Adrian Wootton: Would you please welcome, Tony Curtis.
[standing ovation]
Tony Curtis: Hello everybody. Happy to see you all. It's wonderful for me to be able to see glimpses of these old movies [referring to clips of The Defiant Ones and Sweet Smell of Success]. It's very moving for me - there I am, a kid, and here I am, a man. Thank you for your kindness and your friendship.
AW: Tony, welcome. Can we start at the start - can you tell us about how you became an actor and got to work for Universal?
TC: Acting is something that we all practice at some time in our lives. We're different people to our mothers, fathers, our friends, people that we hung out together with, people that didn't like us or we didn't like them. We readjust ourselves. And as a boy in New York City, I was very aware of that. My parents were Hungarian immigrants; my father was a tailor and we lived in the back of a tailor store. And that was my first inkling of what it was like to be raised in America. It had a profound effect on me - I saw different people coming in all the time with different attitudes and I liked it. And as I grew older, I found that I was able to use something inside of me to get some sympathy if I wanted it. I used to shine shoes, and I would use a waif-like look. I'd get a dime and I'd be as happy as could be.
I did a movie with Barbara Stanwyck, The Lady Gambles, in which I played a bellboy. It was a small part for me and I came into her hotel room with an envelope. I showed her the envelope and said, "It looks like it's followed you halfway across the country." With that she gave me a tip and I gave her the envelope. Before we did that shot, the director came walking all the way behind the set, he looked at me and said, "You're looking good." And he said, "All you want is a tip." That was a revelation to me. There I was, doing this one line in a movie, and the director gave me the very sense of what I wanted and what I needed. All I wanted was a tip. That taught me a big lesson - how every line, everything you do in life, should have a motive and a reason. Every one of us should have a motive and a reason, most of the time, to accomplish all the things that we want in life. And since then I've tried to bring interesting stuff to the screen. I hope I've been successful. I love this profession. I've made 147 movies in 55 years.
AW: Can we talk a little bit about Burt Lancaster. We saw him there with you in Sweet Smell of Success, but I believe you met him on your first movie, Criss Cross, when you were a rumba dancer.
TC: Burt Lancaster was a very powerful and intriguing person. That essence of what he was, is the very thing that you and I see on the screen when we watch him. He brought a sense of who he was to the part and with that steel-grey voice of his, he did all kinds of things. Comedies, dramas, action movies. We did a movie called Trapeze, with Burt, Gina Lollobrigida, me and a whole slew of good people. We shot it in Paris. And that was when I first met Burt. I was lucky that I was able to become friends with all the people that I worked with, there was never any problem for me. I just wanted to have a good time, and I did. I'm so privileged and lucky to be sitting in front of all you today.
AW: Am I right in thinking that Sweet Smell of Success was a tough movie to make? Were there lots of disagreements among the director and producers?
TC: Alexander Mackendrick directed it. Excellent Scottish director. He and Burt didn't get along. But Sandy Mackendrick made some fabulous films - comedies - and I could sense that about him. When we did Sweet Smell I could sense what he was hoping for, which was me to unzip myself, step out, and give him everything I could be able to give him as an actor. And when he got that, he knew it was enough. He could tell me and point out things that he wanted me to do and say, which I did. Burt was the same way. All these people were. If you could have a history of all of these actors and actresses... if by some miracle we had Cary Grant here, he would be able to tell you what motivated him in those early days. Wonderful.
AW: In the 1950s, you made not just blockbusters, but you also made some films that had quite important social messages. We saw a clip from The Defiant Ones, which was a very brave film for that period of 1950s America. You playing a racist convict chained to a black man.
TC: That's life. We're all brought up in a world that isn't the best place for us to be in once in a while. There are so many problems and we try to overcome them all. So these movies use these capsules of pain and anger, joy and love, to bring us, the audience, moments of joy and pleasure. And that's what they are. For me to do a movie like The Defiant Ones, I felt very strongly about that. I feel strongly that we, all of us, are brothers and sisters, and nothing interferes with that except our education, our background, where we grew up and how we should do it. If you eliminated all those negatives and gave us an open view of what life would be like, it would be different. Jack [Lemmon] and I dressed up like girls in Some Like It Hot. Nobody wanted to do that; they never made a movie like that before. Two leading men dressed up like women? Do you mind? There was enough of that going on in the streets without having it on the screen. You wouldn't believe the mail I got after that movie. "At last, Tony, at last!" They'd send me limousines, diamond necklaces and bracelets. I didn't realise how many doors it would open. [audience laughs] And everywhere I went I said, "No, I don't wear dresses at home."
