Original subtitles

Faye Dunaway: Can we shoot?

We need to shoot! I'm here now, come on!

I really would like to shoot. I really-- I'm sitting here,

- I really would like to shoot. - Laurent Bouzereau: Yes, we are.

- Okay. Uh,

- you tell me when you're ready, Faye. - Ready.

- Are we rolling?

We're rolling.

Here's the amazing thing.

Today is March 29th.

Now, on March 29, 1977,

- you took this picture. - Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Show the picture to camera.

It's exactly 45 years ago.

Wow. It's an awfully long time.

When you look at this picture today,

what do you see?

Well, I remember the moment.

I had won the Oscar for "Network" the night before,

and closer to 5 o'clock,

Terry O'Neill tried to persuade me

to come to the pool at dawn when the sun came up

because he didn't want a traditional kind of picture

with the actress standing with the Oscar and that.

But he staged this.

What I loved is that,

"Is that all there is?" was kind of the theme to it.

Because at my feet are all of the morning newspapers

announcing the wins and also a posthumous Peter Finch Oscar

because he passed away three months earlier.

So, it was bittersweet and this is a classic place,

Beverly Hills Hotel and swimming pool.

So anyway, it was an amazing night.

It was really crazy.

Very, very, um, memorable.

Do you know me?

Well, uh,

I think I would've remembered.

Have we ever met?

Faye Dunaway in one word...

"un-dismissible."

Well, I'm Miss Bonnie Parker,

and this here is Mr. Clyde Barrow.

We rob banks.

Faye's a legend, an inspiration,

a force of nature,

a literal

and absolute genius

of an acting artist.

And Faye is my chum.

It's a funny, dirty, little job.

Alchemy.

It's the relationship between a lens and a face.

You can't pigeonhole her as a movie star.

You see a Faye Dunaway movie,

and you see something completely different.

You don't see Faye Dunaway. You see Bonnie Parker.

You see Laura Mars.

You see Wanda Wilcox. You see Joan Crawford.

Hollywood royalty.

Mesmerizing.

You know, it's very rare that you get somebody

who's so striking-looking that's got acting chops.

And she had a confidence because Faye knew she could bring it.

- I'm scared! - So am I!

- What are you scared for? You've got the gun! - Yes!

Liam Dunaway O'Neill: My mom is a very strong woman,

and I think that's one of the reasons

why she was so good at acting

is because she would keep her emotions inside.

And then when she had to act a scene, she would let it out.

I told him, Lou!

I've been telling him every day for a week!

I am sick of telling him! Now, you tell him!

-If you go back

and you watch all of my mom's movies,

I think she's all of her characters in one,

in real life because she put a little bit of herself

into every character,

and she put a little bit of her character into herself.

I was never arrogant that way.

I knew I needed a look, and I got one.

Faye Dunaway in one word?

Complicated.

Johnny Carson: Who's one of the worst people you know in Hollywood?

Bette Davis: That I worked with?

Or that you wouldn't wanna work with again. If--

One million dollars, Faye Dunaway.

Everybody you can put into this chair

- will tell you exactly the same thing.

Robin Morgan: You will read people

with their superficial comments about Faye.

She's volatile, she's difficult, temperamental,

aggressive. Yeah, well,

that's also true.

But she's equally fastidious,

caring, deeply caring,

and she has an eye

and a temperament for detail that I think tips that balance

into what people call difficult.

And I think before you start to make superficial judgments

about someone like Faye,

you have to look deeper at the artist.

This is the worst seat in the world.

I'm not happy with anything here.

I wanna sit at an angle.

I don't wanna sit straight on.

So the shoulders are there? Does that look better, darling,

- or shall I come straight like that? -No, looks nice.

It's the work, you know? It takes what it takes.

People think it's simple and, "Oh, this and that. Be real."

But there's so many details.

I do a makeup, and I do a hair.

You know, you have to get there early enough

till you have the exact time. So, if you get there there,

and you don't have the time, you're nervous and frantic.

If you come early you have your preparation,

you have an organization. It's just a lot of stuff

that has to fit together like a puzzle.

I need a glass of water, not a bottle!

speaker: Got it. Hold on.

And it's supposed to liberate you.

And it's difficult because it's tense, all of it.

-Alright, Faye, put down the book. - speaker: Put down the book.

In a minute!

- So, now you see what it is

about me.

Not easy.

It's not easy, but it gets the results.

We'll see, we'll see.

I just seem to always have wanted to be an actress,

or I always knew that that's what I wanted to pursue anyway,

you know, from a very early age in the South

when I was 5, 6 years old. And I'd always grown up

feeling that I could achieve

what I wanted to achieve if I worked hard enough.

I mean that is, in fact, the American dream, isn't it?

I was born Dorothy Faye Dunaway

on January 14, 1941.

Dorothy Faye is the little girl with brown hair

who stood in the middle of a dirt road in Bascom, Florida

and played hopscotch and mother-may-I.

But I haven't been Dorothy Faye for a long time.

She might've been written out of the script.

We hope not, right? She hasn't been.

She's very important to me,

and that's who I wanna go back to sometimes.

But, Faye is someone that perhaps I have created.

It's a persona that is related very much to my work.

It's specific to my career.

That's the actress, I suppose.

And Dorothy Faye is that little girl from the South.

That still is a deep part of me,

and I have to stay close to

because she's, you know, integral to who I am.

My mother and my father,

they were young when they married,

and I don't think they had a very good relationship

because he had the disease of alcoholism.

True, serious illness,

and he wasn't bringing money home.

He might've been drinking too much even then.

So, my mother sent a letter to the War Department,

asking them to draft my father, and they did.

He was a cook. He worked in the kitchen.

And they sent the check to her every month,

and we were able to pay off bills and pay off the house.

But, my mother had a great sense of doing things right

and also taking things into her own hands

when they didn't work. That's what I learned

by being with her and seeing how she operated.

And that's what it takes to make things work.

My mom was very close to Grace,

and we would go to her little farm in South Carolina,

and my mom was always trying to, like, take care of her.

I've always been close with her.

I mean, she taught me everything.

She had backbone, and she fought very hard

in a very difficult life with very little money,

and difficulties with my father.

And my mother always wanted more.

So, she taught me to achieve.

She taught me to do the best, to get straight A's,

to work hard, no matter what.

And I'm glad that she did.

But it was also pretty demanding.

I was trained to be the best, and I was.

I got some-- an idea in my mind,

and I was gonna try to achieve it. That's my mother.

- We'll start with that guy. - Oh Lord.

Well, this is me and my beloved brother, Mac,

the sweetest boy in the world, except for Liam.

I always thought he was so sweet,

and I was such a kind of go-getter, after my mother,

that I felt guilty and I felt I wish I were more like him.

My brother, his name was Mac Simmion Dunaway,

and he's younger than me, two years younger,

and he was, I thought, a lot sweeter than me.

But I envied that.

I envied that he was so lovely and charming and sweet.

I was with him at his bedside just before he passed,

which I'm happy about. I'm glad that I was there.

He just had contracted some kind of illness

without us really expecting it.

Heartbreaking that we lost him.

He was a wonderful man, had a great life.

This one was interesting, I think,

'cause I'd never seen it before,

and there's no time or date or anything like that--

Absolutely, that is what it is. It's Mannheim, Germany.

It's when my father was stationed in Germany,

and we were outside one of the parks there.

And my brother and my father

are standing exactly the same way.

You can see. Sweet. Very sweet.

He was stationed there in the Army,

and we spent two years there.

The time pattern of my life was established very early

when we began to travel with my father in the Army.

Every two years, he was transferred somewhere else,

and we went from Florida

to Arkansas and Texas,

and then to Germany,

and back to Utah which is dreary and very arid.

And it was a rhythm that was not pleasant sometimes.

It was painful because you had to pick up and leave friends

and people that you loved and knew,

and there was no kind of holding on.

No kind of... It was...

I don't think it's good to do that

but, I mean, I liked it at the time,

mostly because there was something new,

and I was always curious,

and I always wanted to see new places.

But it was a mixture. It was both bad and good.

I'm interested to know at what point you got interested

in acting, and decided, or had a vague decision,

- at least, to be an actress. - I, I can always remember, you say, a very vague,

a-an unspoken kind of leaning towards it.

I always did plays. I always played games

where I was acting or dressing up and things like that.

There was neighborhood playhouses,

and I auditioned when I was 13

for the part of Nurse Kelly in "Harvey."

And I played that in this neighborhood playhouse

in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah,

which was an Army base where my father was.

That was something I did because I was interested in that.

I was always interested in that,

but that was parallel to my family experience,

which was painful.

