Katharine Hepburn interviewed by Clive James 1985 - enhanced volume

New York City it never stops going up especially here in midtown Manhattan where scarcely anybody can afford to live in touch with the earth unless they started doing so quite a while back my god they took chose together whole personally planted all personally founded how long's that take wait what do they come up well they come up in no April yeah some Katharine Hepburn has lived for 50 years in Turtle Bay a rare square of green ground just off 3rd Avenue in the East 40s Turtle Bay is walled in by old brownstone houses she bought one of these in 1931 and said about fighting off the first of several generations of property developers today Turtle Bay is a protected area the skyscrapers may still envious Lee crowd the skyline but she is free to concentrate on how her garden grows that seqable tree is knocking down the wall and eats everything plated I've got big roots as it yep katherine hepburn has been a star actress all her long adult life but the trappings of Fame have never made much to her and publicity means nothing at all she is a public figure but not public property the press found out a long time ago that she will say exactly what she deems proper and not a word more the rare interviews she has given have never been allowed to range beyond her work getting her to talk about herself would not be easy after all she had conquered Hollywood and Broadway by doing what she wanted I never bought a house in Hollywood why was that I didn't want my bones to lie and that dry rot the daughter of a highly educated Connecticut family which took the Equality of women for granted she was a feminist before it was a movement fascinated by her independence the men in her life have loved her deeply and Spencer Tracy loved her till he died but the secret that the two of them kept so long still never really come out because the one who's left has continued to say nothing nevertheless after months of polite but firm refusal she had at last agreed to say something so we all turned up at her place to make a picture as the latest in a long line of her leading men which is included Tracey Humphrey Bogart Cary Grant and John Barrymore I perhaps had less to offer in terms of sheer physical magnetism but at least I would be making up my own dialogue more important she would be doing the same what would you be doing now if we went here ruining your morning lying in bed yeah real inking so the heavy exercise days are behind you no not really heavy heavy exercise I swim at the River Club and I walk around Central Park when I can get in but the days of the rich of ended Central Park is closed in the good weather to anyone with a car and you have no place to park your car people tend to think that the the preoccupation with fitness is a very recent event invented by James no I don't think that no well invented by alone if I chained Fonda but in fact the guys like Zack doesn't it no it goes back you were the girl back my father was very good athlete and there was six of us and I was the lightest member of the group so I was top meant on the pyramid and I just got in the habit of a great deal of exercise from the Doudna I was little was it was a sort of Spartan routine there's a lot of emphasis on cold baths Tobi's we went out into a path every morning to still do it well the hated it hated it and I loved it I swim all winter I think it's no it's good psychologically it's good because you hate doing it your father was full of ideas what I mean you're the neighbors ah the deck was complain well the neighbors no Joe Robert you're pretty you're a pretty scandalous family one way or another only a very intellectual intellectual scam distinguished committee yes because they fought they fought you know prostitution they fought for the equal rights of male and female but dad fought for their it was Eve's in the very early days which was an unspeakable subject that must be cool subject he was a urologist my brother was here on a test and your mother was women's rather was with Pankhurst use visit us and and all that rope so I think mother began to think when she had two of us she began to think is this why I've got a MA and a BA degree and she thought it really isn't enough and I think daddy agreed with her that it was you know not enough so they went to a meeting where Pankhurst spoke and mother became fascinated she was a she was a brilliant speaker as she was a wonderful debater I'm not so hard on that I live in more protected atmosphere but she was brilliant she was very you know first class help here so was dad I'm a mediocre yes yes I can see she got the I don't know truly truly but Linda they were both brilliant students and they were you don't sure was their God and it was that time of life it was a very verbal household or you wouldn't you encourage to voice your opinion no no not particularly we were invited to shut up and listen and I think that was a good idea we you know I mean holding forth if your dough is not a good notion given this very individualistic background it's a must have seemed quite normal you just to shave your head at the age of 10 but why did you do it exactly that desperate was desperate to be more just frick to me Jimmy which I became do you think you should have been you should have been a man with that well I wasn't so it doesn't occur to me not to occur at the time you were shaving yeah no it didn't well no I just thought that hair was much mug and I was a very good you know wrestler