AW: Let's talk about Some Like It Hot. You've been asked many times, but I'm sure the audience would love to hear you say something about Marilyn Monroe.
TC: Marilyn was an enigma. She was very difficult to read. Marilyn and I were lovers in 1949, 1950, 1951. I had just got to California, and I was under contract to Universal. Marilyn was just out there, hoping to get a contract. She was wearing see-through blouses then. I had a Buick convertible with Dynaflow drive. I picked her up at the studio one day and said, "Can I drive you into town?" She got in the car with me. And when we were going down the freeway, I adjusted the rearview mirror so I could see her. She was beautiful. Her hair was red, beautiful skin.
I didn't know too much about her, but I got to know her. She wasn't the brightest person in the world - that didn't make a difference one way or the other - but she was giving and kind. And that's what got her in trouble. She was so giving and kind to all of these people she met that she found herself doing these things that she didn't want to do. I, on the other hand, I was lucky. I was a guy, so I could ride horses, pull pistols out of my coat pocket, play gangsters. And we started going together. I'd like to tell you if I may, we were nuts about each other, looking at each other. I could see that she and I had a chance to become famous or good in our profession. A friend of mine, Howard Duff, was an actor and he had a pal with a house on the beach in Malibu, and they gave me the keys to it. We went there for the first night that we were together, with the sea pounding in. I tried to make dinner for us - I put a steak out on the outside grill, and a lot of sand got on it. But I acted like there was none and so did she. Boy did we fall in love!
It was great. Those couple of years that we knew each other are very appealing to me, it was an important relationship for me. We were kids, but we were willing to explore each other. They were wonderful days for us, but then we got separated. She started to do her career and I started to do mine, and the only time we got together was if there was some party at some studio and we ran across each other. Or when we met on Some Like It Hot. By that time, we'd been off and I'd been married about seven times. [audience laughs]
AW: I thought it was only once at that time.
TC: I don't even remember anymore. But we all got along OK. On the movie, she was tough. I could see that all of the anger and frustration that was in her in those early years were now grinding at her. I felt bad for her.
AW: I don't know if you said it or not, but where did that phrase, "It was like kissing Hitler" come from?
TC: No, no, no, no, that was such bullshit. We went to the rushes, and in that big love scene on the couch, someone said to me, "Hey, what's it like kissing Marilyn?" I said, "It's like kissing Hitler. What are you doing asking me such a stupid question?" That's where it came from. But those bums who try to make up something that they don't have by watching movies, turned it into nonsense. It's all nonsense. All those stories that you hear about people, really examine it. I'm telling you, look at it carefully and listen to what they're saying, and you'll be able to come to your own conclusions. If you'll excuse me, I loved making love to Marilyn. In my defence, I enjoyed everything I've done. There wasn't anything that I didn't like. But I've tried to live a straight and honest life. If I hadn't, I wouldn't be sitting here 55 years after and be able to feel happy. And to hear your expression of affection for me, that means a lot to me. I love you all.
AW: One more question about Some Like It Hot. I think Billy Wilder admitted this, the Cary Grant impersonation was entirely your idea, it wasn't in the script.
TC: No, no. We were getting ready for this sequence at the beach where I trip her and she falls. We came up with that on the first day. And I said to Billy, "How do you want me to play the millionaire?" And he said, "Well, no one's heard your voice except the audience earlier, as Joe, so if you wanted to come back again as Joe you could, and get away with it." But I said to myself, [puts on Cary Grant voice] "I love Cary Grant. I don't see why I shouldn't do Cary Grant." So I said to Billy, "Tell me what you think." So we started the scene, and he said, "No, no, that doesn't really sound like Cary Grant." But it's different. And Billy liked it. He said, "What are you doing?" And I went, [Cary Grant voice] "Don't you know who I am?" [audience laughs] He ran the picture for Cary Grant, and when the picture was done, he asked Cary, "How do you like Tony's impression of you?" And Cary said, [Cary Grant voice] "I don't talk like that!" It was too good, working with that guy.
