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shadowkatSo, as you all know (because I keep posting about it), I've been listening to the forty-six hour audio book version of Barbra Streisand's Memoir. I told mother it was forty-six hours, and she reacted much as you'd expect. "Oh my god, that book must be huge - and it can't be doing well?" (Actually it's doing very well. She doesn't hold back. And in the audiobook - she includes snippets of her songs - and sings them, also bits from movies. Hence the forty-six hours.)
What Streisand says about the Entertainment Business (note the Business itself, not the creation of the art) is not good, although nothing that I didn't already know from various sources personal and otherwise. My brother's worked and interacted with it, and has close friends in it. I've had various actor friends who've worked within it. And my sister-in-law's family was closely involved within it. Plus every memoir I've listened to or read about it - says the same things. Without exception they all state how Fame nearly destroyed them, and how they tried to cope with it.
What's interesting about the Streisand memoir - is she doesn't speak ill of anyone who is a)currently alive (at least not so far), or b) hasn't spoken ill of her, or didn't gossip about her. Anthony Newly hurt her - but she doesn't explain how or go into details. And she's relatively vague about her divorce and marriage to Gould (just stating what is already known and dispelling any rumors about cheating). She does explain and speak ill of those who did attack her when they were alive and tried to destroy her career and feed the media gossip machine. I kind of respect her for that?
1. Anthony Newley and the pitfalls of holding a grudge. It took a minute or two to remember who he was. He was a popular British singer/song writer/composer and actor in the 1960s and early 70s. A triple threat - so to speak. Kind of like Burt Bacharach? Or similar musical style - just not quite as successful. Died sometime in the 1990s. You may know him for the musical scores to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (the musical version with Gene Wilder), and Doctor Dolittle.
Here - Anthony Newley and Sammy Davis Jr singing Newley's song "The Candy Man"
Apparently Streisand had a brief fling with Newley in 1971, after divorcing Gould. And he did something that she couldn't forgive, and cut him off. He tried to apologize with a song. What's interesting about the story, and why I'm relating it - is at 81, she regrets holding the grudge and not forgiving him. What she says, and I found this interesting, is that she got into the habit of cutting people out of her life if they wronged or hurt her in any way. And didn't look back. But, now, all these years later, she's wondering about that. Newley had died in the 1990s, and she wonders at times what would have happened if she reached out to him? If they'd had a chat? Maybe sang a duet? She regrets never getting that chance. Which is why she digitally did a duet with him in her duets album and performance.
As a kind of homage to him - and in a way an apology for not letting him back into her life.
While it does depend on the grudge and the person, I think you should be open to people You don't know where it may lead. And not cut them off completely. People can and often do change. We can't control them - we can control ourselves and how our perceptions change toward them?
And, being human - we're all going to piss each other off at some point. It's inevitable. There's a great song in Avenue Q, where a woman talks about how much she loves her husband but equally would like to kill him at times.
2. Hello Dolly and the pitfalls of the White Male Boys Club
This was fascinating. Some back story? For years, it had been bandied about in various unauthorized biographies (which are basically gossipy works by so-called journalists who acquire tidbits from other people about the person whose life they are chronicling) and gossip columns that Streisand was a terror on Hello Dolly. That she was trying to direct the film, was a perfectionist and control freak, and Walter Matthau had a blow up, and hated each other. And Matthau believed she was trying to play director, and had pushed to get into the picture and pushed for someone else to star opposite, etc. And Gene Kelly had issues with her.
Here's a 1969 interview with Streisand from Good Housekeeping that pushed back against the rumors at the time, and discusses the jealousy, envy and resentment of the gossip columns which hated Streisand for not playing along with them.
And what about Barbra Streisand's feud with Walter Matthau? Didn't that prove she was a monster? Not according to what I heard. People who worked on Hello, Dolly! insisted that Matthau was to blame for the difficulty. "It's a very simple story," said a friend of mine who was there. "She's twenty-six years old and she's the biggest star in town. Can you imagine how a big spoiled crybaby like Matthau reacts to playing second fiddle to that?"
