Miss Faye Dunaway: The LOST Voicemails

The last voicemail is the best, as she goes from 0 to 60 in less than a minute.

"Somebody better call me and clarify this, but don't you call me anymore!"

“He’s a terrible person, and everyone knows that.”

Say it, sistah!

I love these clebrities who have decades long careers, but think they can get away with 'editing' out the negative experiences in their careers - in this case, Dunaway's 'Mommie Dearest' and 'Sunset Blvd.'

Similarly, Diana Ross never wants to talk about the tension between the Supremes (Florence Ballard years) or her RCA years in the 80s. But her fans were witness to those times, and that's what they want to hear about as well - not just her solo career in the 70s.

Why did they put that stupid sound effect in the background?

R3 I can understand celebrities not wanting to talk about flop projects or painful times in their lives. It would be like sitting down with a friend and having them say, "Tell me about that time you got fired for being bad at your job five years ago." Who would want to rehash that?

Still, I think Faye took the completely wrong approach with Mommie Dearest. If she had a sense of humor, instead of distancing herself from the project, she should have embraced its campiness and played it up. She should have done the interview circuit and told funny stories about her experience. She should have shown up to midnight screenings of the movie and fully celebrated the movie's absurdity. She could have gotten tons of mileage out of it and turned lemons into lemonade. Instead, her steadfast refusal to discuss it has only made people want to know more about her experience making it, and she's made it into an albatross around her neck for decades now.

I’m gonna take a shot each time she says BRANDO. Or MOMMIE DEAREST.

R6 I understand what you're saying in the first paragraph, but ultimately - get it out of the way and bring closure to it for your fans, especially stuff from the very distant past. Fans hear you talk about it once or twice, they get tired of it and everyone moves on. It's no longer 'the uninvited ghost' in the interview.

These voicemails would have been huge hits for drag shows in the 90s.

Unfortunately neither the new queens or the audiences know who she is anymore

Didn’t Faye say she based her performance in MOMMIE DEAREST on Kabuki tradition? She’s NUTS.

R9 Well, she did wear Kabuki makeup in the wire hanger scene.

When you are grasping for good references from Brando and Depp, that’s a bad sign.

In her defense, R11, this was at a time when Depp had a respectable rep. Nowhere NEAR where it is today.

The problem is, Faye Dunaway does not have any sense of humor.

R13, you are right on that and also no perspective. She had an impressive career and should just blow off Mommie D and Sunset Boulevard with a laugh and toss of her head.

Ms Dunaway said at one point that she had been given a bipolar diagnosis, and that is believable!

She really had a hard-on for Brando. I lost count of the number of times she mentioned him.

I don't think she's being unreasonable here, the guy is taking the piss out of her and seems to have tricked her into something she realised was making her look back and not focusing on all the positives.

R14 Actors are forever associated with 2 or 3 memorable parts they played and the public's curiosity about those parts is never satiated. Think Swanson and Norma Desmond or Patti Duke and Neeley O'Hara. Dunaway is delusional. Why would anyone ask her questions about some obscure Costa Rican movie that no one saw?

*bad.

She seems to think she's the only actor who is badgered to talk about negative and controversial subjects. And if Mommie Dearest was an 'exploitation movie' based on an 'exploitation book' why did she sign on? It makes her sound stupid.

On the other hand she never got really rude or mean and was actually pretty effective communicating her frustration and dismay. She takes herself terribly seriously but there was something kind of endearing about praising her own performance in a movie no one saw.

[quote] Why would anyone ask her questions about some obscure Costa Rican movie that no one saw?

Fuck you!

She never screams or curses in these messages, she's just very direct and the tone of voice says it all. Of course she’s very full of herself but also intelligent.

Being no mental health specialist, but having PLENTY of experience in the matter, I would say it is more likely Dunaway has Borderline Personality DIsorder.

“ Why would anyone ask her questions about some obscure Costa Rican movie that no one saw?”

It was the hit all over Europe and Cannes

R22, she’s screaming on a VM before 7 AM.

It can be argued as to whether that was screaming exactly, and it was articulate as speech goes. But her state of Most High Dudgeon was off the chain and it's so repetitive and also repetitive, plus repetitive and she also kept repeating herself....