Growing up in New York City, the only guy I loved was Cary Grant. He had those great-looking clothes, he knew how to light a match for a lady, help put her coat on, open the door, kiss her. He knew how to do all that stuff, I didn't have to learn anything. So all I had to do was pick up a girl and then I did my Cary Grant. Well, almost. And then, he did a submarine movie called Destination Tokyo. So I joined the Navy and the submarine service when the war came about. I was 16 when I enlisted and went to submarine school for about four months, then to San Diego, then to Hawaii, Guam, Saipan. And all of a sudden, there I was in a submarine. In that closed environment, I half expected to see Cary coming along. It was wonderful. I was there through that whole experience - I saw the signing of the treaty in Tokyo Bay, then we sailed all the way back to Norfolk, Virginia, then to Sampson, New York, where I was discharged from the Navy. Three years and two months. And then the government of America, they were like my sweet mother, they gave me the ability to go to any college I wanted to. I'd never finished high school, but I wanted to be an actor. So they found an acting school for me, which they paid for, $10,000 for two years, and I was getting $90 a month, which was enough for me to maintain myself. So my mother and America paid for my education as an actor. Ain't that neat? All us young guys who'd served our country. It was generous, I felt. A year and a half later I was on my way to California and under contract, at 22 years old. I didn't have to kiss anybody or kiss anything.
AW: Can I go back to Cary Grant? You were an admirer of his, and then you got to know him, and you made a wonderful, very successful comedy with him, Operation Petticoat, in 1959. What was it like working with him?
TC: The best. He was everything that I had got to know personally. There was a photograph of him at the RKO Building in New York City, beautiful photo. I took it off the wall, took it to California with me, and got him to sign it. He said, "To Tony, Welcome on the trolleycar named Desire and Success. I'm sure your trip will be long and enduring." That moved me so much, that this guy would pick me up like that. And we were great friends from then on. And then we got to do Operation Petticoat. They were going to get Robert Taylor, they had two or three other excellent actors, but when I heard that maybe Cary Grant would be available, I just wanted it to be. Look at how that whole circle came about - there I was in a submarine, a quartermaster, a signalman, in my quarters, and I would turn and look down the corridor and half expect to see Cary. Then I made Operation Petticoat, and there I was in the quartermaster's office, and I looked, and here came Cary. That was too good.
Then there were the girls I married. I'm married to a beautiful woman named Jilly. Jilly two years ago decided to devote her life to saving horses from slaughter. I don't know if any of you have seen it, but they pull up a horse by its hind legs, cut its throat, then let it lay like that. Then they sell the meat all over the world, and Jilly didn't want that to happen. So I bought 40 acres of land not far from where we live and she's built this ranch called Shiloh, which is Hebrew for "place of peace". 150 to 200 horses. So now I have a family of horses. My life is very full; my wife makes it so. I'm 82 years old and I'm having the best time I've ever had in my life. I want to share that with all of you. Find a way to do that, find a way to be at peace with yourself, to enjoy the little things in life. Make them your own.
AW: Can I ask you about another collaborator of yours on some of the big epics of the 1950s and 60s - you worked with Kirk Douglas on both The Vikings and on Spartacus, where you worked with Stanley Kubrick. Can you talk a little about Kirk Douglas?
TC: Kirk Douglas was very tough. He was a tough guy in the movies. Everybody knew it before he came to work. But he wasn't as tough as Stanley Kubrick. [audience laughs] Stanley made all of us work hard together. I very much believe in Kirk Douglas as a friend and an actor - he's been like another father to me on so many occasions. He's a kind and considerate man, tough and strong. The combination of him is really the best. He's Polish from what I understand, his parents were immigrants, he came from New York. A very kind and generous man, but a powerful actor. You see it in his films, when he gets lit up, get out of his way. And he liked me because I stood up to him - we'd go nose to nose, and he had a bigger nose than I. I enjoyed it a lot. I was a handsome boy, a very handsome young man, bright blue eyes, mmm. [audience laughs] I would make trucks skid off the road. Anyway, girls were never a problem; the problem was me. But a lot of guys didn't like me because I made it look so easy, but it wasn't easy for me or anybody. When you're 24, it's not easy. You haven't reached anywhere that you want to be, so my looks helped me get in the movies, and I'm privileged that my parents came up with what I look like. What they did I'll never know and I don't care. [audience laughs]
AW: You also had a legendary haircut. I'm wearing my Elvis tie because you gave Elvis the haircut.