The marriage had crumbled. It was falling apart,

and the acting was a way to escape from the difficulties

that existed in my family life, in my home life.

I mean, it was hurting us as well, the children,

so my mother wanted a divorce, and we went back to Florida.

Pierre Berton: Did you have a happy childhood or an unhappy one?

- I read a bit about it-- - Both, really. Not-Not terribly.

It was, um, it was--

Well, there was a divorce in the family when I was older,

but the childhood itself was, was, um,

not particularly unhappy.

I remember that my relationship with my mother, for example,

was very close, you know? It was not until really my teens

that there was the divorce,

and that certainly is an adjustment

because that is difficult emotionally, and I imagine,

financially, it was a bit less of an easy life.

We lived in Tallahassee,

and I went to Leon High School.

Tried out to be a cheerleader, became a cheerleader.

There was a drama club as well,

and I had a couple of roles in the productions there.

After I graduated,

I went to Florida State University for one year,

and then I transferred to the University of Florida

because I had a boyfriend who was there.

But winning a beauty contest was de rigueur in the South.

This is a very important thing. You had to win one.

You had to win one.

And I tried a number of times,

and I was always runner-up to May Queen,

six votes that I didn't get, that someone else got.

And then, when I finally became Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,

my darling boyfriend at that time,

Eugene Page, who's no longer with us, unfortunately,

he was part of this,

and when I won that, I thought, that's it.

I've done it now.

And in spite of the fact that

Gene and I were very close,

I had to go and live my life.

I had to go and do what I wanted to do,

to be an actress. And so,

I then researched and found a school

that was interesting because it was Boston University,

and it had visiting directors from the New York stage.

So I got accepted, and I went to Boston University

just after I became Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.

Okay, what's next? Ah. This is--

I think it's a-- some kind of Roman--

It's me playing Medea

when I was in college,

and that's the chorus and that's the gladiator.

That's a play production that I was in when I was young.

Jimmy Carter: Were you a terribly ambitious young girl

when you were a teenager that got you out

- in this crazy business in the first place? - I had a lot of desire.

And a lot of, um, energy.

And a lot of, um, you know,

determination to do good work.

Did you ever get down and frustrated,

didn't think you were gonna make it,

or did you always know that you had that goal set

- and you were gonna make it? - All the time!

Every day down and frustrated and, you know,

had to pull yourself up and talk to yourself,

and I think that there's a lot of character building

and strength that goes into, when one is fearful

and when one takes on a large task.

Six days after I graduated from Boston University,

I went on Broadway in New York to play with Emlyn Williams

in "A Man for All Seasons," and, at the same time,

I worked in the training program for Lincoln Center Repertory.

‘Cause Robert Whitehead, the great producer, with Kazan,

had seen me play things up in Boston.

Barry Primus: Faye was in the company of Lincoln Center led by Kazan,

and everybody wanted to be in this company.

You had to audition for it.

But, to be in the company you had to spend,

almost eight or nine months in the training program.

We didn't think about going to Hollywood.

We were thinking about being on the stage,

and so we were in an extremely exciting

and enviable place by being with Kazan.

reporter: What do you think of the new Lincoln Center group?

Well, I must think a lot of it. I've worked a long time on it.

We've brought this bunch together,

and it's a very exciting group.

Very fresh and young, eager.

And, uh, high-spirited. Wonderful group of people.

- reporter: You mean the actors, don't you? - Yeah.

Kazan would locate the part within the actor.

That was his secret. He said, "The material I use

is the life that the actor has led up to this moment."

Kazan taught me how to act.

He taught me my feelings were my strength.

I used to think they made me look weak

and that I was weak if I cried or felt sad or depressed.

And he taught me to use those feelings.

He says, "They're who you are.

They make you strong. They don't make you weak."

You know, when you meet little girls,

and they wanna be an actress like you when they grow up,

- what do you tell them? - Get a good education.

Become a person.

And education is a big part of that.

And then, when you can bring something to the profession,

come in. But don't come out saying,

"Oh, I wanna be an actress and get in front of a camera,"

because a million other people will be there before you,

or simultaneously,

and it's just not the way that it's gonna happen.

You have to develop your own uniqueness.

I was getting a salary on Broadway at that time,

but it wasn't that much. But I was a young actress.

I was auditioning for things. I finally got "Hogan's Goat."

This was written by William Alfred,

who became my great mentor and friend.

And it was Off-Broadway, but it was a beautiful role

and written in blank verse with an Irish accent.

Daughter of a mighty Father,

maiden patron of the May,

angel forms around thee gather,

Macula non est in te.

My mom in her 20s,

she really turned more of parental guidance

to William Alfred,

who she had met on "Hogan's Goat."

He was a professor at Harvard.

He was also a writer,

and they kind of just bonded.

I remember there's a picture of them together,

and they're just literally at two ends of the desk,

and there's just like a typewriter in the middle,

and you can see they're just working.

And that was their relationship.

And he would always read books,

so he got my mom into more reading and learning

and educating herself, and being

a master of her craft.

Bill Alfred was my father, basically.

My father in art.

I would always go up there with my scripts,

and we would sit in his living room,

and he would fiddle and say,

"Well, this is what maybe the playwright was thinking about."

So, he helped me enormously, and he showed me how to work.

But the play, "Hogan's Goat," was a surprise hit.

You know, everyone came to see it.

Jackie Onassis came one night.

And the reviews were very good. Not just for me,

but for the play as well.

That's when Hollywood came knocking.

And the casting director, Joyce Selznick,

was in the audience,

and she recommended me to Sam Spiegel,

who was a very big Hollywood producer.

He had produced "The African Queen,"

"On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando,

"Lawrence of Arabia," and he became a friend.

Platonic. Never-- There was never any romance between us,

but he believed in me, and he put me into my first film,

"The Happening."

Are you scared?

Yes, I'm scared.

I don't think you're really scared yet.

It was glorious! You kidding?

I was in shape.

I used to do 100 sit-ups every morning

because I had these bare midriff things I had to wear.

It was the first film I did. Can you imagine?

A young actress in this world of movie-making,

which is glamorous and thrilling.

You and Rad made up your minds to go and sell the place?

- You're gonna have to talk to Rad about that, Henry. - Okay.

Only I hope you folks don't wait too long.

In "Hurry Sundown," I played the farm wife.

Jane Fonda played the wealthier wife with Michael Caine

that I wanted to play,

but I got the role of the poor Southern woman

who was with John Phillip Law. But I took it also because

it reminded me of my mother.

And the role of the farm wife was something

that I knew from my grandmother when I was growing up.

And it was a good experience in the end.

Good afternoon. This is the Barrow gang.

Now, if everybody will just take it easy, nobody will get hurt.

Mark Harris: "Bonnie and Clyde,"

in its preparation and in its preproduction,

was really a kind of men's club.

It was written by Robert Benton and David Newman.

Arthur Penn was the director.

Warren Beatty was the star, but also the producer

and the kind of driving force in wanting to get it made.

But, they waited to cast

quote-unquote "the girl."

Who's the girl gonna be?

I went to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles

‘cause that's where Warren had a suite

in the very top of the hotel,

and Arthur Penn was there. And we auditioned in the suite,

and I read some scenes of "Bonnie and Clyde."

And Arthur basically said he wanted me to do it.

Warren was less sure,

but, in the end, Arthur Penn committed himself to me.

He actually told Warren that if I didn't play it,

he wasn't gonna do it.

Annette Insdorf: It was Penn who insisted on Faye Dunaway.

Although the other actresses being considered included

Jane Fonda, Tuesday Weld,

Natalie Wood, Leslie Caron,

and, my, my, the film would've been different

with any of the other actresses

because of a special sensibility

that Faye Dunaway brought to that part.

I mean, I was a Southerner.

You know, I mean, you saw in "Bonnie and Clyde"

that I was home free.

And the accent is a part of it.

Oh, big Clyde Barrow!

You're just like your brother!

- Uh-huh! - Ignorant, uneducated hillbilly!

Listen, the only special thing about you

is your peculiar ideas about love-makin',

which is no love-makin' at all!

"Bonnie and Clyde,"

the studios didn't like it. They didn't wanna show it.

And Warren, at one point,

in Warren's inimitable way,

laid right down on the floor and says,

"Sell me the picture."

And they said, "Oh, get up from the floor, kid.

Get-- What are you talk-- Get up."

And he didn't. He just stood there, said,

"Sell me the picture. I'll be back with a check this afternoon."

He left. Well, you know, they then are saying,

"Oh, God, he showed it to Fox.

"Or he showed it to another studio.

And they're interested, and now..."

So, it worked.

