Actor Mia Farrow has revealed that she was scared by Hollywood icon Joan Crawford when she met the star earlier in her career.
Farrow, best known for her roles in Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Great Gatsby (1974), spoke about meeting various legends like Vivien Leigh and Katharine Hepburn, in a recent discussion with Interview magazine.
Speaking to Tony Award winner Cole Escola, Farrow opened up about an uncomfortable experience with Crawford, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 1946 for her role in Mildred Pierce.
Farrow, 80, explained that she met the star at Fox studios while she filming the TV series Peyton Place and Crawford was making the now acclaimed psychological-horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
Crawford at the time was married to Alfred Steele, who was then the president of Pepsi. As a result Crawford began sending large quantaties of the beverage to Farrow’s trailer.
“I don’t particularly like Pepsi Cola, but a lot of Pepsi Cola kept coming to my trailer, more than anyone would ever want. And then she came over to see me and I got a strange vibe from her,” Farrow explained.
Continuing, she said: “So I’m back in New York, and she knew my mother. I hung up people’s coats for my mom when they came into the house. And I hung her coat and out falls a flask of alcohol. She grabbed it like that, and she put it in her handbag. She drank quite a lot. Then she invited me to her apartment. I thought it was a party, but I arrived, and I was the only one there.”
Farrow, who was only 17 at the time, said that everything was green in Crawford’s apartment and there was “very low lighting”. Feeling uneasy about the scenario Farrow excused herself and pretended she was ill.
“So I just made up a lie that I wasn’t feeling very well and I didn’t want to give her any diseases. I think I said the word ‘diseases’ as I walked out of the room. I was scared of Ms Crawford.”
Crawford died in 1977, aged 71, having blazed a career as one of the magnetic and diverse actors of her generation. Her part in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is the stuff of Hollywood infamy due to the tensions between herself and co-star Bette Davis. The backstage drama between the pair was dramatised in the FX series Feud with Jessica Lange as Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Davis.
Farrow, meanwhile, was recently nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play at the Tony Awards for her part in The Roomate. Succession star Sarah Snook won the award for her expansive, one-woman take on The Picture of Dorian Gray.
