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PEOPLE & ARTSSaturday 4 March 2017
Shirley MacLaine sets the record straight
LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer
MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Shir-
ley MacLaine is putting
something together about
her life for the first time. pretty.’ She really said that
Tucked away in the corner
of a shaded patio at a sea
view restaurant in Malibu,
MacLaine, now 82, is think-
ing about the onetime ex-
pectations of women of
her generation.
“I asked my own mother
once, ‘What are we sup-
posed to be?’” MacLaine
says. “She said, ‘You’re
supposed to have nice hair
and nice clothes and look
to me.” MacLaine defied
those modest prospects
at every turn. The gamine,
natural beauty became a
movie star when the pop-
ular look was lacquered
glamour. She sued a studio
when she knew she’d been
This Jan. 23, 2017 file photo shows actress Shirley MacLaine pos-
ing for a portrait to promote the film, “The Last Word”, during the
Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. “He terrified Marilyn. That’s
wronged professionally.
She demanded the best of
everyone she worked with,
sometimes leading to less-
than-effusive assessments
from co-stars.
And she has continued
to remain relevant in the
youth-obsessed industry at
every stage of her career.
As she matured, so did her
characters.
She doesn’t attribute it to
ambition, however, but
to dance. Her mother fa-
mously enrolled her in
dance classes at age 3 to
strengthen her weak an-
kles. It was there that Ma-
cLaine fell in love, she says,
with “discipline, music,
teamwork, pain, balance
and strength.”
“If you can get through a
ballet class every day of
your life when you start at
3 ... I’m just putting this to- from Paramount produc-
gether as a matter of fact
... If you can do that start-
ing at 3, then you are con-
fident,” she says. “I wasn’t
like the other girls who were
out there trying to be pleas-
ing. I was in class trying to
be strong and survive.”
Not unlike MacLaine and
her journey, the character
she plays in her new mov-
ie “The Last Word,” now in
theaters, is a woman (Har-
riet) who also rose above
societal gender constraints
to become successful in
business. Now in her 80s,
cLaine says. “I was just out
of the chorus; I hadn’t had
a full meal in years!”
The only director she’s ever
had a problem with was Bil-
ly Wilder because, “he had
a problem with women.”
And she was horrified that
he wrote her character in
“The Apartment,” Fran, af-
ter observing her learning
how to play gin with “Dean
and Frank” and the Rat
Pack crew.
“God, is that what he really
thought of me?” she won-
ders.
why she was always late,”
Associated Press MacLaine says. “He was
Austrian and he wanted
and lonely, Harriet is think- everything exactly his
ing about her legacy and way.” The actress much
impact on the world and prefers the hands-off style
hires a local obituary writer of independent films like
(Amanda Seyfried) to write the “The Last Word.” She
hers. has also found that the in-
“I love playing bitches,” die world is the only place
MacLaine says with a smirk. where she can find char-
“I love the whole idea of acter-driven films.
being so impossible that it’s MacLaine will read any
funny.” script that comes her way
MacLaine doesn’t like to but studio tent-pole fran-
reflect on the scope of her chises hold no interest
career, because, she says, for her. She also wants to
“I think I’m going to live a make films that service the
long time.” Yet she’ll tell senior community.
stories for days about her “I love getting older, I tru-
films in the studio system ly do,” she says. “I like the
and the icons she’s worked wisdom of it, the compli-
with. She smiles proudly cations of it. I do not like
recalling how she taught the invisibility. I notice with
Audrey Hepburn how to other people, who are
swear and how Hepburn, not particularly famous,
in turn, taught her how to when they are old and no
dress (“sort of”). She re- one notices they’re there.
members getting a call That’s awful. I want to do a
movie about that. I’ve got
tion head Don Hartman one I’m thinking of.”
scolding her for gaining MacLaine is grateful for her
weight during the produc- health — she eats whatev-
tion of “The Trouble With er she wants, she says, and
Harry” because of all the gave up smoking last year
meals she was eating with but thinks a lot of it has to
Alfred Hitchcock. do with her never hav-
“Look, I wasn’t tall, thin, ing been a big drinker or
blonde, ethereal, and all doing drugs. She remem-
that stuff that was essen- bers hanging out at Carrie
tial for men to jump on. Fisher’s house once and
Hitch wasn’t interested in putting what she thought
me, but, he was interested was sweetener into her
in me as a food partner. coffee when it was actu-
So, he insisted I have ev- ally cocaine. But someone
ery meal with him. I think I stopped her before she
gained 20 pounds,” Ma- drank it.
“I didn’t even know what
it was. I think of those times
when my buddies would
go in the bathroom and
I’m left alone in the living
room. q