n 1933, long before she played Titanic survivor Rose in James Cameron's blockbuster, Gloria Stuart starred opposite Claude Rains in what she
thought would end up being a weird B movie called The Invisible Man.
Now Stuart has come full circle, and will play Darien Fawkes' (Vincent
Ventresca) grandmother in an upcoming episode of The SCI FI Channel's The
Invisible Man on Aug. 24 in the episode "Father Figure."
In a long and amazing career, Stuart began her acting journey in theater,
but was quickly drawn to Hollywood and films in the early 1930s. While she was
disappointed by her career, she made many films and was one of the founding
members of the Screen Actor's Guild. She retired for nearly three decades
before being drawn back into acting.
In 1998, Stuart won a Saturn Award and a Screen Actors Guild award for her
role in Titanic, and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden
Globe. Her next film is The Million Dollar Hotel with Mel Gibson and
Jimmy Smits.
Stuart chatted with Science Fiction Weekly about Claude Rains, scary
sci-fi movies and getting blown up.
Tell us about your experience on the 1933 film The Invisible
Man.
Stuart: It was wonderful working with James Whale. In England, he's a
cult director, and he should be here. He's one of our finest. Claude [Rains]
had just come from the New York theater, so he wasn't used to movie
technique. ... It was his first part. Of course, it made a star of
him. He was wonderful in it. What should I say? He was what we call an actor's
actor. He was very involved with himself and his performance, and not very
involved with me or my performance or anyone else's. It was a struggle
treating him as my lover, but we were friendly. It was no great love affair.
Of course, the picture has been wonderful for me as far as reputation and
history goes.
The special effects in the movie were amazing considering the
time.
Stuart: Yes, they were. I know that the set had a lot of black
velvet hung around (laughs). We were not allowed on the set. It was closed,
which was very unusual in those days. Even later, when James Whale and I became
friends, more than professionals together, he never told me how they did it. I
don't think it has ever been explained.
That was your second film with James Whale, wasn't it?
Stuart: Yes, The Old Dark House was the first one. It was
with an all-English cast. I think Melvyn Douglas was the only other American
in it besides me. ... Yes, The Old Dark House with Boris Karloff and
Charles Laughton. It was wonderful. In those days we looked down on movie
actors. The theater was the creme de la creme, and I wanted to be a theater
actress. But I thought it would be easier to get to New York and the theater
if I had a name than if I just walked the streets as a little girl from
California.
Still, [it was amazing] watching those beautifully trained English
actors. And of course, James Whale had been an actor. He was the most
meticulous, most knowledgeable director and he was able to tell you exactly
what he wanted. Which he did. Most of the directors I had in those days, like
John Ford and George Stevens, were not from the theater. They were from
silent, action pictures. They were wonderful, and I love John Ford and George
Stevens. They were darling to me. But it was a whole other kind of work,
working with them and working with someone like James Whale.
Did you ever expect the film The Invisible Man would end up
being a classic at the time you were making it?
Stuart: No. No. We thought it would be an interesting weirdo
(laughs). No. And it was not produced as the next coming-attraction big deal.
Universal was a B studio and their production values were B. So no. It never
occurred to me that it would be a big hit internationally and forever.
It seems like you've come full circle with the film The Invisible
Man, and now you have a role in the new television show The Invisible
Man playing the Darien Fawkes' grandmother, Madeline Fawkes.
Stuart: I know. [Doing the television show] was fun and, as long as
I wasn't blown away or blown up, I was very happy and I loved my part. It was
a very spicy old lady, with Vincent [Ventresca], who is the lead and the hero.
As I pointed out to the director, the real difference between this
Invisible Man and the one in 1933 [is that] Claude Rains was a force for evil
and Vincent is a force for good. And that was good, that was nice.
Were you familiar with the television show when you got cast?
Stuart: No, but I started looking right away and I have since then.
I have enjoyed it very much, because I know it's not for real [laughs]. And
Vincent is darling and I love the rest of the cast. They were so helpful and
we really had a ball and this director was wonderful. That's something I
hadn't seen for a very long time. We used to be very jolly in between takes in
silents and later in talkies. There was a great deal of camaraderie. And then
I noticed in the '60s, '70s and '80s everybody was pretty tense on the set. But
that was because we were all new to each other, new to the director, new to
the studio, new to our support, our hairdressers, our wardrobe girls and so
forth. On this set, for a change, everybody knew everybody else and it was
very easy.
What made you want to do this part?
