Fay Wray
Joel McCrea was a sweet human being, a very dear human being. Gentle, gentle kind of person. We had a social relationship because we both went frequently to the home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.
Joan Crawford was so worried about herself, I felt. She was a good soul, a good soul. She wanted to be nice to everybody and kind, certainly kind to her fans. She thought about them a lot. Kind of a "queenish" thing to be doing.
It was such a sweet relief to me, because I had always worked, I had always worked, I had always worked-and it was time to do something else.
It was so satisfying for me-a great reward, just to see it done well. And it was beautifully directed by my daughter Susan Riskin. Imagine, a play about my mother directed by my daughter?!
It was really a wearying experience, because it was mechanics, really, as much as anything that we were dealing with.
It was necessary for the audience to see this and be shocked. But when I struck him, and the moment I saw part of him, I just froze! I wanted to run; I just couldn't go on! So they had to make another mask and do it over when I recovered. It was just so real.
It was good for us, I suppose. Those kinds of times produce qualities in us that make us better for having had them. My parents were not getting along. My mother was quite intolerant of friendships that were being developed.
It was appropriate to have someone who had written CASABLANCA-and it didn't hurt to have me, because I was married to some very great writers who fit into that time era.
It was a play of John Monk Saunders called NICKY and the book had been called Nicky and Her War Birds. I wouldn't have been in it, except that the girl who was supposed to do it was the daughter of the investor and things weren't going well. So they sent for me.
It had been about 10 years and I wasn't doing the pictures I would really have liked to have done, but there was a kindness and generosity and sweet feeling toward me that was quite lovely. I did get a larger salary than I had had before, and that was because they cared.
It didn't hurt that picture at all! It was Zaroff's idea to send the people out and then send the hounds after them.
Instead of going to shoot TITANIC, my play THE MEADOWLARK was presented in New Hampshire and that was worth 20 TITANICs.
I've written a play, THE MEADOWLARK, that was produced this past summer, and that was so much more rewarding than anything else could have been. It had the best cast and production it's ever had.
I would say the secret is to be enthusiastic about everything that comes into your life. To care, to care about people. To be excited about everything that comes close to you. I love to read. And I love to write, mostly.
I went to Washington to ask for a little residual payment for the people who had written films in the early, early days, people who never got any residuals on tapes or anything at all.
I was thinking only yesterday how delightful THE CLAIRVOYANT was. The man who was designing the clothes never arrived before roses came. Roses came first. Wasn't that lovely? Wasn't that beautiful? These things don't happen very much today, I think.
I was so unhappy when I wasn't allowed in the studio for a stretch of time, when they shot things that he thought I shouldn't have any connection with-scenes in a brothel. Oh, I felt terrible; I was just so lonely. I wanted to be there all the time.
I was just 17, I think. But, wasn't his reaction wonderful? It was. He said, "Oh, I can work with her." And he said to my agent, "Let's go and see the manager of the studio." And I knew that my life had changed in that minute.
I was interested in Lillian Gish. I thought she was a tremendous talent and I had always admired whatever she'd done. Sometimes I would sit in her dressing room and talk about what she hoped for as a national expression of theater.
I was aware of music and voice because I had two sisters who could sing beautifully. They studied voice. One was a soprano and one was a mezzo. But, I just didn't have their talent. I couldn't sing on pitch. I could scream on pitch, apparently!