s everyone who's seen her on stage or screen knows, Kathleen Turner is a natural-born star. She has that instantly recognizable honey-and-gravel voice, the gorgeous tawny mane of hair, and, at age 47, a body trim and taut enough to bare on Broadway eight times a week in the sold-out hit show, The Graduate.

Kathleen Turner also has something not many people know about: rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Now, after a decade-long struggle to get the disease – and her life – under control, Turner is going public about her diagnosis. Her latest role, financed by Wyeth, is spokesperson to increase public knowledge about the condition. Why? "Because women outnumber men with RA 2 to 1. Because the sooner it's treated, the sooner the pain can be controlled and the long-term damage minimized," says Turner.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that strikes most often between the ages of 25 and 50. Unlike the more common osteoarthritis, which only affects the joints, RA also affects the whole body, causing flu-like symptoms and sometimes damaging internal organs as well. More than 2.1 million people in the United States suffer from RA. We caught up with Turner at the start of what was, for her, a typical day in New York – jammed to the gills, non-stop. She was down to earth, whip-smart, shockingly funny. Exactly what you'd expect...and more.