you're a tomboy I I suppose so yes boys like tomboys best anyway don't they so I don't know who boys like me they could take me or leave me I don't think I was particularly popular with the boys some of the activities that you're in particular childhood gang got up to went particularly intellectually we're sort of juvenile housebreaker well I was yes I was I was the you know the man who could do everything and my friend Ali Baba god rest her soul was the one who had the nerve but she sat on the ground floor and I climbed to the top dropped through the skylight and let her in but I would have would not have done it on my own this is a little too honorable these other people's houses yeah well there's no point doing your own but I think whoa whoa there's a lot of lovely what you say madam but I'm just trying to be clear no no just clear no it was in the place where I was brought up and where I still live for you here in summer so the house is still here and we broke into the quite a number of houses never disturbed anything but accomplished our purpose we got here and in those houses I stole one thing it was a crocodile carved crocodile Nutcracker and I stole it I loved it if I stole it and that house was easy because you've got in through the ice box opening and they used to deliver the ice in those days it was before the days of electric icebox list and I used to go in and out of that house and I stole this and then I had such a rare and cultured I took it back and that was the end my criminal career did you Father punish you did you ever get punished yeah I got punished but not for things like that what for like as well for being a boy what did he do is his banker world no no we just haul off and hit me i sat next to him in the tape oh you're just clunky one huh yeah do you give any expect but yes I was spanked I like that then I learned not to cry so the spanking was no fun anymore dad said so he stopped did you learn to hit people yourself you've whacked a couple of people in your time haven't you well I yes I might I might I have yes why not I don't think one should hit someone small up should be someone big like say Peter O'Toole or something like that well Peter O'Toole yes I did and he should be hit quite often why did you hit I hit Peter O'Toole because we had the same make up man but the makeup that belonged to Peter O'Toole but Peter was not working I was working down in the cellar in a jail with my boys and I sent for the makeup man and he didn't come so I walked up and I had to walk up a stay-away and I had to walk through a cloister and as I clomp clomp clomp the log I got hysterical with laughter I thought it's it's really so terribly funny down there live and open the door of Peter's dressing room climbed up the ladder and I said and I hold off and the game in the back of my hand and the next time I said for the makeup man and you're not working send him and he didn't then Peter we went back and in the Satan theda came in with his head all bandaged his ominous crawling in funny man it proves it do you think it improved yes Peter admitted that hmm let's uh let's talk a bit more about your father my father was remarkable I've got a lot of his letters I've got all the letters he ever wrote me and someday I work on those because as as advice to a kid I mean he no faith in the profession that I chose I think he wanted me to be a surgeon and I was I studied chemistry and physics physics I was so dumb took me three years to pass the exam to get into college and chemistry left me sort of blank I want to talk about your student days a minute but that's oh I want to raise a point which you just might not want to talk about at all in which case we just pass over it but it it sounds to me that it sounds your childhood sounds like paradise mm-hmm was it did your brother's tragic death put an end to your childhood as far as you know no my father mother never mentioned that and I think whatever happened whether it was an accident which my father felt very definitely that it was for very secure reasons dad being a southern played a lot of athletics against northern ups teams in college and the northerners were all you know for the black man so the black man had a great sense of humor down there and the black man learned to hang himself so that he could hold the rope with his neck and not at the noose really slide he could be swung up in the air and not have it affect him at all and dad felt it at Tom you know waked up early we will this take in New York and there were rafters and he tried it the trick being the trick meetings would have put into saying yes to pretend hang yourself now the boy was a blue student a brilliant musician he was a prefect prefect everything looks perfect but who knows we none of us know each other do we not too well I mean even not too well we just can't get through to each other totally I don't think and so there's always the possibility that it was for misery's sake but my mother and father from the time it happened and I call them and they came and all the unfortunate arrangements were made it was never mentioned mother never went to the cemetery never we had a professor read the few words but they never mother and it's usually the woman who is homeless destroys and for these two people who brought us up and with a great deal of freedom and must been a terrible terrible blow a terrible blow but they certainly didn't show it to us and life went on laughter went on what about you inside because you actually who knows you