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- Nov 15, 2001
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- Neil Middlemiss
HTF had the great pleasure of speaking with Nancy Olson who portrayed the aspiring writer in Billy Wilder's mesmerizing 1950 film, Sunset Boulevard. Nancy received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal as Betty Shaefer.
Nancy would find continued success starring in several Walt Disney Films, including Pollyanna, Son of Flubber and The Absent-Minded Professor. Nancy spoke with us to promote the release on November 6 of Sunset Boulevard on Blu-ray for the first time.
HTF: Thank you for speaking with Home Theater Forum today. I'm sure you're excited about Sunset Boulevard making its high definition premiere on Blu-ray here next Tuesday (11/6/12).
Nancy Olson: Yes, and it's fascinating to me that Paramount cares about this film to the degree of spending the extra money is to preserve it, release it on Blu-ray. It tells how they value the film.
HTF: Absolutely. There is a large audience who thirst for classic and landmark films from the last century being preserved. We have a dedicated following on Home Theater Forum that thirsts for truly great films to make their way onto Blu-ray. Paramount's done a great job bringing films like Wings and the wonderfully restored The Ten Commandments to Blu-ray and I've been watching Sunset Boulevard again and the results are terrific.
Nancy Olson: Oh, I am so pleased. And I am extremely pleased for my children and my grandchildren and apparently my great-grandchildren who are going to want to see this too. Isn't it fascinating that certain films resonate and stay with people. I think with Sunset it is that it absolutely tells the truth about the human condition and who we all are.
HTF: Yes. I think there are a couple of tragic figures at the heart of Sunset Boulevard and even though in some ways it is an insider film to a certain extent, it is still a story that can speak to anybody who's loved and lost or had something and it's gone or, felt greatness slip away.
Nancy Olson: Yes, but it also speaks a very brutal truth which is the exploitation of people and then, and when you're through with the product that you have created, you casually throw it away. And it's all about profit and creating products that resonate and bring in money.
HTF: So Billy Wilder and his co-writers were telling this story in 1950. Not much has changed with regard to product in Hollywood today. Would you say it's different, or it's the same, is it worse now?
Nancy Olson: Well, I do think that the creation of stars is a little different although you still have the Tom Cruises and people like that. In the Hollywood studio system, where I was signed to Paramount in 1948 and still a theater arts student at UCLA, they called a talent department. And then they would put us into their films. Now Paramount was a comparatively small studio but it turned out about maybe 65 pictures a year. That's a lot.
HTF: Right.
Nancy Olson: And it had a stadium of, of stars. It had Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Barbara Stanwyck, Bill Holden, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. It had all these people that they kept creating movies for them. It also had a music department where my brother-in-law Jay Livingston was a songwriter and under contract to Paramount and they would go to him and say, ‘we need a song for Bob Hope. It's gotta be a Christmas song but it, it takes place in, in the city. Well, they wrote Silver Bells’.
HTF: Which is a wonderful song.
Nancy Olson: So there was a place for these gifts and for these talents. There were directors under contract. Billy and William Wilder and Cecil B. DeMille and George Stevens, and all their pictures were financed. And of course Alan Ladd who was one of the fixtures there.
HTF: I've studied the studio system and I'm always fascinated by people's opinions on whether they think it's harder to break into Hollywood today versus the old studio system? How was it for you breaking in?
Nancy Olson: I think it was easier in the studio system. They'd sign you to a standard seven-year contract and, and I remember my first call was they said we're going loan you to 20th Century Fox to make a film with Randolph Scott. And he was my father’s age, maybe a year younger and I was to play opposite him as a Canadian Indian half breed.
HTF: In Canadian Pacific.
Nancy Olson: Well, I thought this was ludicrous. My name is Olson, I'm blond and blue eyes and my hair was about as fair as any Scandinavian girl could get. And it was to be in color (laughs).
HTF: Interesting.
Nancy Olson: It was shot in the summer up in Canada, and I went back to school. I would get calls and go read with people, but then one day they called and said that Billy Wilder wants to put you in his next film called, it's Sunset Boulevard. And it's starring Gloria Swanson and Bill Holden. I had no idea who Gloria Swanson was. So I asked my mother and she explained that she had been a great star. Now, Mae West was originally considered and they also had wanted Montgomery Clift. Monty Clift was a great actor, I loved his work, but it, it would have been an entirely different film.
HTF: Indeed.
Nancy Olson: Gloria was cast and it could have slipped into high camp very easily so it had to be done with a lot of the histrionics but you, you had to keep it real.
HTF: That's what's fascinating about her performance. It is electric and at times it's unsettling but there's always a great sadness even while you're unnerved by her performance.
