Playing the Diva
Faye Dunaway turns out to be as capricious in person as she was onstage in Los Angeles recently playing Maria Callas.
By Eric Lawlor
It says something of my high regard for Faye Dunaway that, minutes after meeting her, I blurt out an apology. "I wanted to look nice for you," I say, smoothing down my new Ralph Lauren jacket. "But I don't, do I?"
Thankfully, Dunaway hears none of this. She's summoned to the phone as I start to speak and rushes from the room much the way, minutes earlier, she'd rushed into it. Dunaway rushes a lot. And when she isn't rushing—poised on the edge of her seat, trying to suppress her nervous energy—you can tell she's wishing that she were. This is a woman who has trouble being still, a woman—in the words of movie director Elia Kazan—who goes through life ever wrapped in clouds of drama.
Kazan is only partly right. Clouds of drama don't just envelop Dunaway: They envelop all who cross her path as well. I'm a case in point. It's taken months to set up this interview at the home she's renting in Los Angeles. But then, just hours ago, she's had a change of heart—the first, it turns out, of many.
http://www.departures.com/articles/playing-the-diva I'm fond of several of her performances, but I don't know if I'd ever want to cross paths with her.
"The gods who nurse this universe think little of mortals' cares. They sit in crowds on exclusive clouds and laugh at our love affairs. I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him, but he didn't love me. I wanted him, but he didn't want me. Then the gods had a spree and indulged in another whim. Now he loves me, but I don't love him." - Cole Porter