"Bonnie and Clyde" came out in the summer of 1967,

but it took five or six months

before the movie really started to take off

and be popular across the country.

And that was right at this interesting moment

when everything in old Hollywood was falling apart.

The production code, which had governed the content of movies

for many decades, had finally been dismantled.

So, there was suddenly this window

when you could have very adult movies.

But nobody, including the people

who were making the movies,

knew quite how far those movies could go.

James Gray: With "Bonnie and Clyde," you got the sense that

the Band-Aid had been ripped off.

All of a sudden, you saw...

anguish. Real anguish. You heard about

Clyde's sexual impotence.

You saw her intensely frustrated

and lonely,

and her humanity validated.

But also, her sadness,

and that was not something we'd seen before

with that kind of frankness.

How long did it take them to shoot you up the way they did

in, uh, in the end of "Bonnie and Clyde"?

Yeah, it was incredible.

It took, um... I think we did it--

I think we did it twice, on two days,

and there were about four cameras going on each one.

That was incredible.

Julie Salamon: The shootout and the death scene

was shocking, and part of it was that you liked them.

And it was echoing something

that was going on across the country.

In '63, President Kennedy was assassinated,

and then a few years later, his brother, Robert Kennedy,

running for President, was assassinated,

and Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Those were also incredibly turbulent times

and very frightening

because it just felt like everything

that we had been told and everything we had known

was being turned upside down,

and I think "Bonnie and Clyde," in this very seductive way,

just brought that right into the movie theater.

This is Faye's first time in Paris.

reporter: Will you tell us just shortly, uh, your stage experience?

Three years stage experience in New York

with the Lincoln Center Repertory Company.

Two years with that, one year on Broadway.

As a result of this fame

that came as a result of "Bonnie and Clyde,"

it was a very frantic and hectic time.

I don't have anything against fame, but it can be difficult

because you don't have a lot of privacy sometimes.

But, it's something that I accept and am grateful for

because there are people who like my work.

When one becomes successful, it's an opportunity.

- It's a freedom, really. Success is freedom. -Yes, of course, it is.

You can choose what you wanna do.

You can choose what's most exciting for you.

Bonnie and Clyde are very big here in France,

and they have been for a long time,

even though the film has only just now arrived.

The French have for months been buying Bonnie and Clyde songs,

neckties, hats, dresses, car accessories.

People came in costumes of the American 1930s

to see the Paris premiere of the film

and to see its stars, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty.

Her look, which really did spark

a major fashion trend,

was intentionally anachronistic.

Because if you look at pictures of the real Bonnie Parker,

she did not look like Faye Dunaway. And so,

this was a highly stylized, visually,

highly romanticized version

of Bonnie and Clyde, which was appropriate

because this is partly a movie about celebrity

and about seeking celebrity.

And that part of the story is true.

- Come on, smile. Hey...

The look for Bonnie was established

by Theadora Van Runkle.

She was a great friend of mine for many, many years,

and she was a divine costume designer.

And so, after Bonnie, she did "Thomas Crown" for me,

with these very short miniskirts and ruffly things.

And this woman, very feminine, but very aggressive.

Alright, Eddy! I'm immoral!

So is the world! I'm here for the money, okay?

My character was a private investigator,

and she was a dresser.

She did these incredible looks every time she was in public,

and that was just the choice we made.

In a lot of my films,

the clothes have created statements.

I know what I am.

Don't put your labels on me, Eddy.

The story of "The Thomas Crown Affair"

is about Thomas Crown, played by Steve McQueen,

and he has these guys rob a bank, and, of course,

it's the quote-unquote "perfect crime."

And the insurance company,

they send this high-powered insurance investigator

to help the Boston Police.

And that insurance investigator is Faye Dunaway,

Vicki, and, of course,

they both are very intrigued by each other to put it mildly.

Steve McQueen: Whose head are you after?

- Yours. - Mine?

Yours.

She's very much of the moment.

It's the '60s.

The women's movement is coming into the forefront,

so she's this independent woman

who was so cool and so self-possessed.

Nobody who's ever seen that movie

would argue that perhaps the chess game

is the most erotic piece of filmmaking ever made.

Do you play?

Try me.

And there's not a word spoken!

It's just chess moves. It's fingers. It's looks.

It's a chess game!

But, she and Steve McQueen,

they play it so well that it is a silent game,

and it's all in the looks,

and, boy, does that work.

And you know she's in control.

Check.

He and I had a wonderful chemistry, actually,

because he was an actor for sure,

but he was also Steve.

He had a persona that was something that defined him

perhaps more than this quote-unquote "acting."

There's a story that Steve McQueen

disparagingly referred to her

either as Dun-fadeaway

or Fadin'-away.

Because she was thin.

She was, like, disappearing and losing weight.

There's a big demand that you be very, very, very thin.

And that you fit everything. And that you look great.

And you get a half an hour for lunch,

from the time they break,

to you eat, go to the toilet, brush your teeth,

and get back on set.

Absolutely, there is much more pressure on a woman.

The clothes are very demanding.

But, you're going at such a pace

you don't have time to eat very much.

Sharon Stone: In truth, you just don't get to eat

three healthy meals a day and fit the clothes

that come off the runway.

You just really don't. And Faye and I know that.

All the great photographers photograph Faye

- 'cause she is a fashion icon.

Jerry Schatzberg, of course, photographed Faye beautifully.

They were an item in the '60s,

and are still great friends.

And he's a formidable photographer

as well as director himself.

Jerry Schatzberg: I got a call from "Esquire,"

and they said they would like me to photograph a new actress.

- And I was really happy to meet Faye,

and we did some wonderful photographs.

In the middle of the shoot, she started crying.

And I thought maybe I had said something,

but I couldn't really tell at first.

I don't know. I think probably I wanted

to have a vulnerability for these stills

and, you know, you think of something that is sad for you

and makes you cry.

Life is emotional, and it's easy to tap into that.

The lunches we had led to dinners,

and we just liked talking to one another.

We started spending time.

After a while, she knew

that I was aiming to get into making films,

and she started asking me questions

about the film I was working on. And that's how

we got started with "Puzzle of a Downfall Child."

Would you want to take a picture of me now, as I am?

Well, uh, I didn't bring my camera.

No, but you would not because I am imperfect!

I-- My makeup has worn off, I look horrible.

You know you look wonderful though,

so you should stop knocking yourself down like that.

I was in a play called "Huey,"

and Jerry saw me on that and thought I would be good

for the role. But, of course, he checked with Faye,

and Faye said, "Yeah, well sure. That'd be great."

And Faye was so gorgeous in the film,

and it appealed to her

because it was another side of herself.

You know, couldn't think of anything more different

than Bonnie in this part.

The character was Lou Andreas Sand,

but it was based on a model by the name of Anne St. Marie.

And she was a top, top model. Just owned the city.

And Jerry's photographed her many times.

She kept a list of photographers she didn't like anymore,

and she would say that she wouldn't work for them.

The camera gives you 15, 20 pounds.

Thin as you are, may I suggest you drop five or seven pounds.

Five or seven.

Certainly, the character based on Anne

was very tortured by relationships in the past,

and she had a lot of darkness in her as well.

And, you know, it's a difficult thing,

sometimes I would think,

coming to terms with being a model,

because her whole career was based on

how she looked through a lens, a camera.

So, that was something that was very akin

to what I experienced as an actress in, in film.

I'm not adding up to anything, am I, Aaron?

I'm not making any sense, am I? It won't--

Yes, you are.

As a matter of fact, there was a period of time

when you weren't doing too well.

Was that when you were ill?

I was able to relate to this character.

I mean, who was it who said

I walked around in a cloud of drama?

I think it was Kazan.

That you never know what's gonna happen next.

It could be true, and I was-- had periods, you know,

where I was very depressed and I was very moody

and actually have, we might as well say,

a bipolar diagnosis.

It's a very real thing. It's bipolar.

It's manic depressive

is another name for this illness.

And it's an imbalance, a biological imbalance.

You can be up high, you can be manic,

you can be very depressed is the other place to be.

So, I do have mood swings, up and down.

And it was happening early on as well, I think.

And they only became more evident

as I grew later in my life.

- Will you stop angering me?

My mom always had depression issues,

bipolar issues,

but it wasn't until a couple of years ago,

where I had watched my mom go through, like, really hard,

hard times and hit rock bottom.

So, I kind of got to the point where I said, "Hey, listen,

like, let's get you to this clinic in Boston,"

where she went to lectures and classes,

and they got her on the right stuff,

and she came out like a whole new person.

