"Meet The Golden Girls Sofia" (1992) Estelle Getty Interview

if the Golden Girls became four in the sixth season since the show went on the air Estela has been nominated for an Emmy every year and she has become the most popular sharp-tongued 85 year old grandmother on television and Sugar Ray Leonard the most financially successful boxer in the history hi there MA this was the first time we saw Sophia in 1985 the role was intended to be temporary but six seasons later she's still one of the Golden Girls ribs great robbing to just kick the dentures out of my mouth she's been nominated for an Emmy every year since the show started and in 1988 she won Estelle Getty the golden Gettys so-called overnight success has actually taken generations of mostly forgettable roles so terrible to want your son to be somebody hardly anyone remembers that she played Cher's mom in masks or one of Dustin Hoffman's adoring fans in Tootsie she was born as stell cher 68 years ago in New York City her parents were Polish immigrants who never discourage their daughters unlikely dreams of stardom Estelle married Arthur gentlemen 45 years ago and they have two sons Carl and Barry this will be the Golden Girls final season but Estelle is already moving on to feature films her latest is stop or my mom will shoot their co-star is Sylvester Stallone stop shoot our sandy Newton spoke with televisions most popular grandmother so I understand in your new film you actually did a lot of your own stunts I did them out of my own volition I did them because the sly said I was a win so I did as a matter of fact one of the stunts that he was carrying me and using my what I thought I'm gonna use my head as a ramrod to get through the building and I said to him why are you doing that and he said well you have something in that head we don't know about he's a very funny guy did he handpick you I heard he he's a big fan of yours I don't know if he said he's a fan of mine I think he is but he didn't handpick me I was slated for the film before he was did you like doing this kind of action comedy I I thought I was gonna like it more than I did because I didn't realize that so much is for real wrecking balls and carved heart chases and that kind of thing all the things that I said I would never do I did I read that you think you might have gotten a lot of your inspiration for going into acting from your dad who wasn't an actor but in fact he wasn't an actor but he was he was one of the wittiest funniest men and I think had he known that he was an actor he would have been one and is it true that it's a young age of four you decided that you'd lost your heart and sold acting absolutely the first time I went to a place called the Academy of Music on 14th Street New York and the first act of vaudeville came on and I thought that's what I want that's I want to be up there that's what I want to do and I pursue that all of my life and you've been doing it for oh yes close to 40 ok I'll settle for okay close to 50 yeah more than that and it wasn't really until Golden Girls that you became what they say an overnight sensation I did a play called torch song trilogy that ran for four years and at the end of that my life changed I I got golden girl I did a whole lot of other things but Golden Girls was what catapulted me into this kind of visibility I thank you since that time not been unemployed I have not been unemployed now for 11 years in this business that's going so it's been a lot of luck I mean I just got really really lucky at the years of obscurity I read a cute quote where you said now I could either say I'm a secretary who works in the theater or I'm an actress who works as a secretary ya know they used to say to me you can't take off this much time to do the theater I mean that's the hobby I said no this is my hobby being a secretary is my hobby that's why both my vocation acting I would never accept the raises that would put me in another category where I had to work longer and commit to any job because I was always afraid I'd be seduced by the money in the title so when anybody wanted to promote me in the business world I used to kind of leave and go onto another job that's amazing because I knew that I that I had to go on the stage and I had to pursue that career and I could not become serious about working in industry now let me get this straight you were married he had two sons working as a secretary trying to find theater work at night yeah and work at night I used to have a lot of jobs so you really were kind of the quintessential working mother oh yeah more before it became popular did you find that quality time for your husband and the kids and the career my my priority were always my children my children were my priority no matter what what went down they came first did they think mom was kind of silly at night she'd be this theater gypsy off working I guess they didn't know any other kind of mother they thought that that was okay their friends would bring bring it to their attention you know the first time I Yongsan saw me do a play it was a tiger on the typist and one of those I appeared in a flowered slip he I get kidnapped by this man because he wants a companion and in order to keep me then he takes my skirt and I had all this flow that was the first play that my youngest son Barry saw me and he was so embarrassed he was so ashamed somebody asked him is Estelle he said she's not my mother she's not my mother now this stops people in the street talks about me and chose my fight ends I understand is it true that at 18 you tried to be a stand-up comedian yeah very briefly very briefly it wasn't the time when women were comedians I think it's most naked thing you can do in the theater I love comics I love stand-up comics I Kiba the bravest entertainers in the world was there one night where you just kind of turned around and said I'm not going to do anything yeah when when I also had to be a bus girl in the children's dining room at the hotel that I was entertaining at and a kid threw applesauce at me I decided was type stuff and then you decided to take acting full I fee was always what I wanted to do I just people just tell me I was so funny in the living room that I should do stand-up so I did but I wasn't I was funny in the living room that onstage and your husband married you knowing that this was your dream yeah I don't think he thought it was going to turn out the way I did I don't think he thought I was I thought it was going to be absent no people I keep asking me you know how I kept my marriage together all of these years it's because I haven't been home for 22 years I thought it was funny to read that he said after all these years of doing theatre off Broadway on Broadway off off Broadway they never gave you a love interest they never gave me a love interest because I had to play those kind of roles I've always been a character now what's interesting is that on the Golden Girls I have had we counted up eight affairs for want of a better word more than all the women put together oh my goodness so you're making up for it oh yes in the body of an 80 year old house by 85 year old yeah now I read too that when you originally auditioned for Golden Girls you had no idea was for the roles of here no when I got the script I was I assumed that it was for the role of Dorothy I talked to my managers and they said no no no that's the part is for the grandmother is for Dorothy's mother and we just created Sophia is it true that there are certain things you won't let Sophia say that's right I have a thing about gratuitous pain I have a thing about using humor to really hurt why would make fun of somebody who's fat or who's cross-eyed or who's bald and I won't do gay bashing jokes I remember once they wanted me to do a line about and my husband the the end of the tag line was and my husband said you do that I'll beat the hell out of you and I said I won't do that line I don't make jokes about beating me so it's just as I said I won't do it kind of kind of bittersweet knowing that this is the final season well it doesn't mean that we're not going to go on the final season of Golden Girls as we know it now is a possibility probability what what have you that it will go on in a different format I don't really know this for a fact and I'm just throwing this out okay well yeah I understand they're developing something for the four of you yeah do you have a feeling after seven years of being Sophia that somewhere down the line maybe other 20 years you're going to become Sophia oh I think so I hope so that would be so great because I really like that lady I play with all the love I can because I I think she's a great character I think she's a great person a caring feisty daring optimistic tough smart lady if the young actor came to you and said boy is it worth it those four years of struggling I let me tell you what I tell young actors I say I always say to them if there are two things in this world that you want to do and one of them is acting to the other because it's the toughest business in the world was it worth it for me you you bet because I won the lottery I was one of the people who made it it took me a long time but success is sweet at any age I mean it's like everything I ever dreamed of in my life came true coming up Sugar Ray Leonard

Channel: USA Heartbeat

Views: 130,140

Keywords: The Golden Girls, Estelle Getty, Sofia, Interview, Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan

Id: bGouqSr0eBE

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 03 2012