Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star (2016)

Leslie Caron: Self

Quotes 

• Leslie Caron : Playing "Gigi" really was an enormous gift. And "Fanny" is just one of the great romantic parts. I loved playing "Lili" and I loved "The Glass Slipper." Well, "An American in Paris," that's where I got my start. Just imagine the thrill of working with Cary Grant, the great Henry Fonda, and Orson Welles, and I got to dance with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire - the two greatest dancers in the world. That was such a perfect situation. The whole world wants to be a movie star in Hollywood - and I did not.

• Leslie Caron : I remember the feeling of space and ownership. You were on the stage and it was just fabulous. You could just hear them think. You could hear them look at you. It was all those brains concentrated on you. It was something that you never forget. Sixteen. Imagine. Sixteen and being thrown into this circus.

• Leslie Caron : I found myself very comfortable. It was warm. All those human being there, staring at you. Sometimes you could see diamonds, jewels, glittering. It was lovely. And then at the end of the number, a sort of thunder, like rain. Applause! I thought, "Oh, that's what it sounds like."

• [first lines] 

  Leslie Caron : Yes, I have a great deal of trouble imagining myself as an old lady. I tend to think I'm just beginning, I'm just about to discover the secret.

• Leslie Caron : Gene Kelly came to Paris to meet me, to make a test with me and see if I could be his leading lady in "An American in Paris." I said jazz - I don't know jazz, I don't dance jazz. Just to be polite, I said, "Okay, I'll do the test." You know, polite. And so we did the test and I promptly forgot about it... Then, two weeks later there was this phone call, "You've been hired to do 'An American in Paris'. You're leaving in three days for Hollywood and contract of - a seven year contract." Huh? That's not what I'd planned!

• Leslie Caron : When you were first hired, the salaries started very low - just about what a secretary got. It seemed a lot to me, because it certainly was more than I got in the ballet and after the deprivations of the war. It seemed, you know, quite a lot. You could buy you're whole dress, you could buy food, you could buy bananas.

• Leslie Caron : I announced to the family that I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer and I heard my grandfather whisper, "Margaret, do you want your daughter to be a whore?" Very, very strong words and I heard them. I don't think he meant for me to hear it; but, I heard it, and it had an enormous weight on my shoulders throughout my career. I felt that I was in a very inferior profession and doing something very despicable and I was, yeah, quite ashamed of what I was.

• Leslie Caron : Of course, I was starstruck! Of course, I was. I can't tell you what an affect when I met Vivian Leigh, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Ethel Barrymore - ah, Ethel Barrymore - Ester Williams - yes, Ester was rough, swore like a trooper - naturally, Judy Garland, my favorite. Judy was real sweet. She hugged me, kissed me, and said, "Good luck, honey."

• Leslie Caron : I did give ballet lessons.

  [chuckles] 

  Leslie Caron : I don't many stars do that nowadays - have to give ballet lessons to keep going in-between films.

• Leslie Caron : Gene Kelly was passionate about the technical side of filming. He loved the camera. He loved the gadgets. He loved the lens. He loved all the things you can make a camera do. He had this mathematical, technician's passion. He knew how to place dancers, this way, that way, up, down, and all that. And the imagination - it's a kid's imagination - and that's what he had.

• Leslie Caron : [referring to "The Glass Slipper"]  I took every part very seriously and, to me, Ella is a rebel - is a little rebel. She is angry... The film that inspired me was, an influence on me during that film is "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando... I must have seen it about 20 times. So, I played this little rebel, I thought, as Marlon Brando would play her... He would have laughed. I never told him.

• Leslie Caron : I did one after the other. I finished the glass slipper on a Saturday and started on "Daddy Long Legs" on a Monday.

• Leslie Caron : MGM was really like a big school or factory, if you will. You were told how to behave and very often you were given leading men to go out with. They would say, "On Wednesday night there's a big premier and so-and-so will come and get you." It made you very nervous; because, there you were spending an evening with somebody you didn't know. And I was just so shy. It really was very difficult.

• Leslie Caron : It was the period when the newspapers need glamour shots. So, everybody was made to do that. You were put on a bicycle. You were - they would rent the boats, you were on a yacht, you know, in bathing suit. All those things were completely made up.

• Leslie Caron : In training as a child, my mother used to say go and see Fred Astaire's films. He's the *best* there is for - timing. Gene danced closer to the ground. Then, Fred, was, sort of, one or two feet off the ground. He had this lightness and elegance.

• Leslie Caron : I was so lucky to get the script of "Lili". I took hold of the script and together we worked on it. Lili was a bit of a half-wit. Found herself in a town, completely on her own. No money. No job. No family. It was a character that reflected very much the way I was thinking at the time. Just a poor little orphan lost in this unknown country and trying to survive. And I could remember it was my war experience that made me play Lili rather well. I was very believable as this wounded little animal, who has lost everything.

