Bette Davis actress (1908-1989)

begin with an interview from 1958 when Davis was in the UK filming the scapegoat with Alec Guinness the actor Derek Vaughn joined her an edge Webber a country club where ignoring the threat of an impending storm Davis discussed the beginnings of her film career the quality she looked for in a leading man and introduced the audience to her daughter Barbara Davis you began your career and the theater did you understand the theater or did you just look at it as training for the film's no I actually started with theater to be in the theater because of course when I started in theater we had silent pictures I don't think any theatre people had any idea what would happen when sound came in as we say yeah was a complete revolution actually because then they did need actors trained for the theater yeah because of the sound so there was an enormous Trek to Hollywood by practically they signed practically all of us as test you know to see if who would work there or not did you find that did you go to films because you felt it was more scope for an actress in films and attentive well I look back well I don't know I guess I felt that if it was an opportunity that I as if a very young person couldn't afford to miss probably I didn't go with with great anticipation didn't no not at all but I I felt I was probably very fortunate and I should give it a try did you enjoy the change at the beginning no I had a very difficult time in the beginning I was not welcome to open arms matter of fact I am arrived in the Los Angeles station and had been told I would be met by him the universal officials which was my studio and no one was there to meet me at all so we kind of stag to the hotel finding our way around my mother and I and I called the studio and I said why wasn't anyone there to meet me and they said well we didn't see anyone get off the train who looked like an actress so I said well I had a dog with me they should have but it was incredible it was a whole just a whole new era and we all felt we should try and I think now people who've seen you working on the set have written that you are head technical actress always conscious of the camera and so forth but at the same time you give a sustained emotional performance how do these student occur together well I've never actually ever been very bright about the camera and the technical part you know this is one thing I've not coped with and they're quite hard enough time to to do my part of it the only time I ever sort of them haven't have a problem with the camera is if I notice it as far as the emotional continuity is concerned this is really training this is the hardest thing of course for the theatre actress to do but she starts in films we talked about that a little earlier to me for half an hour and come back and hit the same pitch and I would feel sort of much more pleased with myself if I could do it if some of the others couldn't all self assess it's actually it's really a training that one must work on very hard yes actually George Alice who was my great mentor at the time when holly was about to cook for me gave me a very good hit once he said never make a scene in front of a camera that you don't remember what went before and what went after then it will usually tie in and then we just all sort of go in without reviewing in your mind exactly how it was but the technical thing of getting your marks on the same time sustaining a messenger what is that is practice you are honestly I don't know how I don't really know how we do it because you must do it without ever looking you it becomes an instinct I feel finally not at first this is extremely hard tying at first you know it feel like a puppet so even capital listen let's talk for a moment about the character you played I read on a poster once that never does as good as Betty Davis when she's behind a number of bad women is it because you think playing nice women is dull well of course I sort of never call them bad women I have a theory that no one person is all bad and no one person is all good the only requirement I have is character at least is definite whether good or bad and I think the more definite people tend to have more sort of evil traits the more interesting people and that's probably why now he needs very different characters that you play how you get into the character how do you set about it oh I just think you pray a third time you know I I don't think there's much planning that you can do if you do a Somerset Maugham story like of Human Bondage you practically have a textbook this is different I mean you read this book and you know this character from what he said inside and out which makes it easier with an original character some of your own ideas of her and just thinking trying to think of new ways you know I don't know there's a school of thought that thinks that actors should completely identify themselves with the character I think it's called the method you prove existence well no I don't cuz it probably dates me that I've I just it's just not for me I must be fair and say maybe it is for some people but I think it's um a very unsee at Racal kind of active no not that I don't think films prime requisite is a certain reality but there is a certain way of giving a performance to your audience and I think this is a little bit like peeking through keyholes in real life I just I just don't really understand it don't like it I must say I don't Oh baby baby come here I want you to meet mr. Derrick bond my daughter Barbara Barbara not a very