Twenty years have passed since Olympia Dukakis won the best-supporting-actress Oscar for her role in Moonstruck, where she shared the screen with Cher, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello and John Mahoney. And almost 20 years have passed since her cousin, Michael Dukakis, ran against George H.W. Bush for the White House.

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Olympia Dukakis

Ms. Dukakis, who looks at least 20 years younger than her age – 76 – spoke at the Nasher Sculpture Center on Thursday night as part of the Nasher Salon Lecture Series. She's no stranger to Dallas. A physical therapist in her younger years, she worked with polio patients in West Virginia and at Dallas' Parkland Hospital during the last epidemic of the 1950s. It remains one of her most vivid memories, one that helped define her as a human being and as an actress.

Today, she's as busy as ever. She appeared alongside Oscar-nominated actress Julie Christie in the movie Away From Her. And she just finished directing Botanic Garden, a play that runs through March 9 in Chicago. Ms. Dukakis has been married for more than 40 years to actor Louis Zorich, who many remember for having played Paul Reiser's father in the television comedy Mad About You. They're the parents of three children.

You've said that "Moonstruck" changed your life. How?

My daughter was going to college on credit cards. I was married to an actor who was quite successful and then had a terrible accident. So we went through some very hard times. I spent a long time waking up and going to sleep worried about money. I didn't want to lose the house. After Moonstruck, I stopped worrying.

What are your feelings about your cousin's race for the White House and the current race?

Well, I think that if he'd run a race that was more confrontational, let himself get more contentious, we might not have gone through the misery of the two Bushes. I'm sorry – I know he's from Texas. But we are so bereft, so bankrupt of any kind of belief in the future ... I support Hillary.

Michael Granberry