JANE FONDA on KATHARINE HEPBURN — Diva on Diva

remember that scene and on Golden Pond way you you never once cut we have to can't we be friends and you have said it's the hardest thing you ever had to do yeah it was it was it was it was hard and it was the actors nightmare too because we did it from the first moment that we rehearsed it all the way through the master and his close up I was so full and when the time came from my close-up I dried up it was not there and it was Katharine Hepburn I said to her Katharine I need help and don't tell Dad and she knew exactly what I meant and she hid she stood in the bushes and backwards man off camera and I turned and I looked into her eyes and she did this and it was in character as my mother cuz you know we've seen right before she said to me talk to him just tell him talk to him I said I'm scared she said do it and it was Kate Hepburn to Jane Fonda saying I know what this means to you and by God you turn around and you tell him and I get emotional thinking about it and she said me I could feel it coming from her right into me it was wonderful has there ever been in your life Jane a woman mentor a guide a famous not famous makes no difference a mother sister anybody who really was a very special person in shaping you know there's there has not been a mentor I think I probably would be very different if there had been and I wish there were I although I can't pretend to be a friend of hers or know her well I learned a lot from Katharine Hepburn on on Golden Pond but I've I haven't been growing up I have not been very close to women you have said that getting katherine hepburn was one of the keys to getting the picture made it was difficult apparently too well we couldn't get insurance cuz my dad was so sick yeah nobody wanted to make the movie I mean who wants to make a movie about a couple of old guys and a young kid and nobody wanted to we have to go to England to get money and it all had to be done in a limited amount of time in the summer and and it was critical that that that she be in it they never met before actually and I wasn't present when they met I was traveling through Appalachia with Dolly Parton Katherine never forgave me that I wasn't there and the first time I met her you know what the first word she said to me were I don't like you because I have spoken okay now it's my turn in my big scene in the movie that means so much to me because of the personal part of it and I turn there's nothing there's nothing what am I gonna do where is Lee Strasberg now that I need him what steps never gonna go all the songs that I usually can sing that will make nothing was working I was so scared so they were lighting it and I was waiting on the shore and who shows up at 8:00 she's not even supposed to be there that day how are things going and I said I'm said I'm dry don't tell that okay the cameras ready you know it's one of those things that we wish everyone would drown for about a year and you wouldn't have to but they were ready and the time was and I was just so scared and I said to mark I said I'm gonna turn my back to the camera and prepare and when I turn around then you know start to film not having any idea of what I was going to do so I turned my back to the camera the boat is here the bushes are here I look up and there is Kate crouching in the bushes like this it was mother to daughter it was older actress to younger actress and she's been there and she knows and it was a woman to woman and she willed me with her eyes and her fists she willed me into that scene the next day I called Kate Katherine Hepburn I never called her Kate miss Hepburn I called her to congratulate her her first words to me you'll never catch me now [Applause] I didn't get it for a second and then I realized we went into this I had to she had three if she hadn't won and I had we'd be tied so I could have then beaten her you know you did on Golden Pond with Katharine Hepburn and I did a few interviews with her and you know what a talk about prickly she saw things in black and white yeah one point I said I had been in the Middle East a lot and I said I don't see things in black and white I see things in grey and she said well I pity you okay but the reason that I'm bringing this up is that sheep said to me and perhaps to you she did yes can't have children and have a career I shouldn't do the invitation if I had little Johnny a little Katie right I'd want to smother the children then there was on Golden Pond and then 1981 on Golden Pond yes people forget what a daring film it was to make back then I mean it's not a film that in 1981 you would normally think maybe people were gonna pack into sea no I went to the studio's turned it down even though Henry Fonda Katharine Hepburn and I were in it they didn't want to make a movie about two old folks and some kid we had to go to Europe and serve Lew grade Gaulke entertainment put up the money for it and we all had to work for scale because we couldn't get any insurance because my father was sick so we all worked for very very very very little and we shot it over the summer at Swan Lake in New Hampshire and it was funny because we hadn't even dad had agreed to do it of course and I hadn't yet contacted Katharine Hepburn one day our office phone rang and it was hello this is Kate Hepburn she just assumed she was going to do this movie and told us where we had to shoot it and we have to you know so there were these two things going on during the course of that film there was the fact that I was working with my father who was going to die soon and there was the fact of working with Kate Hepburn who I never called Kate I'm surprised that even came out of my mouth right now miss Hepburn who didn't like me very much although she did say you and I are really quite alike great no no why didn't she like you she was so competitive it was very threatening for her which it took me a while to understand because for me she was a legend but I was younger and I was more of a box-office star at that particular point in time and I was producing the movie for my father and she was always making sure that I was being put in my place really but she taught me so much when I see new I was scared of doing the backflip terrified and I and she challenged me and I took the challenge and I forced myself to learn to do a backflip and I would do it over and over and over again always scared bruised and got and when I finally managed to get around at least once I crawled out of the water and she was hiding in the bushes watching and she came to me and she said you've taught me to respect you Janie she said you face your fears that's the most important thing in life otherwise you'll become soggy soggy she said you've got to raise your children not to get soggy and believe me from then on when something frightens me and I'm thinking I think I don't want to get soggy [Music] there's also though this part of her she wanted me to have stories that I could tell about her after she died oh