Lee Grant in Vanity Fair

[quote]No matter how interesting you are, if the money doesn’t come in at the box office, you don’t get your next movie. Take Faye Dunaway. She did Network, written by Paddy Chayefsky—[whom] I worship. Somebody comes along, only once a lifetime, and is able to rip the falseness off of what the industry was. But she was remarkable and got the Oscar for Network. Two pictures later, my agent, who was also her agent, was sitting in the dailies watching a film she was working on. He overheard [someone] saying, “Look at that fat pig.”

Was she talking about The Champ? Someone in another Faye Dunaway thread said she seemed to have gained weight in that movie.

Who dared give Faye a talking-to about her weight?

She's weighed her food at restaurants (with a scale toted in her handbag) ever since.

I watched Network for the first time a few months ago and immediately searched for another Dunaway film and chose The Eyes of Laura Mars. Going from one right to another it was very obvious she was heavier. She was a stick in Network and looked older and more matronly as Laura Mars. It wasn’t that she was FAT - she was just fuller and I don’t think she looked as great. Sad - but that’s life, I guess.

Nice little interview. I always liked Lee Grant as an actress. I wish she would've chilled out on the surgeries though.

Faye looked like shit in Eyes of Laura Mars.

The drug abuse didn't do her any favors.

Can't wait to read. Let me go heat up the lasagna.

I wondered why a majority of Faye's costumes in Laura Mars seemed to involve capes or caftans when all of America was at peak sluttiness.

Doesn’t cocaine abuse make people even skinnier??

Faye said she gained weight for THE CHAMP in order to appear more maternal.

I think she really did so in order to lay the groundwork for her faked pregnancy.

Vulture/New York does these kinds of interviews much better.

Yeah, r10, but they are far more shitty about letting you read them for free.

Faye was anorexic in Network; Faye was as big as a fucking house in The Champ. And forget that motherly horseshit, R9.

Here's a clip from Faye's icy yet fleshy performance as an unconvincing maternal figure in The Champ:

Faye wanted to be thin in NETWORK because the driven character is supposed to be burning up energy. She choose to be eating a big burger in one scene to show it wasn’t just the character dieting. She was a blood loving carnivore!

Thanks, OP! That was a lovely interview.

Damn, the difference between R15 and R14 was just 30 pounds in three years.

She should have worked on her portrayals, because that was basically the same character—freezing cold, not someone who wants to have real human relationships.

R15 and yet most actresses of that era were even thinner than that.

We gotten quite a bit better about that over the years, actually.

Miss Dunaway says in her book that her weight gain/loss has been a cycle throughout her life, but she doesn't go into the details; she also says that most of her relationships lasted three years.

Grant looked great through the 70s, but then made way too many return trips to the plastic surgeon.

[quote]Faye looked like shit in Eyes of Laura Mars.

She did not, she looked great. There were a couple of sketchy wardrobe choices, but she looked fantastic.

[quote]I had a trauma when I did a Neil Simon play with Peter Falk. In the second act, I forgot my lines. It was on the Wednesday matinee of the week that we were closing. It had been running for a year. Every actor has had a moment onstage where the lines go and a costar is [usually] able to say something like, “Are you talking about eggs?” But Peter didn’t know how to save me. Peter turned to the audience and pointed at me with his thumb. All of a sudden, I was just exposed in front of these thousand people. The curtain had to come down.

I didn't know Peter Falk was such an asshole, jeez.

For anyone interested and still looking at this thread, The Neon Ceiling is the MOW Lee Grant won the Emmy for. I believe it is rather obscure, and was shown only once. I've searched You Tube for years trying to find it, and someone finally posted it a few years back.

It also features recently deceased DL fave Denise Nickerson, who is downright chilling as Lee Grant's daughter.

Lee sounds like she went through hell. I like how she doesn't throw other actresses under the bus. Boy Warren was a hot piece back then in Shampoo. Faye looked great in the Eyes of Mars. I don't know what you all are seeing.

J'adore that self-portrait of her!

Peter Falk still hadn't forgiven her for stealing the show in that second Columbo pilot

Funny how OP's title strongly suggests Grant trashes Dunaway in the interview, when she does just the opposite. Exactly one of the issues Grant complains about.

Lee Grant, one of the last of the good ol' broads.

[quote] Michael and Catherine [Zeta-Jones] were just here two days ago, having dinner. I have to show you the robe she gave me. [She runs to the closet and returns with a pink robe.] This is a [Casa] Zeta-Jones.

Casa Zeta Jones bathrobes are on sale now at QVC for $23.22.

Must be honest, I thought she was dead.

I guess Dolly Parton IS a lesbian.