satisfactory day for riding no how long do we know given everything before this country no I I've been here once before when I was only four years old but that's pretty hard to interpret hmm how many foreign countries to go the entire side of magnet oh this trip Italy and France this country here George happening to knocking oh yes thank you very much furnace work when you go out dude would you like to be an actress like your mother not choices what do you want to death yes darling why don't you run one see you later goodbye how'd you feel if she had said she wants to be an actress oh well wanting to be an actress is just if you want her you must kind of it's a kind of a drive unless another thing that you absolutely have to do and if this were it's and then she must I could hope for her that her life would run along as one normal channels and she wouldn't have this great need for expressing herself in this in this way but if so I think one is happy is doing what one must do yeah you know I really think I've been incredibly fortunate person had a most wonderfully happy life is regards the accomplishment of my life I don't think it's an easy life why don't we go in now your success is giving you the authority to choose your director and your story what do you look for first when you're considering a new film well I try to be very honest and wearing most about the story and I think increasingly in our business since the years I started the story has become the more important thing and I think for the most part I have been able to one also has to say one considers the part as well but I think of the two today I would prefer the story that I think the audience would like I think that's the picture that's selling today more than just a story that features a sensational performance which once we must say say we could've got away with but I don't feel any longer you started with some very distinguished leading men what are the qualities that you would consider the most important in a leading man oh well I think that he that he's a good actor hmm you know that I think that he's a good actor and I must say it's an enormous help to me if he enjoys acting because this makes the film a much happier thing to make yeah it's basically what you say is important to like somebody were playing with off screen or do you just consider no I think I think that is I think one would be very limited to think that way I think there's nothing to do with whatsoever and I think the talent is is the whole thing as many sort of unpleasant people a very talented know no one would limit oneself very much I think if one cared how much one liked somebody personally the bond between mother and daughter did not remain as warm as it was captured in this interview as an adult Barbara claimed her mother had been emotionally abusive she accused Davis's fourth husband Gary Meryl whom Davis met on the set of all about Eve of being a violent alcoholic these claims were all strongly denied in 1972 Davis was back in the UK and back being interviewed this time by Joan Baker in front of an audience at the national film theater biography you confessed that it was when you saw the wild duck New York theater and it was at that evening that very moment you decided to become an actress I sort of always knew I'd do something but I'd never saw it I was 16 now I believe but The Girl Who Played had big we said the dirt players in Boston we were just twins and I somehow identified with her plus it was the kind of a part I would love and I finally played it from that moment on there once you had said you wish to be honest when I continued to school you know I've been graduated from from prep school and then I was very fortunate in a mother who allowed me to spread my wings and and she saw to that I went to New York to a dramatic school which is the proper training really would you do much more in England than they do in America and it just sort of went on from there well I was going to remark on the fact that your mother's back backing of your ambition and her total dedication we talked earlier on without being a stage mother she was never around where I worked at all just her belief was extraordinary I don't quite know why she had it I certainly didn't in the beginning how dare is Hollywood moguls at the time when you first went from New York to Hollywood suggests that you couldn't be a sex in Glamour any other star well according to their standards you see I wasn't now this was really in the very beginning of talking pictures and all of us us who came out from the theater work we're not actress the kind of people you know we sort of had our own color hair and maybe a couple of teeth crooked we looked you know totally different and they were very very puzzled you know and off screen we didn't go around all dressed up say like a hollow as somebody would you know so they just did not understand this at all so we just were you know they called me the little brown Ren but then finally you see nobody helps you when you go about makeup or about the camera it's a wholly new profession really and finally they find out you know the best way to wear your hair that they put a makeup on you that does the best for you it's just a slow process of getting to look on the screen what you really thought you look like in life cuz I I thought I was fairly attractive till I got to Hollywood I didn't but you did have to fight off all their attempts to glamorize you in their turn oh yes yes Hepburn Margaret Sullivan and I were the three who really fought it you