I worked with a group of doctors

who analyzed my behavior, and who, who gave me

prescriptions for pills

that they thought would be good for me,

and they have helped. So, I am quieter,

but throughout my career,

people know that there were tough times.

But I don't need to make an excuse about it.

I'm still responsible for my actions.

But this is what I came to understand

was the reason for them. It's something

you need to be aware of, and you need to try

to do the right thing to take care of it.

Unfortunately,

something happened in her life that then, uh, we, uh,

had to break up.

Well, I went over to Italy, and I did a film

with Mastroianni,

and, uh, I did fall in love with him,

and we had a relationship for a couple of years.

I would say if I'm gonna lose somebody,

it might as well be to Marcello Mastroianni.

I got the feeling I'm a part of a plan.

I come out all alone.

But it's nice, anyway. I don't say it isn't.

Marcello Mastroianni,

well, he was the king of Europe.

He was the most famous actor in Italy.

Are you married?

- Just about.

Is she in Milan? Do you live together?

Yes, for a while now.

And, you know, we were together,

but he was married,

and it's tricky because in a Catholic country like Italy,

you couldn't have divorce.

So, it had to be backstreet. And I really--

Foolish girl.

I really kinda got into it for a while,

I mean, because he meant so much to me.

I would fly into Fiumicino with a brown wig

and go to a place where we had a person arranging things.

I mean, it was all very, you know,

romantic and illusional.

Delusional perhaps.

It’s hard to say. You're young

and there are interesting people that you meet.

And so, that was certainly the case with him.

That was the way it was.

And then, finally, it was too much.

Finally, I was ready to leave it.

Marcello Mastroianni was quoted in a woman's magazine,

saying the most extraordinary things about you.

The most complimentary.

The most fantastic woman he's ever known in his life.

Well, I think that's very nice.

I don't know, that's a whole other can of peas.

- That you'd rather not open up. - I think not.

Ah. Are you sad though

with the, the breakup of that relationship?

No, I'm not at all.

And, uh... I mean, I am,

you know, in certain, certain--

Yes. Yes and no. I'm not--

Things happen as they happen, I think.

I do have some kind of...

belief that it was-- what happened was right

and necessary for him, as well as me.

He made a bit of a furor there for a while,

but I don't think it was--

I think he's very well now, and I think, you know,

we-we gained from it. Whatever it was.

And that's all I'm gonna tell you.

I've got sort of two-year sequences in my life,

and I think that definitely dates back to the time

when we were traveling with my father in the Army.

Every two years, you know, you had to pick up and go.

You had to leave the friends that were there.

And I think I learned not to be too close to people

because you're gonna lose them anyway.

So, you may as well move away.

There's going to be an end,

and the end, I think, was very painful for me.

And now, I think I-- that still is part of my life that way.

And I think that was a pattern that was set up very early,

and I noticed in my relationships

they lasted about two years.

You know, I could've still been with Marcello.

In many ways, he was the love of my life.

And also, I've always been about work.

I need my work. It fulfills me.

It makes me feel good about myself.

And I feel a sense of my own strength,

and I feel I can achieve something.

So, to me, what I need is my work.

I don't need, necessarily, another person.

But I know it's wrong.

I know one should have other people in one's life.

But, work was the thing I could always turn to.

It was the thing that never let me down.

It was what I did, and it was solid.

I don't see anyone for very long, Mr. Gittes.

It's difficult for me.

Hawk Koch: On "Chinatown,"

I was told to call Faye

to come out from New York to LA to do wardrobe fittings.

And I said, "Hi, Miss Dunaway. I'm Howard Koch,

"and I'm the first assistant director on the movie.

"And just calling you to say that, you know,

we need you out here next week. We'll fly you out."

And then she said to me,

"You're Sagittarius, aren't you?"

"Uh, yes."

She said, "Oh, we won't get along."

- Whoa.

Okay.

So, that was my introduction to Faye.

You see, I'm Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray.

You know, Mr. Mulwray's wife?

Not, uh, that Mulwray?

Yes, Mr. Gittes, that Mulwray.

What reputation did she have at that point?

That she was difficult.

Faye was difficult but serious, and a terrific actress.

That's the reputation.

There's no point in gettin' tough with me--

I don't get tough with anyone, Mr. Gittes.

My lawyer does.

"Chinatown" is a film noir detective story,

and then it becomes something so much deeper.

It's a story about large-scale corruption

in a business-type sense, and more importantly,

familial corruption.

The kind of horrors that people in power do to the powerless.

And at the time, again,

it was tied into the things going on in the larger world.

President Richard Nixon: People have gotta know

whether or not their president is a crook.

Well, I'm not a crook.

Roman Polanski: You see, it all happened at

the beginning of the Watergate.

When I came here, it all started.

And during those eight weeks, we were bombarded

by all news media with what was going on.

And the parallels were so obvious

that it obviously inspired us

to go more even in this direction

and try to dig into certain things

that had to do with Los Angeles and its history.

Jack Nicholson: They're blowin' these farmers outta their land

and then pickin' it up for peanuts.

You have any idea what this land would be worth

with a steady water supply?

About 30 million more than they paid for it.

It felt like everything you thought was right was wrong,

and everything you thought was moral was immoral.

And that feels even more powerful and more relevant.

It was a mysterious woman, too,

which is fun to play, first of all,

because I have to know what she's thinking all the time,

and that particular character nobody else knew

what she was thinking,

so that they easily misconstru-- mis-misconstrued

- what she was saying or doing. - David Sheehan: Yeah, yeah.

As did Gittes, the Nicholson character.

You've already got one going, Mrs. Mulwray.

- Oh. -Does, uh, my talking

about your father upset you?

Why, no.

Yes. A little. You see, Hollis and my f--

my father had, um, a falling out, finally.

Evelyn Mulwray was dynamite. She was a great character.

You know, Roman Polanski did a good movie.

We had difficult times, he and I,

but he's a great film director.

There you go.

That's Polanski and me in "Chinatown."

Roman the Terror.

But he thought I was a terror also,

I'm sure, so... We had a pretty complicated time.

Jack helped, though.

Nicholson being there made all the difference.

For this particular movie,

it was all about the hair, the makeup, the dress,

the whole thing of Mrs. Mulwray,

and she made it difficult on all of us because--

and I'm sure you've heard about Blistex.

-When did you discover Blistex?

On my lips, I can't speak without it.

Lee Harman, who was our great makeup man,

had a tube of Blistex.

And between every shot,

he'd have to put Blistex on her lips.

It was her security blanket.

But, for Roman and for the rest of us...

Oy vey, what a pain in the ass.

‘Cause it took time,

and you wanna keep it rolling.

I remember this one time, we're shooting in a restaurant

called the Windsor Restaurant.

It's a two-shot of Faye and Jack,

and, originally, she didn't have the hat on.

So, as we're about to shoot,

one hair on Faye's head

just stuck up.

So, Roman said, "Faye! Faye, you have one hair!

Can you just, you know, just..."

And Faye went, "Okay, okay," and put it down.

And I said, "Okay, ready, and..." And the hair popped up.

It was a very tense moment

and, you know, my hair was deeply marcelled,

which means they have to force it into waves.

And I have naturally curly hair,

so my hair doesn't wanna do

what another person tells it to do.

And there was a hair sticking up.

Susie Germaine, the hairdresser, she comes in...

with the spray. Get it down.

"Okay, ready, and..."

The hair pops up again.

Roman literally walks around

and pulls the hair

out of Faye's head.

I've been around a long time.

Even then, I had been around a long time.

I never heard some of those words.

That's enough to set off the manic depression.

I just-- I said-- I--

Well, it was offensive. You don't do that.

So, I went to my trailer, and it was a whole situation.

Finally, we got her back to the set,

but Anthea Sylbert, costume designer,

put a hat on her.

So, we started the scene over, and she shot it with a hat on,

so we didn't have to worry about the hair popping up.

Now,

I think you know all you need know about me.

I didn't want publicity. I didn't want to go into

any of this, then or now.

Is that all?

After that hair incident, Jack nicknamed me.

"Dread," he called me. The Dreaded Dunaway

was his name for me.

He still to this day calls me Dread.

And I love it.

Now I wanna know how it happened

and I wanna know why and I wanna know before Escobar gets here

because I don't wanna lose my license.

I don't know what you are talking about.

Th-This is the craziest, the most insane--

-Stop it!

One of the most shocking scenes

was the moment of revelation that Evelyn Mulwray

had, in fact, been raped by her own father,

and a child from that relationship was her daughter

and her sister.

What's her name?

Katherine.

Katherine who?

She's my daughter.

- I said I want the truth!

What we do in movies is we usually do that

and that

and the hand comes quite close, but it doesn't slap.

