| HERMIONE GINGOLD | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tape Master: | 9111 | |
| Catalog #: | 170398 | |
| Clip Number: | 170398-2 | |
| Orginal Film: | UN 4553 B | |
| Timecode: | 01:35:40 - 01:39:39 | |
| Location: | London | |
| Year Shot: | 1971 (Actual Year) | |
| Audio: | Yes | |
| Color: | No | |
| Headings: | JOURNALISM: Interview LOCATIONS/EUROPE: UK, England, London OCCUPATIONS: Entertainer, Actor | |
| Description: | Interviewer - Miss Gingold what where you like as a child? Miss Gingold - Horrible, precocious, disgraceful, cheated at school… I rather not talk about my childhood, it’s something I try to forget. I really was an awful child. But you see, I suppose it’s better in a way to start out as an awful child because then you grow up to be serene, beautiful, and talented. (She chuckles a little) I thoroughly recommend it to all the awful children who may be listening. Interviewer - What made you begin as an actress? Did you always want to act? Miss Gingold - Always. Always. Always. I cannot tell you why because none of my people were ever in the theater, I was the first actress in the family. It was like they’d given birth to a three headed monster. As far as they were concerned. Interviewer - Where you encouraged to do this then? Miss Gingold - Well, there was no hope for my mother, I just said that’s what I want to be and that’s what I’m going to be and I screamed and I yelled and I wouldn’t eat so they gave in and sent me to a very good dramatic school where I was for about 5 years. I think the stage is a vocation. I think, either you’ve got to be mad to do it or keep out because it’s full of disappointments and unhappiness. I mean there are great rewards but some people never get as far as the rewards. And it’s a very bitter unhappy life on the whole. I don’t recommend it. Interviewer - You started off as a serious straight actress. Miss Gin gold - Well, I started off as a child actress, how serious I was, I wouldn’t like say. I think the first play that I did was with Noel Coward. We were both children actresses together. And both absolutely disgraceful. Interviewer - But then you went on though.… Miss Gingold - Then I went on. Then I didn’t stop. No, Yes um. Well I retired when I was about fourteen and then I made a big comeback when I was sixteen. Interviewer - Doing straight plays? Miss Gingold - Ahhh, yes - doing straight plays. Yes. Interviewer - Well how did you get the breakthrough then to comedienne, well I mean you are an actress and you are also now, an actress now who plays comedy parts. Miss Gingold - What is a comedy parts? It isn’t such a thing. It just happens that the woman that I’m playing is slightly mad and bizarre. And (she shakes her head in a no motion) comedy I don’t know. I suppose there is such a thing. I think their just offbeat people. I don’t even understanding what comedy means. Interviewer - Do you find it easy playing a very bizarre character? Miss Gingold - Yes I find it very easy because I’m very bizarre myself. I have great sympathy with very bizarre characters. Luckily. (She chuckles) Interviewer - But how much of the bizarreness is really you? I mean… Miss Gingold - Well it isn’t very much me because I have to be bizarre in a way the author tells me to bizarre. I must admit I sneak a few of my own lines in here and there. And the author arrives and says;” well I never really wrote that”. And I said; “No, but the audience laugh so lets keep it in”. I think on the whole perhaps authors don’t like me very much. (Chuckles) Shakespeare of course adored me. (Chuckles) Interviewer - You played Shakespeare parts, didn’t you? Miss Gingold - Yes. Yes indeed I did. Yes. Interviewer - Can you tell me what parts, they were? Miss Gingold - Of course I can. I played Jessica in the Merchant of Venice, Cassandra in Troilus and Cressida, Julius in Romeo and Juliet and Cardinal Woolsey in Henry VIII when I was in Kindergarten. | |
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