Elizabeth Taylor interview on Johnny Carson 1992

[Music] [Applause] here's Johnny [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay.what analyst what let's see Japanese audiences top that [Applause] who's on good tonight I don't want you to feel obligated but I want to remind you all of the jokes are about to hear were written in America well before we get to the rest of the show let's talk about politics that's where all the real humor is ah Bush is down in Tennessee and he's trying to capture the country music vote now Bush is just a little out of that scene he thinks he thinks Garth Brooks was Wayne sidekick in Wayne's World the president come on now the president Iceman but he's out of touch with the common people went into a southern diner down in Tennessee way to come and said how many grits and bush said I'll take four I had I had great hopes for that yes I'm not sure about the president's campaign sales pitch today he said look look at it this way if you elect me I'll never be able to run again you think whoosh for the first time has finally mentioned the name of his Republican opponent Don and Nashville Bush actually referred to him as pop not the last thing just pop for the first time now things are really warming up I understand next he is going to invite Buchanan to sit next to him at a banquet I found out some of the day I didn't know that I guess when you're out you know campaigning all the politicians to keep in touch communication is very important and did you know all the candidates carry around their own personal beeper I guess some of you do right when you get a message your beep for important messages except for Jerry Brown Jerry has a no EG board with call waiting and for governor Bill Clinton keeps getting hit by the tabloids he had a campaign stop down south and Bill Clinton played the saxophone now he was here about what two years ago he played the saxophone under Tonight Show so one of his campaign stops he played the saxophone and wouldn't you know it the tabloids came out and the star said Clinton caught having extramarital sax I asked you is that fair I asked you is that funny but that's another choice now Tom Harkin from Iowa you know mr. Harkin they're calling him thank you for that Tom Harkin from Iowa folks he's running on the Democratic ticket okay I'm not campaigning they are calling him the last liberal last look now to keep the breed alive today environmentalist tagged him and released and released him on the grounds of the Kennedy compound okay this is true because he's so bizarre you think I'm making it up was on CNN today NASA the national administration of space administration wants to send a married couple into space and believe it or not they want them to have sex no sexual act so they can make a study of it we're going to spend money for next I can already hear the excuses not tonight I have vapor lock sickness a zero gravity isn't it I want I want to hear that countdown ten nine eight seven six five four play three if they wouldn't put a camera in there would you no I mean come on they're married couple but I can just see the camera pan slowly over to the bed we see shoes pants stockings in brassiere and it's the ceiling okay moving back from outer space coming back to her just in time I might add to read this in the paper today Mike Tyson got a speeding ticket for driving 73 miles an hour and a 55 mile an hour zone poor guy not only is he looking at not only is he looking at 40 years in prison but he may have to spend a day in traffic school Oh yesterday in California Moorpark California nice little city out here kind of an interesting item a California poultry truck carrying four thousand chickens over turn now 1500 the chickens died in the crash nine hundred were injured and they were given leaflet lethal injections and the survivors were sent on to the processing plant I have really no joke here I I just wanted to tell the chickens that some nights I know just how they feel okay now Monday I want you folks to fire up your VCR you're going to want to tape this probably to pass on to your children it's in the paper next Monday Geraldo Rivera will have a doctor on his show extract fat cells from his yes on the show from his yeah from his rear end and implant them in his forehead to smooth out wrinkles now my question is if something goes wrong how can they tell where the brain damage is [Applause] he was doing that on the air right from the push into the right anyway tonight I'm looking forward tonight with Miss Elizabeth Taylor is on [Applause] we are we are the only ones each of us is not married yet this knife because you know on three months we lock it up here and by the fact that Liz is here tonight we're lining up other big stars who are coming on before we leave we may get Elvis yet software's agent today anyways right along with Miss Elizabeth Taylor mr. Michael Douglas review of Lynda Hawkins [Music] you [Applause] all right thank you [Applause] 29 times marvelous audience tonight we've got a great show Elizabeth Taylor's here for the very first time on our show with the trying to get here with the Michael Douglas is also here and Linda Hoffman so it should be fun Dada Tess what kind of audience