actually just want who know oh gee looks only it might have been the stove in many ways your career has been there's been lots of triumphs over adverse circumstances is that when that started is that when you did you did did you decide to overcome let that shock no not consciously I mean I don't think uh no how do you know about yourself I mean obviously I love my older brother and obviously it was a shock and it made me feel that maybe people didn't understand what he was really like and then I began to children instead of going to school what did your father wanted you to be what do you think you were studying for well I was first studying to be a doctor and then I would have liked to have been a surgeon and I realized that the ladies in those days even now would have a tough time surgeon and and also I just wasn't bright enough I don't think you know what I drifted into acting I loved the sort of giving little plays with a theatre little theatre that I had to my younger brothers and sisters and I did those plays but I can't remember I really don't know why I think I drifted into it but you drifted into the one profession that your father couldn't really approve of because it involved drawing attention to yourself isn't it I don't think he objected to that I think he just thought that if you go into the theatre for a woman it was a profession for her that would last about five years mines lasted 52 so far so I'm okay daddy was wrong what did you have to offer as an actress when he was studying off well what if I got a tough first actress now you tell me I think it's a son of idiots we've got even we've got the evidence now for what you love it it wasn't any evidence one who knows who knows why people look at someone I think it's a question of charisma I've seen kids I thought oh look look at it look at her you don't I don't know what it is that is the quality that makes one into a freak that it's fascinating but if it didn't have if you didn't think much of your own looks what was your faith in yourself based on I have no idea myself I didn't have anything else but what was I gonna do this was mine what was your voice like before it was trained according to me or according to Tallulah Bankhead okay Lola Bankhead said she thought it sounded like a lot of nickels dropping into a slob but when she'd heard it long enough everyone else's voice put her to sleep but so I was not aware that it was particularly loud but I like to be heard I'm sympathetic with the death I mean they can understand and they can hear me we were easygoing humble compliant young thing you know oh no I don't think I was humble and I never was easygoing I was supercharged I have a lot of energy why why were too many of you you had a reputation for asserting yourself and telling people their business when you no no that's not true I was sweet yeah they say things and I have a poor memories so I'm not sure whether they're right or wrong but I felt sweet you got find I helped often you've got fire oven free that was because I think I wasn't very good or I was too tall or they thought I was too fast or they just didn't like me put you're too fast in what sense and what I talk fast and I talk loud but I had wonderful thoughts going on inside my head how did you how did you react to being fired did you blame them more like it no I think I'd blame them I think I was right there was mugs well I thought they wanted something typical and I was fired out of a thing called death takes a holiday a very good part in which I was playing with James Dale who was a bloody good actor and Philip Maryvale and I was fired they came in just before the performance and said mr. Schubert is convening the privileges which of retiring from the cast and I said look I'm not taking that privilege and get out your fireman if you want to just blow because I got to give a performance so out I wind after a week and my father came down during that week to see what he thought and he said this this was a story of a beautiful young girl who ran away with death who was Philip Merivale so dad looked at it and he said well he said you've been playing an idiot and it neurotic and I think were very good look what was the one who clicked it was it was a lecture well no was it lecture it was worried as husband have you showed the marvelous legs did you know you have good legs were you objective about that I think they were ok I think all of it was ok I just checked it was already exceptionally fine and especially the teeth but the legs were a great attention yeah awesome teeth but said jobs but I look at people who suddenly smile I think there I go Tara my side uh didn't think about it particularly but there's a Hollywood Scout who did was there and and yes you started getting the invitation from Hollywood did you want to be a movie star or was it said I wanted to be William s heart the cowboy Tom Mix yeah want to be a male of any of those I really wanted to ride that horse you know with the second best for you Hollywood after Broadway no first best straightaway yes because I don't think it's terrifying you see I think that there is absolutely terrifying and I came back several times only to be kicked but I think the theater you really have to deliver the goods I think the theater it's much more difficult how did you you handle Hollywood before you get how did you have the nerve or the gumption or the combination of these things to haggle over a contract when you hadn't even been there yet because they offered you a certain amount