Nancy Olson: Yes. Well, you know something? She was beautiful; she was in her early 50's. And she allowed the camera to be as harsh with her as it possibly could – as Billy wanted. She knew that this role was about a woman who was over the top.
HTF: Right.
Nancy Olson: And so her understanding of what was created, what was needed to be creative was amazing. And she and Billy would stay at the end of the day and work for another hour just on the next day's scenes so that they both had a real sense of what they wanted to create.
HTF: She was remarkable in that performance
Nancy Olson: And she was also the one who believed in the film more than anyone. Truly devoted and she was wonderful to be with. She was cooperative. She was excited. And she understood how fortunate she was to have this role. And she knew she would never be forgotten ever.
HTF: I want to say it's been a real honor speaking with you because your performance in the film is wonderful. You're a really human element in a film that puts us in the shadowy space of the human soul. And the film is riddled with wonderful spunky dialog. Do you feel there's anybody working today that could hold a candle to Billy Wilder's visual technique, his skill in moving the camera, and the witty dialog? Do you think there's anybody today that sort of is cast in that same shadow?
Nancy Olson: Well, I think the director of Avatar and Titanic, James Cameron has a very, very special view. And of course there's Spielberg! My daughter called after she saw Lincoln last night. And she said the combination of the writing and the directing and the acting is just unbelievable. And, and of course Spielberg is just is one of those magical artists. He has an ear and an eye and so did Billy.
HTF: Yeah. Definitely.
Nancy Olson: And Billy cast me because he needed to have the character that would be believable as an aspiring writer; I was an educated young woman so I spoke well and I was strong and knew who I was to a certain degree. I was also someone who was a complete opposite of Norma Desmond. Now, Neil, you, you have to understand that we were all opportunists. It's a tragedy for everyone including Betty Schaefer. She needed help and in the process she fell in love with the Joe Gillis character that Bill Holden played, a man who had already sold his soul.
HTF: That's a great point.
Nancy Olson: So she ended up with without a rather good partner, Jack Webb, and being crushed.
HTF: Another tale of loss.
Nancy Olson: Yes. Every single character lost.
HTF: It's a very dark picture. It's wonderfully made but it's a very dark film.
Nancy Olson: Yes.
HTF: Well I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today
Nancy Olson: You're very welcome. Thanks so much, Neil, I enjoyed talking to you.
Clip of Nancy Olson discussing the house used in filming taken from the bonus features on the Blu-ray:
Nancy would find continued success starring in several Walt Disney Films, including Pollyanna, Son of Flubber and The Absent-Minded Professor. Nancy spoke with us to promote the release on November 6 of Sunset Boulevard on Blu-ray for the first time.
HTF: Thank you for speaking with Home Theater Forum today. I'm sure you're excited about Sunset Boulevard making its high definition premiere on Blu-ray here next Tuesday (11/6/12).
Nancy Olson: Yes, and it's fascinating to me that Paramount cares about this film to the degree of spending the extra money is to preserve it, release it on Blu-ray. It tells how they value the film.
HTF: Absolutely. There is a large audience who thirst for classic and landmark films from the last century being preserved. We have a dedicated following on Home Theater Forum that thirsts for truly great films to make their way onto Blu-ray. Paramount's done a great job bringing films like Wings and the wonderfully restored The Ten Commandments to Blu-ray and I've been watching Sunset Boulevard again and the results are terrific.
Nancy Olson: Oh, I am so pleased. And I am extremely pleased for my children and my grandchildren and apparently my great-grandchildren who are going to want to see this too. Isn't it fascinating that certain films resonate and stay with people. I think with Sunset it is that it absolutely tells the truth about the human condition and who we all are.
HTF: Yes. I think there are a couple of tragic figures at the heart of Sunset Boulevard and even though in some ways it is an insider film to a certain extent, it is still a story that can speak to anybody who's loved and lost or had something and it's gone or, felt greatness slip away.
Nancy Olson: Yes, but it also speaks a very brutal truth which is the exploitation of people and then, and when you're through with the product that you have created, you casually throw it away. And it's all about profit and creating products that resonate and bring in money.
HTF: So Billy Wilder and his co-writers were telling this story in 1950. Not much has changed with regard to product in Hollywood today. Would you say it's different, or it's the same, is it worse now?
Nancy Olson: Well, I do think that the creation of stars is a little different although you still have the Tom Cruises and people like that. In the Hollywood studio system, where I was signed to Paramount in 1948 and still a theater arts student at UCLA, they called a talent department. And then they would put us into their films. Now Paramount was a comparatively small studio but it turned out about maybe 65 pictures a year. That's a lot.