we have in case Li we hand on some cards and you can ask whatever is on your mind you do not have to identify yourself in case you are in the wrong place tonight Paul is a parish yeah where you Paul San Diego right yeah all right Paul what what timers dinner at your place tonight what's for dessert I don't know Paul what goes good with well roasted intruder furro furro par PAH are from Saint Paul obviously with a group our own yeah same class where they have the Winter Carnival right st. Paul okay do you an ant ever carpool and to work together yeah what do plan a picks me up which my car in his trunk he doesn't drive it doesn't drive right now I've never seen you drive a car and you never show why is that because I Drive poorly I Drive a car like used to fly an airplane I'm so over cautious and know I'm dangerous I don't drive I'd never ask you that before been together for 30 you want to drive me a little hairy aren't answer Arnold do you ever plan to come back and visit Burbank after you leave the show not unless the hearse takes a wrong turn just a joke that was a joke you love dirt right yes yes that was a joke Oh Ellen levy or levy how are you Ellen yeah I'm fine too oh this is sweet what will happen to Tommy Newsom will you be able to find him a new home no no unfortunately where I have to put Tommy to sleep hey you won't be able to tell the difference either no no the guys have got things lined up haven't you guys sure going on tour is all right that's good so you'll see the band around you good Marcia Humphreys will you be intimidated by Liz Taylor will you be nervous looking to those big purple eyes not purple eyes just violet eyes right not purple but a purple eyes made me nervous it would have been in a car a long time ago you're talking purple eyes here Kim Walter from Sacramento is you body double for Arnold Schwarzenegger in Spy magazine have you heard about that photo Arnold Schwarzenegger in Spy magazine acapella I mean nothing no nothing I guess steroids can only do so much hey I love our no but I kid the guy Judi Napier you sound unhappy Julie what did you do anything wrong Wow what we're glad you got into beauty do you know where Ewing Nebraska's 54 miles west of Norfolk that's where I I grew up you came 2,000 miles to tell me that [Music] I love women why don't you just why don't you kick back for the last few months and do the show from your bedroom oh no no no say weed seed 500 people here I've made one a couple dozen more seats yes good joke folks anyway will thank you for those internet questions and before we have list come out here's a brand here's a new brand of medicine from excedrin excedrin I be the headache ibuprofen we'll be back okay we're back [Applause] okay I am I think offhand of another international personality who is smart the intense public fascination as my first guest and it's a great pleasure to have her here would you welcome Miss Elizabeth [Music] [Applause] [Applause] what do you want a little footstool yeah well after let's see now we've been on the air 29 years in six months we got about three and a half months to go and we finally got you here yeah you know I'm not talking anything I have nothing to sell I really wanted to come on the show and thank you for 30 years of brilliant entertaining [Applause] thank you for coming Elizabeth now my next guest oh did you come here by motorcycle or just your door oh boy no I'm glad you but we've asked you many times in the past but I'm just delighted you showed up here I don't you yeah I'd really look for besides next next Thursday isn't is your birthday February 27th pretty happy birthday thank you yeah how would I feel good there's a you said you said I think you recorded a saying you appreciated this respectfully are you this was great how come any particular reason looking forward to this one outside of each you well first of all it's kind of astonishing that I ever made it comes in surprised me sometimes I didn't think I would and I don't know years ago Grace Kelly and I sat down on how to talk a few months before our kind of impending doom 40 yes and we thought what are we going to do and we decided just to face it head-on and make a big noise out of it and have fun right and she had a great party in Monte Carlo and I had a super party in Budapest I went to hers and she came to mind and dozens of other people and we just entered our 40s with a blast and I thought hell for days a child at Disney I mean what am I going to do for a 60 I'm going to give a party for the child in me so was thank you you look marvelous you do six hours and red yeah as you soon as your survivor I was reading your book the other night and you know you're yeah no I wanted to you're stunning looking person uh you ever get just getting tired of people staring at you when you go come into a room not if it's a nice day really know if it's a sweet one that's not let me ask you a question here you're going to be 60 you made your first movie when you were I think nine years old yeah I came out when I was ten you know I've been in showbiz in 50 years amazingly what amazes me is that Europe were major motion picture star when you did National Velvet a lot of people were in the public eye and