It
would be easy to call her a legend. After all, this is a woman who danced
for Fosse, was directed by Hitchcock, ran with the Rat Pack, and has worked
in films for half a century. But how many legends do you know who are
still working this much? And having this much fun doing it?
Ive
been making movies for fifty years this year and Im not at all surprised
that Im still hereit never occurred to me that I wouldnt
just keep working. But thats not from the point of view of Oh,
Im so good!, its that its just meant to be: Its
destiny. If I live into my nineties Ill be working til then.
Im
interested in the experience of being other people for a little whileI
consider it almost a retreat. Also, I enjoy going into those parts of
myself that I havent been yet, because I think every part you play
is part of yourself. And I enjoy the familial environment on the setthe
sense of respect and appreciation that everybody working on a picture
has for somebody whos being asked to get up every morning at five
A.M. and go be somebody else. Especially after having fought the traffic.
Im
also enjoying the experience of aging: Theres something to do with
getting older that gives you the right to express any feeling you have.
When youre younger, youre not really sure of what your feelings
are so, therefore, you can be, lets say, pixie-ish, the way I wasI
was constantly surprised and full of wonder and that showed in my acting.
But when you get older you not only have the right to express yourself
completely, but the duty to do so.
In
fact, I wanted to play Ouiser in [1989s] Steel Magnolias
because I wanted to feel how free it would be to be like her when I got
older. It felt fabulousGod, I loved it!and I
think Ive been employing that tactic pretty well frequently now.
When
you have a sense of experience and wisdom you realize that life itself
is, basically, a theatrical manipulation of mostly bullshit and so you
have a certain reaction to that. Which could be called cantankerous.
I think a better word is direct, and thats an easy thing
for me to playits who I am now. But the interesting
question is what happened in between the pixie to what some
call ball breaker.
Back
in 1954 I was in the chorus on Broadway doing The Pajama Game.
I was understudying the role of Gladys who had the big Steam Heat
number, knowing that Carol [Haney] would go on for it with a broken neck.
But one night I showed up late because the subway got stuck and there,
all lined up at the stage door, were [MacLaines future Sweet
Charity director and Pajama Games choreographer Bob]
Fosse and [producer] Hal Prince and [director] Jerry Robbins saying, Youre
on! The conductor asked, What key do you sing in? I
said I dont know.
Id
never had a rehearsal and I was worried about dropping my hat in the number.
Which I did and said Shit! But when we took our bows the audience
stood and [movie producer] Hal B. Wallis happened to be there. Warren
[Beatty, her brother] and I had always gone to see Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis pictures that read in the credits, Produced by Hal B. Wallis,
and thats all I remembered about him.
He
said that I should make a screen test and I had no idea what a screen
test was (by the way, Hal Prince said, Get more experiencedont
go to Hollywood. They joke about that now.) But I got to the studio
and back then theyd always use the same scripts for screen tests,
but Id never learned Voice of the Turtle so I wasnt
gonna act in the test. So I said, Lets get a stool and somebody
get me a scarf and began to do some little dance moves with the
scarf and then the director interviewed me on camera. From then on they
began to test people as a personality rather than playing a part: The
personality test was born.
I
signed a seven year contract with Hal B. Wallis and then went back to
the chorus in Pajama Game. Then Carol was out once more in the
fall and that time Hitchs people were there [as in Alfred Hitchcock,
who directed MacLaines first film, 1955s The Trouble With
Harry].
I
wasnt scared of Hitchcock at all: When I first met him at his suite
at the Waldorf I was mainly interested in how he could move around with
such fat legs. So I asked him to do some moves for me. And he didhe
put his leg and foot up on the chair and went La! I kept asking
him to do that because it was so cute. Then we did a reading of The
Trouble With Harry with Mildred Dunnock and John Forsythe and I read
the part and thats when he said I had the guts of a bank robber.
He never said a thing to me on the movie, though. Well, except Dogs
feet. Dogs feet mean for me to pause. Thats
how he directed.
The
idea of being in movies was, like, secondary to melike a
little hobby that went along with being in this place called Hollywood,
California. I was mostly concerned with What is it like living where
there are no seasons? [Her classic, movie-ready big break
didnt] make me feel anything. It happened to me so thats all
I knew. Later, when I began to examine it I realized that this was my
destinythat it was what Id signed up for, basically:
I dont have a question with the concept that you choose your parents
before youre born. Thats why it makes so much sense to me
that I chose a mother who wanted to be an actress and a father who wanted
to run away and join the circusbut who both chose, instead,
marriage and children. That left me and Warren the technique of fulfilling
their disappointed dreams. It was who I was and was supposed to be. But
I also was supposed to be traveling and I felt this need to go out and
see the world at the same time that I was adjusting to the fact I was
becoming this star in Hollywood (though Ive never thought of myself
as a starI can go with iconic and
legendary a little bit now, because of my longevity).