HTF: Right.
Nancy Olson: And it had a stadium of, of stars. It had Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Barbara Stanwyck, Bill Holden, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. It had all these people that they kept creating movies for them. It also had a music department where my brother-in-law Jay Livingston was a songwriter and under contract to Paramount and they would go to him and say, ‘we need a song for Bob Hope. It's gotta be a Christmas song but it, it takes place in, in the city. Well, they wrote Silver Bells’.
HTF: Which is a wonderful song.
Nancy Olson: So there was a place for these gifts and for these talents. There were directors under contract. Billy and William Wilder and Cecil B. DeMille and George Stevens, and all their pictures were financed. And of course Alan Ladd who was one of the fixtures there.
HTF: I've studied the studio system and I'm always fascinated by people's opinions on whether they think it's harder to break into Hollywood today versus the old studio system? How was it for you breaking in?
Nancy Olson: I think it was easier in the studio system. They'd sign you to a standard seven-year contract and, and I remember my first call was they said we're going loan you to 20th Century Fox to make a film with Randolph Scott. And he was my father’s age, maybe a year younger and I was to play opposite him as a Canadian Indian half breed.
HTF: In Canadian Pacific.
Nancy Olson: Well, I thought this was ludicrous. My name is Olson, I'm blond and blue eyes and my hair was about as fair as any Scandinavian girl could get. And it was to be in color (laughs).
HTF: Interesting.
Nancy Olson: It was shot in the summer up in Canada, and I went back to school. I would get calls and go read with people, but then one day they called and said that Billy Wilder wants to put you in his next film called, it's Sunset Boulevard. And it's starring Gloria Swanson and Bill Holden. I had no idea who Gloria Swanson was. So I asked my mother and she explained that she had been a great star. Now, Mae West was originally considered and they also had wanted Montgomery Clift. Monty Clift was a great actor, I loved his work, but it, it would have been an entirely different film.
HTF: Indeed.
Nancy Olson: Gloria was cast and it could have slipped into high camp very easily so it had to be done with a lot of the histrionics but you, you had to keep it real.
HTF: That's what's fascinating about her performance. It is electric and at times it's unsettling but there's always a great sadness even while you're unnerved by her performance.
Nancy Olson: Yes. Well, you know something? She was beautiful; she was in her early 50's. And she allowed the camera to be as harsh with her as it possibly could – as Billy wanted. She knew that this role was about a woman who was over the top.
HTF: Right.
Nancy Olson: And so her understanding of what was created, what was needed to be creative was amazing. And she and Billy would stay at the end of the day and work for another hour just on the next day's scenes so that they both had a real sense of what they wanted to create.
HTF: She was remarkable in that performance
Nancy Olson: And she was also the one who believed in the film more than anyone. Truly devoted and she was wonderful to be with. She was cooperative. She was excited. And she understood how fortunate she was to have this role. And she knew she would never be forgotten ever.
HTF: I want to say it's been a real honor speaking with you because your performance in the film is wonderful. You're a really human element in a film that puts us in the shadowy space of the human soul. And the film is riddled with wonderful spunky dialog. Do you feel there's anybody working today that could hold a candle to Billy Wilder's visual technique, his skill in moving the camera, and the witty dialog? Do you think there's anybody today that sort of is cast in that same shadow?
Nancy Olson: Well, I think the director of Avatar and Titanic, James Cameron has a very, very special view. And of course there's Spielberg! My daughter called after she saw Lincoln last night. And she said the combination of the writing and the directing and the acting is just unbelievable. And, and of course Spielberg is just is one of those magical artists. He has an ear and an eye and so did Billy.
HTF: Yeah. Definitely.
Nancy Olson: And Billy cast me because he needed to have the character that would be believable as an aspiring writer; I was an educated young woman so I spoke well and I was strong and knew who I was to a certain degree. I was also someone who was a complete opposite of Norma Desmond. Now, Neil, you, you have to understand that we were all opportunists. It's a tragedy for everyone including Betty Schaefer. She needed help and in the process she fell in love with the Joe Gillis character that Bill Holden played, a man who had already sold his soul.
HTF: That's a great point.
Nancy Olson: So she ended up with without a rather good partner, Jack Webb, and being crushed.
HTF: Another tale of loss.
Nancy Olson: Yes. Every single character lost.
HTF: It's a very dark picture. It's wonderfully made but it's a very dark film.
Nancy Olson: Yes.
HTF: Well I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today
Nancy Olson: You're very welcome. Thanks so much, Neil, I enjoyed talking to you.
Clip of Nancy Olson discussing the house used in filming taken from the bonus features on the Blu-ray:
