
Jane Elliot is irreplaceable and irrepressible and rarely gives interviews, but when Jane Elliot does decide to talk she damn well delivers! On the occasion of General Hospital's 51st anniversary, TV Guide Magazine spoke with the Emmy-winning actress about her legacy as bitch supreme Tracy Quartermaine. Elliot also cut loose on a variety of other topics, from her most famous leading man, (Elvis Presley!)
Jane Elliott, played the character of "Sister Barbara" in Elvis Presley's last film, Change of Habit.
TV Guide Magazine: I just watched you again in Change of Habit, the movie you made with Elvis at the end of the '60s. You were — dare I say it? — absolutely adorable!
Elliot: "Do you know that I didn't want to do that movie? I actually turned it down because I didn't want to be in a film with Elvis. Who does that?"
TV Guide Magazine: How could you pass it up? It was his last film, right?
Elliot: "I thought it was beneath me. Yes, it was the last movie on his contract and he hated making movies and never did another one. He wanted to get back to his music, which he did right after that. But it was not the kind of work I'd come to Hollywood to do. [Laughs] I was a snob raised on the upper east side of Manhattan, who went to private schools and only listened to real music. My favorite aunt started the legal department at the William Morris Agency back in the '50s and she knew Elvis's manager, the Colonel, and he would give her all kinds of great Elvis memorabilia — autographed photos, scripts, movie posters, you name it — and she would give it all to me and I would throw it all in the garbage because Elvis was not my genre."
TVG: That sound you hear is millions of diehard Presley fans collapsing in a dead faint.
Elliot: "I was an idiot! And I now understand why those millions are still devoted to him, why their hearts broke for him, why they cried for him. It was my stupid blindness! I wound up doing the movie anyway because it came as part of a multi-film deal, which never amounted to anything, but on my first day on the set I did a complete 180. Elvis was a lovely, lovely man, a real gentleman and so sweet and fun and funny. I had the best time working with him and everyone else. Mary Tyler Moore and Barbara McNair were also in the movie, and they were fantastic and the ultimate professionals! I was just 21 at the time and learned so much from that experience. It was a real privilege, a thrill. I am so glad the universe saw fit to make me get over myself."
TV Guide Magazine: Did Elvis make a pass at you?
Elliot: [Laughs] "He made a pass at everybody!"
source: http://www.tvguide.com
Jane Elliott, played the character of "Sister Barbara" in Elvis Presley's last film, Change of Habit.
TV Guide Magazine: I just watched you again in Change of Habit, the movie you made with Elvis at the end of the '60s. You were — dare I say it? — absolutely adorable!
Elliot: "Do you know that I didn't want to do that movie? I actually turned it down because I didn't want to be in a film with Elvis. Who does that?"
TV Guide Magazine: How could you pass it up? It was his last film, right?
Elliot: "I thought it was beneath me. Yes, it was the last movie on his contract and he hated making movies and never did another one. He wanted to get back to his music, which he did right after that. But it was not the kind of work I'd come to Hollywood to do. [Laughs] I was a snob raised on the upper east side of Manhattan, who went to private schools and only listened to real music. My favorite aunt started the legal department at the William Morris Agency back in the '50s and she knew Elvis's manager, the Colonel, and he would give her all kinds of great Elvis memorabilia — autographed photos, scripts, movie posters, you name it — and she would give it all to me and I would throw it all in the garbage because Elvis was not my genre."
TVG: That sound you hear is millions of diehard Presley fans collapsing in a dead faint.
Elliot: "I was an idiot! And I now understand why those millions are still devoted to him, why their hearts broke for him, why they cried for him. It was my stupid blindness! I wound up doing the movie anyway because it came as part of a multi-film deal, which never amounted to anything, but on my first day on the set I did a complete 180. Elvis was a lovely, lovely man, a real gentleman and so sweet and fun and funny. I had the best time working with him and everyone else. Mary Tyler Moore and Barbara McNair were also in the movie, and they were fantastic and the ultimate professionals! I was just 21 at the time and learned so much from that experience. It was a real privilege, a thrill. I am so glad the universe saw fit to make me get over myself."
TV Guide Magazine: Did Elvis make a pass at you?
Elliot: [Laughs] "He made a pass at everybody!"
source: http://www.tvguide.com