TC: Yes, Elvis raised his hair like mine. I was making a picture at Paramount, and Elvis was on the lot. He had these big trailers, about a hundred feet long. I liked to get out, put on a sweater and shorts and walk around on the backlot, it was a lot of fun. I'd look at the sets and think where I remembered that from. I was immersed in movies, I just love them, and look at what a break they gave me. Made me a fortune. It's fabulous. So I walked by his trailer, the door opened, I looked up, and there was Elvis. And he grabs me and pulls me in. And he said, "Mr Curtis, I want you to know what a fan I am. I used to watch your movies in Tennessee." And I said, "Please, don't call me Mr Curtis." And this handsome kid looks at me and said, "So what do you want me to call you?" And I said, "Just call me Tony." And I said, "So what do I call you?" And he said, "Mr Presley." [audience laughs] Bam, was he funny. We had a great time together. We passed a few girls between us, that's what guys do.
I think you're getting an impression of what my life in the movies has been like. But I've had my troubles - I lost a son, Nicholas, through an overdose of heroin when he was 32. And I had a brother who was a schizophrenic; he couldn't manage and he died. When I was 12 and my brother Julius was nine, he was hit by a truck in New York City and died. So as a kid growing up, I had run across these unfortunate experiences. But I think of these guys now in my life, how kind and how much pleasure they brought me, just by their behaviour. I used to take Julius to Central Park in the summertime. That was during the Depression, and in Central Park, there was a place called Hooverville. Corrugated metal, boxes, cardboard had permeated itself in this section of the park, and all the guys who couldn't afford anything lived there in Central Park. It was devastating to see that in Central Park. When things were not going so well, my parents put Julius and me in an orphanage for about three weeks. It was a right on 62nd Street, big room with a lot of beds in it. I wet the bed mercilessly. It was horrible. When I got up in the morning, all these people would be standing around my bed. I couldn't help it. They wouldn't give me and my brother chocolate cookies at night because they didn't want us to drink milk, any liquids after five o'clock. Well, were we thirsty.
AW: We're doing a big tribute to Frank Sinatra here next month. Frank Sinatra was someone you worked with - you made Danny Wilson, Kings Go Forth...
TC: He was a great friend and very supportive. All these guys we're talking about, were 10-12 years older than I was. So I was 22, these guys were 32 or 34, and had had a lot of success. Frank was like that. Frank had a girlfriend called Carmen, and after he busted up with Ava [Gardner], Carmen moved in with him. And he had the most incredible hi-fi equipment - well, he was Frank Sinatra. And he had music playing all day and night, his songs would play. He and Carmen made love one night, and he said, "How was that?" And she said, "I loved the music." [audience laughs] At one point, she said to him, "Who's your favourite movie star?" And he said, "Tony Curtis." "Why?" And Frank said, "Because he beat the fucking odds." That was the first time I understood why Frank liked me. Searching for a career was not an easy thing.
AW: What was he like to work with?
TC: We made a movie together, Kings Go Forth.
AW: He didn't like to do too many takes, I understand.
TC: No, no more than usual. Frank would kind of get it right, and if the camera crew got it right, they'd print it. But Frank didn't want to waste any time. He wanted to make it and get out. One Friday afternoon, he said to me, "We're going to Vegas. Tonight." I wore my driving gloves, a chauffeur's cap, all the way to Vegas. Jack Entratter, who used to run the Sands Hotel, he'd be in the car. Frank was sitting on my right, smoking one cigarette after another and the tossing them out into the desert. It took two, two and half hours. In Vegas, we had the best time. I liked him a lot, our souls were very much alike. It was difficult for him to live by rules, I can't explain it, he just didn't like the idea that he was asked to do certain things.
AW: I think we'll open it up now to the audience.
Question 1: How disappointed were you about not winning an Oscar for The Defiant Ones? Do you think it's related to the incident with Howard Koch's wife in the park?
TC: I was very disappointed that I was only nominated once. Sidney and I had to share that nomination. I didn't like it, never mentioned for any of the other movies. I thought a few of them deserved mention. I felt very bad about the movie business, the fact that they were so shallow and that it was such a machine. You had to invest so much money to buy trade ads, so much operating money. Then, and only then, if you were an important elector, coming out of a studio, would you be nominated or even win the Academy Award. When we were nominated for The Defiant Ones, David Niven won it for Separate Tables. It was so diametrically opposed, and I felt a little shaken by that and I've never forgiven them. Big deal. But the kind of response I got from you darling people earlier tonight, I don't need more than that. That's my Academy. And that's how I've felt for every one of my movies, even Deep Throat. [audience laughs]
Question 2: What do you think of today's movies? Do you think the golden age of Hollywood is gone?
TC: It's all golden ages - a camera with an f-stop, with film in it and that captures the way people move, is in itself a miracle. We could see people in the 1920s walking around real fast, not saying anything. We were capturing the human condition, the way people behaved. And all movies do that, contribute in that way. And we must look at movies like that, the professional ones and the ones we take at home.