[quote]I was sitting on the couch talking to Warren when I saw his eyes wander over to a table in the middle of the house. I turned my head, and there was Dolly Parton. I saw myself being slowly dropped. She was so gorgeous. In the middle of this party, she was writing her lists of what to get for the kitchen or something like that. I just saw him move right out of my life. Of course, she didn’t pay any attention to him, which was so much more attractive to him.

[quote]R24 J'adore that self-portrait of her!

Is she wearing a fur hat in it (??)

LOVE Lee Grant, she seems like thee epitome of someone so so interesting to talk to for hours and hours if not days and days...

love to her her dish on valley of the dolls and sharon tate...

and of course i loved her in the tv movie (sad that she had to do this kind of movie though) "for ladies only" with gregory harrison and her as the older woman who is the one who seduces HIM instead of the other way around! old enough to be his mother too! their bubble bath scene was so hot and a total power trip over such a male stripper stud like harrison's character!... she "had him" and "but good"!...

Remember the Spell??

She claims she felt pressure to have a full face lift in her late 30s, when the blacklist years were over.

She really trashes Arnold Madoff, the father of her child.

Every Lee Grant performance results in a lot of chewed scenery.

Lee turned down two of the biggest hit shows in the 1980s

She was offered the role of Alexis on Dynasty (after Sophia Loren said no) - this was based on her past work as the town villain on Peyton Place (for which she won an Emmy) - she said no, as she was focusing on her directing career

Then later she was offered the part of Dorothy on Golden Girls. Creator Susan Harris and Lee worked together on the sitcom "Faye" - which is very similar plot to Golden Girls. A divorcee is surrounded by a nagging mother, tacky & sex starved next-door neighbor and an ex-husband who can't seem to stay away.

Lee said NO to Golden Girls because she felt she was too young to play a Grandmother.

Anyways see clip below of Lee in the mini-series Bare Essence, where she plays an Alexis type character interacting with Linda Evans!

[quote] She gets up and returns with her and Joey’s [second husband's] framed marriage vows, which read: Q: Will you please continue to be my dearest friend—to be there when I am afraid or lonely or unwanted—as you always have been. To help me grow—even when growing separates us—and will you continue to acknowledge my freedom and solitary rights as I must acknowledge and respect your freedom and your solitary rights. A: I will try.

Really pathetic wedding vows, IMO. Why not just stay single.

I'm glad they've highlighted her work on documentaries. She directed "What Sex Am I?" all the way back in 1985. It was my first real exposure to the transgender issue, and I'm grateful to have seen it before the current climate developed.

[quote]Creator Susan Harris and Lee worked together on the sitcom "Faye" - which is very similar plot to Golden Girls. A divorcee is surrounded by a nagging mother, tacky & sex starved next-door neighbor and an ex-husband who can't seem to stay away. Lee said NO to Golden Girls because she felt she was too young to play a Grandmother.

I have read this also, but it makes no sense because Lee played a grandmother (of an infant) on Fay in 1975 — so why wouldn't she play a grandmother in 1985?

But her blacklisted years made her so neurotic about her age, as a matter of survival, that I can understand why she'd make irrational decisions from time to time. Her plastic surgery is clearly in that category.

I would love to spend a boozy evening listening to her dish.

R38 can I come for that boozy evening too?

Manoff, not Madoff.

That model-turned-“actress” (sometimes) Jennifer O’Neill was in BARE ESSENCE, too.

It sounds like it was one of those shows with too many characters!

[quote]I'm glad they've highlighted her work on documentaries. She directed "What Sex Am I?" all the way back in 1985. It was my first real exposure to the transgender issue

And what was YOUR answer to the question?

R41 My god is that Genie Francis?

R41, who is that freakshow on the right? She looks like Susan Sullivan with radiation poisoning.

Lee Grant, in her 90s, recently appeared at Film Forum in New York for a Q&A after one of her films was shown.

[quote]R43 My god is that Genie Francis?

Genie Francis as Tyger Hayes WAS [italic]Bare Essence!

R46 Did she marry her rapist in that show too?

That’s Jamie Lyn Bauer from Days of Our Lives and Young and the Restless.

Jessica Walter was in it too. I believe the main villain on that show was named Muffin Marshall lol.

A new DL handle!

I loved her in an episode of Mission Impossible. They needed a Washington DC wife to pull off the con. She had to take sleeping pills and almost die before they save her. Cinnamon couldn’t do it because they needed an insider. She was just so good in it.

I prefer Lou grant

R42, ??? I'm a gay man.

They had several copies of her biography at the Dollar Tree so I stocked up like I did with the book about Shirley Maclaine's abusive relationship with her daughter Sachi.

Grant's autobiography is pretty interesting, but at almost 500 pages it needed a good editor to pare it down to about 300.

[quote]On top of being an Oscar-winning actor and a trailblazing documentarian, Lee Grant is a lovely host.