Stuart: I love working. I'm offered so many sweet old ladies and
they're not interesting to me. As long as they're not interesting to me, I
don't do them. And this was interesting because [the character] had a real
history, and she had a very interesting relationship with her grandson. It was
very well written. It was a very good script. It's not often that I get a
very good script.
Tell us about the role.
Stuart: He [Darien Fawkes] comes to her under wraps. He can't tell
her why he's there. He's evidently had prison experience and has been a
prevaricator and a liar. The relationship has been bumpy, with the father
having been gone and disappeared under mysterious and unhappy circumstances.
So they try to find their way back to each other. And that's interesting. For
a sci-fi show I'd say that's very unusual. And so their scenes together are
intimate and personal and charming and touching. It's a very warm and
interesting script. I don't bother otherwise. I mean, why should I at this
point in my career? There's no point in working if I'm not involved and
interested.
I imagine the special effects were a little different from the 1933 film
The Invisible Man.
Stuart: [Laughs.] They were blowing something up and we were all
moved half a mile away, and when it blew up it was nothing. So they had to do
it all over again. I guess that happens a lot.
Are we going to see Madeline Fawkes again?
Stuart: I don't know. I'd love to. As a matter of fact, the director
and Vincent and the producer all said, oh, we have to have you back again. I'd
love to go back again and do another one. As long as they don't blow me up
[laughs].
How do you feel about science-fiction films and television?
Stuart: I don't watch them because they frighten me [laughs]. I love
the idea. I think it's wonderful. This medium is the only medium they can do
sci-fi, so hats off!
So you don't consider yourself a science-fiction fan.
Stuart: [Laughs.] Well, I love the new one Dark Angel that Jim
Cameron is doing and I love watching it. It's when they start with the
explosions and the wrecks that I turn it off. Also, I'm not crazy about things
like The Exorcist. They scare me. As long as they frighten me I don't
go.
Were you surprised that you were nominated for an Academy Award for your
role in Titanic?
Stuart: I had been told by so many people that I was going to be
nominated, that I should be nominated, that there wasn't any question about my
being nominated. I don't think it was a surprise. It was a wonderful wish that
I'd always hoped would come true. But I'd heard it for so many weeks that it
wasn't a surprise, but it was a great fulfillment, believe me.
It must have been fun to go to the Academy Awards.
Stuart: For many years I didn't watch the Academy Awards because I
had been so disappointed in my career, so disappointed in what had happened to
me filmwise, that just emotionally I wasn't able to. The great actresses and
actors receive awards for great roles in great films. I never had a great role
in a great film.
Well, you have now.
Stuart: I have now [laughs]. You know, even James Whale's films
The Invisible Man and The Old Dark House, they're classics. And
the John Ford pictures I made are highly regarded, but at the time they didn't
seem like that.
You also won a Saturn Award, which is a science fiction award.
Stuart: Yes. After Screen Actor's Guild and Golden Globes, each one
was an extra added attraction, another candle on the cake.
Why do you think Titanic was considered science fiction?
Stuart: Probably because of all the camera work, you know, all the
not-real people on the ship who were sliding down the deck, and things
like that. It was extraordinary.
How do you feel about your part in Titanic?
Stuart: When I read the script, I knew I could do it. I knew I would
be good. I thought, this is a really great, great script. Beautifully conceived
and beautifully put together. You know, it's hard doing flashbacks and tying it
all together. My husband was a film writer, Arthur Sheekman. He worked with
[Bing] Crosby and Groucho [Marx]. And I know that he always felt that
flashbacks were very, very difficult. Jim [Cameron] is a genius, there's no
question about it. He wrote the script. It's his original story. He directed
it. He produced it. He cut it. He had his hands on the music, the set. Look at
the ship they built. It was and is a fantastic experience.
How did you get started in acting?
Stuart: I appeared in an Ibsen play, The Seagull. There were
two casting directors, one from Universal, one from Paramount. They asked me
to make a test the next day, and I did. They both offered me contracts and
asked me who my agent was. And I said to the leading man, "What's an agent?"
[laughs]. He said, "Well, I have a good one if you want to try her." So then I
had an agent. I knew nothing. I wanted to go to New York. But my husband,
Gordon Newell, was an artist and we were broke. I figured I'd make some money
here in Hollywood and then go to New York. It didn't work out that way, but it
was so easy. My second husband, Arthur Sheekman, used to say, "You don't
appreciate it, Gloria. It was all so easy for you."
Still, you were disappointed with your career.
