My worst moment: When Nancy Travis and the kraken came face to face with Batman
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In the Hallmark rodeo series “Ride,” Nancy Travis plays matriarch to a Colorado ranching family. Did she have much knowledge about rodeos before landing the role? “It was a world I was fascinated by, but I had no experience with it. I was sort of Instagramming ranches and ranch life and thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to do something like that? I probably sent some listings from Zillow to my husband, which he promptly deleted. But I think I did sort of manifest this role.”
The show was filmed on a 4,000-acre working cattle ranch in Calgary. So now that Travis knows a little more about this life, would she ever pursue it? “Oh my god, no! I can barely walk my dog. The beautiful thing about what I do for a living is that I get to live these lives but not be hampered with the realities of the bills and the hardships.”
Travis’ career breakthrough came with the iconic film “Three Men and a Baby” and her roles since have included everything from “So I Married an Axe Murderer” to the sitcoms “Becker,” “Last Man Standing” and the Netflix series “The Kominsky Method.”
When asked about a worst moment in her career, she replied: “I don’t know if this is my worst-worst moment, but it’s definitely an interesting moment. It’s a fantastical moment.”
My worst moment …
“It was my son’s seventh birthday — he’s 21 now — and I always throw these wonderful birthday parties. And for this birthday, I rented a blowup slide for the front yard and it was this enormous kraken — a kraken is a giant mythical octopus kind of thing — and it was attached to this big pirate ship, and you climb one of the tentacles and slide down.
“And on this day, it was pouring rain. But the kids didn’t care, they are all over this thing. I’m running around the house laying towels and mothers are in my kitchen drinking coffee and god knows what else, and all I can do is complain and moan, ‘What about the liability? This is awful!’
“And at one point somebody says, ‘Oh, there’s a guy here asking about the kraken.’ And I think: Oh my god, I rented this thing for two hours and the guy’s here to pick it up already? This is horrible.
“So I go outside and it’s torrential rain now. And this man is standing in my driveway and right away I think: Wow, who is this guy? He seems so familiar. I introduce myself and he mumbles something back — he won’t actually say his name. And he says, ‘I was just driving by and I saw your kraken and my kids wanted to know where you got it.’
“And I start talking to him and it’s just this weird moment where everything behind me — this hazy bedlam (laughs) — just disappears. And I almost feel like we’re standing in this little circle of sunshine. I’m talking to him about my kraken (laughs) and he’s so familiar to me but I can’t place him. And these mothers are in the house looking out the window at me talking to this guy. Eventually, he walks away, and I go inside and all these mothers are like, ‘Wow! Who was that guy?’ And none of us knew who he was.
“And then oddly, weeks later, I wake up and I think: Oh my god, that was Christian Bale! That was Batman who was here asking about the kraken!
“I felt like we had this connection that he will probably never remember (laughs) but it made an impression, certainly on me.”
Do Travis and Bale know each other?
“No! Not at all! But I feel like after this incident maybe we do. But it’s probably all in my mind alone.
“He didn’t know whose house he stopped at. But when he came up my driveway, he was like a man stepping out of a dream. It was very surreal. I don’t remember if he had an accent when we were talking because he wouldn’t actually say his name, and I think I asked twice. I was like, ‘Hi, I’m Nancy,’ and he said, ‘Oh, hi,’ and then mumbled something. I doubt he recognized me, we were both drenched. We didn’t even stand under the awning, but we just stood there in the absolute pouring rain.
“I mean, you can’t understand the size of this thing. It was bigger than the house. When I say it was a blowup kraken, an army of people could live in it. It was huge. Enormous. Because I always have to get the biggest thing.
“You could probably see it from blocks away and he thought: What the heck is that thing? So we’re standing there for what felt like an eternity talking about this kraken and I suddenly became the world’s best salesperson for krakens and pirate ships. I thought: This might be the best performance of my life (laughs). And then he just turned and walked out into this curtain of rain.
“My kids were oblivious. If you can imagine behind me, children flying sky high in the air, and this kraken waving in the wind. It was a very bizarre, surreal thing. It is sort of a testament to the fact that even celebrities are sort of awestruck by other celebrities. But we’re all just people. We’re all just parents who will do anything for our kids, like stop at a stranger’s house to ask about the kraken.
“Much later, I was at a birthday dinner and he was also a guest. And I sat there a bit stymied about whether I should say anything. And I did — I said, ‘Excuse me, but you stopped by my house and asked about my kraken,’ which (laughs) sounds very inappropriate! And he just sort of nodded and went, ‘Oh, yes.’
“It obviously was a much bigger deal to me than to him (laughs). He didn’t go, ‘Oh, that was you?’ Nope. I was just the crazy woman, pulling her hair out and chasing kids and dogs in the rain with this giant thing on my front lawn.
“But I would never rent that kraken again. It was too much. Too large. Too all of it. But it made for a great birthday party.”
The takeaway …
“Even in your most distressed moments, you never know what magic it’ll bring. I’ve always depended on the kindness of animals to bring me magical moments, and this was a mythical animal, so there you go.”
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic
