Post by Judy on Jul 29, 2006 16:29:26 GMT -5
Here's another longer interview with Robert Lindsay. By the way, I saw Lindsay many times in ME AND MY GIRL. He was brilliant. Had no idea he'd gone on to these radio broadcasts. Aside from what he says about Kate, I love his comments about what we do to our icons. I think I love Robert Lindsay. Judy
Link:
www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/radio/wk31/feature_style.shtml
And interview cut and pasted below:
Puttin' On More Style
Tuesday 1 August 8.30pm BBC Radio 2
Programme copy
In her Thirties heyday, Katharine Hepburn famously became the first actress to stride through Tinsel Town wearing slacks. Half a century later, Robert Lindsay discovered that she was still very much wearing the trousers when he inadvertently kept her waiting for dinner...
Lindsay first met the Hollywood legend when he was starring on Broadway in the musical Me And My Girl. After a few chance meetings, the actress invited him to dinner at her home in uptown New York, arranging to collect him from the theatre after his performance.
"I came out of the stage door and there were 50 or 60 people there, all waiting for autographs. I duly started signing them when suddenly this hand grabbed me, pulled me out of the crowd and Katharine declared: 'You've kept me waiting long enough!'" chuckles Lindsay. "Then she dragged me to the car and said, 'Listen, I want to tell you something: they've thanked you, you've thanked them, you've done your curtain call – now get on with your real life.'"
It may have been an inauspicious start but the pair soon became great friends, which explains why Lindsay was so keen for the four-times Oscar winner to be included in Puttin' On More Style, a new run of the BBC Radio 2 series spotlighting the Hollywood stars who oozed style.
"I was allowed behind the scenes, as it were, if one could ever really do that with Katharine. I got to know the person behind the legend and I was rather pleased to find that the person matched the legend," says Lindsay.
"She was a remarkable human being. Sometimes you meet people in this industry who let you down – and we're all human, I guess. But sometimes icons actually live up to their reputations and Katharine was certainly one of them."
Hepburn, who died in 2003 aged 96, broke the mould for Hollywood actresses. Intelligent, forthright and independent, she projected a female image unlike anything the silver screen had ever seen before.
She thrilled audiences in films such as The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby and The African Queen, but her bold behaviour on set and off once saw her branded "box-office poison".
"She was a strong and powerful woman and that got her into all sorts of trouble," says Lindsay. "Boy, was she feisty! I think everyone I've spoken to has used that word to describe her.
"She told me a lovely story once about confronting two burglars in her house at two o'clock in the morning. They were on the gallery and were emptying their swag into their bags. But when they saw Katharine approaching, they said, 'Oh my God, it's you!', dropped their bags and left the building."
Lindsay (56), who shot to fame in the Seventies comedy Citizen Smith and is the popular star of BBC One's My Family, admits to having been "completely star-struck" in Hepburn's presence – as, indeed, he would have been with any of the other subjects of Puttin' On More Style: Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and Ava Gardner.
"That's why I enjoy the series so much. These were my stars and they were my mum and dad's stars," says the actor, who grew up in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, the son of a carpenter. "The programmes are all about what made them such icons for people like us – their style, their talent, their beauty."
While the series also touches on the film legends' turbulent private lives (Flynn famously summed up his with the words: "I like my whisky old and my women young"), it does not dwell on the tragedies.
"Of course, there was glamour but there was also great tragedy, but the studios back then would look after them and hide that side of things, so it never became the biggest story about them," says Lindsay.
But it's a very different situation today, he adds.
"Today we want to destroy the myths, break down our icons. We know that they have problems like everyone else, and we want every little detail. We're also living in a world of cheap celebrity and we celebrate mediocrity, which is very worrying. But that's why I love doing this series: it's a celebration of real stardom."
Lindsay profiled his "ultimate film hero" – Cary Grant – in the previous series but would love to give some more of Britain's home-grown cinema icons the Puttin' On The Style treatment.
"I would love to make programmes on Sir John Mills, David Niven and Laurence Olivier," he says.
Lindsay will, in fact, step into the shoes of one of his heroes next year when he stars in the West End as Archie Rice – a role made famous by Olivier – in Kevin Spacey's revival of John Osborne's The Entertainer.
"I did a reading of it for the Royal Court's 50th birthday last year, which went down well, and Kevin got to hear about it and he rung me at home to ask if I would do it at the Old Vic," he explains.
The actor didn't need asking twice – much to the delight of his family.
"Kevin's a bit of a hero of my wife's, actually. She freaked out when she answered the phone to him and so did my daughter. It's proof that we're all star-struck," he laughs.
