Kathleen Turner enjoyed a rare outing in support of the new movie, The Roses.
Turner, 71, stepped out on Monday, August 25, for the New York City premiere of the comedy starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. Turner wore an all-black ensemble paired with sandals. She had her right arm in a sling and walked the red carpet with a cane.
The Roses is a remake of the 1989 movie, The War of the Roses, which Turner starred in alongside Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. Ahead of her arrival at the event, Turner teased her attendance to USA Today.
“I do plan to see The Roses at the premiere in NYC,” she told the outlet on Monday. “Should be fun and I have a bet with myself that they don’t die.”
Turner also posed with Cumberbatch and Colman. Cumberbatch opted for a black suit and brown T-shirt while Colman donned a black blazer and skirt.
“It was an iconic film that we both remember from our youth,” Cumberbatch said of his and Colman’s affinity for the original comedy in an interview with USA Today on Monday. “And [we’re] big Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas fans.”
Turner got her breakout role in 1981’s Body Heat. She went on to star in countless films, including Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, Peggy Sue Got Married and more. While Turner found a lot of success, she was dealing with health issues behind the scenes. Turner was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
“Rheumatoid arthritis hit in my late 30s — the last of my years in which Hollywood would consider me a sexually appealing leading lady,” she said in a 2018 interview with Vulture. “At that time, there was very little public knowledge about autoimmune diseases, so my illness was a source of bad mystery.”
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes pain, swelling and inflammation in the joints, per the Mayo Clinic. The condition can also damage other parts of the body, including the skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels. Symptoms include swollen joints, long periods of stiffness, fatigue, fever and lack of appetite. There is no cure, but treatment can help the disease go into remission.
While Turner’s condition continued for nearly a decade, she was able to go into remission following treatment. Turner was placed on “massive amounts of steroids,” which changed how she looked.
“The hardest part was that so much of my confidence was based on my physicality. If I didn’t have that, who was I?” she told the outlet. “You work with what you have, as best you can. That’s what I’ve done.”
The Roses hits theaters on Friday, August 29.