I didn't even have to imagine it. I knew. Matthau reportedly became so upset he went to complain to Richard Zanuck, the head of 20th Century-Fox. "Do I need a heart attack?" asked Matthau. "Do I need an ulcer?" Zanuck listened politely, until Matthau finished whining. "I'd like to help you out," he replied, "but the film is not called Hello, Walter."
Nevertheless, the press has persisted in casting Streisand as the heavy and Matthau as the poor put-upon creature. All of which has made Barbra Streisand understandably reticent about giving interviews, and thoroughly paranoid about the press. "If I were to fight back at the misquotes, and the out-and-out lies that are said about me, I'd never get any work done," she said. "I don't want to be thought of as some kind of crazy, mad star who reverts to the Twenties in terms of temperament. Do you know that one writer said on television that I threw candy wrappers over my shoulder while he was interviewing me? Even in my worst days in Brooklyn, I never threw candy wrappers over my shoulder."
The truth is more complicated, of course. Per Streisand's memoir - Streisand was signed to Dolly long before either Matthau was cast or Gene Kelly was set to direct. She didn't want to do it. And tried to get out of it, but was informed by both her manager and Ernest Lehman, the producer, that it would be a serious breach of contract. She'd read the play, and seen it - and felt at 23 that she was too young for the part. It was for a much older woman (she still feels that way). But they said a young woman could be a widow. She also felt that Mathau was wrong for the romantic male lead - but she had not control. However, she got along famously with the producer - Ernie.
* Gene Kelly - Kelly was signed to direct after Barbra was signed to star. Barbra grew up with a huge crush on Gene Kelly (and had seen him in Marjorie Morningstar the year before - and had fallen for him in that film, it was dream of hers to be in a film with him). Anyhow - Kelly had issues directing women. She was appalled to see him yell at a female dancer to the point in which she was in tears. And when she called him on it (Barbra wasn't the sort to watch something like that and not say anything), he retorted that it wasn't an issue - the one he yelled at the most on a film became his wife. He had a reputation for doing that on films - and little tolerance for people who couldn't dance. Debbie Reynolds was horribly bullied by him on Singing in the Rain. Kelly admits he was horrible to her - and is surprised that she was still talking to him afterwards. (She was 19, he was 39.) So he had a reputation - and he was the co-choreographer, co-director, and lead. He was exacting. And he wanted to be remembered for changing the look of dance on film - not for a film role and not for helping others. There's a reason a lot of people prefer Astair.
Every suggestion Barbra made - Kelly ignored. Also Kelly refused to give her any direction regarding her character or discuss what he wanted for the film. (He later regretted that and said looking back he wishes he had given her more direction on how he saw her character, instead of ignoring her, which makes her like him all the more now.). From what I saw regarding Singing in the Rain and other films Kelly directed or choreographed, Kelly was an exacting director, and a perfectionist, similar to Robbins, who did multiple takes, and had no tolerance for anyone that wasn't a good dancer. Kelly always regretted how he treated people on his films after the fact - which is kind of interesting. O'Connor relates a story of Kelly yelling at him one day, and then coming to apologize, stating if he'd done it to Debbie - he'd lose her. O'Connor told him, okay, but if you do it again - be prepared to defend yourself. Women couldn't do that, particularly back then.
Walter Mathau - Mathau didn't want to do the film either - but got signed on for it. Streisand first met Mathau backstage in Piper Laurie's dressing room in the early 1960s. He popped his head in and looked at Streisand. "Oh, Barbara Harris, nice to see you. Did you get a nose job? Could have done better." And left. Streisand didn't know what to make of the comment. Years later she's acting opposite him in a movie and having a terrible time of it.
At one point she made a suggestion that might be funny, the crew laughed, and Mathau proceeded to have a temper tantrum - yelling at her to stop. (Kelly stopped production.) That she wasn't the director. And that he had more talent as an actor in his fingertips than she did in one of her butterfly farts. (She's funny, she can't say the word "F-A-R-T-S", and spells it instead.) Drove her off the set in tears. (Note - Streisand is in her early twenties, Mathau is in his 30s, and Kelly in his fifties at this stage.)