Did she heat up a lasagne?

She was great in Defending your Life.

Is she on good terms with her daughter?

She's on good terms with Dinah. Not sure about the other daughter.

Sadly, her cute 19yo grandson (Dinah's son) was killed in a car accident a few years ago.

Man, I love Lee!! Such a great lady with great insight.

I do not know why she disfigured her face so badly in the last decade. (It looks like some kind of permanent cheek implant- it is clearly permanent) and gives her some kind of lion look akin to that Jocelyn Wildenstein. It is more than fillers- Its really weird...

May she live to 110. What a kind, truthful, and cool broad.

Faye does look matronly in some shots of "The Champ."

Faye looks great with a little weight on her..

Just like Tori Amos, I loved Faye's hooded eye lids.

Why do these women scoop out their eyes??

So sad to me.

Loved her as Marian in Valley of the dolls; into temporary screenings, she always gets her laughs…

Contemporary screenings…

I fucking LOVE this bitch. She is around 92!!!!

Read this interview!!

Love this lady!

She's spry as hell and sharp as a tack for a woman in her her 90s. It seems like like stays interested and curious and that's one of the big secrets to keeping your wits about you at that age, I think.

Yes, R64- And somehow she has kept her soul, heart, and fundamental goodness.

What a lady.

If she hadn't fucked up her looks, I could imagine her as Mrs Madrigal in the PBS/Channel 4 "Tales of the City" adaptation.

R66- Her face is simply lioness. I cannot even fathom was dear Lee did???

Its more than fillers- Its so permanent. It is beyond a facelift or eye lift. It is some permanent mass installed in her cheeks and lower eye area.

The doctor should be ASHAMED. Ashamed.

Such a great lady.

Can anyone make out the daughter's last line in Neon Ceiling?

Here's a pic with Goldie Hawn. I'd say it's early 1990s. Lee had already made herself mostly unemployable as an actress then.

R 69, She looks GREAT there. Have you seen Lee lately, hunty???

Hello. God bless her- I love her even more.

She looks like a burn victim at r69. The cheeks alone...

Grant makes a good point about England/The UK, but she seemed to be in two minds about her status/casting. She mentions that she never wanted to be first on the call sheet - the box office pressue, the standards re looks, yet she butchered herself. Debbie Reynolds had it right when she said, you get two facelifts, choose wisely when to get each done. After that, you'll start to look odd.

R72- HELLO! She looks GOOD there. She has amazing cheekbones. Look at R71 (my post) when she is 90+++++=

I truly love this woman, regardless!!

She's started to look odd by the 1990s. I don't think that's really debatable.

Fuckheads- She looks GOOD in the 90's.

Its 2017 that worries me!

Why should it worry you now? She's retired.

Is this the actress that has a total freakout in almost all of her films?

CHEEK IMPLANTS never did anyone any good. Somehow Lee thinks she looks good...I wouldn't go out without a bag on my head if I were her.

no kidding, lee is one of the all-time greats, she came from the blacklist period and went on to win so many awards, direct and author.

we love u baby.....be well !!!!

Ide pay a thousand bux to spend the nite with her and jus listen to her 70 yrs of bein in the biz.

honey, she gots storys I betcha !

To be honest, I think she's one of the all time fakes. Always far more concerned with her looks than her work. The article proves that she is neurotic and shallow beyond belief. She never was facile enough to portray big emotions in comedy or drama. A very uptight actress, but probably a lot of fun in private. She sounds a lot like Sue Mengers. An obnoxious and reclusive vain old jewess who thought too highly of her husband and made too much out of old grievances.

What is interesting is how physically buoyant she is there at the airport @ R71, looking like an alien in a cheap foam mask. But she's slinging that napsack around honey and still very alert and strong on her feet. She wasted decades of her life worrying about her face and having procedures, we can tell.

I like that she mentioned Faye and called Renee a charming and unusual actress. But anyone who hangs with Michael Douglas and CZJ is no NYC iconoclast. Grant is probably friends with Cindy Adams too. Yuck.

The blacklist was not bullshit, but Lee Grant would never have been a movie star. Her eyes are too small. Everything about her was too small. She looks like a fox. An actual fox. Try to hear her voice or remember a scene with her and it's not easy to conjure.

That's not true of Dunaway or Zellweger or Maureen Stapleton or Geraldine Page or Eva Marie Saint. Lee Grant just wasn't good enough.

R81 I came on here to say the same thing about the airport. She’s actually the opposite of most “well preserved” Hollywood women, like even Jane Fonda, as great as her work is, her body/gait is starting to belie that, and she’s not nearly as old. Lee Grant’s plastic surgery is a disaster but she’s over 90 there and doesn’t even remotely have the gait of an old lady. If she had just laid off that a bit she would have probably looked great.