of money in us hmm you'll ask for more did you figure out that's the way to handle them mmm spike up their interest did you arrive in Hollywood in style when we can step I stepped out of the Train I had a steel filing off the rail two steel filings in my eye and I was looked so I've been drunk for a week Jack Barrymore came down just to say how do you do and he came in and said a wonderful test and all politeness and then he looked at my eyes he said oh yes he's in Cup with me a minute Dale I went out into the hall and he said I have something that'll stop that right off I said mr. Parimal I have something in my eye and they said yes there I know he said try few drops of this experience red eyes white so you know then the long story the doctor will it goes on anyway they got better there are stories about Barrymore that sometimes he was too kind to thee to the recently arrived well it wasn't to me to me was he was very nice to me and he sort of held me in position and oh I think he thought up one point that I've given him an invitation then it realized I hasn't hadn't and he said sorry how come you resisted all the razzmatazz that have anybody else in your position within Squidward I thought if I'm a success it's one thing but if I'm a flop and I've had all that publicity it will be really wrecked my life you know so that I refused to give interviews there was astrology and when I did well I just thought why should they advertise something that the public hasn't said oh we rather like her you know or the critics nobody had said anything I didn't I didn't want to be pre-sold it was the beginning of a long hip glen tradition wasn't it of telling the press as little as possible mmm you get sweeter you get older maybe didn't do it just out of lack of sweetness it was no I mean I think I did it with good sense it was very good sense and I'm in the personal life I don't think that's anybody's business then you get to the point life where you think well that's rather interesting I did do that then you're looking way back at somebody else the product out into the boy or I I def the factor is not me that's somebody else who's done quite well the press did find out that you'd been married and and you said you'd forgotten have you really forgotten no of course not I just thought it was none of their business and I still think you don't personal things and nobody's business I never thought of marriage and a career could mix I didn't know whether I was going to have any career I think it's very difficult for a to total interests to mix I think the men have it lucky because they don't have the children and I think the women are in a most complicated position because bringing the children up and doing as much slave work and you have to do today I mean it's tough to get nurses in someone who's really going to be responsible and spoiling a husband because that's what men expect and it's what is to me is fun to do just boil someone I think they're in a tough spot the ladies with unless they got and get a ninja move oh well you know they're in a tough spot there they are not men and and therefore I think to be on the safe side now there are many exceptions to every rule but by and large for a complete life you can't be running in two directions your third picture Morning Glory very early in Korea you won an Oscar were you playing a girl pretty much like yourself with I don't think so no I don't think so I mean she was poor she wasn't arrogant at least she didn't realize that she was arrogant just way I don't realize that I'm African yet I see signs of it every what's go out why didn't you go to the Oscar ceremony afraid I'd lose good reason might weep but I can't ask myself so what happened when you want that's the only reason I got big of as to why I don't go to the Oscars Oscars or or is and I'm got away with it it's a poor excuse but I put you right on the crest of a wave and he went back to Broadway now with all this different norm when I did Little Women yeah which was a really good picture corner for which I should have won the award you know for the tour for not just for one because that was a difficult not a tricky performance it was a true American New England girl and for which I think I was perfectly cast she said modestly but I do and I think George I think it's a memorable picture for which George Cukor should have gotten 20 Awards and then I came back you I don't know why I came back I felt I should learn to act in the theater you had an enormous head of steam behind you now mm-hmm and you went back to Bordeaux but what happened late leg in the lake and was the joke of this city I mean it Dorothy Parker said and quite correctly she ran the gamut and of emotion from A to B and I just said what she never landed on me she just got as far as a and that was it I just walked through the opening night walked through wide opening not petrified petrified was the plane he could the lake I didn't dig was all that bad I thought I was too young to play it but I couldn't get going so you agreed with the critics oh I think they were generous maybe that was a school then I got a teacher and she came to the play every night and I finally learned how to play that play and Noel Coward was there on the opening night that's when my little sister sat in front of him and he said she looks Kate sister looks the way she should have but did ethic it was wonderful and he came back and said to me you're going to be roasted and I said I know he said don't let it throw you just keep at