Moving forward, according to Streisand, they do an eating sequence, where she has to talk and eat at the same time. Walter kept flubbing his lines on purpose (he never had before), and they had to the scene over and over again, until she was ill and brought filming to a halt until he could learn them.
She was beginning to get paranoid - that there was a conspiracy between Kelly and Walter to sabotage her. Mainly because Kelly was enabling Walter's behavior. Finally, she decided to confront him in his dressing room about what was going on.
Barbra: What did I ever do to you? Did I hurt you in some way? What is it you have against me?
Mathau: You really hurt a really close friend of mine. And I can't abide that.
Barbra (who is mystified): I'm sorry? Who? Who was your friend?
Mathau: Stanley Chaplin.
Turns out, per Streisand, that Mathau and Kelly were drinking buddies of Chaplin's and went out together. She states that they were all part of the "Old Boys Club". Chaplin had told his version of what happened on Funny Girl, they bought it, and decided to make her life a living hell on the film and sabotage her at every turn.
Streisand proceeds to tell Mathau her version - which he didn't believe, and he took it all the way to the top - Dick Zanuck, the producer of the studio. Complaining about her to the head. The head of the studio listened to him - then told him, "I'd love to help you Walter, but the movie is called Hello ! Dolly! not Hello! Walter!"
And that was the end of that. She was thankful when it ended, and hated the experience. Mathau appears to have apologized later - although Streisand doesn't mention it. And he does state in various later interviews that he was in a foul-mood during the filming and took it out on poor Barbara. And she becomes friends with his wife Carol Mathau. What I think happened is his wife got across to him that Chaplin was not a nice guy and had a grudge. Also, Barbara was more talented than Mathau and he was coming across as envious.
While part of this was due to the Media's desire to tear down the tall poppy, "Male" Privilege in Hollywood has been a problem since the film business began. 90% of the gossip and bad press on Streisand was a direct result of the Male Privilege and how they viewed women as their playthings and inferiors. And a lot of the rage from the Me#Too Movement, along with Movement itself - is a direct result of that. The Toxic Male permeates our society on every level.
3. Platonic Friendship with Marlon Brando and the Movie Business
Streisand first met Brando in the early 1960s when she was pregnant with her son Jason, then again in 1972. Streisand said she had two huge crushes on movie stars growing up - one was on Gene Kelly, the other was Marlon Brando, who she considered to be the Greatest Actor who ever lived.
When she first met him, he was kissing her back. She turned and asked why.
He told her that she had an amazing back and it deserved to be kissed. The man was seductive. And when they sat next to each other at a celebrity event, she asked him if he'd gotten his teeth capped. He was bemused by her honesty and said, yes, he had.
They were basically close friends ever since. She reports how he hated the movie industry, and acting. The reasons had more to do with the business of it, than actual doing of it. What bonded them was a multitude of small things - such as they both had issues with the media hounding them, the malicious gossip, neither respected people who talked about them to the papers or elsewhere, and both struggled to get the work they wanted to do - made. He struggled far more than she did. And both had reputations that they were difficult to work with.
At one point, standing in her kitchen, he requested that she sing him a song.
Barbra: I can't just sing you a song off the bat. How would you feel if I asked you to recite a soliloquy off the bat?
So he recites one. A soliloquy from memory out of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Without missing a beat.
When she was able to close her jaw, which had been hanging open in shock. She states: How? How do you do that? Do you just have these things memorized?
Brando: Stop trying to change the subject. You owe me a song.
So she sang something from Rodgers and Hammerstein, that was fairly short.
They didn't often talk about acting or the process. They were both intuitive actors who build from the inside out, as opposed to more intellectual actors who built from the outside in, such as Olivier. She said both works, and everyone has their process. He told her about his once - when she was telling him how much she was struggling with a role in a film she was doing, called Nuts. Something wasn't working well. (She's talking to him late at night from her bathroom - to not disrupt her current partner's sleep. Marlon often called her at night to chat.)
Marlon told her - that he felt that the brain or intellect got in the way of acting, and being real in the moment. That you needed to stop thinking.
