Quotes
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!
I thought maybe he would like me to do WILSON, and he was hoping that I wouldn't. It was several days before we came to an open understanding.
I thought I saw him for what he was-or what I thought he was. And he was talented, no doubt about that. But, he thought his talent was based on misery and that if he became happy it would just go. He believed that.
I think to have done TITANIC would have been a tortuous experience altogether. I feel good about where my life is, now. I feel free and joyous and happy and more liberated than I have ever been.
I think the youngest was 7 when she saw it. And she was fascinated by it - it is a compelling, suspenseful film.
I think the studio gave me that series on purpose, because they knew perfectly well that Robert Riskin was ill and that I needed to go to work. They gave me that series to do.
I think it's wonderful that there is a movie that is so enduring and that I'm a part of it. I like that feeling, now. It used to be that I was a little "Oh, dear, an animal picture! Oh, my!"
I remember a time we had been at a dinner party and when we were waiting in the hallway to depart, Cooper's wife asked Merian if he would go upstairs and get her coat. So, he went up and came back with a fur coat. The only problem was that she didn't own a fur coat!
I really enjoyed working with Merian Cooper. I had great respect for him. He was a wonderfully absentminded man.
I really didn't have much appetite for doing it, except that I did admire these two people and I realized that it did have at least scope a good imagination. It has dimension above anything else that has been tried in the field.
I never responded to anyone-never, never, never. Because even a "no" was a conversation. So, my secret was not to respond. I didn't respond to Gary Cooper any more than I did to anyone else-and he went back to sleep!
I never felt angry if he got in a heavy mood. No, I really liked von Stroheim and went on liking him and cared about him as an individual. He played in a theater here in New York in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE and he shouldn't have been doing it. That was not a role for him.
I made QUEEN BEE with Joan Crawford and I would have to say she lived up to the title. Joan was not a happy person and she liked showing that. She worked on her fan mail all day long. I just didn't understand that, but she did.
I love films, I love the camera-I love the thought that when you're in front of the camera, whatever you do can go around the world. Isn't that a marvelous feeling to have? That's a beautiful feeling. But, I think the quality of films is questionable.
I left films to marry Robert Riskin and Fox Studios was keen to have me play the part of Mrs. Woodrow Wilson in the movie WILSON, can you imagine? I'm not big enough for her physically, but that didn't seem to matter much to them!
I just imagined I was four miles from help and , well, you'd scream too if you just imagined that situation with that monster up there!