Well, it doesn't work, of course.

I said finally to Jack, "You're gonna have to slap me.

Just go ahead and do it." And he said, "You sure, Dread?"

And so I said, yeah. So then, we did it again,

and it worked.

She's my sister.

She's my daughter.

- My sister, my daughter--

I said I want the truth!

She's my sister and my daughter!

Faye's such an extraordinary actress

and her ferocious intent

with her characters was something I really admired.

For a beautiful woman

to take a bite out of characters like that

is so unusual and so rarely offered.

Better get out of here!

- Lena, it's me!

In the early '70s,

we are now making films about women

who can be independent.

Women who are no longer defining themselves

purely in terms of being mothers and wives.

And that-that marked the '70s, in society,

as well as on screen.

What good are you?

I'm your father, Lena.

So what?

You wanna read me nursery rhymes?

It's a little late for that.

This was not somebody who was typecast.

She was playing very different kinds of characters

with very different looks.

Anything Faye Dunaway was going to be in,

I wanted to see it.

I saw it happen.

With your own eyes?

In a nightmare.

The '70s was just like a goldmine.

It was an incredible time for film.

That's when things started happening

in a major kind of way,

and the big one was "Network."

I want you to get up now.

I want all of you to get up out of your chairs.

I want you to get up right now and go to the window,

open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell,

and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

When the script was sent to me,

I read it, and I said yes.

And everyone didn't want me to do it.

They said she didn't have a heart,

and she didn't have a soul.

She was a TV baby. That's all she knew.

Television and ratings and that's what made her tick.

I seem to be inept at everything.

Except my work.

I'm good at my work.

So, I confine myself to that.

All I want out of life is a 30 share and a 20 rating.

The script was by Paddy Chayefsky,

and he was, I think, using the character of Diana

and Faye Dunaway's body and soul

to critique what he saw as

the worst excesses of television.

Namely that mentality that we have to be number one.

We have to have all the profits.

Who cares who gets trampled in the process?

We've got the number-one show in television!

And at next year's affiliates meeting, I'll be standing here,

telling you we've got the top five!

Paddy Chayefsky: Now, you're talking about

a multi, multi, multi-million dollar industry.

As big as steel, as big as electronics.

It's an enormous industry. And right now,

it's an industry dedicated to one thing, profit,

and the only responsibility they have is to their stockholders.

- The interesting thing-- - And that, I think, is worth knowing,

that what you see on television

is what's getting money for the network.

And it's not true.

I think it's necessary to expose

what that process is,

as it goes on in contemporary times.

And it just seemed to me that

you had to play her. You had to get it out there.

And Sidney Lumet was a fantastic director.

Sidney Lumet: And I had said to Faye, when I first met her,

"I know what the first question is gonna be from you,

"and that you're gonna ask me, where is her vulnerability?

"And I'm gonna tell you right now, she has none.

"And if you try to get any in (laughs),

I'll cut it out of the movie."

I've been telling you people

since I took this job six months ago

that I want angry shows.

I don't want conventional programming on this network.

I want counterculture. I want anti-establishment.

David Itzkoff: Dunaway, at this point in her career,

is, of course, an A-list star.

She was the first person to be officially cast in the film.

She's already got her Oscar nominations

for "Bonnie and Clyde" and for "Chinatown,"

and an actor that Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky

wanted very badly for this part.

This was essentially a lone woman

working in a male-dominated industry

who really had power and control,

and was seeking more power in her department.

I'm talking about a six dollar cost per thousand show.

I'm talking about 100, 130,000 dollar-minutes!

Do you wanna figure out the revenues of a strip show

that sells for 100,000 bucks a minute?

One show like that could pull this whole network

right out of the hole! Now, Frank,

it's being handed to us on a plate.

- Let's not blow it.

Women can be powerful, and when they become powerful,

power corrupts.

And she proved the point.

Talk about equality for women,

she could be as mean and single-minded

and devastating as any man.

And you know what? It was kind of exciting to see that

as a young woman starting out.

I've heard it said by women who have seen "Network"

that the, uh, character you created in the picture,

uh, might set the woman's movement back 50 years.

I have a very definite opinion on that.

I think that for, for years,

uh, and I'm not actively involved in the movement,

God knows I'm for it,

um, but what we've been trying to get away from

is stereotypical women's roles that,

that reflect an inaccurate view of,

of what a woman really is.

Now, you cannot then say, "Well, yes,

but she always has to be nice at the end."

- It's a kind of hypocrisy

which I don't think real feminists are gonna feel.

Now, my task, I felt the largest task I had,

I think, in this was to infuse the role

with some sense of what she is, in fact,

giving up and paying for it.

It was just very important to understand

the lengths to which she had developed

without normal human emotions and decency,

and there was a way somehow to let her soul,

or her lack of soul, seep through.

And the moment I think that happened

was with William Holden at the end

where we're splitting up.

What exactly is it you want me to do?

I just want you to love me.

I just want you to love me, primal doubts and all.

I don't know how to do that.

I mean, that's the look. It's...

"I can't.

Just can't."

I don't want your pain.

I don't want your menopause or decay and death!

- I don't need you, Max! Now, get out of-- - You need me!

You need me badly.

You know, she was tragic, in my view.

And that look, that's a lost person in hell.

And she's not gonna get out.

And the winner is...

Faye Dunaway in "Network."

Well, I didn't expect this to happen quite yet,

but I do thank you very much, and I'm very grateful.

I would like especially to thank Sidney Lumet,

Paddy Chayefsky, Howard Gottfried,

uh, Danny Melnick,

and the great generosity

of a rare group of actors, company of actors,

in particular William Holden, Robert Duval,

- and Peter Finch. Thank you.

Oh, that's wonderful. Oh!

And they set it up so everyone can, like, partake in it.

Oh, that's amazing.

- Margaret Roth: That is so cool.

Ah...

Couple more. Maybe you're looking, just like that.

Thirty minutes from now, there are gonna be

a few hundred people in here to welcome Faye Dunaway to

probably the most exhaustive career retrospective

of her ex-husband Terry O'Neill.

And, of course, perhaps the greatest shot of his career,

Faye Dunaway, the morning after she won her Oscar.

My dad was a photographer.

He was born in England,

so he was just an English guy through and through.

I guess his specialty was putting someone in a place,

letting that person be themselves,

and then taking the picture

because it directly represents them

instead of someone just setting it up.

I have a funny picture that no one's ever seen

- that I took with, uh, Dad. - What?

Before he died, we were visiting

the Beverly Hills Hotel, and there's this huge sign

on the pool that says

-"No photography in the pool area."

And I got Dad to, like, stand by the sign,

and just kinda do one of those things holding a camera.

- It was just a great, great photo. - That's lovely.

I always called Terry a journalist with a camera,

not a pen.

You know, he needed a photograph that told a story.

And he did that with that photograph.

He actually persuaded a major Hollywood star,

on the night that she collects her Oscar,

to be poolside at 6:00 a.m. the next morning.

- And he took 12 shots,

and off she went to bed again. It took 15 minutes.

It, many times, has been described

as probably the greatest Hollywood shot of all time.

And it was very indicative of Terry's need to tell a story.

He said, "The morning after you're gonna wake up,

and your life will have changed dramatically."

When my parents met,

my mom was married to Peter Wolf,

who was a rock star in the J. Geils Band.

My dad was also married to a lady named Vera

who was an actress-slash-model.

They were both married, both in relationships,

and they just kind of sparked this interest.

I mean, I think that's how it works most of the time, right?

Terry was taking photographs of me,

and we kind of started to get to know each other

and like each other.

Things had not been working out with Peter

in terms of what we truly want.

He was younger than I was,

and we didn't want the same things anymore.

And so, I ended it.

It was hard because I had to kind of give him

the papers by surprise.

But, more than that, I did want to have a child,

as part of a woman's experience.

Look at that.

Little... little baby pictures.

Yeah. This one. This is great. This was way early on.

"Who's the best boy in the world?" I used to say.

And he would say, "Me, me." It's so nice.

I wanted you to talk to us about being a mom.

Oh, God.

There is nothing that's more, more important to me.

I don't know why. I was most important to my mother.

She had her heart set always on having a child,

and she planned for it, and I don't know whether

I got that from her as I was growing up...

I-- It meant very much to me.

And there came a moment where the work had taken over

to the point where it was too late, really,

for me to have a child in a biological sense.

So, I found my son, Liam,

and I adopted him with Terry,

and I was overjoyed, really,

when it evolved the way that it did

because I certainly know

that he's everything to me. Everything.

I never care to discuss my adoption with my parents.

