Stockard Channing Says 2014 Loss and Trump-Era Politics Drove London Move

Q: What drove the Grease star to trade Hollywood glamor for a low-budget, charity-driven play in Edinburgh?

She was drawn less by glamour than by the appeal of a stripped-down theater project with personal meaning. Stockard Channing said directing Samuel Beckett’s *Krapp’s Last Tape* in Edinburgh was a chance to “return to her roots,” work without a “massive production,” and collaborate closely with her longtime friend David Westhead. The production is intentionally low-budget and charity-driven. Westhead, who stars in the play, helped organize it as a fundraiser for The Wembley to Soweto Foundation, the charity he founded to provide photography training and life skills to disadvantaged young people. Channing has said the small scale was part of the attraction, describing it as a relief not to be carrying a big commercial machine. The move also fits the quieter life Channing says she has embraced since the 2014 death of her partner, Daniel Gillham. In recent reflections, she described herself as “happy being a recluse” and said the pattern of her life changed after his death, leading her from Maine to London. From London, the Edinburgh project offered a nearby, practical way to stay creatively active while avoiding Hollywood-style spectacle. So the choice was driven by a mix of personal reset, artistic interest in Beckett, loyalty to Westhead, and the chance to support a charitable cause through an intimate production rather than a star-heavy one.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 11

Stockard Channing, 82, said in a Sunday Times essay that she moved from Maine to London just before Covid after partner Daniel Gillham’s 2014 death upended her life.
Channing said the grief had a “lag effect,” and that her relocation also roughly coincided with Donald Trump’s election and what she sees as a decline in honest political discourse in the US.
The Grease and West Wing actress said she has lived alone since Gillham died and is content “being a recluse,” with no current interest in dating.
Acting remains active despite that retreat: Channing is set to reprise her role in Practical Magic 2, due in theaters on September 11.