She wasn't well in the head.

Can someone clarify who she is screaming at, and what is the interview/documentary she's babbling about?

R27 I always assumed it was the producer of one of those A&E Biography shows that were popular in the late 90s, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.

R9, that's believable. Like in the no wire hangers scene or the one where she wrestles with Christina.

These aren’t as iconic as the original.

I've posted this elsewhere but her Joan Crawford was uncannily like my own borderline mother, poised and confident in public but an emotionally disregulated freak in private. When she went off on you you were torn between mortal terror and wanting to laugh in her face. Whether or not it was just drawing on her own craziness, it was a valid piece of acting and I'm sorry she's gotten so much shit for it.

Yeah, R3! And among many other things, Miss Streisand claimed over and over in her autobiography that she quit smoking at age 8 (we’re supposed to laugh). BUT there are numerous photos of Babs smoking. Does she think we’re fucking idiots?

[quote] These aren’t as iconic as the original.

Don't call us.

We'll call you....

Faye Dunaway is showing it all in new documentary! (Darlings are you ready)

Faye Dunaway Talks about Christina Crawford's Lies

R5, please. A celebrity does not like unpleasant parts of their career? TOUGH. They’re a celebrity. Famous actors/singers have far more opportunities and make far more money than most of us. To avoid talking about a part of their life or career is one thing, to try to ERASE it is unacceptable.

R31, this is why Faye's performance is a great one. It is both funny and scary. That's really how a lot of borderline and bipolar people are.

What little homosexual boy is releasing these?! I'm damned mad.

I should’ve known you’d know where to find the voice AND the males!

Dunaway gets a lot of undeserved vitriol. She's a force of nature and reportedly weighs her restaurant food on a dietetic scale to stay thin.

I love her.

Faye did a ton of promotion for Mommie Dearest when it was first released and discussed it at length. Years later, she discussed it at length in her autobiography. She then discussed it on her episode of Inside the Actors Studio. I don't know what more people want her to do.

And aside from Rutanya Alda, who else has been out there speaking on the film? Read the book about the making of the film. It was a miserable experience for all involved, and Diana Scarwid almost left Hollywood because of it.

I love the way she toots her own horn: "I was brilliant in that, I was wonderful in that..."

Good for her. I'm tired of false modesty.

[quote] Being no mental health specialist, but having PLENTY of experience in the matter, I would say it is more likely Dunaway has Borderline Personality DIsorder.

Both things can be true. She can have BPD and be bipolar.

[quote]She should have shown up to midnight screenings of the movie and fully celebrated the movie's absurdity.

Just like Joan showed up at movie houses with an axe to promote "Straightjacket."

Faye is a nasty person. Mark Consuelos is STILL laughing that she appeared on Kelly & Mark with MISSING TEETH! He had a hard time controlling his laughter. You don’t go on national tv with missing teeth, Faye.

When she toured in "Master Class" they did a week in Dayton, and she was a total monster to the crew, the local publicity staff, and even the ushers. When the show left down, they printed up T Shirts that said "I was Dunaway by Faye." Dunaway found about the shirts and threatened suit and demanded that they all be destroyed, and she be sent proof of their destruction.

[quote]It was the hit all over Europe and Cannes

So who was the audience for this interview ? Did she ever ask the interviewer where the interview would be printed ?

If it was for a European audience, then fine - focus on the movie which was a hit there.

If it's for an American audience, no one cares. If Americans cared about the movie, it would've been a hit here.

Most importantly, it was a hit in Costa Rica with all the top critics there.

[quote] I don't know what more people want her to do.

People want her to candidly talk about how she felt when the film bombed and audiences laughed at her but Dunaway is so controlled about every word she utters that it's clear she's hiding the most painful and perhaps the most interesting part of her participation in the movie.

Didn’t you cunts see my HIT documentary this year?

Didn’t you cunts see my HIT documentary this year?

I love how they could only get three people to be interviewed for her documentary. No one can stand her. Her MAGA son had to fill in.

Drew Droege once said of Los Angeles, "You're nobody in this town if you don't have your own Faye Dunaway anecdote."

Her comment in the third message about the fans finding the Depp and Brando movies more interesting than Lloyd Webber and Mommie…

Uh-uh.

