What comes to mind at the mention of Elizabeth Taylor? Her eight celebrity marriages, two of which were to Richard Burton? Her memorable roles in “National Velvet,” “Cleopatra,” “Suddenly Last Summer,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” or “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Taylor’s journey is filled with glitter, glamour, drugs, alcohol, paparazzi, and steadfast AIDS activism.
We hear about all of these and so much more in Taylor’s voice, in immensely candid, newly discovered tapes from 1964, in which Richard Merryman interviews her for a book. As we listen to the star speak in “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” playing at the M.V. Film Center on August 26 and 27, the icon becomes touchingly human, sharing her most vulnerable feelings. Director Nanette Burnstein layers public and personal images of Taylor over her voice, adding to the story’s intimacy, in which she yearns for legitimacy and agency.
Taylor, who dreamed of being in the movies as a child, first hit the screen at age 10. The photos and film clips illuminate what she says: “The idea of being in films was like the most magical extension of make-believe.” And, in one sense, make-believe is what happened the rest of her life.
Early on, her tenacity shows through. Although already a Hollywood star, when she initially auditioned for “National Velvet,” which Taylor desperately wanted, she was told she was too small. “I was swinging from doors to make myself grow. I did 40 jumps every morning. I ate steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I literally stretched myself.” Growing three inches in three months, she earned the job.
With her astounding beauty and charisma, Taylor was repeatedly cast as the ingénue while still only a teenager. At about 16, when playing a 24-year-old wife in “Conspirator,” she reflects, “I was thrown into the adult world. I had to behave like a sophisticated woman. In my own world, I was a terrified little girl.”
This disconnect was reflected in Taylor’s first marriage to hotel heir Conrad (Nicky”) Hilton at 18: “I was a virgin, not just physically but mentally. I was not prepared to be an adult … The repercussions were that I made horrendous mistakes … I thought I would obtain maturity just because I was a Mrs. instead of a Miss.” Sadly, Hilton’s physical and mental abuse ended the eight-month marriage.
She describes her second husband, British actor Michael Wilding, 20 years her senior, as a father figure: “He represented serenity, tranquility. All the things I needed myself.” But their marriage, too, ended after five years.
Next was Michael Todd, producer of “Around the World in 80 Days,” and Taylor’s self-proclaimed love of her life. “It was too good to be true. And when it did happen, I was unprepared,” Taylor says of his untimely death in a plane crash that all but crushed her.
Taylor ricocheted off Todd’s death, hooking up with his good friend Eddie Fisher, and breaking up his marriage to Debbie Reynolds. She was still married when she met Burton for the first time, co-starring in “Cleopatra,” for which she negotiated her deal of a million dollars plus 10 percent of the gross proceeds. At the same time, he earned only $300,000, as he said frequently in television interviews.
Sparks fly between them. “I think fighting is one of the greatest exercises in marital togetherness. We’re both so volatile in temper. It’s like an atom bomb going off. But just because we love each other, it’s a haven,” she explains at one point.
Annoyed at being typecast as a sex symbol, Taylor speaks longingly of wanting to be taken seriously for her acting: “Some part of me is sorry that I became a public utility. I know I should be grateful. I don’t like fame. I don’t like the sense of belonging to the public … I like trying to be an actress.”
The yearning for legitimacy is relentless: “I see myself as a movie star that once or twice has managed to do a fairly capable job of acting. I am not satisfied with what I am. I’m not satisfied with what I’ve done. I want to improve.”
Taylor shares, “I think what I have done is deliberately made the dividing line the person my family knows is real, but the other Elizabeth Taylor, the famous one, really has no depth or meaning to me. It makes money. One is flesh and blood. One is cellophane.”
Asked about what she thinks about her public image, Taylor responds, “Not too pretty a picture. Maybe because of my personal life, I project something illicit. But I am not illicit, and I’m not immoral. I have made mistakes, and I have paid for them. But still, it doesn’t make up. I know I will never be able to pay the bill.”
Although the interview tapes end in 1964, Burnstein seamlessly continues the story of the rest of Taylor’s remarkable life with news clips and photographs. Ultimately, we come away with a better sense of a woman who seems larger than life.
“Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” will play on Monday, August 26, and Tuesday, August 27, at 7:30 pm, followed by a live Q and A with director Nanette Burstein. For more information and tickets, visit mvfilmsociety.com.
