HELLO! SEPTEMBER 26, 1992, ANTHONY PERKINS INTERVIEW
Exclusive: The last interview given by the troubled star who found peace in family love at the end of his life.
It was a typically bright and sunny day in California when I met Anthony Perkins in June to talk about his life and film career. Although he looked painfully thin, drawn and much too old for his 60 years, I had no idea that this was to be his last conversation with a member of the press. There was still no mention of AIDS, from which he died last week, nor any reference to his bisexual past before he married his wife Berry, at the age of 41. With 19 years of marriage and two children between them, he seemed content to be with his family, and his love for and depedence on them was uppermost in his mind as he revealed to Hello!
Anthony, what was your first film role?
"The Actress (1953) with Jean Simmons and the great Spencer Tracy! I was lucky to be in such great company, but it was a long time ago."
You have co-starred with some of the biggest names in cinema since then.
"Ingrid Bergman--twice. Many years ago in Goodbye Again and much later in Murder on the Orient Express. Also Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in On the Beach, Shirley Booth in The Matchmaker, Melina Mercouri in Phaedra. Yeah, I've been lucky."
Not to mention the glamorous ladies!
"Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Tuesday Weld--quite a few."
And Janet Leigh, of course.
"In Psycho. Are we going to mention Psycho?"
Why not? It was your most celebrated film role.
"That's just the point. It is the only real regret I have about my life as an actor. To be remembered for just one role and one film--Norman Bates in Psycho. So if we are going to talk about that film, let's do it now. First of all, it was one of the cheapest movies ever made by Hitchcock. It was filmed by an ordinary television crew and as for Hitchcock directing it. The most famous scene of all--now called the most frightening movie sequence ever filmed--was not even directed by Hitchcock. It was staged by a special effects expert, Saul Bass, and I wasn't even present. The hands you saw on the screen slashing the shower curtain were the hands of a stand-in, and the blood gurgling down the plughole wasn't even blood. It was chocolate sauce! I was actually in New York when all that was being filmed in Hollywood and when I finally saw the finished film and what I had done to poor Janet Leigh in that shower, I was appalled and just as frightened as anybody else. Most people remember Psycho in color, even though it was a black and white movie. And at the time of its release it received very bad reviews. No one took it seriously."
Yet it dwelt in the minds of audiences and became a cult fim, which caused you to make a sequel some 23 years later. This must have been the longest wait for a sequel in cinematic history.
"Norman Bates simply refuses to die!" (Wry smile)
How do you feel about violent, bloodthirsty films?
"Psycho started a craze for hack 'em up movies which alienated many older moviegoers. The first ones like Halloween, were scary and just violent enough. Then came the excesses--and now kids are inured to it, which I'm not sure is healthy, even if it's box office. Like Hitchcock I know that psychological terror--the unseen, the possible--has always been far scarier than out-and-out gore. Hitchcock would never have agreed to any sequels. He called the very idea of a sequel 'crass'. But Psycho was a classic."
Tell us about your wife and your marriage.
"My wife, Berry, is actually the sister of Marisa Berenson and they're the grandaughters of the famous French couturier, Elsa Schiaparelli. We were married in 1973 in Cape Cod in Massachusetts. It was a major step for me. I was over 40 years old then and Berry was only 25."
How did you meet?
"We were introduced by a mutual friend. I had seen some pictures of her in a famous fashion magazine and even then she struck me as an exceptional girl. Without my knowledge, Berry had been a fan of mine for years and it was a mutual friend who decided we should get together. He bought two tickets for a Rolling Stones concert in New York, but we ended up together at Madison Square Garden with me at one end of that vast stadium and she at the other. A mix-up of seat numbers! But we did finally meet for dinner and it all happened from there on."
And your children?
"Two sons, Elvis, who's 16, and Osgood, who's 18. The latter is actually named after my own father, the actor Osgood Perkins."
Why were you so hesitant about marriage?
"Well, I had been a bachelor all my life and I had no idea what it would be like to be married. Looking back, I think it was the very idea of being married that scared me. So often in life what we are afraid of is not based on what we are really experiencing, but on what we think we're going to be experiencing. I have since learnt that is not a very productive line of activity. But after we were married, and when I finally knew I was going to be a father for the first time, that changed everything. It even changed the very pattern of my life. I became a more responsible person. Then Elvis came along, and I knew I had to keep working with two growing boys in the home."
You also seemed to have had other problems... of a more emotional nature. You had to see a psychiatrist for a number of years...
"Ah, yes, my couch years!"
Did you find psychoanalysis helpful?
"Yes, very. In every way."
Why did you think you needed treatment?
"Actors are not always the brightest of human beings as you probably know, and I felt that the way I was trying to deal with life and its problems was very narrow, very limited. It was difficult for me to communicate with people. In this area I was downright dim. But I finally got it right, I think. I know now that my family--my wife and my sons--are the most important people in my life and I just want to spend as much time as I can at home with my family."
"Which of the many other films you've made--over 45 including TV movies--stand out in your memory?
"Fear Strikes Out--a really good baseball movie. It was meant to star James Dean, but when Jimmy was killed, I got the role. Then there was Friendly Persuasion in which I played Gary Cooper's screen son, it was a wonderful experience working with him. He was very affectionate towards me, emotionally we seemed to have a lot in common. A fine man and a great actor. Pretty Poison was also a film I liked. Tuesday Weld was my co-star and although it was not seen by too many people, I liked it very much. And then there was Psycho."
I thought we weren't going to mention THAT film again?
"Perhaps, after all, I don't mind being remembered for only one film and one role. Maybe people may remember some of my other work because of it...
Yes, maybe Norman Bates will remind people that I did do other things. I even appeared on the Broadway stage a number of years ago in a play called Romantic Comedy, but when it came to the film version they cast Dudley Moore in the lead. But that is how things are in Hollywood today. Maybe I'll just stay home, rest and enjoy my family. I think I finally have my priorities right. It's not too late, is it?"
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