have been in the public eye a long time which you've endured and there's been this fascination if you ever consider why that is a lot of other people just say the way you have it they try no but why does this they still have the public fascination I don't know I think perhaps it's because I am a survivor and I'm like a living example of of what people can go through and survive I've had the lowest valleys the highest hide I've had a lot of tragedy in my life I've had addictions I've had white problems I've had extreme happiness uh it's that's why I have a miracle that I am actually gonna be 60 yeah I almost died a couple of times and I've been pronounced dead so you know it's like after what it was in one degree or not I've read my own obituaries they were best reviews I ever had what is fascinated life treating you this time great how's yours fine thank you my just let's talk about marriage a little bit I've made jokes about I've had nobody likes to have a marriage that does not work well nobody likes that yeah and I've often made jokes about mine because I think sometimes by doing mine too yes I have absolutely true but I think you do that to kind of keep the hurt away and you make jokes about it now when it comes to the if marriage was a giant slalom I mean I'm a bronze medal winner you're at it that way what makes this one seem like it's going to work well uh I'm sure you were very cautious this last time that was true I never thought I'd get married again I wasn't married for 11 years which for me is history-making and I think the circumstances under which we met you know to go through therapy together at Reddy Ford you get to know each other really well I mean there are no secrets right and we give each other great support in our sobriety and there is a kind of closeness that is like nothing show business II it's very private right and very pure fun what I was interested in usually I mean it's been the I guess the case or the the model that men older men marry younger women I did my wife Alex is quite a bit younger than I'm on the other hand recently it seems that older women are marrying younger men in your case that's the way it worked well I see my men have stayed the same age I used to marry men 20 years older the truth and they've stayed the same so here's it enough already and you went the other way well no it's just you know around 40 I like it yeah that's the stage Larry is a construction worker Yeah right the very de Paula - Paula politicians you ever thought of marrying did you ever think in your career marrying a comedian yeah they were most of them community not Rebecca some of them should have been I'm not sure those of our consumer are I'll make the best estimates you know there might be fun around the house a lot of laughs but we're kind of Moody - how would you rate yourself is on a scale of one to ten as being easy to live with you're said you feel your company's well I'm a Pisces and we're a cent - what does that mean Alice I was married to a Pisces once I'm here where I do try to move around the zodiac you know that's right you would you put any any groundwork in astrology at all the Pisces meaning Africa what would they characteristics of the time now no I really done it's just an excuse it means you can flake off election when your bed we're going through the clinic and the therapy together don't some of those programs suggest that you don't immediately form a relationship until after you're out there so you don't have it your need or dependency that's absolutely true yeah and we were very careful about that and we were very tentative and cautious and we were friends yeah before we were serious so much great yeah yeah we're take a break almost for you we're gonna come back and uh I've got some other thing I want to talk about okay we'll be right back [Applause] this move [Music] [Applause] [Music] the movement people her Elizabeth Earl is Elizabeth Elizabeth that's what I thought I really do I'm wonderful the middle name was Elizabeth really yeah I really wanted first what Ruth yeah biblical and Elizabeth yeah let me ask you a question you mentioned just while we're away and the band was playing that when you went on tour you know you're talking about your perfume and we'll talk about a little bit if you felt uncomfortable working in front of live audiences now most people would find that strange because you've been in front of audiences in a way all your life what is your problem in doing hammer is in a sense like an eye but it's only one and you have sometimes this umbilical cord kind of connection with the camera right and you forget everybody else on the set you don't even see them you only see the actor you're working with and only feel their presence and their eyes right and you're aware of this eye but it's only one I was I never have been on your show really because I thought I'd be terrified of an audience and you're really not scary at all come on try the monologue some night you'll find out no that's true we did on the perfume tour that I was doing questions and answers for thousands of people and department stores and I had a ball yeah you've seen yeah not that terrifying on the other hand if I had to do something