July / August 2010
Hart to Hart star Stefanie Powers is the toast of Ogunquit in this season’s sparkling Sunset Boulevard.
By Colin W. Sargent
There was a gasp of delight in the audience at Ogunquit Playhouse when they announced you as the star of this season’s production of Sunset Boulevard…
A…gasp?
Yes, a good gasp, followed by applause. For theater fans here, your appearance will be perfect summer fun, but on another level, when you consider your love for William Holden, this role must have incredible meaning for you.
The other night I found myself thinking, Bill must be laughing.
I was on the short list of three actresses in England before the show first came to America [in 1994]. They went with Glenn Close, who did a marvellous job.
The play deserves a revival. When they came to me again because of a new version being done in the West End, I thought, Why is this project continually coming into my life, and why me, of all people? It’s a brilliant piece of work, and not just because of Billy Wilder–it’s become an opera. The irony of me being involved with it is really more than I can cope with.
You were 24 years younger than Holden was when you fell in love, so you know how much, and how little, age difference can mean. Did you ever joke about that?
It didn’t matter as far as I was concerned.
You’ve been in a cast with Tallulah Bankhead. Will you be channeling her in any way as you approach the role?
I don’t work that way. I try to find the character within my own process. It’s very individual and very personal.
You’re so “Hollywood” that you went to high school with Nancy Sinatra. But…have you been to Maine before?
No, never! I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been in Boston, Rhode Island, and Canada, but I’ve never made it to Maine. Because I’m not a winter person, I know this is the optimum time for my first visit.
Do you like lobster?
I’m a vegetarian.
You’ve managed international wildlife organizations. Recently, we asked Maine game wardens if they were using Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men to attract big cats [for the answer, which is ‘not yet,’ see page 40 in our July / August 2010 issue]. According to a Wall Street Journal article that appeared this past June, big cats have fallen in love with the fragrance. They’ll spend more time pondering its wonders than devouring dinner. Scientists in the wild now dampen camera stands with it to help count jaguars in jungles.
That’s…the weirdest thing I’ve heard in years. I’m involved with the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy…I’ve worked with Jaguar International with their protection of the species. But Calvin Klein–that’s a most unique marketing campaign…
Yes. We at the magazine were wondering just how much of a jaguar’s disposable income is budgeted for manufactured fragrance. Which brings us to your perfume–not that you’re a cougar (but you are playing the original one on stage!).
We still sell Rare Orchid and stockpile it, though it’s no longer in production…It’s the first time through modern science that the fragrance of an orchid has been captured…I had the occasion to meet the head of the American Orchid Society while presenting at Harvard. I sprayed the fragrance on my arm and said, “Would you mind?”
Tell us about One from the Hart.
It’s a memoir that will be out in October, published by Simon & Schuster. It was inspired by life-changing events that happened last year. One was the loss of my mother, who shared my house in California for the last 27 years of her life. We were unusually close and great friends. We had extraordinary times together; watching the world change so rapidly in the last 10 to 15 years, it’s become almost unrecognizable.
In early 1967, you were on the cover of TV Guide, where the feature about you as the star of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. says your “117-pound frame is kept supple with 11 minutes of Royal Canadian Air Force exercises.” What were those exercises, and when does the video come out?
The RCAF exercises are fabulous. I haven’t done them in years. They are extraordinary, extremely intense. It’s really about a half-hour workout that can be done very efficiently to keep the pilots in shape. [Powers has no trouble staying active; a competent polo player, she competed in the 2005 Joules United Kingdom National Women’s Championships at Ascot.]
When I read you were a Sarah Siddons Award winner, I thought of Bette Davis, because the Siddons Award figures so prominently in her movie All About Eve. Then I read that you played Margot Channing in Applause, based on All About Eve. Did you know Bette Davis lived here on the coast of Maine after she married Gary Merrill?
No, but I know the Mankiewicz family. Sarah Siddons really did exist. She was an actress, a soubrette. The award was invented for All About Eve, and the Chicago theatrical community adapted it, and it’s quite an honor now! It’s a charming souvenir.
Bette Davis worked as a lifeguard in Ogunquit when she was a teenager. On the other side of her career, she played at Ogunquit Playhouse.
Maine has never been in my vocabulary. But now it’s a topic of conversation…and suddenly I’ve discovered how many people are connected with Maine! There is not one person who has played Ogunquit who has not told me how fun this is.
If William Holden could attend this show, what would you tell him just before curtain?
I wouldn’t tell him anything. I’d just be glad he was there. And I think he will be.
Buy Rare Orchid from stefaniepowersonline.com for a $40 donation to the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.
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