AW: I thought you should have won an Oscar for The Boston Strangler, which we're going to show a clip of. Could you say a little about making that movie, because it's a brave movie, even now. It's a really powerful film.
TC: Thank you. What a movie that was. They dyed my hair black. I wore black contact lenses, I had a nose built for me. I put on about 15-20 pounds for it and wore heavy Navy shoes so my steps would be a little more clumsy. I decided to do that because I knew Laurence Olivier. He was a great friend to me.
AW: You were in Spartacus together.
TC: Yes, but I knew him before that. And he once told me, "If you want to play a character on the screen, dress it first. Dress yourself up as you think this guy would look like. You'll find it so much easier to do." Wise words. I'm surprised these acting schools don't teach that. They're worried about pronunciation and attitude, they shouldn't. Dress up like you want to be, like I did in Some Like It Hot. [audience laughs] That was easy, put on a dress, a girdle, stockings, high heels and lipstick. If you ain't a woman, you never will be.
Question 3: How do you feel about being on the cover of Sgt Pepper?
TC: I was so moved by that. In my meetings with the Beatles, Paul told me that when they were kids, just starting out, they wanted to come up with a different kind of hairstyle, and my name was mentioned as someone who wore hair more like clothing.
Question 4: I'm researching a book on films that have seemingly disappeared, and one of them is Six Bridges to Cross, which I thought was an amazing movie, with George Nader and I think Sammy Davis sang the title song. Can you tell me a little about that film?
TC: Six Bridges to Cross. So glad you brought it up. The six bridges are in Boston, and the only way to get in and out of Boston was on these bridges. There was this incredible robbery, and it only made it because of these six bridges to drive across. I loved it very much, I loved the character I played, the tension and the stress that the picture brought, and the reality of it. Joe Pevney who directed it did a wonderful job with it. This was a minor movie made at Universal. All the movies made at Universal were minor. I'm not bumming them, I'm just telling you the facts. I know the difference between a movie made at Universal and a movie made at Columbia, with Harry Cohn running it. It was different. But somehow we managed to break out of the stigma of the Universal B-pictures and made [Six Bridges to Cross]. Thank you for bringing it up.
Question 5: Talk about your leading ladies, the ones you liked and the ones you didn't like?
TC: I felt when I first started in movies that it'd be nice to keep a score of all the leading ladies I made love to. Not leading men! There were a few who were ready to do it, but "Not for me, Josephine!" I had a good record for a little while, but then all of a sudden mothers would start showing up on the set. And I thought maybe I'd better abdicate from that little bit of fun. But you know, my dear friends, to have a luscious, beautiful creature in your arms, and I can feel her hand now, with beautiful bosoms and neck and hair, and long legs. It's very tough to maintain. Lucky for me, Marilyn and I had a relationship before we did Some Like It Hot. I was able to refer to that instead of putting someone else's face on her.
Question 6: Who was your favourite leading lady?
TC: Janet Leigh, who I married. Lovely woman, and two lovely children from her - Kelly and Jamie. Jamie an excellent actress. Natalie Wood, very moving and giving woman, I liked her very much. We became great friends. Marilyn, although Marilyn was difficult making a movie, underneath it all there was a kindness. Mamie Van Doren. With all her voluptuousness, she was a sweet, sweet girl. Still is. That's about them.
Question 7: What was it like to work with Billy Wilder on Some Like It Hot? And how did you manage to walk in those heels?
TC: Easy. There were two female impersonators who came on the set to work with us. Jack never could keep those high heels on. I wore these three and a half inch heels and never fell over. I'd fall into walls, but I never fell over. [audience laughs] I could tell, just like I said in the movie, the weight [on women] is just distributed differently. So I didn't find it difficult. Billy Wilder was a very interesting man. He was Austrian, came to America very early and started making movies. He had an incredible touch when it comes to making movies. When you go over his films, you realise he made every conceivable kind of movie. I'm happy to say that Some Like It Hot was perhaps his best movie, even though he made a slew of brilliant films. He was a kind man, very brittle and very hard-nosed. He could see through life very easily. He made nervous wrecks of all of us because he could tell by our behaviour what our idiosyncrasies were. I loved Billy very much.
Question 8: At Universal, the kind of crappy roles that they gave you - Ali Baba, etc - how difficult was it to break out of that typecasting? Did you feel you got those bad roles because you were Jewish? And how many takes did you do on that scene where you trip up Marilyn on Some Like It Hot?
