Geraldine Page: Sweet Bird of Youth Transformation

Interview with Tennessee Williams

Conducted by James Grissom

Listen, this is what she [Geraldine Page] did with so-called Method acting. When the Princess realizes that Hollywood is, in fact, interested in her, Gerry would glow and expand and her eyes would widen, and you would hear gasps from the audience. She utterly transformed herself, and people remain convinced that there was a lighting effect or something. There was not. It was Gerry acting, being fulfilled. Her motivation? Vampire movies, she told me. She reacted to the prospect of stardom as a vampire might to the gift of a goblet of blood. That is the kind of genius Geraldine Page was.

© 2016 James Grissom