FOR WOMEN Lady Olivier Finds Audiences Attentive

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 October 1948, Page 8

FOR WOMEN Lady Olivier Finds Audiences Attentive

The audiences in New Zealand had been wonderful, said Lady Olivier, known more widely as Vivien Leigh, at a press conference in Wellington. New Zealand audiences did not. cough very much, were attentive and enthusiastic. As exquisite as her pictures, Lady Olivier, with her grey-green eves, piquant, cream-skinned face, is like a miniature painting. Her black hair was worn loose to shoulder length. She wore an anklelength black moire taffeta skirt with jacket top in peplum style. On the°wide revers of the jacket she had pinned a gold ornament which matched her carrings. Three rows of pearls completed the ensemble.

Chatting informally, Lady Olivier, in answer to questions, readily spoke of her stage and film career. She had enjoyed making the film “Gone with the Wind,” she said. She liked acting in both mediums of the stage and screen. •

“Stage Requires Effort” “The stage requires a concentrated effort,” she said. “There is more responsibility on the actor or actress, I think. Films, taking a period of months to make, require stamina from the person acting.” Lady Olivier added that she liked acting' in costume plays. “Skin of Our Teeth,” in which she plays the part of Sabina, was a “nerve-rack-ing” plav to do, for (here had to be “organised disorder,” which was difficult on the stage.

The late Dame Lilian Braithwaite had helped her when she first started in the theatre, Lady Olivier said. Dame Lilian had been most courageous and thoroughly professional. Speaking of future plans, Lady Olivier said that after a season in London in “Richard ITT” and “School for Scandal,” Sir Laurence and herself would have two months’ holiday in France. “We shall try painting in our spare time,” she said with' a smile. “It is a relaxation, you know, and lots of actors and actresses are taking it up.” Taking Food Back Time had been so rushed in New Zealand that she had had no time to buy anything, but she was taking food

back with her to England, and Aus tralian “woollies.”

“We have received gifts in lovely native woods, a gift of Maori carvings in Christchurch, and lots of lovely flowers,” she added. Lady Olivier confessed that she did not like flying, but the air trip from Dunedin had been excellent. “In New Zealand we have caught up with the spring and the gardens in Dunedin and Christchurch were lovely,” she concluded.