during the 'Age of Polio' in the hearts, limbs and often brains of others. Just in case she fails at acting! How and whom you marry often dictates new changes you never expected despite the best and worse of high expectations. Or how you seek out the truth in yourself with the help of a teacher or guide like in Olympia's 'Gayatri Devi.' And finally, discovering a new concept in history that there existed Goddesses before Gods, for a Greek Woman that is a humbling but revealing experience. And one can often feign the art of fainting that started it all! In the end, each setback added to her wisdom, each personal victory added to her confidence and she never forgot who she was, what she needed to do, and it all added up with a grand success to set the stage for her 1988 Academy Award. Her peers in the entertainment industry could bestow one of the highest awards an artist. Today, Olympia molds others as she did herself since her Stage Debut in 1956. She has had 48 yearly principal stage appearances, 14 of them in Directing, 29 Films, and 26 TV Movies and became a founding member of 5 Theatre Companies and a Master Teacher at NYU. All the while conflicting with her mother, having belated judgments of her father, raising a family, mixed in with self-denials, self-determinations and self-improvement often taught by the lessons of the life we learn with and the other we live with in the end. Many think Olympia's role as `Rose Castorini' in " Moonstruck," changed her life. But from what I read from the book a