And my mom doesn't like to talk about it,

especially in a business where everyone is in your business,

or likes to think that they can be in your business.

So I think that that's one of things she kept to herself

and didn't want everyone else knowing.

I wanted that to be private and personal,

and I didn't want it to be out there in all the world.

And I wanted to keep him safe.

That was my major priority.

And people still want to pry about it and talk about it

and I don't see the point in that.

And I don't choose to reveal everything to people.

I was less than a week old when I was adopted.

And to this day, I mean,

I don't know who my biological parents were,

my birth mother, that's what you call it.

But, to me, it's like a parent is the person who raised you.

So, for me,

you grow up with your parents. They're your parents

your whole life. There's no one else.

My parents were married.

They did actually get married in 1983,

three years after I was born.

And I grew up

and I split time between London and New York City.

My mom had a place in New York City,

300 Central Park West,

and my dad had a place in London right behind Harrods.

I just remember it always being busy.

There were always people there. There were always people

hanging out, having a good time,

lots of laughing.

It was odd because we would have people

come to the house to do things.

You know, instead of people going out to get a haircut,

they would come into my house, give me a haircut, because,

back then, they were the megastars.

They couldn't just take their kids to the park.

You can't do those normal activities

without getting hounded by people, much like today.

Many years ago, Joan Crawford told a reporter

that of all the young actresses on the way up,

only one had the makings of a true star,

and that was Faye Dunaway.

-This is stuff that Dad took... -What? Tell me.

...that are Polaroids that no one's ever seen before.

- And that we have about-- - Oh, my God.

Yeah. We have about 20 pages of ‘em.

- You do? - Yeah.

- This is the Crawford stuff. - Yeah.

-Wow. -There's a funny story about--

-Tell me. -Probably about 10 years ago.

We were looking through Dad's archive.

He said, "Whoa-whoa-whoa, wait. That picture's not mine.

"I never shot Joan Crawford. I never met her.

I never-- you know, anything like that."

And Robin had to stop him

and he was like, "No, no, no, that's Faye."

Like, it looked so realistic and everything

- and he was just like... -Yeah.

- Oh, that's wonderful. - Didn't even remember it.

Gene Shalit: Do you feel, in any way, a kinship

to Joan Crawford? Is she anything like you are?

Oh, I feel an enormous kinship.

Enormous.

Um, "Is she like me?" is a different question

because there are, I think, in me,

to be honest, some tendencies. I don't know. I'll have to--

I've never completely examined that, but I can do that.

But, a kinship, yes.

We're ready for you, Miss Crawford.

Michael Koresky: Before "Mommie Dearest" and after "Mommie Dearest"

it's a different Faye Dunaway.

Let's go.

It's a different conception of Faye Dunaway.

Throughout the late '60s and throughout the '70s,

we're talking about one of the most respected actors working.

So, there's no reason to think that "Mommie Dearest"

would be anything other than a rich, serious film,

exploring the life of another Hollywood legend.

Come on. You've got everything you want.

No, I don't. I want a baby.

A baby?

Yeah.

There are moments in your life when things make sense

and it did at that time.

I'd just been married to Terry, just had a baby,

and, somehow, that was, financially, a good prospect.

It wasn't really, and it was the wrong thing for me to do,

but it was one of the mistakes.

- Darling?

Remember what I told you about adopted children?

Adopted children are luckiest

- because they were chosen. - That's right.

I feel like "Mommie Dearest" was released 40 years too early.

Joan Crawford, her passing

was so recent when that book was published.

Christina Crawford was the first person

to ever write a tell-all book

about this Hollywood star

and what life was like behind that glitzy curtain.

I don't want her growing up a spoiled Hollywood brat

just because she's Crawford's daughter.

Nobody had ever really talked about those skeletons

because Hollywood actors and actresses,

they were so protected, and they were just idolized

as perfect human beings.

Now, we talk about mental illness.

Now, we talk about child abuse.

Back then, it wasn't talked about.

And to have this book come out

- that just reveals all of it was overwhelming. - Ow!

- You be quiet!

You're always rummaging through my drawers,

trying to find a way to make people look at you!

Why are you always looking at yourself in the mirror?

Roger Ebert: Faye Dunaway is uncanny

in her performance as Crawford.

It's like watching a ghost to see her on the screen.

But, "Mommie Dearest" is basically

just a pointless record of neurotic child abuse.

One of the most depressing films in a long time.

I agree with you. Well-made, but depressing.

The way the film has been structured, you sit there

and wait for the beating scenes.

And when you're in the audience thinking that,

you sort of feel lousy.

Everybody wants to make fun of her for "Mommie Dearest,"

but you tell me how you play that part.

And ask yourselves, was it Faye,

or was it the way they shot the scene?

That wasn't Faye Dunaway's error.

The joke is on the director.

The joke is not on the artist.

And if the director puts the artist in that position,

shame on the director.

Don't fuck with me, fellas!

This ain't my first time at the rodeo.

Frank Perry: The woman lived her life almost as grand opera.

She was performing while she was having these rages,

in my judgment at least, and, uh,

and so those were conscious choices.

I would do 'em again.

Frank Perry didn't help me shape the scenes.

I wish he had come in and said, "Come on, Faye,

that's too far. Come on. Pull it back."

I mean, I'm a professional. I would've done that.

But, I got engrossed in trying to achieve

what the script seemed to be requiring of me.

And it might've kicked into my bipolar,

this mania, this irritation, this mood swing.

Carol Ann! I asked you to keep the children quiet today!

Now, for Christ's sake, get them out of the garden!

I'm sorry, Joan.

She was scary. She's frightening.

I was on the edge of my seat sometimes, thinking,

"Am I gonna get fired?"

And Frank would remind me,

"Don't do this, or you're gonna get fired,"

from the beginning! "Don't look so good,

"or I'm gonna have to fire you,

and I have no control over this."

So, who was in charge?

I mean, it's a terrible way to work,

thinking you're gonna get fired at any time.

Rutanya Alda said that there was

like a fearfulness of me on the set.

Well, that's because the character

was written fearful, I suppose.

But I don't recall bad things with Rutanya.

You know, sometimes I guess I've been unkind to people

or seemingly cruel.

I haven't meant to be, and it's not in my nature to be.

I don't willfully want to be.

I'm sort of led by

extremes of nature sometimes, I suppose.

No... wire... hangers!

What's wire hangers doing in this closet

when I told you,

no wire hangers ever?!

Mara Hobel: There were quite a few takes of that particular scene.

I do remember a lot of coverage on Faye Dunaway

because of that incredible mask she was wearing,

and the lighting and those eyes with that makeup.

You live in the most beautiful house in Brentwood,

- and you don't care... - Mommie!

...if your clothes look hunchbacked from wire hangers?!

- Mara Hobel was the little girl that I had to hit,

and I was crazy worried about it

and very sympathetic.

And I tried to make sure she was alright,

and that we had done it in such a way

that she didn't actually get hurt.

It was a difficult role. Very difficult.

Tina!

Bring me the axe!

I never felt afraid

during any of our physical scenes together.

I trusted her immensely.

She was incredible to me.

It makes me sad that she...

doesn't have fond memories of...

doing "Mommie Dearest" because I loved it.

At the time it came out,

it was perceived as a disaster

and it was something that Faye Dunaway

had a really hard time

rebounding from, for a very long time.

You have to give Pauline Kael credit

for being one of the few critics of the time

to really take that movie seriously

and I always remember the line

that Pauline Kael wrote in the "New Yorker" which is,

"You can laugh at the movie, but you can't laugh at her."

That performance by Faye Dunaway,

it absolutely should've been her next Oscar nomination.

Rutanya Alda: I actually paid money to see it

on one of the big theaters on Broadway

when it opened. The theater was full.

And then, people started laughing.

And laughing and laughing and I went,

"Whoa." I-I-I was shocked. I didn't expect that.

But they thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

They loved the movie.

They loved it in a whole other way as it's become.

"Mommie Dearest" has a life of its own

that has legs that no one expected.

The film is now being shown

at a lot of places at midnight,

like "Rocky Horror Picture Show," you know?

And that's wonderful.

Kids come, apparently, and bring hangers and cleanser

and talk to the screen and...

- Gene Shalit: It's gonna get to be a cult film. - Well,

that would be wonderful, I think.

Throughout these 40 years,

it's so interesting that one film can evoke

such a different reaction out of everyone.

You know, some people see it as this over-the-top,

outrageous, campy comedy.

What's wire hangers doing in this closet?!

I can see that side of that. I absolutely can.

On the other hand, I've also have had people that have come up to me

and said that they started watching it

and had to shut it off

because it reminded them of their own childhood.