know fought the although when I went to one as they made me you know really bleach my hair and I knew it was gonna limit with the pot so I snuck down one day and had it you know put back the ash blonde hair I'd always had and one year later mr. Wallace sent for me said you've had your hair he died one year later but if I had gone for permission he wouldn't have allowed it you see and I didn't want to go through life with a very bleached self here but it was the factory getting to work because they even suggested changing your name oh yes they wanted to call me Bettina doors and to be a little vulgar in this illustrious group I said I refuse to be called between the drawers on no question it's very well you joking about it now but of course at the time for a young girl break it must have been was absolutely heartbreak yes I remember sitting in the outer office of mr. Lemle was talking to somebody he was talking about me not knowing I was there he said yes she's got as much sex appeal as Slim Somerville and you see you're so right your book oh I was defeated and first as they would say who wants to get her at the end of the picture and this really does have a strong clings to your ego and I didn't have a lot of ego and never have had lots anyway which is big misnomer about actors we have very little ego basically you know so how did you salvage what the well as Alice should have changed the whole at least I had could hold my head high in a film of his which was an important film now I had five or six more years you know when I came to England and fought the whole thing but you just had to hang on and Ruthie my mother was you know so cute when all the years went by and these awful things were said about you she'd always say it's the best fruit the birds pick at and I thought it was so sweet you know she said just remember because it was heartbreaking of course it was that period of time Warner Brothers mr. thought you were although when their top star very difficult property indeed no I don't think so I was a very we weren't a lot Warner's was a marvelous workman like studio as opposed to Metro Metro was really a beautiful glamor place there was no red carpet for any actor at Warner's absolutely not we were not allowed this and we just all worked very very hard and I wouldn't you know those eighteen years were where my life and they were very very good to me and I regret today that the young people don't have contracts to work under because the contract gives you a continuity see you that's what I mean by longevity nobody could escape me you know you made agent 10 pictures a year you know you know you really did and then also the Warner product was the first product sold for television and this is many many years ago now 65 films of which were mine so I just sort of kept on going you know again longevity but I was fortunate there - is it true that you were called the fourth Warner brother by Bob Hope yes oh absolutely absolutely adorable we had this marvelous water employees party every year and he mc2 this particular year he got up and introduced miss Betty Davis the fourth Warner Brothers public knows the film where you first worked with Olivia de Havilland she and I were there together yes she's my great great she's become a great friend really she's always been a great friend of mine is it difficult for stars to be close friends well actors is a group or not my passion so should I buy water socially know I always socially loved writers and directors more much more interested a group of actors together it can be rather tiresome and whose rushes were watching all this you said there is remarkable thing in your book which is rather bewildered me but it sounds very splendid an actor is always less than a medal this is a French a very old French actress more than a woman that's right it's a very old French saying do you agree with that and yes I have to be very honest I think I don't think you can make generalities and I think there are very very many exceptions certainly a beautiful man Claude Rains and our beautiful man of mr. Tracy and and mr. Cooper and mr. Gable certainly worked not less than men but it's a strange profession for a man truthfully Steve McQueen for instance does always motorcycling you know to keep him sure he's a man I know because he's the most marvelous guy Steve McQueen I just freaked and he told me one night he said you know I said why'd you take a chance you're one of the few smashing young men that have come along and we need you desperately he said because it's a strange profession for a man and I just want to stay in something else to keep being a man interesting it's David something I've wanted to ask you for 30 years to marry you yeah that's got in the way how did you get started on the stairs all your marvelous entrances were dance that you've just made a wonderful one now I don't know it just always happened and also stairs a very very dramatic you know they are truthfully dramatic I've killed men on stairs I don't know it's a it's a strange thing because I say that about myself and all the parts you know it Madame sin we're making now there's a gorgeous staircase like said to the director you of course are going to have me come down those stairs back he said I never thought of it the success of the interviews like this led to Davis touring the world with her show Bette Davis in person and on film in 1975 a book and that tour water to the UK once more and to an appearance on the Parkinson Show [Applause] [Music] I was at a press conference the other day