How Carol Kane’s 'Courageous' Mother, Who 'Started Life Over' at 55, Inspired Her New Movie (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

(Left-right:) Joy Kane and Carol Kane in 2023.Photo:Dominik Bindl/Getty

Dominik Bindl/Getty

Carol Kane’s new movie doubles as an homage to her inspiring mother.

“My own mother is a very, very courageous woman who started her life completely over again at the age of 55,” Kane, 72, tells PEOPLE. At that age her mother, Joy, “moved to Paris and lived in a little hotel room that didn’t even have a toilet or a bath — they were down the hall. You made a reservation to take a bath.”

Adds theUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidtstar, “She showed me this path of courage that I can’t even imagine. I can’t imagine being that brave, to just throw yourself out into the world on a whole new path at that age. And then she did it again when she was 75, and she came back to America after 20 years.”

Along with its unconventional love story between Schwartzman and Kane’s characters,Between the Templesis a reminder that it’s never too late to start a new life chapter. “I had [my mother’s] example to follow, that you have to do it if you have to do it,” says Kane. “The old life has been too painful, difficult, not you, so you have to build a new life.”

The movie also challenged Kane, whose Jewish parents didn’t raise her “in any religious way. But I have been privileged to play some roles where I’ve gotten to learn about my faith more,” Kane says, including her breakout in 1975 dramaHester Street, which earned her a Best ActressOscar nomination.

To play Carla inBetween the Temples, she continues, “I actually got taught my Torah portion in Hebrew, which I found very difficult, much more difficult than Yiddish.”

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Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman in ‘Between the Temples’.Sony Pictures Classics

Sony Pictures Classics

As is tradition in bat mitzvahs, Carla’s Torah portion is also sung — which Kane does beautifully in the film. “My relationship with my voice has not changed,” she admits, sincetelling PEOPLEin 2020 she thought of it as “odd.”

“I still don’t understand it and I don’t like to hear it, but that’s the way it is. It’s sort of too late.” Kane reflects for a moment before adding an addendum: “Well, no, this movie says that nothing is too late, ever.”

Between the Temples, which costars Dolly de Leon, Caroline Aaron, Robert Smigel and Madeline Weinstein, is in theaters now.

source: people.com