Angela Lansbury on Her Accent and Bedknobs and Broomsticks | The Dick Cavett Show

listen my first guest tonight is one of the screens finest actresses she's been in more than 70 motion pictures I wonder if even if any film buff can mention the name of the first movie she was in in America she has three Academy Award nominations she's reached the peak of stardom in New York with her Toney interpreter winning that interpretation of MAME in name and she will be doing summer stock tour of name for people who missed it will you welcome please the beautiful Angela Lansbury [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you know when I was introducing you I was thinking I know then I thought I knew the first American film you made but I may be wrong does it does it have four words in the title five nope does it have the word picture let's use my next guess I thought it was picture of dorian gray no you asked me this question four years ago I'm gonna answer it correctly no I could you are you playing that I forgot no it's just that no you and a lot of people around there's ago yeah I never met you before okay the movie was Gaslight no I'm sorry it was a picture of door what was the picture of dorian gray you have a lot of company there are great many people who would bet good money that my first movie was the the portrait of Dorian Gray so now he's wrong about picture portrait of the year for years to get back that is lovely if I'd gotten some of these things right but know you've been welcome back if they've been keeping you off this show well I didn't want to say anything but mm-hmm four years it's taken me I don't know why that is no I was too nervous because I don't know I admired you very much and I love the show and I I was very nervous to be on it with you quite honestly that's the weirdest thing isn't that weird you Angela lens very afraid of the little fella from the plane well you pack a hell of a wallop you know what I mean yeah don't fool around no guard or Dorian Gray don't you work in Dorian Gray's oh sure how do I do that so you're gonna tour no well what I'm gonna do is kind of exciting I'm gonna redo name which was a glorious event in my life six years ago and I've closed in it four years ago but I'm gonna do a summer tour for six weeks and I open in Camden New Jersey at the Camden County music fair on the 27th of June will you be getting to Nebraska no they never take theater at where people really need it you're absolutely dead right a broken bone Nebraska is it too late to rearrange the to her well let me tell you something a lot of people saw me mean broken limb Nebraska or ever but I I wasn't playing the role played Omaha yeah I was playing a different role in a different show but I mean it has been there I didn't know that yeah it is you know there are people who love theater another person country just never see it and you know they'll come down out of the mountains to see it in Denver and you know Alexis to go all over well those were the days of touring when there was no telly and I mean really the theater included going on long tours but these days nobody wants to go on long tours it's too arduous and there aren't that many theaters it seems they seem to have closed them down or they become movie houses you know you know it would be fun to do if I think it would be fun if there were still trains I mean good trains to travel in yes because it always looks agree in the old movies when somebody goes to the coast they go on a train which seems hilarious today yeah and they wore travelling clothes and they kind of dress the part and it was all romantic and exciting it's all part of this great nostalgia we're into it the president of looking back you noticed that oh sure we're really drowning in it oh absolutely up to here in it and strange really I was as guilty as anybody else but years and years and years ago I mean when I was 17 I was worrying about the 30s and wishing that I've been a you know big grown-up lady in the 30s so you're nostalgic for the old nostalgia yeah I'm going I'm gonna go way way back I mean people are going back to the 50s but I'm going to go back to the 1890s any minute oh absolutely the Jews too recently fifties for me when you were that age did you have any choice what you were gonna be in in life or were you destined for the theater well it seems that I was destined in spite of myself I didn't realize I was but my mother did she obviously knew that this was my bent you know and she gave me that shove and I'm very glad she did I often think that parents don't shove enough and it is very helpful because I think when you're young you can sort of flail around and you don't really quite know where to put your energies you know and if somebody tells you or at least says well go in this direction for a while if it doesn't work well throw in the sponge and you know go your way but at least try this I think this might be for you it is helpful it was for me so you don't mind me you don't feel pushed and you don't feel that you had a stage mother oh never never never never no no my mother was an extraordinary inspiration to me you know was very I was very lucky in that respect when you go back to England now do they think you talk like a like a Yankee sure they think of me as an American actress which I am can you remember how you spoke when you first came over here oh very well indeed yes was it like there well I spoke I spoke with a bit of an English accent I talked rather like this you know like that and a bit of a cockney accent too I think because I was a Londoner but I lost it of course because I have an ear like a parrot and I pick up all kinds of accents that I'm around so it's very useful if you had lived this long in France you would have a French X of course what does their very bone I'll be right back after this message you have several residences that you gather you probably have one one here and I don't even though we have one in the West Coast and now you're in Ireland yeah I have a house in Ireland yeah I lived there quite a lot of the time actually it's as easy to live there as anywhere today it's very nice is it yeah I enjoy where is it in Ireland I don't know Alan well it's down on the south coast of Ireland it's in the County Cork it's what they call a small gentleman's holding you know know what sort of a small house on a small piece of land and it's country living at its most did you decide to just move there because he wouldn't you wouldn't be coming um I always had an ambition to have a house there all these many years and I had the opportunity to get this house so I bought it and then the family sort of drifted in after me and they took to it like ducks to water and so my kids are there now and they really dig it would you rather have them be there than in Southern California yes I would then kal-el is it right now yes I think so yes some people are getting a very bizarre image of Southern California because of the all their articles about cultism and all streams things going on there you know I suppose some people think that everywhere you go there cauldrons brewing and what are your things well yes yes cauldrons and all kinds of nasties are springing up all over the place no it's very serious I mean what is happening in all big cities and Los Angeles is certainly no exception and my kids were born and brought up there and it proved to be too much for them so we moved to Ireland you really wanted to get from that yes but I didn't get him out I mean they opted out they decided that they'd get out so they did and they live in the country now am i prying into an area no no not at all no absolutely not no no no I'm very here I I must be frank on that score because Los Angeles just was not the right climate for my kids I mean they just fell into a lot of traps that a lot of young people fall into and they had to get out so they did would you advise that for most appearances kids are in trouble of course I would advise it but my gosh how many of us how many can do it you know where can you go where can you go so but if you if you do know a spot by golly go there you know change you've seen affair absolutely totally yeah so I'm very grateful that there was that place mm-hmm tell us about the we have a small film clip from a film you've been oh yeah gay giddy topics Bedknobs and Broomsticks a delightful movie for everyone and I play a witch I wish I could have pulled off a few more spells and cast a little more magic around in life as I was able to do on the screen but it's kind of a sweet movie did you you probably didn't see it but um it's uh it's a doozy it's a lot of fun I think it's I think the clip you have is the one in which I'm performing a large spell with a lot of noise and clatter and sort of general carry on it's sort of fun take a look at that it's one of the few silent movies I've seen what a wonderful throwback to the old days I told you I wanted to live life backwards that's really getting nostalgic yeah at the moment to be frank with you we don't know here in the studio whether you heard the sound on that or not if you did congratulations we missed it our local stations have a message and we'll be back [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Dick Cavett Show

Views: 39,702

Rating: 4.9131784 out of 5

Keywords: The Dick Cavett Show, Talk Show, Musician, Celebrities, Dick Cavett, United States, Chat Show, Interview, angela lansbury, bednobs and broomsticks, bedknobs and broomsticks, mrs potts, murder she wrote, angela lansbury broadway, angela lansbury sweeney todd, angela lansbury interview, angela lansbury dick cavett, awkward interview, beauty and the beast, tale as old as time

Id: DULlFlJqSIs

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020