which had 150 Germans at it which was feel and I doubt if Andrew Kissinger would have got or any head of state would have got more journalists there um but suddenly asked the question of you there about what it was like to be a Hollywood legend and you denied that you were well you see in this I am performing I don't really think of myself very often in the professional professional part of my life I really don't and so therefore I don't there's no way you could think of yourself as a legend and I can't help but be complimented you must not ignore this and say well it's just nothing but I don't think of it I don't think of myself that way you don't at all know what I mean oh except if you look back on the history of Hollywood there being water I suppose three great women star something there's Garbo at them yourself would you would you agree with that running order well I I will accept the running order yes no no if I'm included with those two fabulous women I am delighted what in fact you're over here now apart from the the book you're touring aren't you and you're you're doing a show yes it is it is an evening with me on film and on stage and audience participation which is well my part of it yes absolutely with the audience talking about what kind of what's the most what's the question you get asked most of all those people cause you've done this all over America haven't you no although I was in Australia and New Zealand all the first part of this year which was a fabulous fabulous trip and I found a fabulous country mmm no well they're very very very there is one question I am always asked did I name the Oscar and fascinatingly enough the only night I was not asked this question was in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania the night of the Oscar show which I thought was very strange is I've always asked that I was asked that everywhere in Australia in New Zealand what's the answer well I feel I did Wow well my first husband's middle initial was oh when he never would tell me what it was because he detested the name so and finally I found out that hit the his middle name was Oscar and the rear end of the Oscar looked like him and I always called it Oscar now I the Academy refuses to accept this and I sort of willingly say the Academy I see that's my memory of it because it was a long time ago when you were when you first went there you said you were a puzzlement to all these people and indeed you must have been did they ever try to touch you up glamorize you oh yes oh yes in the film called fashions of 1934 yes they made me up as nearly as possible to look like Miss Goblin which of course is utterly impossible it gave me the lovely long bob and the nice beautiful wide mouth and the long long lashes and it was it was really sickening because it wasn't my type and thank God I had brains enough to know that you know and I never let them do that again yes how do you mean you never let them do that again because you you I just didn't I just said you cannot either fire me or let me be what I personally have cannot you cannot be somebody else but copy everything else but as a contract artist of course I would imagine that took to the sin amount of guts didn't it well yes yes I was a meddler from my own good but it becomes it becomes self-preservation really if it if it had continued that way and they did that was so very many theater people they brought out you know changed all their teeth change their noses changed everything and and those who had any individuality it just never made it because they just looked phony of course I suppose of Human Bondage was in fact the film that was one of the big that was the step on the leaven and that was a loan up to RKO yes that was the first run yes that's right did you play - cockney didn't do yes I did it still do the accent well I'm not going to sit here and do it this moment of your goodness oh yes I received many copies of course when I started the film with all the null English cast particularly mr. Leslie Howard they were very very distraught they're all very upset that American girls playing it okay all right well you're gradually wonder I don't mind it was a lousy like cockney you know it's much easier to do the very broad topic she always tried to be a lady you see so we had to be as it to be a very legitimate speech I worked very hard on it for many months before I did it yes did you ever feel because you you cornered a market in Hollywood didn't you at one point in your career of playing a playing a know evil women but no they were very very I played just as many others you did evil is remembered more yes evil is that for instance newspaper people know this you know they don't print many good things about people there is a mad interest in evil in all human beings I really think he is and a remembrance of it well well let me put another way then in some of those movies certainly you've played a rather intimidating woman oh I had some marvellous parts like little foxes marvellous women to play that were very difficult hmm I wondered if in fact they the kind of that sort of image that grew up around that time if it had ever affected your relationships with men off screen or with your fellow actors well they arrived a little preconceived notion of what oh I think I think many because I've played many women of that kind that there is a preconceived notion of me how true would it be well I never behave I want I mean imagine going home and being Mildred in bondage all evening at dinner you know of course a lot of actors