If You Are Bored Today

This one will take some effort on your part, but it is well worth it. I just got done reading excerpts from Kathleen Turner's new book, and it is really good stuff. I was only going to read it for a minute and then ended up reading the entire three segments that the Daily Mail had. Here is the link to the third and final excerpt and then you can click on the first and second parts.

Here are some sections from today.

William Hurt-

Working with Bill Hurt was - shall we say - enlightening. In those days, he was pretty wild. He drank a great deal and took a lot of recreational drugs - he loved those magic mushrooms. He loved women, too; I don't know how many he went through during filming.

Michael Douglas-

It was certainly a relief to leave that character behind in my next big film, Romancing The Stone, for which I needed to be a shy and mousey novelist. My leading man was Michael Douglas, who was also producing the movie, and the plot called for lots of action and stunts.

Only later did I discover that Michael had originally intended to cast Debra Winger in my part, but they hadn't got along as well as he'd hoped. They'd met to discuss it at a Mexican restaurant, and she bit him - or so he said.

I hadn't known Michael (who was then estranged from his first wife, Diandra) before we started filming, but we bonded from the start and I soon found myself falling in love with him.

Being with him certainly helped me to portray my character's growing sexual awareness, though the romance ended when his wife decided she wanted him back.

Crimes of Passion

Crimes Of Passion, in which I played a whore, was directed by Ken Russell, who's a mad, self-sabotaging genius, and my co-star was the actor Anthony Perkins, of Psycho fame.

Ken was drinking a great deal at the time, and as the days went on, things got increasingly out of hand. Anthony, who had an appalling drug habit, was taking illegal substances in front of all of the crew. You could see his heart beating a mile a minute.

Everywhere he went, he carried a little bottle that I was told was benzyl nitrate. We'd rehearse a scene, then before the call to 'Roll camera', he'd take out his bottle and sniff it with each nostril.

His face would go red and he'd break into a sweat - and suddenly I'd have no idea whether he was in control of himself or not. It was scary. I was quite worried about getting hurt.

Nicolas Cage -

So, everything Francis wanted him to do, he went against - to show that he wasn't under his uncle's wing. Which was ridiculous. Oh, that stupid voice of his and the fake teeth! Honestly, I cringe to think about it.

He caused so many problems. He was arrested twice for drunk-driving and, I think, once for stealing a dog. He'd come across a chihuahua he liked and stuck it in his jacket.

Burt Reynolds

My unhappiest experience as an actress? Well, that would have to be a film called Switching Channels, which came out in 1987.

It had all started well enough. I'd had two rehearsals in New York with the wonderful Michael Caine, who'd signed to play my husband. But Michael had to leave to finish the latest Jaws film - Jaws IV, V, VI, whatever - and the shark machinery kept breaking down.

He didn't have a stop date for when he'd be free and I had my own stop date, for a very important reason: I was pregnant. When it was plain that Michael couldn't join us before I grew too big, the producer hired Burt Reynolds.

For whatever reason, the first thing Burt said to me was: "I've never taken second billing to a woman."