She asked how he remembered his lines? He said he didn't - he sucked at it.
He would write them on his hands, his wrists, on the ceiling of a set, on table tops on the walls. Which she states suddenly explained some of his interesting acting choices. Why he's always looking up at the ceiling in films or down at his hands, he's reading his lines. He said later, they'd just give him an ear plug and the teller prompter would send him his lines. She asked how could he act with someone feeding him lines like that - but wasn't a problem. He was upset about Last Tango in Paris - and did not like doing that film at all - felt the director forced him to reveal too much of himself and his own vulnerability - it was too personal, and he felt violated by the director and how the director did it. (I have a feeling he didn't like some of those sex scenes any more than his co-star did. And it was painful for them both.) It's one of the reasons he didn't like acting and doing films.
On - the film - On the Waterfront (which I don't think I've ever seen, I should hunt it down) - he told Barbra that most of the stuff in that film was not taken from the page. That he and Rod Stieger improvised a lot of it, and Eli Kazan, the director let them do it - and sent them off to play with it. Because what was on the page didn't necessarily work on the screen. (It doesn't half the time.) And there was a brutal scene between the brothers that just didn't work, so they worked with each other and came up with something different but more workable. Such as the speech, I could have been a contender - that wasn't in the original script, apparently.
He also told Barbra that for the Godfather - they wouldn't cast him. They felt he was too difficult to work with, and contentious, and not good for the role. So he put together a video, where he stuffed his cheeks with Kleenex tissue, and did the role. Sent it through his agent. They watched and hired him right off the bat. He also stated that working with Coppola was amazing, Coppola allowed him to improvise on Apocalypse Now, and get out of his own head. Gave him the room to do that. Apparently, Brando was more into politics than the film business, and felt it was every citizen's duty to be political - to push for human rights, and the rights of others. (Which she couldn't argue with - she was the same way.)
But what he really wanted to do was direct - that's where the true control and craft came into play. But had only been able to direct one film - One Eyed Jacks. She agreed with him on this - directing was for film - where you had the most ability to effect the craft. She'd fallen in love with directing. But, it was incredibly hard to get people to let you do the work. She struggled to get The Normal Heart done, and I think is still struggling to get it done? (Not clear on that one). Also wanted to do two made for television plays with Brando - Shaw's Anthony and Cleopatra, and Shakespear's Anthony and Cleopatra. (Actually they would have been interesting in those roles.)
She talks about ice cream. How he'd gained so much weight, partly because he'd eat a pint of ice cream a night - to comfort himself. Which she completely understood - having given into the temptation herself with McConnell's Brazillian Coffee Ice Cream. (Eh, I've had it, too much caffeine, prefer the Peppermint.) Anyhow, she gets the ice cream from this place in Santa Barbara that she adores.
They apparently adored each other - but it was completely platonic. She never talks about sleeping together. He said he wanted "to fuck" her once. She was appalled and told him that wasn't a nice thing to say. So, he said, how about I take you to an art museum instead? I don't think it was ever romantic. I think it was just a very close friendship.
ETA: Streisand talks a bit more about Brando - how much like Streisand, he did not return to the stage or theater after his early runs of I Remember Mama and Streetcar Named Desire (and wanted to be let out of the role).
He like her - struggled with the press. Neither liked to be quoted out of context, like the press often did, to the point in which they refused to grant interviews - which pissed off the press even more. They felt that people often didn't see them for the persona they'd created in their heads.
And they didn't want to be loved by strangers who didn't know them, but by people who did. And how the fans or fawning often disturbed them. (I get that). It was off-putting to have someone they never met or knew - tell them how much they loved and adored them, and fawn over them, as if they were best friends. That the fans didn't love them, but some fictional role they played and couldn't separate the two.
She also ponders what draws so many people to acting - because so many of them didn't get approval at home, and as a result are never quite fulfilled by the successes they achieve, and only see the negative reviews of their work or remember them?
Marlon was apparently an inventor - and very concerned about the environment. He'd come up with an environmentally sustainable and clean resort on Tahiti to show how it could be done. And in his memory it was accomplished.
