As I have said I wanted to be a writer but I was “discovered” instead. While attending the University of Southern California I met a man named Hal Landers at a party, who told me, “I can get you a screen test.” Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood I had heard offers like this before. But Hal meant it. Within the next week he got me a screen test at MGM. They filmed me from the waist up which caused the studio-heads to think there was something wrong with my legs. Rejected. Universal Studios showed me walking and talking at the same time and I got a contract. Three hundred dollars a week. So I ended up graduating from Universal instead of USC.

 


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Gaily, Gaily
The brilliant Norman Jewison who helped bring out my comedic abilities directed this movie. While acting during the day, in this case with Beau Bridges, I took writing classes at night. After having my short story read in one of these classes a male student asked me, “How can you write with a body like that?” I primly and a little defensively retorted, “I don't write with my body.” But I must admit now that I am older and “that body” is a fond memory, I am a far better writer. There is no moral to this story. Only survival.

 

Coogan’s Bluff
I am only in the beginning of this movie. In the opening scenes I am in bed and then in a bathtub with Clint Eastwood. After a week of shooting which consisted of a few lines, much kissing, and soaking in a tub filled with Tide — used for its sturdy soap bubbles — I commented to my husband, “I don’t think Eastwood is going to make it as an actor. He doesn’t show any emotion.” As I said, I wanted to be a writer.

 

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Ride to Hangman’s Tree
We shot this movie in eight days. I sing and dance in it. I cannot dance. I cannot sing. Acting is the ability to do what you know nothing about, but look like you do. I think that’s why most actors feel surreptitious and insecure, not unlike writers. By the way, I lip-synced the song.

 


On shooting commercials:
What can I say? They call an actor “the Talent” and the product “the Product‚” An example: “Move The Talent further back. She’s getting in the way of The Product.”

 

The Moonshine War
My most favorite line I said in a movie came from The Moonshine War. Sitting by the side of a river and kissing Alan Alda, I murmured, “I have a stone bruise on my ass.”
The movie was taken from the Elmore Leonard novel of the same title. I met him on the set and he autographed a copy of his book for me. I wished I could tell him that I wanted to be a writer, but I was too shy. Years later he and I would be in the same anthology for The Best American Mystery Stories in 1997. My life had come full circle.