it coward always used to say that didn't eat it there's a secret of success is how you survive failure there's something to that well the secret of life is how yeah it's dead yeah sure you gotta be tough this period culminated in your being put on the box-office poison list the custom it's a very distinguished list and Garber's on it Dietrich Astaire well they're really saying that some of you people were just too high tuned for the the great middle of em no I don't believe that my pictures were boards they were boys I mean woman rebels was a poor break of hearts was a more quality Street was above and they didn't go and I sort of smelled it before I made them but I was on a salary where they had to pay me and I thought I should do them right if I'm a romantic but it was around this time think that you're on the road with Jane Eyre and every time you stopped out of the sky Howard Hughes would appear in a succession of record-breaking airplane oh no you'll see you hadn't gone to a topic the mores big fits Oh let us continue agenda without Howard you can I can't even mention his well you could mention he was flying around the world well it just did okay there's a distinguished man it just it occurred to me before he was the any same thing he ever did i I think was on a par with the rest of the race it did but Oh Howard he was a brilliant man you know he was deaf at 15 he was deaf seriously deaf and he was brilliant and he thought of I guess had an opinion of himself he was a handsome man and did not like to appear deaf so in order to cover it up instead of saying which we should all say I'm terribly sorry I can't see or I'm very sorry would you speak louder because my left ear is poor then nobody cares for their left ear is poor they just speak up because they're glad there laughter okay so it's I think this destroyed Howard I think it's what made Howard eccentric and Howard then retreated to the telephone that was sad he had not off did he teach you to fly no he didn't teach me no sorry but I had to fill up teach me to fly but then I never did solo I flew a lot but I'd never solo because I thought if I don't dare drive a car when I'm working those cars that I am I worked at a pitch I still work at a pitch I can't work any other way how did you take off under the 59th Street bridge from yes I did isn't that terrible I'm really dead with me at that thing yeah no from 23rd Street today you be arrested and I used to fly up to Fenwick and swim in middle of Long Island Sound was great fun anyway was about here with your career all ups and downs that you went back east if your family has being washed away in a flood and then I'm romancing here but it must be roughly like this Philip Barry waded in through the front door no no Philip didn't weigh in the first well will you serve tea every afternoon and a lot of people would collect at 4:30 5:30 on the porch at Fenwick and a lot of interesting conversation so he turned up one afternoon and we sat with big general conversation like this room and then he said am I going to see you alone and I said well we'll go out to the end of the bear so we went out at the end of the pier and he told me two plots one was the Philadelphia Story another was a thing that eventually was called second threshold but Philadelphia Story was the was the one wasn't it the other you had a great hand in shaping well not really too great no no just common sense lucky you know I was the contact do you say well whether or not it was a Hepburn production who Sonny was a Hepburn hit it was a huge hit on Broadway wasn't it but would you have been an automatic choice for the Hollywood version if you had known the rights of it and the horse client of you from the studio's point of view I mean wanted to make it as a film when they were amateurs knew if you had didn't have them oh no oh no one of those girls and that would have gotten weak oh well all they you know Joan Crawford Carole Lombard Norma Shearer was Irene Dunne and I did you name them but it had to be used so I bought it you wanted to play well I'm hard to play it so you were back on top you've mastered a scintillating comic style with Cary Grant it for the next one woman of the year you actively sort out an actor it was the exact opposite of people like a man huh somebody doesn't look like he's performing at all hmm I was that was that the plan of you you always wanted to do that very sensible well it was the character wasn't it he was the perfect sports writer Spencer what was it about Tracy's acting that made you want him because he's so different from the others ain't you seen his acting yeah I have but I want to know what your name we all danced what we all know they all know it now the world knows it now but what what did you see then that you want it because he was the he was the lowest profile actor he did on screen he seemed to do less acting anybody else in Halle yes isn't that a relief I hate all that acting that's exhausting you know he was just it is that what you were after naturalness well with myself yes did he teach you yes know whether he taught it did I have it before I'll buy it son before you had more after you met him yes I did I admired him you know I don't think you have to gild the lily you have to think it but he he just had an amazing direction in his funny old eyes you know he just was sensitive did he tell you to to do less on school no no it never told me anything we'd never errs together never ever never discussed it never talk to me the script nope not a