[quote]People want her to candidly talk about how she felt when the film bombed and audiences laughed at her

And how many actresses would actually sit and talk about such a thing? You see Streep, Close, Roberts or Streisand doing that?

Dunaway has her issues, but her reluctance to allow her multifaceted career to be defined by one movie is not one of them.

I'd personally would be more interested in hearing her takes on The Champ, First Deadly Sin, Wicked Lady, Supergirl and Ordeal by Innocence. The late 70's, early 80's was an interesting time in Dunaway's career. Her post Oscar win didn't seem to boost her career the way it should have. I'm curious as to why she chose some of the projects she did.

[quote]Drew Droege once said of Los Angeles, "You're nobody in this town if you don't have your own Faye Dunaway anecdote."

Or Sally Kirkland. Or Angelyne.

[quote] And how many actresses would actually sit and talk about such a thing? You see Streep, Close, Roberts or Streisand doing that?

Yes I do, certainly Meryl Streep who can be very self-deprecating, and the rest too because they all have a sense of humor. But besides that none of them had a bomb like Mommie Dearest in her career where people laughing at her performance became part of the social conversation.

R55 = Faye Dunaway

R45 Wait. Did Mark Consuelos actually say something about Faye's missing teeth?

I’m sure a lot of the criticism Faye Dunaway receives is entirely valid. (I love the story about the T-shirts in Dayton, Ohio!)

But I listened to those voicemails and never heard her screaming. Not once.

Oh, she was annoying and repetitive (“Brando Brando Brando Depp Brando”). But she didn’t scream and didn’t even seem at all out of control.

I bet there are some juicy unauthorised biographies that will be written after her death.

R60 I agree, but always remember that people hear what they hope to hear, not actually hear.

R61, a biography after one’s death CANNOT be authorized

R63 Depends whether it was authorized by the subject before his / her death. If Dunaway authorizes me to write her biography today (and we go through all the legal stuff with the publisher) and croaks two weeks from now, it's still considered authorized upon publication at a later date.

Don't call us.

We'll call you.

[quote]Yeah, [R3]! And among many other things, Miss Streisand claimed over and over in her autobiography that she quit smoking at age 8 (we’re supposed to laugh). BUT there are numerous photos of Babs smoking. Does she think we’re fucking idiots?

Barbra smoked off and on in the 60s and 70s, possibly the 80s. She was never a daily, habitual smoker.

Barbra smoked in the video for Left In the Dark, the craptastic power balled written by Jim Steinman, trying to duplicate the success of Steinman's other craptastic composition Total Eclipse Of the Heart, which Bonnie Tyler had had a monster hit with the year before.

R66, that's probably why her voice is still good. Whereas Mariah and Whitney couldn't sing that well past 40.

Mariah has never smoked.

R57 Meryl has had quite a few turkeys. And her accents were quite often a public joke in the 80's and 90's.

R69, apparently we are both wrong. Mariah smoked between the ages of 12 and 18. She stopped and apparently gained some octaves back (per AI).

Barbra has a similar relationship with What's Up Doc? that Faye has with Mommie Dearest. Neither seems to understand why their respective movies have resonated with the public the way they have. And both loathe talking about them.

R72 The difference here is that Dunaway turned in an absolutely horrendous performance in Mommie Dearest, while Streisand turned in arguably her best comedic performance in What's Up, Doc?

R72, thank god for Elizabeth Berkley. She really celebrates Showgirls now after she was humiliated for her performance in the movie. But it take her a while to get there. Faye will never get there, unfortunately. I do think her criticism of the movie is correct though--the director did not do enough to reign the movie in. Her performance is by far the best thing about the movie. That scene where she tells Christina she is broke is one of the best in the whole movie and people don't really talk about it.

Every time she called a LA-based decorating store, she got put on store-wide speakerphone.

After reading all the posts and watching the videos, I think Faye is actually very insecure and fragile. I feel a bit sorry for her that she cannot appreciate and enjoy her substantial achievements.

Wasn't Faye acknowledged as Bi-Polar in that recent documentary?

Is there really an audience for a Faye Dunaway biography though?

Yes, r77.