What Streisand says about the Entertainment Business (note the Business itself, not the creation of the art) is not good, although nothing that I didn't already know from various sources personal and otherwise. My brother's worked and interacted with it, and has close friends in it. I've had various actor friends who've worked within it. And my sister-in-law's family was closely involved within it. Plus every memoir I've listened to or read about it - says the same things. Without exception they all state how Fame nearly destroyed them, and how they tried to cope with it.
What's interesting about the Streisand memoir - is she doesn't speak ill of anyone who is a)currently alive (at least not so far), or b) hasn't spoken ill of her, or didn't gossip about her. Anthony Newly hurt her - but she doesn't explain how or go into details. And she's relatively vague about her divorce and marriage to Gould (just stating what is already known and dispelling any rumors about cheating). She does explain and speak ill of those who did attack her when they were alive and tried to destroy her career and feed the media gossip machine. I kind of respect her for that?
1. Anthony Newley and the pitfalls of holding a grudge. It took a minute or two to remember who he was. He was a popular British singer/song writer/composer and actor in the 1960s and early 70s. A triple threat - so to speak. Kind of like Burt Bacharach? Or similar musical style - just not quite as successful. Died sometime in the 1990s. You may know him for the musical scores to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (the musical version with Gene Wilder), and Doctor Dolittle.
Here - Anthony Newley and Sammy Davis Jr singing Newley's song "The Candy Man"
Apparently Streisand had a brief fling with Newley in 1971, after divorcing Gould. And he did something that she couldn't forgive, and cut him off. He tried to apologize with a song. What's interesting about the story, and why I'm relating it - is at 81, she regrets holding the grudge and not forgiving him. What she says, and I found this interesting, is that she got into the habit of cutting people out of her life if they wronged or hurt her in any way. And didn't look back. But, now, all these years later, she's wondering about that. Newley had died in the 1990s, and she wonders at times what would have happened if she reached out to him? If they'd had a chat? Maybe sang a duet? She regrets never getting that chance. Which is why she digitally did a duet with him in her duets album and performance.
As a kind of homage to him - and in a way an apology for not letting him back into her life.
While it does depend on the grudge and the person, I think you should be open to people You don't know where it may lead. And not cut them off completely. People can and often do change. We can't control them - we can control ourselves and how our perceptions change toward them?
And, being human - we're all going to piss each other off at some point. It's inevitable. There's a great song in Avenue Q, where a woman talks about how much she loves her husband but equally would like to kill him at times.
2. Hello Dolly and the pitfalls of the White Male Boys Club
This was fascinating. Some back story? For years, it had been bandied about in various unauthorized biographies (which are basically gossipy works by so-called journalists who acquire tidbits from other people about the person whose life they are chronicling) and gossip columns that Streisand was a terror on Hello Dolly. That she was trying to direct the film, was a perfectionist and control freak, and Walter Matthau had a blow up, and hated each other. And Matthau believed she was trying to play director, and had pushed to get into the picture and pushed for someone else to star opposite, etc. And Gene Kelly had issues with her.
Here's a 1969 interview with Streisand from Good Housekeeping that pushed back against the rumors at the time, and discusses the jealousy, envy and resentment of the gossip columns which hated Streisand for not playing along with them.
And what about Barbra Streisand's feud with Walter Matthau? Didn't that prove she was a monster? Not according to what I heard. People who worked on Hello, Dolly! insisted that Matthau was to blame for the difficulty. "It's a very simple story," said a friend of mine who was there. "She's twenty-six years old and she's the biggest star in town. Can you imagine how a big spoiled crybaby like Matthau reacts to playing second fiddle to that?"
I didn't even have to imagine it. I knew. Matthau reportedly became so upset he went to complain to Richard Zanuck, the head of 20th Century-Fox. "Do I need a heart attack?" asked Matthau. "Do I need an ulcer?" Zanuck listened politely, until Matthau finished whining. "I'd like to help you out," he replied, "but the film is not called Hello, Walter."