TC: That scene on Some Like It Hot, I couldn't do enough of them. That was easy. The tough one was the one where she came in and said, "Where's the bourbon?" Jack and I were standing there and we'd make bets. I'd say, "She'll get it on the 27th", he'd say, "No, the 31st", and we'd build and build and finally she'd get it somewhere along the line. She couldn't remember her lines. I felt it was probably because of certain substances she was taking, because she was very erratic and nervous. And by the end of the film, she was losing control. I felt bad for her. She was a lovely person but she just wasn't built for that kind of movie-making. As for the Universal question, the studio just wanted to make a little money with me, so what they did was stick me in these "tit-and-sand movies" - they could make them very cheaply: we'd shoot them in two weeks and then release in the third week. They'd cost $180-200,000, and they'd gross $2m. That's pretty good. Good profits. But the studio didn't fool me. I'd be in those movies with a turban on my head and a scimitar at my hips and bosoms at my shoulder. I knew my movies demanded a certain quality from me, so I tried to give them that. I pumped up at the gym all day, so my body got firm. I learned how to ride horses. I used to go out to a riding academy in LA, and there was a stream in the middle of this riding school. One day I saw these two beautiful girls coming toward me on their horses. So I was going to get to the stream before they did, get my horse in the middle of the water, and salute to them as they went by. But my horse decided to lie down in the stream. [audience laughs] My leg was caught under his belly, and there I was, almost underwater, waving to these ladies. I loved it.
Question 9: Which performance are you proudest of as an actor?
TC: It's easy for me to say Sweet Smell of Success, The Boston Strangler, The Defiant Ones, because the whole attitude is very limited. You're not asked to fill up the screen with idiosyncrasies, you're kept like that. Compared with comedies, where you're open to do anything you want. You can find any kind of trick to do, any kind of action you wanted. So the physical action in a scene would dictate what that scene is and what should be played. As for my favourite performance, I'd say The Great Race. I love that movie. That's one of the best fencing sequences ever done in movies. That's one thing I'd try to do in all my movies: I'd find something to do in it where I would match other actors in other movies. That sabre sequence, I tried to match another actor - with the sabre, bare-chested. I got a buddy in a bank, he said to me, "Didn't you ever wear a shirt in your movies?"
Question 10: What would you like on your gravestone. What would you want as your epitaph?
TC: Nobody's perfect.
Question 11: What was your favourite film when you were a child?
TC: Errol Flynn in Robin Hood. There were a lot of movies that I saw in those days - westerns, Robin Hood - that are still my favourites today. Nowadays, I see a lot of those ghost movies, the Terminators...
Question 12: In The Great Race, in the great pie scene, did you ever get hit once?
TC: Never. Let me tell you why. We shot that sequence in France. And you saw me in that movie - impeccable. White sweater, white trousers, everything. Blake Edwards was busy with Jack Lemmon and everything - there were all those people in that scene, getting hit with pies. So I'd delicately hide behind somebody and avoided getting hit by a pie. Because I thought, if I could get through this whole sequence without getting any dirt on me, what a great surprise it would be. And we weren't going to shoot the ending of it until we got to Hollywood. I'm so glad you asked that question. I'm such a conniver. So we did the shot, I think it was in Salzburg. We all came out of the pie shop and sped away. That was the end of it. It wasn't until two months later that Blake Edwards - during the rushes, we were all watching that scene, and I knew it was going to happen. Finally, at the end of the rushes, the lights went up and everybody in that audience, everyone who had worked on that movie, the producer and Blake Edwards, turned around and looked at me with piercing eyes. And there was no way by that time that they were going to get a shot of me getting hit with a pie. [audience laughs] So Blake said to me, "Tony, we can't have you come out of the car without having some sign that you were hit by a pie. I want a pie to come at you." So I said ok. So we built a little set at Warner Bros, Natalie Wood and I were in it. I was standing in front of Natalie, and when somebody threw a pie, I stepped back and she got it. [audience laughs]
AW: What a tremendous honour and tremendous pleasure it has been to welcome you here. Thank you, Tony Curtis.
TC: It means a lot to me. Thank you, all of you. About a year ago, I had pneumonia, and I was in the hospital for about a month and a half, couldn't get out of bed and I lost the use of my legs. I was afraid I'd never walk again. But it's not so. So if I stumble a little, it's no bother because I've [pointing to BFI staffer/helper] got a lovely body to hold on to.