that's interesting I know that's interesting yes Wow and she made sure I did this is I'll tell you another story I've told the story a lot I can't pretend this is new but you know I'd mentioned earlier my dad just made tremendous fun of me that I studied with Lee Strasberg okay so we're shooting a scene in the movie where dad and Kate are playing Parcheesi and I'm sitting on the couch reading and at some point Kate said why don't you come and play with us and my father says something hostile and I say to him something hostile I tend to panic when the competition gets too intense what's that supposed to mean nothing so we shoot my clothes up first and when we get everything lid and we're ready to go and I realize there's so many lights I can't see his eyes so I asked them the the cinematographer to put the light on his eyes oh I can see him okay we shoot the scene reverse now it's on his close-up and just before we shoot I say is that okay dad can you see my eyes and he says I don't have to see your eyes I'm not that kind of actor and I remember being conscious of this thing happening where one half of me died was obliterated my father could still do that to me just wiped me out and the other half of me was this is exactly what Chelsea should be feeling at this moment what I'd like to know is why you enjoy playing games huh you seem to like beating people I wonder why it was the end of the day and dad left I was sitting on the couch I just felt awful and suddenly I felt these arms going around me it was Kate she sat down next to me and she said don't let him get to you she says I know just how you feel she said Spencer used to do that to me all the time you know it would be his close-up and I loved see me I don't need you you can go home they have no idea she say they don't know how much those words can hurt him don't let it hurt you and the fact that she had witnessed my pain and was acknowledging it meant the world to me what's the matter doc nothing I don't think I've ever grown up on Golden Pond you understand no no I don't think I understand it doesn't matter I act like a big person everywhere else I'm in charge of Los Angeles and I come here I feel like a little fat girl that's just because your father has said that now you talked in at certain times you didn't watch rushes I don't watch it all do you do you now no here's a story okay I'm producing on Golden Pond and I'm going to all the rushes and I notice that heparins not coming to the rushes and I'm thinking the Hepburn that I have heard about always went to Russia's notice that so I said miss my aren't you going to rushes and she said Jane when I did lion in winter I started I was still going to Russians and I began to notice that I was only paying attention to my wrinkles and not to what was good about the movie and I've never gone since then she said so after 15 years of being out of the business when I did monster-in-law I said I'm not going to Russia's and it's really nice you have a whole extra amount of time to do yourself own life about I think a lot about Katherine Hepburn she took seriously the role of elder she took me under her wing and passed on her wisdom to me and this happened when you were making on making on Golden Pond or very well before that I didn't know well I'd never met her before she took you under her wing yeah I mean she was prickly it wasn't always easy but you know I read a wonderful book maybe you know it but Victor Frankl called man's search for meaning and one of the things that he says in it is that if architects want to strengthen an old arch they put more weight on it and that's you know I think of Katharine Hepburn she was an old arch that carried a lot of weight of wisdom wanting to be a teacher when you have that in you as an older person you tend to be happier a grave you mentioned your father I mean just watching that performance in on Golden Pond I mean I think was that an Oscar for him yeah it was his only Oscar and he died five months later his daughter aloud gave him the opportunity to do something and she got one too you know the last thing she said to me I called her cuz she didn't go to the the awards my father was too sick to go and I called her the next day to congratulate her for winning the Oscar you'll never catch me now first I didn't even know what she was referring to and then I realized oh that's right I had to and she had three and this if I had won we would have been tied but now she had four and I had two there was no way I was gonna catch up with her what a character the most important thing you learned from Katherine Hepburn when she saw you'll become soggy she did a lot for me she witnessed me she witnessed my relationship with my father and she had compassion around that did she try to get involved only insofar as she said to me he doesn't realize how much he hurts you Spence was the same way she was great she was great I think I learned more from Hepburn during the making of that movie I mean she was one of these women and it's it's so great when you get older you become an elder and she took that very seriously about teaching to younger people and she took me I can't say under her wing she didn't like me very much she didn't but others didn't like anybody well I that could be she liked me because I was married because I had children she thought actors never should have children and I had a patch preferred people who had absolutely no attachment except to her that's right but she had a greatness about her and she taught me a lot and what would you think like what one thing she taught you was I read that she made you jump into the lake she made me do the dive myself you have no intention of doing that and it was icy cold she also what did she say to make you do that she just shame you into it well it all happened the first time I met her where she was already it was all ready to go and I came to where she lived in New York and the first thing she said to me was I don't like you and there were reasons why she said that and once we've got that out of the way the next question was are you going to do the backflip yourself well following on the heels of I don't like you I was not going to tell her that no I was not going to do the backflip there was a double already lined up and besides I suddenly remembered her dive in the Philadelphia Story uh-huh so I said of course come to the dive my death well when I finally did it took me a month of rehearsals and it was never a good dive but she would hide in the bushes and watch me and when I finally did it one time I did it better than it's actually in the movie she she praised me and told me that I'm taught her to respect me so that was really no that's great

Channel: Cliporama

Views: 141,683

Keywords: Jane Fonda, Katherine Hepburn, diva, divas, On Golden Pond, actress, Fonda Hepburn, interview, diva on diva, talks about, Katharine Hepburn, Kate Hepburn

Id: HAfLUqpRttE

Length: 18min 3sec (1083 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 07 2018