Nevertheless, the press has persisted in casting Streisand as the heavy and Matthau as the poor put-upon creature. All of which has made Barbra Streisand understandably reticent about giving interviews, and thoroughly paranoid about the press. "If I were to fight back at the misquotes, and the out-and-out lies that are said about me, I'd never get any work done," she said. "I don't want to be thought of as some kind of crazy, mad star who reverts to the Twenties in terms of temperament. Do you know that one writer said on television that I threw candy wrappers over my shoulder while he was interviewing me? Even in my worst days in Brooklyn, I never threw candy wrappers over my shoulder."
The truth is more complicated, of course. Per Streisand's memoir - Streisand was signed to Dolly long before either Matthau was cast or Gene Kelly was set to direct. She didn't want to do it. And tried to get out of it, but was informed by both her manager and Ernest Lehman, the producer, that it would be a serious breach of contract. She'd read the play, and seen it - and felt at 23 that she was too young for the part. It was for a much older woman (she still feels that way). But they said a young woman could be a widow. She also felt that Mathau was wrong for the romantic male lead - but she had not control. However, she got along famously with the producer - Ernie.
* Gene Kelly - Kelly was signed to direct after Barbra was signed to star. Barbra grew up with a huge crush on Gene Kelly (and had seen him in Marjorie Morningstar the year before - and had fallen for him in that film, it was dream of hers to be in a film with him). Anyhow - Kelly had issues directing women. She was appalled to see him yell at a female dancer to the point in which she was in tears. And when she called him on it (Barbra wasn't the sort to watch something like that and not say anything), he retorted that it wasn't an issue - the one he yelled at the most on a film became his wife. He had a reputation for doing that on films - and little tolerance for people who couldn't dance. Debbie Reynolds was horribly bullied by him on Singing in the Rain. Kelly admits he was horrible to her - and is surprised that she was still talking to him afterwards. (She was 19, he was 39.) So he had a reputation - and he was the co-choreographer, co-director, and lead. He was exacting. And he wanted to be remembered for changing the look of dance on film - not for a film role and not for helping others. There's a reason a lot of people prefer Astair.
Every suggestion Barbra made - Kelly ignored. Also Kelly refused to give her any direction regarding her character or discuss what he wanted for the film. (He later regretted that and said looking back he wishes he had given her more direction on how he saw her character, instead of ignoring her, which makes her like him all the more now.). From what I saw regarding Singing in the Rain and other films Kelly directed or choreographed, Kelly was an exacting director, and a perfectionist, similar to Robbins, who did multiple takes, and had no tolerance for anyone that wasn't a good dancer. Kelly always regretted how he treated people on his films after the fact - which is kind of interesting. O'Connor relates a story of Kelly yelling at him one day, and then coming to apologize, stating if he'd done it to Debbie - he'd lose her. O'Connor told him, okay, but if you do it again - be prepared to defend yourself. Women couldn't do that, particularly back then.
Walter Mathau - Mathau didn't want to do the film either - but got signed on for it. Streisand first met Mathau backstage in Piper Laurie's dressing room in the early 1960s. He popped his head in and looked at Streisand. "Oh, Barbara Harris, nice to see you. Did you get a nose job? Could have done better." And left. Streisand didn't know what to make of the comment. Years later she's acting opposite him in a movie and having a terrible time of it.
At one point she made a suggestion that might be funny, the crew laughed, and Mathau proceeded to have a temper tantrum - yelling at her to stop. (Kelly stopped production.) That she wasn't the director. And that he had more talent as an actor in his fingertips than she did in one of her butterfly farts. (She's funny, she can't say the word "F-A-R-T-S", and spells it instead.) Drove her off the set in tears. (Note - Streisand is in her early twenties, Mathau is in his 30s, and Kelly in his fifties at this stage.)
Moving forward, according to Streisand, they do an eating sequence, where she has to talk and eat at the same time. Walter kept flubbing his lines on purpose (he never had before), and they had to the scene over and over again, until she was ill and brought filming to a halt until he could learn them.
She was beginning to get paranoid - that there was a conspiracy between Kelly and Walter to sabotage her. Mainly because Kelly was enabling Walter's behavior. Finally, she decided to confront him in his dressing room about what was going on.