would say in fact this play you must live the part that you must come out everybody to his own I'm not going to criticize an actor who has to do that maybe that's the way that actor has tested Paul Muni to this always what took the parcel Oh Bella Muni his wife said she had lived with more men than any woman I'm going to ask you a question as you which is a quote from a book not that book but your first your autobiography which was written in 1963 in which you said all my marriages were a farce in the lowly life that's right the lonely life I said they were a fuss well that was a strange thing for me to say now there must have been something before that quote in actors well it was in the last chapter as I remember it to where you were summing up your life when you were talking about the difficulties of being the career woman the star yes and at the same time maintaining of the marriage status yes well it is difficult no question so that's what I must have meant that they seemed like fascist because they did not turn out to be neither successful or real marriages would you how would you feel about working in today is more permissive cinema where I mean in your days I mean the what well I wish we had had some some of the permissive I wish we could have had higher what what is today we could have been more honest in all the love stories hmm and I was today they didn't have as much as regards the nudity of course we were never faced with this that I would never ever have done you wouldn't know and there are many young actresses today suffering from the fact that they will not do it either no and they're losing very good parts for this music and what does the future hold then you're going around touring with this with this oh I do I do this this year I'm the second time I shall probably do this show once a year I hope next year to go to South America yeah and I don't work terribly much anymore I have just finished a film so this has been a very big year much more working year than usual yes that's what keeps you slim is it keeping on the move and keeping busy well I've always kept on the move yes and if we could just sort of sum up in I don't know do you have when you read that book back and you look at your career is that one sort of philosophy that you have through life which is sums up the book in terms of you well I think I stated in my comment at the end of this and took me a long time to decide what to say the one thing I think that really stands by a human being is their work in the long run over all the years one may have great disappointments in all sorts of areas and even in your work but if you still have a work you love that is that is a wonderful wonderful thing there Davis thank you I just said that if I got one ambition left it will be to play Paul Henry part in know why don't you try can I do it I just I really want to do it I would if the bank will give me a re can you play that little bit see yes let's play the thing [Music] my dear [Music] [Applause] 12 years later it was another put promotion at return Davis to the BBC this time on the world in the show now aged 79 a series of strokes have left elephant very frail but the personality forceful but fun was as evident as ever [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] can I just establish before we start how we call you because there is a this is sort of argument is it is it bet or Bessie it is supposed to be bet it is taken from the French Balzac's koozies bet the original pronunciation is bet and it took me 15 years to educate everybody to say Betty and I found out that they were all right well it was Betty I prefer you prefer I prefer yes right I accept either now it's just as long as they call the name that's all right yeah is it like a lot of people there call you but I think in America it's Betty isn't it mostly bet against well know sometimes just beat these yeah Oh beat Davis do you like visiting here oh you like visiting England Oh England is really my second home I was born and brought up in New England and we're all the same kind of people after all we all came from here yeah there we go say this is really a second home to me English yeah if somebody said oh you miss home to do perhaps are saying you didn't like being here or something didn't they oh yes that I detest it coming here yeah those things we just forget yeah pretend they weren't said before it's absolutely absurd I'd are coming doing good I'd be in here I've made about eight films here and I look forward to coming here for my book yes which you've just done of course you people yes now what you've also made eight films here you've made a hundred we were talking them up you've made about a hundred films alas a hundred film I think here's something like that what having been famous successful two Oscars ten nominations altogether there would be a tendency to rest on your laurels with layoffs why do you keep going oh because I love love love making films yes always will although the roar of the crowd there's never really resting on your laurels you must get better get the next thing better than the last one that's an incentive do you remember that at the beginning oh very clearly yes do fine every is very good even at this wild age I remember everything well we won't we won't be indelicate vascular oh my dear everybody knows how old I am I'm 79 I have never lied about my age in my life [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I have to say that announcement you applaud applaud with great pleasure I don't applaud that distinguish