bit who were you and Tracy on screen well I think we live a perfect a male and female of that era American style in what sense well the woman coming into her own and the man tried to blockade her get up up operator no yes yeah was he the man you immersed and he had a good sense of humor I can see you're gonna tread too far just in one then it's a better watch you read my mind yeah but I think he was he was a really brilliant actor we had an actress Laurette Taylor who was the same sort of Irish potato style of acting I mean they both had big faces and they were very vulnerable and they found life I went oh is that what is that the way Tracy found life difficult yeah difficult well I mean I think he found living difficult and being fair difficulty found acting easy he could just do it is the most entertaining creature wonderful storyteller no and with you know with a certain amount of bulk I don't think you have to make too much effort deal and why was he in he was unhappy then and I know I'm not supposed to say this I think I can figure out what made him happy I think probably you did but what made him unhappy what was it a medium oh listen what makes anyone unhappy who knows I have a happy nature you can see I'm so sweet did he have a high enough did he have a high opinion of the profession he was a supreme in do you think a lot of acting I thought we're going to talk about me we are talking about you oh I don't know whatever but you know III think he thought it was a fairly silly profession but you didn't yes I know it's very ha ha and I live I've lived that he did yeah but you made it look serious which is what counts why was Tracy always built first cuz he was the biggest half he didn't care but he was a bigger star he was a bigger draw he and you never objected no why would object was that what it truly not that kind because you're because you're a truly masterful independent woman is that what a truly Marshall inaudible does always a self second that's what a relation that's you see oh yes she has brains enough I begin to see you ever no fool if you really in control you put his loving seconds apartment yeah yeah but he was he was that was Metro we never even discussed it Spencer said they were first Billy first and they said no will you first and it was better looking now but if Patton like your tennis is very convincing you're really good at it still well I was very good at Drive had to rotator cuff operations I can still play and it's a you know I've hit a telegraph pole with my where my ankle was very badly injured and now that ankle is fused so we hope it's going to work he could have been a tennis player couldn't you I would love to better tennis player I was a really good golfer a really good golfer 814 and I started tennis late I never played tennis till I went to California and so that my form is not my golf form is excellent my tennis form it's mediocre but I think tennis I'd adore tennis yeah the chronology now in the mid 60s there's a five-year gap in which you made no movies at all that was a relief I was going to middle to old Facebook you went help him Tracy yeah not gonna meant not going to discuss that I was going to say go you had organized your independent career so that it work could never be never be compromised but when it came to that point if that there's something more important yeah that this guy today no I don't think so I can tell you know that was good something anyway your last working partnership on screen with Tracy was guess who's coming to dinner yeah and he he didn't live to see you win the Oscar and he didn't did decisional II didn't live he asked her I always felt and they gave it to both of us yeah but there was a lot of people think it was just a criminal omission on the academy's part not to give him one did you did you think that on that occasion I you know I'm not I I don't believe that while layin prizes you don't meet anybody else cuz anyway to you well I'll tell you I think when when a person has been in the business a certain length of time I think that because you have asked us to but I mean I think it's rather nice when people indicted because they're knighted for a good important bulk of their lives and we're sort of scatter scatter I don't know I mean how good is the part is unless you are a really rotten actor but I mean the parts the they're a group a great part you have a hard time not winning the award no Joe well you've won four Oscars which is more than anybody else but I see the rounded you've got the mind I'm thrilled to have them but I don't I don't like to be reminded different the past I just think under on what what does it take to be a star to take it talent or is it I don't know I've got it I mean what is it I don't think it's Alan I think it's just you've got a good hot motor inside unit ticks away and your eyes John and the teeth John I don't know what the hell it is charisma I said about that also good luck I think good luck all the way I would say that that is one of the main things first I would credit my parents and then I would say I was lucky enough to been born at a time when they wanted this me my whatever it is I kind of you know so what do you know what I mean it has to be because I've lasted over a fair period and I think that that was luck that this thing that seems to me me was born at the right time for the shape of it the quality of the inside everything else it was luck he always been a noise looked a bit above at all maybe that was the secret of durability I don't