I've had people that have said to me,

"It gave me the courage to actually come forward

and say I was abused."

Do you feel you made some mistakes?

- The things you chose to do? -Mm...

I might take Crawford back.

But, I really wouldn't because I did like her so much.

The only reason is because she was very larger than life

and I wouldn't-- I don't want to be that myself.

And there's an inevitable tendency of people,

who both work in the industry

and, and the audience, to associate.

To think you're like the parts you play.

Life is hills and valleys sometimes.

You're not always gonna be up there doing--

making the right choices, being perfect.

You're gonna have moments where you think,

"Why did I ever do that?"

So, that's something that

you can't control sometimes.

It is shocking, though,

to see that here was this person who was so iconic,

her characters were so linked

to this 10-year period of massive change.

And by the time the '80s came around, that was over.

The world is at last my oyster.

You know, you had the Reagan years.

It was a whole different ballgame

and where was the place for Faye Dunaway in that?

Look, I drink.

When I drink, I move in a wrong direction.

My mom was an alcoholic.

She always used to say that

her drink of choice was just a gin martini.

And she would drink them, especially with William Alfred.

They used to have martinis together.

She always jokes that, you know, on her deathbed,

she's like, "Just bring me a dry martini."

"One last one before I go out" kinda thing.

But, when I was growing up, I remember my mom

going to the alcohol treatment centers.

And then slowly over time, she got sober.

She got sobriety.

I mean, I went through a period

where I had problems with alcohol,

as did my father. It's an inherited thing.

I'm in program and have been for about 15 years.

And I knew what that was like

because it had been part of my experience

and that, I think, was helpful when I did "Barfly."

When you run off like this,

I feel like you're trying to get away from me.

- Mickey Rourke: Hey, baby.

I'm doin' this for us.

We'll be able to drink with class.

We don't have to be barflies right down to the grave.

I didn't wanna do the movie.

My grandfather, my uncle,

and my father

all drank themselves to death before they were 50.

You know, my father drank himself to death at 47,

and I met-- I only met him for the first time

the year before when he was 46.

So, I didn't wanna do a movie

where I was glorifying being an alcoholic.

And Barbet Schroeder chased me from New York to LA to London.

And then, when I met Faye,

it kinda changed my mind a little.

I was very in awe of her.

I was kind of a little intimidated,

and I don't get intimidated.

But, she'd been somebody I did look up to,

and I don't look up to very many.

I had never worked with anybody who was like a legendary hero.

I can't stand people.

I hate them.

Oh, yeah?

What I would hear through the grapevine,

"We got Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke.

Which one of ‘em is gonna explode first?"

‘Cause she had a bit of a reputation,

and I, I imagine I probably had one.

And people were waiting for...

that. And it never fuckin' happened.

Pour me one, then.

Deglamorizing is always interesting. You know?

You don't wanna play these queens forever.

And to get human, to get real,

and, you know, I was in very good hands

with Barbet Schroeder, the director.

Mickey Rourke was great to work with.

Very generous actor that I liked very much.

But, it was a chance for me to come back

in a vulnerable role as well.

I kept coming to set on the testing,

and Barbet Schroeder, who directed it, said,

"No, you still look too good. The hair's too good."

So, we had to keep working to bring it down.

It wasn't something that I normally do

but if it's right for the role, you wanna do it,

and you do do it.

You always start from reality, you know?

And I went, first of all, to a bar on 9th Avenue

where the world of the film existed,

down to the fights, everything.

And the humor, and the dancing...

But there was a woman there who was very,

ironically, very like Wanda.

She had a tragedy in her life that she never recovered from,

and yet she was very warm

and very funny and, you know, very touching.

When Faye got to the set, she was ready to go to work.

And so whatever I did, she was right fucking there.

And she was there.

I could see the wheels turning in her eyes,

in her expression,

in how she delivered her next line.

Nothing ever works right in this life.

She would always add

a little different twist to each take.

We call that working moment to moment.

It's alright.

Now, you knew Terry O'Neill.

Oh, I knew-- Terry and I were mates.

Terry was never afraid to speak what was on his mind

‘cause he was just a regular guy.

I loved Terry.

How did you meet him?

When I met Faye, he was there at the house.

They were just at the end of their relationship.

-To be honest,

I don't remember my parents getting divorced.

You know, I was about 7 when they got divorced,

so prior to their divorce, they had been living separately

in London and New York for years.

So, we would kind of go back and forth

and my dad would come to New York,

or I would go to London with my mom.

But, it slowly kinda started to dissipate over time,

so I probably only saw my dad once or twice a year.

I would either go to London,

or if he was traveling to New York,

I would get to see him. So, I think,

even though they finally got divorced in '87,

I think it was over for a few years before that.

I don't know what contributed to the divorce.

He was English, and I didn't wanna live in England

completely. Not for full-time.

I love England, still. It's a great way of life.

But, at a certain moment,

I was Faye Dunaway, and I'm an American actress,

and there aren't many jobs

for an American actress in England.

And if I don't work, I don't feel at my best.

I just wanted to be back in my country

and performing in my way.

- Hi!

We're making Faye ready for Tel Aviv.

- She gonna look beautiful.

- You're touching your hair. - The ends of the hair.

hairdresser: Yeah, just like this.

- When I do this... -Okay, you got his hands?

speaker: Yes.

That's wonderful.

Tova Laiter: When it comes to actresses,

there was really a big difference

with male actor.

It's great.

This is great.

In fact, one of the biggest agents

once said to me,

he would rather represent men

because their career is longer than women.

Women, as they head into 40,

you're not old enough to play a grandmother,

and maybe now,

you're thinking that you're not young enough

to be a love interest.

I'm looking for roles

that just touch the real issues

and the real feelings that women have,

rather than this very covered up, controlled,

exterior kind of persona.

And I felt that, um,

you know, having lived in London for eight years

and being away from my home, basically,

and I really was seeking and--

I'm developing roles of my own, now that I'm producing.

I'm really looking for women that are funny,

are vulnerable, are complex,

and that I have a chance to develop all of those areas.

I wanted to start to initiate my own projects,

and so I moved to California in that time.

I lived on Linda Crest Drive in Beverly Hills

with a white house, very pretty.

It has to do with producing,

you know, because this is a town

where, in fact, all the business actually takes place.

And I kind of find that interesting.

It's a, it's a community.

Kate Capshaw And now, our final presenter.

Please let me introduce the legendary Faye Dunaway.

There's a river of tradition

that runs through this industry, and through time,

of actresses who take on roles that challenge

the conventional wisdom about who a woman is.

And Sharon Stone has done that.

Sharon, I salute you, admire you, and love you.

I met Faye at a photo shoot,

pre the release of "Basic Instinct,"

doing all the press for it.

And I said,

"May I watch you do your photo shoot?"

And she said, "Sure, kid, just stay outta my eyeline."

So, I stayed off to the side,

and I watched her, and she was so good.

She was so professional,

and, I mean, she's just so beautiful.

And we really just hit it off.

She was just so willing

to allow me the opportunity to know her,

to learn from her, to understand her experience.

And she offered me a friendship

that I hadn't expected

from someone of her stature.

You always try to give back.

If you know what you're doing, you need to share it.

You need to give it back to the people that need it

and that deserve it. I feel strongly about that.

It was a good feeling to help Sharon

and we are still good friends to this day.

- I like the tent,

but wouldn't drapes have been simpler?

- We got termites.

But, you're a carpenter.

I guess they wanted a really well-built meal.

Robert Urich and I wanted to do a sitcom

called "It Had To Be You." It was my first venture, foray,

into this sitcom, which is comedy.

Which wasn't my cup of tea, really.

I mean, I'm not a comedic actress.

I'm a...

down and dirty, very dramatic actress.

But I wanted to have a try at it.

Chris Andrews: She was way ahead of the pack in saying,

"You know what? I wanna go do television.

"I wanna go do something commercial and funny,

"and have a place to go to work for, you know,

eight or nine months a year and then have my time off."

And she could go off and do something small and independent

and do something on television,

and she could go back to the theater,

but she had options.

But, when it came to films, I think she chose really well.

She makes this film with Emir Kusturica

called "Arizona Dream."

It is a surreal adventure

in which she costars with Johnny Depp.

And it's not implausible that his character

is romantically drawn to this older woman.

Johnny Depp is a prince,

and I worked with him twice.

First was "Arizona Dream,"

and then after that, we did

"Don Juan DeMarco" with Marlon Brando.

It was movies like "The Chamber"

with Gene Hackman and Chris O'Donnell,

and "Gia" with Angelina Jolie that was done for HBO

and she won the Golden Globe.

