Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress best known as Sable in 80s US soap The Colbys, with stage and screen roles in Tenko, Connie, and a film with Brando.
On the island
Eight records
This was the very first record on Seventy Eight that I ever had as a child. And I used to. play it and march up and down on the back of the city. I think I must have been about four.
I'm very fond of Willie Nelson and family. I know them in Los Angeles, and they're a great relief from Hollywood. They appreciate jeans and no makeup and straight talking.
Amarina was the the name I gave. My puppy child, my dog that Michael Winner and Marlon Brando gave me after the night comers. I was desperately keen on Elton John when I was filming with Marlon Brando.
Elvis Presley. Why not? It's part of all our pasts, isn't it? Don't you remember those those those boys slicking back their hair? Girl of my best friend, I've always thought it was a a a lovely record.
Symphony No. 2 in C minor (Resurrection)
Marla's Resurrection Symphony. I love this, I find it very moving. That's just so beautiful, gosh, I wish I could sing like this lady who comes on in at the end and just soars like a bird.
It's the sort of modern soul music I like. It's got a a little bit of reference to reincarnation in there, nothing too heavy, and I wouldn't want to go too heavily into it. Um good song.
Missa Criolla. It's uh an Argentinian Piece of music. It's so moving. It's so joyful and so sorrowful. It's a beautiful piece of music.
Well, I need somebody to talk to. I really would need somebody to talk to... I think the person I'd like to natter to most would be Joyce Grenfell. Uh so let's have her talking to children.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:04Was the background [of your upbringing] cosy?
Very cosy. See red velvet curtains, chickens and dogs and cats and ponies and ballet and the ideal upbringing.
Presenter asks
1:55Was there anything in the family at all that might suggest you might become an actress?
Not even vaguely. And one of our uh quotes in the family, one of the family things that we like best is that my father, after having seen me in a forehander at the Haymarket Theatre, which is no mean theatre, said, you know, I think that Steffi... Is every bit as good as a real actress.
Presenter asks
2:20Where do you think the talent or the ambition came from to be an actor?
I've always loved the black and white movies. Anything with with Betty Davis, Joan Crawford. I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but I was told... that my feet weren't pretty enough... And then I thought I would do uh deaf teaching. And I went to Paris to study mime... And then I met an actor... and they were just starting up the Liverpool everyman... And I thought this is the theatre... And I remembered a speech from O level English of Juliet's. And I did it, and they thought it was very funny. And they employed me.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
4:50You wanted to work with deaf people because in fact you're deaf yourself, aren't you?
I'm so fortunate because my deafness is the easiest deafness to cope with. I am completely deaf. I have no hearing whatsoever in my right side... But I have good hearing in my other ear, but what it means is that I hear two dimensionally... I hear in Monica.
Presenter asks
8:35Was [Rada in London during the sixties] of the Bohemian life?
Yes, it was. I lived in a a a commune... Um I was the acting rep. I'm so happy that I was young and a teenager at a time of such optimism. We really felt that we knew that love was the answer and... If our generation could only rule the world, there would be no more wars.
Presenter asks
13:25What happened to that sort of image of the cosy wife and mother?
A rotten old marriage, really. I married the the person that should have been my best friend, and uh a sheer delight to go out with, and such a silly person to get a domestic arrangement with... The surprise of a failed marriage jolted me into the realization that I had to bring up my children. I therefore. Wanted some commercial work because I wanted money because I knew that I wanted to give my children the very best. And that led to Hollywood, and that's been thrilling.
“I am completely deaf. I have no hearing whatsoever in my right side. But I have no white noise. People think of deafness as silence. Of course it isn't. It's sometimes very, very noisy and awful.”
“I hear like you would see a primitive painting. Everything is flat.”
“What's fantastic about being an actress is there's nothing you can go through in real life that you can't then use later. I mean, we're we're we're the only folk who, if you have anything horrid happen to you, uh, you can use it.”