like an emotion picture I feel very awkward because I'm so conscious that people are watching maybe what I'm doing yeah and that bothers me this doesn't that I forget they're there that's interesting you have to thank you tell me about your friendship with Michael Jackson it is intriguing because you seem to come from from different different worlds you were married on his ranch they had 22 helicopters over overhead yet people parachuting in right how did you become friends and uh uh we became friends and he's like my brother and there actually is a lot of similarity between Michael and myself we're both from show business show business children we started very young I had no childhood to speak up and went through the loneliness of that and the sort of strangeness of growing up when you're an adult and he loves animals I love animals were both shy we actually have a lot in common and we can talk to each other on so many different levels and Michael is like litmus paper he start lauding paper he just soaks up everything and he's so curious and until about two months ago he kept saying to me oh god I just loved your performance in gene there I say Jane Eyre I was 11 years old you know Michael I have grown up he finally showed Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf I was like very impressed I said thank you Michael yes and now I can play other records and ABC I forgot beneficial parallel you both started very very young you you wrote in the book you said when you were young at the studios in the very early in your life you realize the difference between Elizabeth Taylor the commodity and Elizabeth Taylor the person how did you come to that realization because it's important you realize what was going on at the studio but you also your economy because your movie star right but you realize the difference between that and yourself well I realized there was a certain value to this commodity called Elizabeth Taylor when I told lb mayor who was swearing at my mother and using words that I really have never heard before she was a tyrant was me oh he was foaming at the mouth and carrying on like a lunatic and he was swearing at her and being so abusive and I jumped up with tears pouring down my face and said you and your studio can both go to hell and I stormed out of his old were you 16 you told that to Louie be merry yeah a my brand to a Benny Thals office who is the vice president and another vice president came and said you've got to go back and apologize and I said no why should I apologize he should apologize to my mother I am not apologizing and I'm not going back in his office and I never did and that sort of made me realize when they didn't fire me that this policy must have some value to them otherwise I would have been sacked and I didn't care what Dad had been and you've heard the famous story that somebody once said that actor will never work in this town again unless of course we need him yeah yes I learnt that when I was 15 yeah when when you were growing up in the studios in those days they were protective of the stars right things have changed a lot for example they had a press relations people who if one of the stars maybe went out and had a little too much to drink that wasn't in the paper because in those days that was almost scandalous what do you think what's happened lately in all these last 40 years remembering drew Bergman when she well you know I had a little run at it correctly runner out of the country and the poor lady didn't work here for almost 20 years and nowadays and I'm not making being judgmental on this people have children together who aren't married and everybody greets it like you know what a joyous occasion the morality has changed thank you who do you think of that I think it's wonderful you me not people are seeing being I do know it's a kind of freedom I don't like the yellow journalists a National Inquirer and then I go oh yeah taking fan it's like our favorite magazines yes I what we help support yes you know they get away with absolute murder I you don't mind to do as well as I huh because it's not worth it some time to go through all of that I did to them and I did win and that was very sad but I just took gotten sick and they came up with some facts that we're just so totally off-the-wall they put a little bit of element of truth in and embellish it well you know doesn't sell papers you know people yell record not everybody believes it right yeah let me ask you another how do you feel about people let's say entertainers who write books in detail which has been done I'm not going to mention any names detail that they have slept with songs or had relations with so-and-so maybe 20 years ago now those same people are married and they have maybe a family and but people write these kiss-and-tell books talking about alleged I think it's one of the dreams of devaki go gentlemen or ladies don't do that do it I think it's terribly tacky it's uncalled for it's not fair it's selfish it's exploiting something that supposes they was sentimental significant meaning well and I think it's really bad change but that seems to be what's happening now in the tabloid journalism and I will get paid a lot of money for writing