One Star Differs From Another

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19623, 5 May 1938, Page 8

One Star Differs From Another

MR. George Cuckor, one of the brilliant young men of the theatre, who found the ideal medium for his talents in the motion picture, gives some interesting "close-ups" of some of the Hollywood stars—not as a cameraman, but as the director of many of their finest pictures. He says that when he met Greta Garbo to discuss "Camille" he sensed that she was a little distrustful of him. Having her own very clear idea of how "La Dame aux Camelias" ought to he played, she was afraid that his ideas might be somewhat ■different, and that a clash would develop. And he did have ideas that differed from hers in certain respects. What happened? "When we went into production I took the line of letting her play a scene in rehearsal without any instructions from me, instead of telling her how I wanted it played. This was not merely tact or strategy in order to get 1 my own way, because the ideas of an artist like Garbo are well worth serious consideration. After I saw how she wanted to play a scene. I talked it over with her and made suggestions from my mental picture of the scene. But at the same time I made it clear that. I respected her conception, and that she had given me fresh i'deas which I was more than willing to blend with my own. Nor was this merely a kind of artistic compromise. She. as a woman and a sensitive artist, was. I found, always prolific of ideas, and when she admitted me to her confidence and friendship—which she did quickly when the initial barrier of distrust was broken down —we had formed an ideal collaboration for our mutual 'benefit as actress and director."