Barbra: What did I ever do to you? Did I hurt you in some way? What is it you have against me?
Mathau: You really hurt a really close friend of mine. And I can't abide that.
Barbra (who is mystified): I'm sorry? Who? Who was your friend?
Mathau: Stanley Chaplin.
Turns out, per Streisand, that Mathau and Kelly were drinking buddies of Chaplin's and went out together. She states that they were all part of the "Old Boys Club". Chaplin had told his version of what happened on Funny Girl, they bought it, and decided to make her life a living hell on the film and sabotage her at every turn.
Streisand proceeds to tell Mathau her version - which he didn't believe, and he took it all the way to the top - Dick Zanuck, the producer of the studio. Complaining about her to the head. The head of the studio listened to him - then told him, "I'd love to help you Walter, but the movie is called Hello ! Dolly! not Hello! Walter!"
And that was the end of that. She was thankful when it ended, and hated the experience. Mathau appears to have apologized later - although Streisand doesn't mention it. And he does state in various later interviews that he was in a foul-mood during the filming and took it out on poor Barbara. And she becomes friends with his wife Carol Mathau. What I think happened is his wife got across to him that Chaplin was not a nice guy and had a grudge. Also, Barbara was more talented than Mathau and he was coming across as envious.
While part of this was due to the Media's desire to tear down the tall poppy, "Male" Privilege in Hollywood has been a problem since the film business began. 90% of the gossip and bad press on Streisand was a direct result of the Male Privilege and how they viewed women as their playthings and inferiors. And a lot of the rage from the Me#Too Movement, along with Movement itself - is a direct result of that. The Toxic Male permeates our society on every level.
3. Platonic Friendship with Marlon Brando and the Movie Business
Streisand first met Brando in the early 1960s when she was pregnant with her son Jason, then again in 1972. Streisand said she had two huge crushes on movie stars growing up - one was on Gene Kelly, the other was Marlon Brando, who she considered to be the Greatest Actor who ever lived.
When she first met him, he was kissing her back. She turned and asked why.
He told her that she had an amazing back and it deserved to be kissed. The man was seductive. And when they sat next to each other at a celebrity event, she asked him if he'd gotten his teeth capped. He was bemused by her honesty and said, yes, he had.
They were basically close friends ever since. She reports how he hated the movie industry, and acting. The reasons had more to do with the business of it, than actual doing of it. What bonded them was a multitude of small things - such as they both had issues with the media hounding them, the malicious gossip, neither respected people who talked about them to the papers or elsewhere, and both struggled to get the work they wanted to do - made. He struggled far more than she did. And both had reputations that they were difficult to work with.
At one point, standing in her kitchen, he requested that she sing him a song.
Barbra: I can't just sing you a song off the bat. How would you feel if I asked you to recite a soliloquy off the bat?
So he recites one. A soliloquy from memory out of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Without missing a beat.
When she was able to close her jaw, which had been hanging open in shock. She states: How? How do you do that? Do you just have these things memorized?
Brando: Stop trying to change the subject. You owe me a song.
So she sang something from Rodgers and Hammerstein, that was fairly short.
They didn't often talk about acting or the process. They were both intuitive actors who build from the inside out, as opposed to more intellectual actors who built from the outside in, such as Olivier. She said both works, and everyone has their process. He told her about his once - when she was telling him how much she was struggling with a role in a film she was doing, called Nuts. Something wasn't working well. (She's talking to him late at night from her bathroom - to not disrupt her current partner's sleep. Marlon often called her at night to chat.)
Marlon told her - that he felt that the brain or intellect got in the way of acting, and being real in the moment. That you needed to stop thinking.
She asked how he remembered his lines? He said he didn't - he sucked at it.
He would write them on his hands, his wrists, on the ceiling of a set, on table tops on the walls. Which she states suddenly explained some of his interesting acting choices. Why he's always looking up at the ceiling in films or down at his hands, he's reading his lines. He said later, they'd just give him an ear plug and the teller prompter would send him his lines. She asked how could he act with someone feeding him lines like that - but wasn't a problem. He was upset about Last Tango in Paris - and did not like doing that film at all - felt the director forced him to reveal too much of himself and his own vulnerability - it was too personal, and he felt violated by the director and how the director did it. (I have a feeling he didn't like some of those sex scenes any more than his co-star did. And it was painful for them both.) It's one of the reasons he didn't like acting and doing films.