Stuart: I quit after my seven-year contract with Universal was up. I
quit for 33 years. I started in this film business to get a name so I could be
in New York onstage. I wanted to be a stage actress. You know, there was
Katherine Cornell, Helen Hayes, Lunt and Fontanne, Ann Harding, the
Barrymores, all the greats were stage actors. Movie actresses were in a class
by themselves. I felt I was slumming, honestly. Then, of course, I started
work with James Whale. I had a few good parts. But I didn't love playing with
Shirley Temple. I tried very hard not to, because I was playing her sister in
one and, I don't know, her cousin or something in another. She was charming
to work with, and of course she turned out to be a wonderful woman.
[However,] I remember W.C. Fields saying, "Never make a movie with dogs or
children." But she was lovely. The two pictures I made with her, people remind
me all the time. So it was important for me to have done them, but it wasn't
interesting. A sister, dumb. A cousin, dumb.
I remember saying to Zanuck, "Mr.
Zanuck, I come from Chekhov and Ibsen, Shakespeare, Pirandello. I don't want
to play with Shirley Temple and be her sister." And he said, "Now Gloria, the
pictures you're making now will be seen by a few million people. You make this
picture with Shirley, you'll be seen by tens of millions." Well, I didn't care
about the tens of millions. I wanted to be on the stage doing very important
emotional roles. So I did the Shirley Temple [laughs].
And when I went back to New York with somewhat of a name, they didn't want
movie actresses.
You're kidding.
Stuart: No, I'm not. The only work I got in the theater was with
Thornton Wilder. I played Emily with him in the Our Town one summer. I
never got a Broadway part. I kept saying, "But I came from the theater. I was a
theater actress before I got into films." Forget it, Charlie. It was a great
disappointment there too.
Are you surprised that you're working in your '90s?
Stuart: Yes. I'm amazed. You know, when I was 40, I thought I'd
never make 50. And at 50 I thought the frosting on the cake would be 60
[laughs]. At 60, I was still going strong and enjoying everything. An old bull
came into my life in my 70s, and we were together for a long time, and it's
been a ball all the way.
It said in your autobiography, I Just Kept Hoping, that you always hated being ordinary. It
doesn't seem that there has been much ordinary about your life at all.
Stuart: I've tried to guide it as best I could into interesting
channels, creative channels, important channels and channels that make a
difference. I don't know where I got it. Frankly, I have no idea, because my
mother was a very sweet modest housewife. My father was a lawyer. No
flamboyance in my family in any direction. I just suddenly happened.
Maybe because you were born on the Fourth of July.
Stuart: Oh, sure [laughs]. When I was little I thought, isn't it
nice that everybody celebrates on my birthday?
You grew up in the early part of the 20th century, and now it's
2001.
Stuart: I know [laughs]. I never thought I'd make it, but my
daughter, and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren, said, "Oh, grandma, we
know you'll make it," so I did.
What surprises you most about today's world?
Stuart: What we're doing to the environment. Killing all the
animals. Taking all the fish out of the sea. Using all the water. Using all
the forests. I belong to every organization there is that has to do with
saving the environment. I am so anti-Mr. Bush and his forestry people and
mining people and oil people and gas people that want to take the arctic away
from us and drill in the ocean and cut down the forests. I just think it's so
wicked. I think it's a sin.
I understand that you're an artist.
Stuart: Yes. I have a private press. I'm a book artist. I publish
books of other authors and artists. I do the illustrating. I set the type. I
print it myself on my press. I do everything but bind it, because it's too
late for me to learn that part. My books are in the Getty Collection and the
Huntington Library and Princeton University and UCLA and Victoria and Albert
in England. I've been very, very successful, so it's very satisfying to me. I
just finished my 11th book last week, so I'm ready to start [the next one].
I'm going to do a book on the Chinese Butterfly Kite, its history, and I'll
illustrate it and print it and write it. It will be a couple of years.
What else is coming up for you?
Stuart: I just have a wonderful piece of news. James Cameron and his
partners are going to do another documentary again on the Titanic and the
Bismarck. They have new cameras that can go inside these ships in areas that
have never been photographed. And they're going to take off at the end of
August out of Nova Scotia for another dive for camera work. And they've asked
me to come up to be there for the inaugural event. And there will be Bill
Paxton, Lewis Abernathy and Frances Fisher and Suzy Amis, who played my
granddaughter and who is now Mrs. Cameron. It's going to be fun. It's going to
be a big deal.
Back to the top.
Also in this issue: J. Michael Straczynski
.