The
Rat Pack happened pretty quick after: Frank [Sinatra] had seen me on a
TV show and called the studio and said I want that girl [for 1958s
Some Came Running]. And let me say that, during their time,
The Rat Pack were so outrageous that the likes of them wont come
along againwere living in such a climate of fear and
in such a curtailed society now that those people would probably be sent
to jail. But, anyway, Some Came Runnings Ginny is still one
of my favorites. Her care for other people, her ability to love, just
everything about her moved me. I saw that hooker with the heart of gold
thing right away.
By
the time the 60s were up I guess Id done a lot of those loose
women. But heres the thing: They do all kinds of pictures with men
that have nothing to do with sex, but in pictures with women they always
feel they have to bring in the sexual component. Why? Because they just
dont understand women. I mean, look at the pictures today: There
are very few with women stars and even with the ones that do exist, sex
is a big deal.
If
Im not doing a couple of things at once I get very tiredso
on [1977s] The Turning Points set I wrote one of my
books and on [1979s] Being There I wrote most of Out on
a Limb. Popularizing the New Age movement, I made it okay
to take it seriously. And I think it goes hand in hand with being an actor:
To be metaphysical, to be interested in the exploration of the spirit,
is to be a true artistwere creating our own reality
every moment and thats what the actors job is: We create what
we think of the script, we create the temperament, the tempo, and sometimes
we create falling in love with the opposite character.
And
so if I didnt have a love affair with my co-star I was usually having
one with the director. Its not the love scenes, its in-between
shots when you fall in love and its involved with so many thingswith
being tired, being controlled, rebelling
..and if you have a co-partner
questioning the same things its easy to go there. Now I could never
fall in love with Jerry Lewis because he was so self-centered. Brilliant,
but self-centered. I never fell in love with Dean [Martin] and Frankwell,
a little more with Dean because he let me see insecurities and thats
something to love because its honest. I did with the others by virtue
of the fact that we were on a movie setbut its three
months and thats that: I remember having had an affair with one
of my directors and one day the film and it were over. Period.
On my way home I was crying so hard I thought it was raining and turned
on the windshield wipers.
[One
co-star MacLaine didnt have an affair with was Being Theres
Peter Sellers
] But he thought we werepeople came to
me and said, We walked in when he was talking with you in this sexual
way on the phone. He could go in and out of reality and was so living
his part that he was in love with my character, Eve, and honestly believed
he had this affair with me. You see what I mean about brilliant acting
being so metaphysical? Thats why its so funny to me when people
say Oh, shes so wacky, because it says a lot about how
un-wacky I actually am that I dont go into these characters like
so many of the brilliant oneslike Nicole and Meryldo.
I dont consider this a compliment to myself, but Ive never
been involved so much in a character that I didnt know who I wasbut
Im a Taurus, Im too routed for that!
Ive
been involved with so many pictures that had problemslike,
Terms of Endearment was a disaster and look what happened [It won
multi-Oscars including Best Actress for MacLaine]. But at one point I
quit it. When [director] Jim Brooks found me at the airport I said, Take
my Oscar and shove it! Its all too amateur night in Dixie for me.
But Jims thing is working with chaos and hes a genius. And
before Terms I couldnt get a job in Hollywood so he saved
my career. Id work with him again in a shot!
[Twenty
two-years later, MacLaine appeared in Bewitched in July and still
has the much-buzzed about In Her Shoes and Rumor Has It
un-spooling by years end.]
I
know theres Oscar buzz about In Her Shoes, but Im gonna
leave it alone. Though when you have psychic talent, youre very
tempted to use it so its hard to! But also I think its very
important to not care about the outcome of anything, basicallyits
about caring about the process. And, anyway, I loved the idea of playing
a contained portrayal of a grandmother, one not over-the-top in her presentation
of herself. I also loved the idea of working with Curtis [Hanson] and
Toni [Collette] and Cameron [Diaz]Camerons a delightful
actress and this is the part for her.
Okay,
were done. When I look back at my career I think, My God,
did I DO all this stuff? I cant believe I did all that, because,
my God, I did a lot of work, didnt I? I still find interesting scripts
and have two I want to do next year. But when people ask, How would you
like to be remembered?, its funny: I probably want to be remembered
for not bothering with being remembered. It doesnt matter to me.
Ill be back again.
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