On - the film - On the Waterfront (which I don't think I've ever seen, I should hunt it down) - he told Barbra that most of the stuff in that film was not taken from the page. That he and Rod Stieger improvised a lot of it, and Eli Kazan, the director let them do it - and sent them off to play with it. Because what was on the page didn't necessarily work on the screen. (It doesn't half the time.) And there was a brutal scene between the brothers that just didn't work, so they worked with each other and came up with something different but more workable. Such as the speech, I could have been a contender - that wasn't in the original script, apparently.
He also told Barbra that for the Godfather - they wouldn't cast him. They felt he was too difficult to work with, and contentious, and not good for the role. So he put together a video, where he stuffed his cheeks with Kleenex tissue, and did the role. Sent it through his agent. They watched and hired him right off the bat. He also stated that working with Coppola was amazing, Coppola allowed him to improvise on Apocalypse Now, and get out of his own head. Gave him the room to do that. Apparently, Brando was more into politics than the film business, and felt it was every citizen's duty to be political - to push for human rights, and the rights of others. (Which she couldn't argue with - she was the same way.)
But what he really wanted to do was direct - that's where the true control and craft came into play. But had only been able to direct one film - One Eyed Jacks. She agreed with him on this - directing was for film - where you had the most ability to effect the craft. She'd fallen in love with directing. But, it was incredibly hard to get people to let you do the work. She struggled to get The Normal Heart done, and I think is still struggling to get it done? (Not clear on that one). Also wanted to do two made for television plays with Brando - Shaw's Anthony and Cleopatra, and Shakespear's Anthony and Cleopatra. (Actually they would have been interesting in those roles.)
She talks about ice cream. How he'd gained so much weight, partly because he'd eat a pint of ice cream a night - to comfort himself. Which she completely understood - having given into the temptation herself with McConnell's Brazillian Coffee Ice Cream. (Eh, I've had it, too much caffeine, prefer the Peppermint.) Anyhow, she gets the ice cream from this place in Santa Barbara that she adores.
They apparently adored each other - but it was completely platonic. She never talks about sleeping together. He said he wanted "to fuck" her once. She was appalled and told him that wasn't a nice thing to say. So, he said, how about I take you to an art museum instead? I don't think it was ever romantic. I think it was just a very close friendship.
ETA: Streisand talks a bit more about Brando - how much like Streisand, he did not return to the stage or theater after his early runs of I Remember Mama and Streetcar Named Desire (and wanted to be let out of the role).
He like her - struggled with the press. Neither liked to be quoted out of context, like the press often did, to the point in which they refused to grant interviews - which pissed off the press even more. They felt that people often didn't see them for the persona they'd created in their heads.
And they didn't want to be loved by strangers who didn't know them, but by people who did. And how the fans or fawning often disturbed them. (I get that). It was off-putting to have someone they never met or knew - tell them how much they loved and adored them, and fawn over them, as if they were best friends. That the fans didn't love them, but some fictional role they played and couldn't separate the two.
She also ponders what draws so many people to acting - because so many of them didn't get approval at home, and as a result are never quite fulfilled by the successes they achieve, and only see the negative reviews of their work or remember them?
Marlon was apparently an inventor - and very concerned about the environment. He'd come up with an environmentally sustainable and clean resort on Tahiti to show how it could be done. And in his memory it was accomplished.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-02 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-03 03:57 am (UTC)It actually didn't do that badly - it did well. But it didn't do well enough - and they'd had a string of failures prior with Star! (the Julie Andrews venture) along with a string of others.
At the time? The critics considered Streisand to be the best thing in it. What's interesting is it co-stared a young Michael Crawford (later to achieve fame for Phantom of the Opera) in the role of Cornelius Hackle. Tony Perkins starred in the black and white adaptation of the play.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-03 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-04 01:37 am (UTC)