it in books yeah what's the nicest gift you ever received I know you have a passion for for jewelry that's well publicized nicest gift you've ever seen how God I've received some it I guess the gift of life yeah that's my but I mean imagine material thing when I was okay didn't you have a diamond once the size of a kumquat I mean something like Adar's hobbit you don't throw things like that' [Music] that's not recyclable uh they don't become like you yeah no I think probably the most exciting person I ever received in my life was when I was 13 after I'd made National Velvet and the studio gave me the horse for good yeah and that just blew my mind did you keep the horse for a while until it died when I was 24 years old it's pretty long like a horse isn't it yeah so your life is pretty happy now yes yeah that's great I'm happy for you and you look like you're happy I am too I thank you for coming are you gonna stay with us aren't you yeah okay cuz Michael Douglas is gonna join us little box yeah we'll just stay here and talk some more [Applause] [Applause] - is one of our most popular actors and he is one of the most successful producers now on the current we'll be seeing this latest film Radio Flyer opened today would you welcome please Michael Douglas [Music] [Applause] who's a migraine follow me have you two know each other before or we actually I this'll never listen this excuse me I said watch me mama yeah when I was about 13 living in Connecticut you and Richard Burton chartered a yacht and you came through you arrived our little port and I remember watching you it was really wonderful it was like royalty was better and we came up but more recently we've and each other on an airplane traveling but soon would've had a chance to know intimately or closely your people noise stick around yeah my mom are you flirting over there with his married man yeah everybody everything everybody always figures that all I know each other well yeah chocolate everybody always figured that all entertainers know each other very well and not true you're working your own area and sometimes you work together but not everybody else you know I have sleepovers your cookouts know if actually it's isolated a lot I mean you you finished projects you finish pictures together and as intimately as close as you are and then you just sort of disappeared yeah like no when you grew up you grew up in a family of Kirk Douglas with your dad so you had access to people who are already you know in the business who would you like to meet is there anybody you haven't meant that you'd like to me probably don't if I can take it to be Marlon Brando well I've never met interesting man yeah yeah very interesting man and Katharine Hepburn yeah I've never met and I'd actually love to meet those lost sports figures I think maybe growing up the entertainment or you know I'm a big sports freak I love sports I find it as a release so I dream about meanwhile sports figures athletes yeah when you were I hate to ask his question because it's going to make me sound like Methuselah but your dad was on the show many times and when you were younger did you ever think you'd join us I can't believe you when I was about when you began the show yeah go go go easy take it when you were first two or three years and I was a young man I was a teenager and trying to you're being so delicate I just tried I remember thinking that when I was trying to articulate what I thought about something right as a young teenager I should go in the bathroom and sit on the John I pretend I was on the Johnny Carson show I sit there this is an honor that comes a few people and you know I pretend you're asking questions well Johnny this my mother be outside you all right honey are you okay well then I remember the first time you were we looked up our records on it was 1971 1971 Oh Michelle 20 21 years ago I was a very young actor and you were kind enough with Freddie to have me on the show and I was terrified I'll never forget I was so scared and you came in before the show to meet the different people on the show I remember you came in just hi giant cars upon Elizabeth's life I guess he'd take a look I was sat back there the show was an hour and a half got old in those days and like this and got to be and this shows us sorry we ran out of time tonight but we'll have Michael Douglas back again I was so oh yeah I was so relieved I was so my first was a non experience you know I did not remember that you got bumped that night no I I always hated somebody shows up and you sweat it out till you come out and then also you don't make all right I think you took one look at me and I was a very good idea no but it is a second-generation screen actor you should have kind of been prepared for that Bing Bing with your dad all the time right well I I guess you do but I mean I think second generation particularly if you're the son of us of an actor or the daughter of an actress takes you a little longer to find yourself I think it Excel or to find your own identity you know in an early age you're it also story starts right in a way so it opens it opens doors in a certain way in terms of an entree now that he takes a little longer to finance your own