R74, two of the actresses said that Faye needs to embrace Mommie Dearest and apparently she is now. Ten years ago she was working on a book for it and ask Rutanya Alda to work on it with her. She discussed the film in her documentary too.

Faye gave her Mommie Dearest performance in Evita too so I don’t think you can really blame the director. People walked off the set of MD because of her. She wouldn’t be told what to do. She would leave her trailer until they agreed to make Terry O’Neill producer.

It's easy for Berkley to embrace Showgirls because that's all she has, r74. Dunaway is a Oscar-winning former movie star. Of course she's pissed that people keep asking her about Mommy Dearest. I agree that she should be proud of her performance but I can also understand why she hates talking about it.

R82, I can see both sides of it. Berkley was humiliated for Showgirls FAR more than Dunaway was for Mommie Dearest, so I can see why she'd go either way. But Dunaway probably feels Mommie Dearest killed her career as an A-list actress which is why it's hard for her to talk about it.

R64, authorized means the subject can control content. A dead person cannot censor a book.

R73, what kills me about Streisand and What’s up Doc was her excuse now and back THEN was that she doesn’t “understand” screwball comedy. But seven years later she produced The. Main Event, saying in her book that she liked it because it was like an old fashioned screwball comedy. WTF?

getting back to it....Anyone know what show/magazine/journalist she was leaving these messages for?

Babs is a goddamn nightmare to work with. Beyond cruel but she plays the misogyny cars. No, Barb, you’re a cunt.

*wouldn’t leave her trailer.

WOW, R87, misogyny cars!

R73 Barbra doesn't talk about What's Up Doc not because she's embarrassed but because she didn't believe in the movie while filming it and stupidly decided against getting points in exchange for a smaller paycheck, which the producers had offered her. When the movie became a megahit, she was stuck with a smallish (for Babs) paycheck while everyone else was laughing all the way to the bank. I think she's still irked by that and she still doesn't get the movie. Her commentary track on the DVD is pathetic. I think she only sayd two or three things and then crickets.

* says

Berkeley at some point married Ralph Lauren's very hot nephew and thus doesn't really have to work. Faye wanted to keep her status. Eventually, Berkeley really made lemonade out of lemons and has my respect. She also has never trashed Verhoeven and by all accounts enjoyed making the movie.

R81 Faye plays Faye playing Joan in every role.

That's why I'm mystified as to why people think she's some kind of genius actress. The woman doesn't know the meaning of the word "nuance."

When you have a filmography like Dunaway's (with three certifiable classics, Bonnie & Clyde, Chinatown, and Network) and all anyone wants to talk about is Mommie Dearest, I can understand why she'd be pissed.

Faye was never the DRAW in those films, R94. She just happened to be in them.

R94 Don't forget about Dunston Checks In!

She was the lead actress in all three films and was nominated for Best Actress (and won it for Network).

Discredit her legacy all you like, but the proof is in the pudding, dear.

Is that true, R75??

If so, I think that's damned hilarious!

In the last one is she calling to say don't call me?

[quote] Faye was never the DRAW in those films, [R94]. She just happened to be in them.

One of the dumbest things I have ever read on DL.

R94, I sort of agree but her performance in Mommie Dearest towers over all the other ones. I love her performance in Network but her role in Mommie Dearest is so imposing that people now think of Faye Dunaway whenever Joan Crawford is mentioned. Pauline Kael sort of foreshadowed this in her review of the movie.

The woman doesn't know the meaning of the word "nuance."

R93 - I always bring up her 10 minute monologue in The Disappearance of Aimee when she tells her story about being kidnapped as one of the best acting pieces she has ever done.

R76 That’s my takeaway from all the evidence as well. One person called Faye “her own worst enemy” and I sadly agree. It’s tragic in a way.

Wow, she's really obsessed by her association with Marlon Brando - how pathetic!

Name one movie Faye opened as the lone star. She didn’t bring people to the box office based on her presence.

Hey, at least Faye is never boring. Old Hollywood actresses didn’t have much range either. They played a persona. People went to see them. Storyline was secondary.

Never boring??? Faye has no personality on her own, no one ever went to a movie to see her.

Faye definitely had range--Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, Network, Mommie Dearest, Barfly, etc. are all different performances no matter how some people here want to group them together as "the same".