This means an enormous amount to me tonight,

and I was completely thrown

because I really didn't expect to win.

I... I don't know why. You know, I mean--

But, the point is I'm really grateful that I did,

and it means a lot because I'm struggling, too.

And I'm trying-- I'm putting my own projects together.

By the '90s, you're getting a lot of younger filmmakers

who'd been through film school in the '80s,

and, of course, they've grown up, like I was,

on '70s films.

So, I'm sure James Gray is like, "Are you kidding me?

Like, I would get to direct Faye Dunaway?"

Don't you know what he does for Frank?

What?

How do you think he gets the money for all the things he buys you?

There were some actors in their 20s,

Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Joaquin Phoenix,

and then there were the sort of older group of actors,

James Caan, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn,

who were the sort of '70s heroes that I had.

It was so great because I remember the younger actors

always looking to the older actor to learn something.

"The Yards" was unique

because it had, like, two generations

and so it was kind of a congregational sort of thing

where the two generations intermingled with each other.

Gray was a wonderful director, so that was a good experience.

It was incredibly intimidating,

but they were terrific with me.

Whatever reputation that she had in some ways

is also a comment on how women are,

in some ways, treated and judged

on a very different scale than men.

So yeah, her story is tremendously relevant.

She directed a short film

which I thought was quite good. "Yellow Bird."

It was adapted from Tennessee Williams,

Williams himself did the voiceover,

and it was shown at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

So, she wasn't just a screen divinity.

She was a hard-working stage actress,

a screen actress, a director of a short film,

and somebody who could play Maria Callas.

Tom Snyder: She is currently enjoying, uh, her role

in the stage play "Master Class"

at the Doolittle Theater here in Los Angeles

through July 13th.

Getting great reviews and standing ovations

when it comes to an end for the curtain call.

Faye, welcome back and thanks for coming to CBS.

"Master Class" is about, uh, the great Maria Callas,

when she taught voice at Juilliard.

Yes. There was a moment in her life,

late in her career,

early 50s she was,

where she held some held some very famous

and well-attended master classes at Juilliard.

And everybody from Tennessee Williams

to Leonard Bernstein was there.

No applause! We're here to work.

You're not in a theater. This is a classroom.

No folderol. This is a master class.

I saw the play in Los Angeles

when she was here,

and Faye transformed to that character.

‘Cause if you look at both of them, they don't look alike.

But, on the stage, you saw Maria Callas.

So, she did the play to begin with,

and then she bought the rights after the play

to option and do the movie.

Isn't it tough to take something from the stage

and put it on the screen?

Not really. So many plays have become, "Crimes of the Heart..."

Oh, right. Uh, uh, "Driving Miss Daisy" became--

"Driving Miss Daisy" was a great, great movie,

and it was-- I actually saw that on stage as well.

No, you-you do what's called "opening it up."

I think this movie probably oughta--

definitely oughta stay very true to what McNally has written.

When it comes to work, my mom gets obsessed.

She wanted to tackle it all.

Writing it, directing it, and being in it,

playing Maria Callas.

A career in the theater demands total concentration.

100% detail.

The film eventually got some financing,

and they started shooting in Pontiac, Michigan

for two or three months,

and then they had to shut down

because the money was running out.

So, I came in and helped take over

all the things that needed to be done

to maybe kinda get the production back on track.

But, it was too far gone. The money just dried up.

As much as it was a passion project for her,

you have to be realistic at a certain point

and shut down.

Very devastating.

I was in pieces for quite some time.

You know, locked up in my room, going to analysis.

It's just when you have a dream like that,

and you've worked on it for so long,

I knew what-what it was about. I knew what she was about.

But, I wanted too much for myself.

I should have set it up and got a good director

and I would act in it.

But, I wanted too much at that time.

So, it was a mistake.

Eventually, you decided to move back to New York City.

What is it about New York?

Well, it's always been my city.

You know? I mean, I remember when I first hit New York

as a young Southern girl, you know,

and standing off that curb and putting your hand up for a taxi

and the pace of it.

You can't duplicate that anywhere.

And LA is much more laid back.

I like the energy of New York.

So, that's why I moved back.

My mom hadn't worked for a period of time,

and she really wanted to get back into it

‘cause acting was her passion.

And my mom has always loved the theater.

That's, like, her first passion.

So, I presented the play "Tea at Five,"

where my mom would be playing Katharine Hepburn.

And at first, she was very excited to do it.

I felt like I needed to do it

for the experience back on the stage,

but I didn't feel I was right for it

because Katharine Hepburn's New England,

and I'm from the South,

and so such a different sensibility

that I was worried about my being able to really play it.

And it began to make me more and more irritated.

And I, I'm pretty sure-- I know,

that was the bipolar kicking in.

It was one of those things where she didn't wanna quit,

but, at the same time, she didn't wanna do it.

Slowly, as the shows went on, she started losing her temper.

She started acting out.

Her demons kind of got a hold of her

and she was fired from it, and they cancelled it,

and it just-- That was that.

The erratic behavior.

That's down to these biological, physical realities.

It's the sensitivity, and it's something that...

is just a part of my makeup.

Thank God that there is medication

and there's-- there are studies

and there are doctors who deal with this.

And I've been able to benefit from that.

But, the medication is crucial,

and without it, you fall back into, you know,

what is there psychologically and biologically.

For me, I've dealt with that so much over my life.

I mean, even now, I can pick up the phone,

and if she's just a little bit off, I'm like,

"Have you taken your medicine today?" And she's like,

"Oh, I don't know. Lemme check. Oh, no, I haven't."

Now, for me, it's like pinpoint accuracy.

I'm much happier now.

I feel better about things,

and I, I think the better you feel,

the more you're gonna be able to do work that is meaningful.

I actually see Faye Dunaway from time to time

because we work out at the same gym.

So, I have seen her lately.

She works hard. She looks great.

She really does take seriously

taking care of herself

and looking, frankly, quite magnificent at her age.

Which is why I think that there's still more

that this legendary actress has to offer.

Since I was very young, we always went to Cannes.

We went every single year. My mom loves Cannes.

She loves France. She loves the French people.

And she becomes like a whole different person when she's over there.

A lot happier, full of life,

and she was almost shocked

when they wanted her to be the face of Cannes.

It was the greatest honor for her

just because she just loves going over there.

This is my festival

that I always go to learn filmmaking,

and to have my face there is very humbling,

and it's very much an honor, and I'm very grateful.

Jerry Schatzberg took that picture

and with the big banner up over the Palais,

it was a great thing that Cannes did that year for him

and for me.

It was very nice.

I come to see the films.

It's the best films in the world at a given moment.

The funny thing about my mom

is no matter how bad things get,

when the lights and the camera come on,

there's no questioning it. You know, I think she feels

like she's in her 30s again.

They were showing "Bonnie and Clyde"

in Cannes in one of those retrospective thing.

And seeing it again, "Bonnie and Clyde"

was just as exciting and amazing

as when you saw it for the first time.

So, at the end of it, when the lights go up,

she turns to her son, Liam, and she said, "So?

Now, you're proud of your mother?"

And he said, "I'm always proud of you, Mom."

That was really touching, honestly.

When someone gets sick

or is unable to take care of themselves,

it falls upon someone who's close to them

in order to help them.

And when she has her fits of mania,

or her depression, or her bipolar,

it comes out in this mood.

You see it. It's almost like "Mommie Dearest."

She just has that energy.

I fought worse monsters than you for years in Hollywood!

I know how to win the hard way!

When she goes into, like, our lawyer's office,

it switches to "Network," where she's like,

"I know what I'm talking about, this is how it's done."

I'll be in LA until Saturday,

and I'd like to get it rolling.

And I think you have to ask yourself this question:

If she wasn't in so much pain,

would she have been that good? Which then, in turn,

wouldn't have made her be able to touch people acting.

You gotta take the good with the bad. You know? That's just life.

- Here he is! - Hi! Hi! How are you doing?

Hang on. Gotta hold him properly.

My favorite thing in my life

is my son. It's always been him first.

And my grandson.

Those are my refuge. Those are the things

that I hang on to and cling to

more than anything.

Also, in closing, my, my son.

I'd like to thank him.

Liam, you're the best. And thank you all.

She started off as a normal person

trying to be famous,

and is ending as a famous person trying to be normal.

I'm definitely Faye Dunaway.

That's who I am.

And the Dorothy Faye is in the background somewhere.

That's the child persona that was there.

I certainly kind of like that.

The Faye Dunaway is the surface, I suppose. The shell.

But, still, my deepest soul is Dorothy Faye.