PARK Magazine

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where you want. I think it’s a life where you are within
yourself, very alone many times. But this was not a
pathetic title, The Lonely Life, because many people
misunderstood it. I know so many artists, it’s just a
lonely life.
How has the movie business changed, and has
it changed for the better or for the worse?
Look what’s happening in the world; theater reflects
the world. Authors write about lots of things that are
happening in the world. So, motion pictures and
plays, and books are all different from what they were
forty years ago when I started. We didn’t have any of
these problems, we did not have the drugs or even
the racial thing like we have today. We didn’t have
anything like this so naturally, we’re going to have
different kinds of stories and different kinds of acting,
and we’re going to have different kinds of characters
in films played by different kinds of people. They do
not stand still, the arts. Theater reflects the world,
and the films are reflecting what’s happening on the
outside.
It was during World War II that you and John
Garfield started the Hollywood Canteen.
Yes, Johnny and I started it; and ran it for four
years. It was an extraordinary experience, a lot of
work, but I am proud of it. The guys were coming
through and Hollywood was an interesting place to
them. They wanted to see lots and lots of actors, so
we decided that they should, and they did.
How do you prepare for your roles on the
screen?
I never did really prepare. I had lots of thoughts
about it, but I would just sort of start, and be the
person. Somebody once asked my beautiful friend,
the brilliant actor Claude Rains, what his method
was and he said, “I learn the lines and pray to God.”
And Spencer Tracy said the same thing. It’s an instinct
you have about what you think the character is, and
some people have an easier time becoming somebody
else.
In ALL ABOUT EVE, you brought every facet
of your gift into play, you were everything that
everyone expects Bette Davis to be.
This is probably true, yet there isn’t anyone more
remote in character from me than Margo Channing.
I’m not that kind of an actress at all, in life, not at all.
I’m sort of a dungaree kid over the kitchen stove,
sincerely. But to play Margo Channing was like being
given a new lease on life. It is the essence of what
every woman really goes through who becomes a
great star like Margo Channing. She said it all in that
gorgeous car speech. When she says, “I act like a
witch riding around on a broom,” to be an actor
you’ve got to have a childlike quality because it’s
really like playing dolls. You’re always pretending to
be something you are not; you basically don’t like
yourself, so you love to be somebody else, that’s really
what acting is all about. And this whole
speech incorporated all that from Mr.
Mankiewicz. These are the sacrifices of
fame. But every woman in the world, no
matter how famous, still wants the same
thing, a man, no question.
And curiously you found your man
in real life, at that time Gary Merrill
was your co-star and the man
you married.
Yes, I did.
And afterward? (Ms. Davis is now
giving me a naive, deadly, and
silent look.) Back to ALL ABOUT
EVE or APPLAUSE ... you sing and
dance, why didn’t you play Margo
on the stage?
Actually, six or seven years before they
finally did it, I did try to get somebody
to write the musical for me. But there
were enormous complications with the rights with
Fox and then when it did come along it was too late.
When I first started to think about doing it, I was fiftyish
and so it would have been fine, but it was a little
late.
Did you see it with Ms. Bacall?
Yes, she’s a great friend of mine and enjoyed it very
much.
Then Anne Baxter took over.