I agree with R82- You know someone else who has horrific surgery and that insanely youthful gait- Dyan Cannon.

R81- I have loved Lee and always thought she had something special. A superstar like the ladies you mentioned? No-

I love that fox reference! Even though you meant it more cruelly, I do see it! I thought she was quite attractive anyway.

It is very funny how she has had the same hair cut for 50+ years...

And if you read her book, she is a VERY vain woman but mainly as she has fought against the loss of time- I think the blacklist affected her very deeply and exacerbated any natural insecurities and neurosis she had.

And as a little girl, she was treated like a little queen.

"It is very funny how she has had the same hair cut for 50+ years..."

Funny????

R68, her daughter is Dinah Manoff.

Dinah!!!

Lee's the only another person who could have done the role of Dorothy Zbornak justice. She should have played Gloria, though.

Susan Harris was even contemplating bringing her in after Bea left. That would have been interesting, and might have worked better than The Golden Palace.

Elaine Stritch said she had a reading for the part of Dorothy and blew it. Later she said, "Who the fuck would want to live in Florida with two other women? " and "To work with Betty White every day would be like taking cyanide." Both remarks suggest she might have been a good Dorothy ...

Not as good as Bea, r88. Bea was dry, Elaine was....caustic.

Lee Grant and Stephanie Powers...always got them confused.

Lee was never a Palm Springs Weekend type, r90.

Lee wasn't a lesbian either.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one shocked by how well she moves in that airport interview. I know people in their 20's and 30's who don't move as easily. I don't know what she's done to keep her strength, but I'll have what she's having...as long as it doesn't involve a trip to the plastic surgeon.

R88 she was a poor man’s Bea and always will be.

The idea of Lee coming in to replace her though is interesting. It would never have been a great of course but that might have been worth a couple of decent seasons.

Yes she’s incredibly vain but she absolutely owns it, so I don’t mind so much.

Empty Nest sucked but her daughter was always great on it. She was even better on GG crossovers like the Dan and Morothy ep.

Lee is the most on fire she’s been in decades, is she ready for a come back?

Lee AND Mrs. Roper???

I would love for Lee to return to the screen, but her roles would be limited since she's had such obvious work done. No one would buy her as another but a society matron or an aging movie star. They're not going to cast her as, say, a grandmother from Nebraska.

Plus, I get the feeling that she seems to be terrified of performing again due to vanity and fear of forgetting lines. As if most Hollywood actors' performances aren't pieced together line by line anyway.

She's 94 years old and looks like an alien. What the fuck "return to screen" is she gonna have?

[quote]She never was facile enough to portray big emotions in comedy or drama.

I don't think you know what "facile" means, but anyway you might want to go watch "Shampoo" and see why she won that Oscar. She could be pretty amazing.

Ha. What a fool is R99! Oh dear gramps.

Plaza Suite....

lets see what u fuks look/act like when ur 94......lee is respected beyond words in h wood and beyond, she is a major liberal for decades and has the biggest heart east of the pacific ocean.

we love ya babe

stay georgous !!!!!!

Soon we'll have a chance to see that scene at R101 with Matthew Broderick and Champion, the Wonder Horse!

I wish they would put Fay out on DVD or streaming.

The short clips on YouTube look pretty funny (no surprise, because it was a Witt-Thomas-Harris production).

[quote]Faye was anorexic in Network

Lee looked anorexic in "The Neon Ceiling". She was good and spooky as the psychic neighbor in "Mulholland Drive". Was she channeling Stevie Nicks?

Fox face.

wait till ur that age girl, she is dam koool and hot, and done good shit wid her life.

You're close to 80 years old yourself R107. An old white gay man. Why do you type like a teenage girl from 2009?

I hope this inspires a slew of other threads “Liza in The New Yorker,” “Olivia in AARP Magazine,” “Mary Kate and Ashley in Highlights” etc.

"Hope Hicks in Juggs".

"Catherine Zeta-Jones in Seventeen"

Taylor Swift in Diesel World.

I'm surprised that this topic hasn't been explored more by Hollywood (if I'm wrong, titles please! I'm finding all of this fascinating), Lee has a remarkable story, from the beginning of her career to the blacklist. Does anyone know of any documentaries that follow this era? She couldn't have been the only actress affected by having their prime years taken away, not to mention all of the men who had also lost out on larger careers because of Mccarthyism.

Betty Garret was another who was blacklisted at the time. I think a lot was based on her husband as well.

Garrett's husband Larry Parks was a particularly pitiful victim of McCarthyism, crying as he named names.

Just imagine: DETECTIVE STORY was made almost 70 years ago. Lee Grant's very shticky walk-on ("Shoplifter") garnered her the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Prize in 1952, which is even more unimaginable.