• Leslie Caron : Of course, the legs. You had to show your legs. And losing one's shoe. You would be on a chair and one shoe was off.

  [chuckles] 

  Leslie Caron : It was a lot of this soft porn element. And finally I found it really humiliating and I said I wouldn't do it any more.

• Leslie Caron : "Lili" to me was going absolutely wonderfully well. I didn't realize that I was the laughing stock of the studio; because, I was very unglamorous. And so Arthur Freed, the great producer, came to see me on the set, and he said, "Leslie, I've got to do another film with you to bring back the glamour they're destroying right now." Oh? He said, "I've got to do another film with you. Have you any ideas?" So, I threw up one or two ideas and then I said: Gigi.

• Leslie Caron : [referring to "Gigi"]  This was the first time a big producer in Hollywood decided to do a musical in the real locations. And the problems were enormous. The sound. Airplanes going over... There were lots of cars and there were television antennas... But, the result is, you cannot match the beautiful sets that are throughout Paris.

• Leslie Caron : [referring to "Gigi"]  Of course, there were things I knew, which nobody else on the set knew. Vincente Minnelli didn't know what to do with a cigar. I was somebody who had seen my grandfather choose a cigar. So, I knew that you smelled it. I knew that you tried it for freshness. I'd seen men do that. So, I said this is the way one does it. And he was delighted because - it came out just like a prostitute would do.

• Leslie Caron : The reason why the whole world loves the character of Gigi is because she gets her way.

• Leslie Caron : [referring to "Gigi"]  Maxim's. The Maxim's of Paris. Absolutely magic, historic place. We had about 150 extras. All the tables crowded, with all those beautiful women with enormous hats, and all the crew, electricians, sound men. It was so crowded. The tempers were very short, especially Vincente Minnelli. The director was extremely worried about the quality. He wanted everybody to be animated, animated. And when we started doing our scenes, Louis Jourdan and myself, he really was very frustrated. And the head waiter was taking us to our place. Once. Twice. We did the scene about four times. And finally, Vincente Minnelli exploded and said, "Can't somebody teach that man to hold the menu!" Silence. And then somebody, the first assistant, came and said, "Mr. Minnelli, this is the real headwaiter."

  [laughs] 

• Leslie Caron : [referring to "The L-Shaped Room"]  It was a heavy film to do. Lots of dramatic scenes. Lots of scenes with a dark mood. That was the first time I was doing that. So, I asked Bryan Forbes, the director, I said, "Bryan, I rely on you to wipe the Hollywood smile off my face."

• Leslie Caron : There came a time when I felt if I stayed in Hollywood, I'm going to - to shrivel, I'm going to not grow any more. Women were kept in very inferior position. Better to be brainless. Better to never discuss anything. I wanted to see far more of the world than was available in Hollywood.

• Leslie Caron : [referring to Warren Beatty]  That relationship could not last. In deed, could not. Warren was still - like a bee - with every flower. Plucking the honey. And he was a little too over-possessive. And so we - parted.

• Leslie Caron : [referring to Peter Hall]  Barely had we married, he wouldn't let me work anymore. And, to me, it was like cutting my arms and legs.

• Leslie Caron : [referring to Warren Beatty]  Warren was delightful companion for two years. Throughout our relationship, I felt a great sense of danger. I'm somebody rather staid. I don't like the wild life. I excessive fame and excessive public life. Whereas he absolutely reveled in those circumstances. I was out of breath throughout.

• Leslie Caron : The greater the actor, the star; the more fun and the easier it is. It really was just a piece of cake working with Cary Grant... He had such a twinkle in his eye.

• [last lines] 

  Leslie Caron : I look for joy. There were some dark moments in my life. But, I kept trying to find the solution - the light at the end of the black hole. That's the aim. That's what you have to do - is to try, keep trying, keep trying. And it's never too late.

  [laughs] 

  Leslie Caron : I'm having very good times now. I find life absolutely wonderful and I'm really so grateful for the good things that have happened - and keep happening. Surprise, surprise!

• Leslie Caron : I spent all my life repairing what my mother didn't get the chance to do right. My mother wanted to write; so, I wrote. She wanted to be a dancer; I became a dancer. She to be a star; I became a star. She wanted to be world famous; so, I became world famous.

• Leslie Caron : I played the mother in Louis Malle's "Damage". And I played the most deadly aspect of my mother, in that part... I had this sort of shadow of the dark side of my mother.

• Leslie Caron : I decided 40 years ago, I was French, I wanted to be French again, I wanted to be part of the French cinema, theater. So, I came back to France. François Truffaut gave me a lovely part in his film... But, there was no follow-up, for some reason. He thought I was good in it; but, the profession didn't open up to me... Truffaut said to me, oh, I wish I had listened to him, he said that you can never get back, you can never come back. The only roles I was ever offered came from America or England.