Eavesdropping: Loretta Young talks about her Movie Years

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Eavesdropping: Loretta Young talks about her Movie Years

This book is composed of Loretta Youngâ€™s 1990 conversations with me (Edward Funk) about her movie years.

In the concurrent new book, â€œBehind the Door: the Real Life of Loretta Youngâ€, I delve into a select few of Loretta Youngâ€™s ninety-eight films; enough to know she was a major movie star and her battles to get there and remain for the next twenty-five years. Yet, Loretta and I had discussed ninety-one of her films and that left so much material behind. Since 1990, voices able to recall a career from the silent era, through the golden years of film, have been extinguished. Lorettaâ€™s isnâ€™t just any voice; she tells us from an Academy Award winning starâ€™s perspective. She discusses the actors, the directors, the producers, the clothes (and more clothes!), what she learned about acting, her innumerable â€œcrushesâ€ on her leading men, her reputation as being â€œdifficultâ€, the roles she wanted, the roles she didnâ€™t. Itâ€™s eighty thousand words of memories, a discussion of which, hopefully, classic film buffs will enjoy eavesdropping.

Excerpts:

When the camera rolled, he (jimmy Cagney) was in character; there was no getting around it. And I think for a woman to have a man, who is violent that way, but sheâ€™s the only one heâ€™s sensitive with and sweet and soft with, itâ€™s doubly important to her then. Even playing a character in a picture, you felt a part of that.

Acting, I think, is a wonderful bit of therapy for anyone because you can do, really, anything that you might be tempted to, and you really arenâ€™t doing it, because youâ€™re only acting. Because thereâ€™s a lot of attraction, I find, in evil. Usually, itâ€™s so covered up with beauty that you donâ€™t see the evil.

Nothing turns me off quicker than somebody whoâ€™s not infatuated or thinks Iâ€™m divine.
If you are a star, you donâ€™t have to act like a star. You are a star. You know that by how much money you get; you know that by where your name appearsâ€¦.

You can only make love for three minutes as long as the camera is rolling, and passionate love if you want, and the minute the camera is over, no responsibility whatsoever. You call that just a job? Well, itâ€™s not quite â€œjust a job,â€ is it?

I know I want things my way. I know in the studio, everyone used to say and they still do, that Iâ€™m not the easiest person in the world to work withâ€¦producers and writers...... I know Iâ€™m notâ€¦..

I was given the #1 dressing room at the studio for MANâ€™S CASTLE. I didnâ€™t know at that time that at the back of the closet of that dressing room there was a door that led right into Harry Cohnâ€™s private office.

I think Alan (Ladd) was very conscious of his looks. He would not look beyond a certain point in the camera because he didnâ€™t think he looked good. What difference does it make what a man looks like so long as he looks like a man? With a woman, itâ€™s very important.
These are womenâ€™s tricks. Itâ€™s a modelâ€™s walk. It allows you to swing your body without swinging your hips because the whole body goes with it.

I know itâ€™s showing off. Otherwise it would not please me most when the camera is going because everybody is going to look at me big, blown-up.

Youâ€™d be surprised how important a movie star feels at times. Reigning kings and queens donâ€™t mean very much unless they come into your life in the way this did. But just to meet a king or queen, I donâ€™t know, Iâ€™d never go out of my way to do it.

Now, I loved love scenes, all the touching and petting because I liked men. I liked them then, and I still like them.

(Speaking to director Jules Dassin): I canâ€™t continue. I donâ€™t think youâ€™re any happier with me than I am with you. One of us is going to go, and I think, unfortunately for you, at this point, Iâ€™m a bigger star than youâ€™re a director.

It isnâ€™t easy for a beautiful woman to be a faithful wife. If sheâ€™s happily married, yes. Very easy for her to be. But if sheâ€™s unhappily married and sheâ€™s attractive, itâ€™s very difficult. Very.

Country	USA
Author	Edward Funk
Binding	Kindle Edition
EISBN	9780997105421
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	Edward J. Funk
Manufacturer	Edward J. Funk
NumberOfPages	360
PublicationDate	2015-12-10
Publisher	Edward J. Funk
ReleaseDate	2015-12-10
Studio	Edward J. Funk

Eavesdropping: Loretta Young talks about her Movie Years

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