Dana Delany: ‘I Value Every Single Day. I Never Take It for Granted’

What do you like to watch?

I’m a big foreign film fan. It really grew during the pandemic. I’ll get obsessions, and I’ll see everything that an actor did. I’ll see everything that a director did. It’s interesting, I’m a little psychic, I’ve always been. I’m a Pisces, and you can buy into that or not, but I’ve always been a bit psychic. During the pandemic, I went on a huge [actor-writer-producer] Alain Delon deep dive, and I saw every movie I could get my hands on. I’ve probably seen 95 percent of what he’s done. I speak a little French, so that helps. I’ve read books about him in French. I’ve read everything I could find. He was kind of my pandemic boyfriend. Two nights ago, I had deep dreams about him — just deeply romantic, thoughtful dreams about him where we had these long conversations. I woke up the next morning [Aug. 18], and I got a text from my best friend saying, “My condolences.” I said, “What?” And I looked, and Alain Delon had died. I thought, We really are connected. There is something karmic there.

You mentioned reconnecting with your China Beach costar Chloe Webb for horse therapy. Do you have any special memories when you look back on your time on the show?

I think about it a lot. John Young, who created it, died [June 2021], and I’m at the place in my life where I’ve just lost so many friends recently. I’m sure a lot of people my age have, and it’s just been a lot. So yeah, you definitely look back on your life, and that was my youth — that was the beginning of it all. I still get emotional thinking about it. I’m so glad that I am still friendly with every single person from that cast, and we still see each other and talk to each other.

How do you feel about aging?

Like Cary Grant said, it’s a privilege. I value every single day. I never take it for granted.

Will you do something big to celebrate your 70th?

My fantasy dream is to live in Paris, and I have to stop making it a fantasy and do it. I’m hoping that by the time I turn 70, I will be at least spending some time in Paris. I have had a connection to Paris since I first visited it with my family when I was 12. The minute I got to Paris, I felt like it was familiar. It felt like home to me, and I’ve always felt that way.

What would you tell your younger self?

I wish I had been easier on myself. I had a teacher who said that he has found that there are two types of people in the world: There are people who overtake responsibility and people who undertake responsibility. The best place is to be somewhere in between. That would be the healthiest place. I always tended to overtake responsibility. This phrase he taught me was “perfectionism is rejectionism.” I wish that I had worried less about being perfect and been easier on myself. It’s a phenomenon that a lot of women deal with. My mother dealt with that to a great degree. And she passed it on to me and was very hard on me. In that sense, I had to be perfect. That’s something women really have to be easier on themselves about.

Any other projects coming up for you?

Yes, my passion project. I cocreated this play called Highway Patrol with three people I’ve worked with before: Mike Donahue, who directed it; Jen Silverman, who wrote it with us; and Dane Laffrey, our set designer. It’s based on an incident in my life, and I play myself in it. We premiered it at [Chicago’s] Goodman Theatre this past winter. We had a great time, and we got great reviews. So my next thing that I’d like is to get it to New York or London.

Do you have any regrets?

Oh, of course I do [laughs]. It would be pretty dumb not to have regrets. I have many regrets, but I have learned to accept that I did the best I could at the time. That’s what I’ve learned, is not to beat myself up over it. Because I think if people were really honest, we all have regrets, but it’s how we frame them. And you just have to know that you did your best at the time with the information that you had and the place you were in your life.