Perhaps it's also proof that, even today, Hollywood is still producing some great movie icons.
Interview by Nicola Hicks.
Link:
www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/radio/wk31/feature_style.shtml
And interview cut and pasted below:
Puttin' On More Style
Tuesday 1 August 8.30pm BBC Radio 2
Programme copy
In her Thirties heyday, Katharine Hepburn famously became the first actress to stride through Tinsel Town wearing slacks. Half a century later, Robert Lindsay discovered that she was still very much wearing the trousers when he inadvertently kept her waiting for dinner...
Lindsay first met the Hollywood legend when he was starring on Broadway in the musical Me And My Girl. After a few chance meetings, the actress invited him to dinner at her home in uptown New York, arranging to collect him from the theatre after his performance.
"I came out of the stage door and there were 50 or 60 people there, all waiting for autographs. I duly started signing them when suddenly this hand grabbed me, pulled me out of the crowd and Katharine declared: 'You've kept me waiting long enough!'" chuckles Lindsay. "Then she dragged me to the car and said, 'Listen, I want to tell you something: they've thanked you, you've thanked them, you've done your curtain call – now get on with your real life.'"
It may have been an inauspicious start but the pair soon became great friends, which explains why Lindsay was so keen for the four-times Oscar winner to be included in Puttin' On More Style, a new run of the BBC Radio 2 series spotlighting the Hollywood stars who oozed style.
"I was allowed behind the scenes, as it were, if one could ever really do that with Katharine. I got to know the person behind the legend and I was rather pleased to find that the person matched the legend," says Lindsay.
"She was a remarkable human being. Sometimes you meet people in this industry who let you down – and we're all human, I guess. But sometimes icons actually live up to their reputations and Katharine was certainly one of them."
Hepburn, who died in 2003 aged 96, broke the mould for Hollywood actresses. Intelligent, forthright and independent, she projected a female image unlike anything the silver screen had ever seen before.
She thrilled audiences in films such as The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby and The African Queen, but her bold behaviour on set and off once saw her branded "box-office poison".
"She was a strong and powerful woman and that got her into all sorts of trouble," says Lindsay. "Boy, was she feisty! I think everyone I've spoken to has used that word to describe her.
"She told me a lovely story once about confronting two burglars in her house at two o'clock in the morning. They were on the gallery and were emptying their swag into their bags. But when they saw Katharine approaching, they said, 'Oh my God, it's you!', dropped their bags and left the building."
Lindsay (56), who shot to fame in the Seventies comedy Citizen Smith and is the popular star of BBC One's My Family, admits to having been "completely star-struck" in Hepburn's presence – as, indeed, he would have been with any of the other subjects of Puttin' On More Style: Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and Ava Gardner.
"That's why I enjoy the series so much. These were my stars and they were my mum and dad's stars," says the actor, who grew up in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, the son of a carpenter. "The programmes are all about what made them such icons for people like us – their style, their talent, their beauty."
While the series also touches on the film legends' turbulent private lives (Flynn famously summed up his with the words: "I like my whisky old and my women young"), it does not dwell on the tragedies.
"Of course, there was glamour but there was also great tragedy, but the studios back then would look after them and hide that side of things, so it never became the biggest story about them," says Lindsay.
But it's a very different situation today, he adds.
"Today we want to destroy the myths, break down our icons. We know that they have problems like everyone else, and we want every little detail. We're also living in a world of cheap celebrity and we celebrate mediocrity, which is very worrying. But that's why I love doing this series: it's a celebration of real stardom."
Lindsay profiled his "ultimate film hero" – Cary Grant – in the previous series but would love to give some more of Britain's home-grown cinema icons the Puttin' On The Style treatment.
"I would love to make programmes on Sir John Mills, David Niven and Laurence Olivier," he says.
Lindsay will, in fact, step into the shoes of one of his heroes next year when he stars in the West End as Archie Rice – a role made famous by Olivier – in Kevin Spacey's revival of John Osborne's The Entertainer.
"I did a reading of it for the Royal Court's 50th birthday last year, which went down well, and Kevin got to hear about it and he rung me at home to ask if I would do it at the Old Vic," he explains.
The actor didn't need asking twice – much to the delight of his family.
"Kevin's a bit of a hero of my wife's, actually. She freaked out when she answered the phone to him and so did my daughter. It's proof that we're all star-struck," he laughs.
Perhaps it's also proof that, even today, Hollywood is still producing some great movie icons.
Interview by Nicola Hicks.