think I really looked above it or I mean I don't think I ever felt above it all never occurred I felt that it wasn't gonna beat me let me say that when I was down in the gutter and couldn't get a job I thought well that's not gonna beat me because I love to play coughing friendly tennis and you know there are lots of things I like to do it never occur to you that you sometimes did run into trouble and in Hollywood and Broadway because you're an heiress to Kratt in a democratic medium that never bothered me I invite sharp criticism my attitude invites sharp criticism and I'm Berkeley Wellington what's the attitude your perfectionist you want what I'm a perfectionist and I'm irritating I think you know now I mean a lot of people said for instance in the early days of my career I was ticking it up and off and saying do this do that I couldn't event they thought that they made that up I was petrified the way everyone else is thought am I gonna lose the bloody job there was really nerves that made you seem I suppose don't you I suppose who knows you don't know yourself really but I I would say you once said that there's no laurel worth resting on it and yet your work as hot as ever but you started doing some movies for fund and you're making films where you sail around and balloons and your red side by side with John Wayne but yeah but I mean I'd I like those stories as you get older it's extremely difficult to find a topic that isn't some poor old thing in a rest home you could have settled for for playing lovable old ladies and instead it your chose to confront the issue of growing old as it actually is by making on Golden Pond was that a conscious decision did you think goods no I didn't think anything about it I thought it was a good script and at least it wasn't in a nursing home I think it's hard to find material that you know is at all interesting after a certain age especially if you're a woman you either play a lunatic or I don't know what to play but that so I seek stories of that sort there a you know gold upon which is I played my mother in on Golden Pond I played my mother your father play your father no honor played himself I found a plane somebody warm well in the movie in the movie they only find the character is obviously having he's colorful but he's hating to grow old isn't he and your character is saying no you must accept age as part of life's process even something noble about it did you really believe that I don't think there's anything nope I've been rotting away is cannot be called fun and anyone's vocabulary can it if they have any sense well in in your latest movie that's great the ultimate solution of grace quickly that you seem to be saying exactly that let's say that all the way fast Omega Sun you should get out of it by any means no no no no only only a few you know if it's a nightmare I think you should have a right to get out of it events at night bad she wanted to pack up and quit on it because all she had to do was to sit she was not used the older people are not used they say oh go and sit down and have a good time and they're all waiting at rest homes all over the place for the next world come come you're not doing that well I'm not doing that but I've been dad you're lucky I've been lucky lucky lucky and I have money what are you waiting on now though you bet he'll way is pretty secret birthday I don't know how but I mean uh I think the reason I did quickly was that I think we are don't we all live it we all die and this terror of the next world I think it's a mistake and I think lying there with something up your nose and every other thing is and just unable to speak is the wickedest thing that has been done to the human race and I think people should be allowed to depart when they wish to depart and if no one wants you no one will employ you you have no money all you do is either sit in the street or get sent to your family by your family to a rest home waves surrounded or people were tied into a chair I don't see the sense it doesn't seem right you better be damn sure the people are asking to be let out of this and not just I agree with you and I agree with you it's a terribly difficult problem because the the right to kill someone is that is difficult you might if you if you want to depart and can convince even it was someone that you really are in no shape to go on I think you should be allowed to you said one day that you might do something different what would that have been well and that I would love to the new painter after been a writer I would like to have done anything that I could do alone the work that I do it which is selling my my deteriorating self yes that is very humiliating work and you have to come off as a kind of I don't know what do you really believe that you think listen I know goddamn well that's true if you'll pardon my saying so because when you cease to be delicious you get dumped and you never got dumped no nice yeah could happen it I've been dumped and picked up again I've run ahead to the next stop and said Here I am but I think that when you sell yourself that is difficult and I think that's why I would like to have been a had a more private profession I

Channel: NilesNL69

Views: 107,872

Keywords: Katharine Hepburn, Clive James, interview, 1985, Hollywood, Movies, legend, actress, New York, New York City, NYC, biography, moviestar, filmstar, history, movie history, motion pictures

Id: wfT_XWTldlo

Length: 49min 3sec (2943 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 04 2016