now can you look back over the hundred films and say that was the favorite person I worked with between director or actor actor for a start well I think my favorite person to work with was Claude Rains who I consider one of our greatest actors I really do who was here I'm a favor well Edward G Robinson was kind of a pig about peace and yes I had to kiss him in the scene it's a very young girl and I didn't care about that very much no no well he was he was the kind that would go to the editor and say now you know that long scene speech that Betty has I have a lot of thoughts to get over so you can keep cutting back to me yes he was quite a pig you you know a reputation of being a pretty tough woman yourself you wouldn't have tolerated that surely you to say really of course the director plans all that we don't plan it but you never made suggestions like say Edward G would say you do never suggest him oh no no no no was there any any actor and you worked with so many but was there any actor that he wanted to work with it never did oh of course I never worked with Clark Gable I never worked with Gary Cooper actually I never worked with any of the so-called terrific male stars of the day see we worked with people in our own Studios was there any part that you desperately wanted yes for many many years I wanted to play Mary Lincoln and start her out sort of you know early before the White House and go on but it never works out yes I would very much wanted to do that because you have to ask me about my book [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and say I know you're enormous ly popular in England I'm thrilled to be on your show I came on this show to sell a book I am oh I don't know we're glad to see it whether you have to sell a book or not yes I'm a saleswoman yes well I think that some company bought my book and I must say I'm very proud of it a lot of the information that obviously I'm talking to you about not a car because it's a biography and it's all about this no no no not all about my films I never mentioned okay no this and that is exactly what it says this not odds and ends and odds and ends now in England they have added the word towards a memoir well they are of course many many memories but it's really not necessarily that but it's not all about I'll go for it no no but it's about you it's just about things I think many people I have met yes yes and we work very hard on it and we're very thrilled he was on the New York Times best selling this for four months which is terrific yeah so we can sit here and say it's successful at home we hope it will be successful here [Music] I appreciate very much who gave me this opportunity to talk about my book ID and still have a reputation for being a formidable a formidable lady both to work with and indeed you you had a a one woman strike against the studio against Warner Brothers yes because I wanted good directors and good scripts well and I signed for a film here in England and mr. Warner took me to put and I lost yeah but in the long run what do they say I lost the you lost the battle yeah well I won the war yes by the by the seriousness am I getting good films which I was not getting and I knew I would never go anywhere if I didn't have help good good scripts what gave you that tribe was it was it your mother and I was an enormous inspiration to you great help no I was complaining constantly about my bosses the man who paid me and I got sick of complaining and I said you must you must do something about it or just don't talk about it which is true so that's what I did about it hoping it would work out yeah and you won the war and he had an option on Gone with the Wind and the last visit with him in the office he said oh I I said I was going on suspension I was not going to work for a while he said I have options the most wonderful book for you the title is gone with the wind and I looked at him and I said I'll bet it's a pip I went and when I came back back from England it was up it was a big hit 50 can't win em all for goodness what what about a film of your life oh I hope never done well I'm here who would you like to play the part well we'd have to do some search I don't know I am very against these life stories on film with people alive I mean for instance I don't know who would play Bruce Lee my mother know it would kill me it would really kill me I don't want it done and my life really and truly has basically been work and you there's not a lot else in my life but that and I think it would be extremely dull I really do you had three husbands I knew you were going to say that I always said it well there wasn't it wasn't an uneventful life no well sorry it isn't another eventful life so you find three men that are my three husbands and they're nothing like the husband's work no but I knew you'd say that of course well I just hope it's never done while I'm around well I hope you'll continue to delight us with your performances well I do thank you for this really and truly it's a great pleasure plus nice to meet you I believe in former years we couldn't make time to be on your show isn't that right yeah yes I remember now it's good to have you and your incredibly attractive two years after disappearance Davis died of breast cancer the passing away made front-page news across the world and ended another chapter from the Golden Age of Hollywood [Music]

Channel: George Pollen

Views: 65,046

Keywords: Bette Davis

Id: vCMUb5ZdQg8

Length: 42min 4sec (2524 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 16 2017