Elizabeth Taylor believed that her first Oscar for ‘Butterfield 8’ (1961) was awarded out of pity; she claimed that her eyes were not violet and openly acknowledged her obsession with Richard Burton. This was all revealed in a documentary premiering this Sunday on MAX, based on a long-lost interview from 1964.
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With a sweet voice and without dodging any questions, the actress gave an interview to journalist Richard Meryman that spanned several days and lasted over 40 hours, which have been condensed for this documentary directed by Nanette Burstein. It also features many videos and photographs from the private life of the star of ‘Giant.’
Throughout the conversation, Taylor unfolds her life, from her arrival in California from her native England and her discovery of the film world up to 1964 when she was 32 years old, had already won an Oscar, and was newly married to Richard Burton, her fifth husband.
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Audio tapes that had been lost for decades and material that Meryman intended to use to write a book about the actress, which he never got around to doing.
‘Elizabeth Taylor, The Lost Tapes,’ which includes J.J. Abrams among the producers, portrays a version of Taylor that is very different from the public image she projected as a global star and her life filled with husbands.
“Perhaps my personal life suggests an illicit image, but I am not illicit, nor immoral. I have made mistakes and have paid for them, although it is never enough. I know I will never be able to repay that debt,” the actress begins.
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At the time, she was experiencing a moment of happiness with Burton, whom she had met during the second filming of ‘Cleopatra‘ (1963), which had been interrupted two years earlier due to her pneumonia, which required her to undergo a tracheotomy to save her life and enable her to breathe.
Indeed, Taylor was convinced that her first Oscar was given to her out of pity for her health problems in Hollywood and the scar that has since adorned her neck. Because, in her own words, ‘Butterfield 8’ was a “horrible” film. “They must have felt pity for me because I think the movie is embarrassing.”
The actress did not show any condescension toward herself, recalling her beginnings in films like ‘Lassie Come Home‘ (1943), where she met one of her great friends, Roddy McDowall, when they were both teenagers.
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McDowall and James Dean were the friends who helped her overcome her marital failures, and from ‘Giant’ (1956) onward, Rock Hudson became another of her great supports.
With them, she forgot her fears of not being taken seriously as an actress—especially pointing out the problems she had with George Stevens during the filming of ‘Giant’—and her personal instability, which was somewhat resolved with her third husband, Mike Todd, although her happiness lasted only a couple of years as the producer died in a plane crash.
She overcame his death with Eddie Fisher, who was the husband of one of her best friends, Debbie Reynolds—”I never loved him,” the actress admits—though her true passion was found with Burton, with whom she married twice, a relationship closely watched by the public.
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Beyond her husbands, the actress speaks about her feelings, frustrations, her relationship with her children, and how undervalued she felt in Hollywood. They criticized her choices, like when everyone advised her not to participate in ‘Suddenly, Last Summer’ (1960) for dealing with homosexuality. “If I had been more ambitious with my career, I would have done ‘Ben-Hur’,” she claims.
Despite everything, she earned a second Oscar for ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ (1966).
She also shares curiosities such as her eyes were never violet—”it was a poetic license from a journalist”—but dark blue, and that she enjoyed sex even though she did not consider herself a sex symbol.
The documentary concludes with images from the last years of the actress’s life and how she dedicated herself to raising money for AIDS research after the death of her friend Hudson.