JANET LEIGH (1927-2004)
[Commenting on the making of the 1960 thriller Psycho, and whether or not it was true that she no longer takes showers]: ‘It’s actually, honestly true. And not because of the shooting of it [the shower scene]. It was the seeing of it. It never dawned on me how truly vulnerable we are. Psycho gave me very wrinkled skin. I was in that shower for seven days – seventy setups. At least [Hitchcock] made sure the water was warm.’
‘Hitch relished scaring me. When we were making Psycho, he experimented with the mother’s corpse, using me as his gauge. I would return from lunch, open the door to the dressing-room and propped up in my chair would be this hideous monstrosity. The horror in my scream, registered on his Richter scale, decided which dummy he would use as the Madame.’
LOUIS JOURDAN (1921 – 2015)
[The French actor who portrayed Gaston in the 1958 musical Gigi spoke of his movie career]: ‘I never see my movies. When they’re on television I click them away. Hollywood created an image and I long ago reconciled myself with it. I was the French cliché. I’m proud to be a Frenchman, but I resent the image people have of the stupid, continental charmer. Against that type of role I fight pitilessly. Any actor who comes here with an accent is automatically put in roles as a lover. I didn’t want to be perpetually cooing in a lady’s ear.’
KEN BERRY (1933-2018)
[He portrayed the bumbling Captain Wilton Parmenter in the TV series F Troop (1965-7), the commanding officer at Fort Courage who was forever resisting Wrangler Jane’s advances, (only God and the writers know why). He was also an accomplished dancer.]: ‘Fred Astaire was my big hero. As Gene Kelly articulated it, ‘He’s a phenomenon.’ No human body has ever been able to move like that. I don’t think people now really appreciate that fact…that there has never been a human being who moved like that. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life and I don’t think any of us ever will. I know just enough about dance to know how impossible it is to do what he did. It’s a really ‘sweat’ job, the hard work. When it comes to dance, nobody has ever touched him before or since.’
JEFF MORROW (1907-93) 155
[Recalling the filming of and eventual audience reaction to The Giant Claw (1957)]: ‘We shot the film before we ever got a look at this monster that was supposed to be so terrifying. The producers promised us that the special effects would be first class. The director – Fred F. Sears – just told us, ‘All right, now you see the bird up there, and you’re scared to death! Use your imagination.’ But the first time we actually got to see it was the night of the premiere. The audience couldn’t stop laughing. We were up there on-screen looking like idiots, treating this silly buzzard like it was the scariest thing in the world. We felt cheated, that’s for sure, but they told us afterward that they just ran out of money. They couldn’t afford anything but this stupid puppet. But it was just terrible. I was never so embarrassed in my whole life.’
DEBORAH KERR (1921-2007)
Deborah & Cary in An Affair to Remember (1957)
[Deborah and Cary Grant were never lovers off-screen but they shared a ‘chemistry’ on it, according to Deborah’s recollection of their love scenes in An Affair to Remember (1957)]: ‘Believe me, Cary and I knew how to kiss. When we did a love scene, we may not have been trying to swallow each other but, for those brief moments, we just loved each other.’
KATHERINE HEIGL (1978 – )
[On wearing a thong in the 1994 film My Father the Hero]: ‘Oh God, I look back now, and it seems so gross. At just fourteen years old, I had to wear a thong bikini. And then they used that scene in the trailer, so my entire school saw it! There are still men who come up to me today and say, ‘You were really hot in that film!’ I was fourteen, for God’s sake!’
‘I’m grateful people think I’m beautiful or think I’m sexy, and I suppose it’s better than the alternative, but I do try to fight it a bit so it’s not all people see me as. And I’d love to one day be in a position where I could choose a role to showcase my creativity versus just my bra size.’
‘I was complaining about the hours [on One for the Money (2012)], and one of our producers said, ‘You should ask Debbie Reynolds about her hours on Singin’ in the Rain [1952], so I did. It was so horrifying what women had to go through to make that movie. It was her first big break and she was working with an icon and they were dancing and singing. She said they worked 20 hours a day and she would get a few hours’ sleep on her sofa in the dressing-room and then go back to work. It was so much that I thought she was exaggerating. Then she told me how she had to dance with bleeding feet at one point. Gene Kelly wanted to stop because Debbie’s feet were bleeding all over the scene and she was like, ‘No, no I’m fine. I can keep going.’ So then I stopped complaining about my hours.’
JEREMY BRETT (1933-95)
[Jeremy worked on stage with Alec Guinness and studied the man’s discipline]: ‘He does not like the audience. If someone coughs, he sends his man with cough drops to Row J, Seat 5. Once, on a rare hot day, someone in the front row was using the program as a fan. Guinness knocked it out of his hand with a cane. Totally destroyed the illusion of blindness.’
EDWARD EVERETT HORTON (1886-1970)
[Veteran actor Horton spoke of working with Rita Hayworth]: ‘She was so sweet and hard-working. She asked me to watch her work out her dance routines and go over her lines with her. I’d tell her little things and she’d whisper, ‘Don’t tell the director, please.’ She was so modest and affectionate.’
Heigl is indeed a gorgeous woman as well as a decent actress. Unfortunately she has garnered a reputation of being ungrateful and very difficult to work with by people in the industry.
I was unaware of that, Michael. Stunning woman. What a pity. I first saw her in ‘My Father the Hero’.
Heigl was on the medical TV series Gray’s Anatomy, a show I’ve never watched but is a long running hit. Heigl was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role as a doctor. She asked that her name not be submitted because she felt that the material given her was not that good. Ouch! From then on the creator/producer of the show & Heigl were not friendly. Surprise. Her character was written off the show. Surprise again. The creator of the series (a woman) said, without referring directly to Heigl, that “in the future no a#^holes will be allowed on her show.” Since then several folks that have worked with Heigl & her manager mother have reported negative experiences about the two. Sofia Vergara from the hilarious Modern Family sitcom was in a Gary Marshall movie and worked with Heigl. Sofia said it wasn’t fun. I’ve seen an interview with Heigl where she says she doesn’t mean to be difficult but that she tells the truth about things and people don’t respond well to honesty in Hollywood. So it may be a combination of Heigl being too honest, but also that she can indeed be a prima donna.
Should read “fame”!
What a claim to game Alan! He was a great actor
Who, Cat? Alec Guinness?
Really enjoyed this edition, Alan. Particularly Ms Heigl and Mr Horton as well, revealing something of the reality of performance and professionalism.
–Jeremy Brett, the greatest Sherlock, bar none, notwithstanding a tip of the deerstalker to Basil Rathbone.
–I wouldn’t want to cross Alec Guinness for any reason. Nor Deborah Kerr, for that matter.
–Poor Jeff Morrow. What a great, but humbling, anecdote. How often have actors and crew heard “we ran out of money”?
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you, too, Dan. I actually wrote to Alec Guinness when I was fifteen and he kindly answered with a hand-written card, describing how he was about to make ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. I have had a soft spot for him ever since.