identity right because this is one of the few business or areas many other cleaners so-and-so and son or carpenter so-and-so you you do the same thing but in this visit if you act too much like you're your father or your mother in a certain cases you don't have your own identity yeah your dad is going around introducing himself now as Michael Douglas's father right how did know how because he does he kid you about that or do you get him about it well we have we we Joker ala he's been really wonderful about all that all that's happened I know sometimes he'll have a woman reporter all due respect will say come up to your you jealous about your your son's success and he said only a woman would ask me that I said this is a this is a sense of immortality that romantic continuity of generations so he's been wonderfully supportive that was great we're gonna take a short break but we're coming back stay here talking with my beloved Elizabeth Taylor always talking about you and your dad and I hope you don't get does that bother you all the time but you had two different upbringing you're dead who wrote the book the Ragman son I think was literally Ragman son who became Kirk Douglas you grew up I guess in Eastern schools gentlemen schools different kind of absolutely he has a you know real rags to riches story which even says is too corny for the movies and through his success and everything else I've ordered me a much much nicer upbringing so we're trying to do a picture together we're working on have you ever worked together no no we have a picture working on actually a circus film I did I'd like to do together with him and we start to find the roles the different generation right and his characters just so much easier to define and kids of post-war period of the affluence you don't quite have a dramatic spectrums that you had from that earlier generation a whole get em how will you arrange the billing in this picture whatever way you wherever he wants to sleep pictures have a little more a hard edge to them nowadays than they did when you're you know you made pictures you know we're kind of sweet and so forth and now they got all these hard edge things and people think there's too much violence and so forth and the love scenes I read does I read it you did a love scene with don't tell me Melanie Griffith well I had taken in his shining through that they almost had to tone down or well that was in shining through that was that was a that was a nice we thought was a nice scene but you're probably referring to a picture coming up called Basic Instinct coming up in another month it's pretty hot there's two actresses Sharon Stone I want Anna Jeanne Tripplehorn and there's some the picture required some some minor cutting to get an R rating what do you mean minor cutting I'm not being at the movie business only 47 seconds yeah amazing what you can do in 47 amazing what you're doing one second Radio Flyer is the antithesis of this is a very very sweet lovely picture I'm very proud of from our production because I'm from the wagon the radio Radio Flyer from from the wagon and so it's a lovely tender picture and obviously I'm not in it so and I think it's a just great Richard Donner directed his wife Lauren Robert Schuller produced it lovely films opening open today so thank you very you have a Radio Flyer when you okay I sure did and I had a flexible flyer that was the sled yeah those are dangerous yes did you have a flexible plan you still have it in Beverly Hills sure sure sure love those Eunice to go around us out in LA when they're building storm drains out here you know there's still blame tickles inside them is amazing so ready your flyer just reading Flyers opening opening today so what's the other one the basically one of those morning's a team second well you do with those 47 seconds that go on it no come on you know does that go on some kind of real for review or well it's it was a long process but to hopefully not it could be I but you can go if it's expensive ticketing over Europe and see it Mike I'll tell us why was just it wasn't that'd that much different but there's just little things that on the ratings board that they have little things like hey I'm out of here I'm out of here don't look at me Paul yeah we'll be right back hey this has been funded I want to inform me tonight I want to thank Linda Hopkins she was standing by but we ran a little long tonight I know she'll understand Linda's appearing at the Catalina Bar and Grille from the 25th to February through March 1st she's a marvelous singer so go see her and we'll have her back on the show son this has been fun and I thank you for coming thank you Elizabeth it's breehn breehn I'm glad you showed up after all this time did you have a good time I mean I wondered with martinis thank you for you thank you for being happy marriage I'm gonna see you soon good night [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm humbled by that applause

Channel: Athena Grey

Views: 852,025

Rating: 4.6463156 out of 5

Keywords: Elizabeth Taylor, Johnny Carson, interview, old Hollywood, 1992, late night, talk show

Id: mHgaRSegbK0

Length: 41min 54sec (2514 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2017