What Becomes a Hollywood Legend Most? : After years of tribulation, Elizabeth Taylor finally takes on Williams’ ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ on TV

“I had a great beauty. I say it with pride--no matter how sad it being gone,” Elizabeth Taylor says wistfully. The 57-year-old legend picks up a glass of bourbon and downs it like a scared monster whose life is over.

Taylor is rehearsing a scene from Tennessee Williams’ provocative play “Sweet Bird of Youth,” which NBC will televise at 9 tonight. Directed by Nicolas Roeg, the film also stars Mark Harmon, Rip Torn and Valerie Perrine. Hearing the actress say the words evokes memories of her own personal history and the demons that have plagued her. It is as if she were reflecting on her own life of wretched excess, headlines, pain, multiple marriages, booze, drugs and bedrooms.

“We always knew it would be Elizabeth Taylor,” co-executive producer Peter Locke says of the role of Alexandra Del Lago. “After all, her life is a Tennessee Williams play.”

The film also affords Taylor her best acting challenge in years, reuniting her with the playwright with whom some of her best work is associated--”Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Suddenly Last Summer,” both of which garnered Oscar nominations for her.

A few days later, Taylor lounges on her Bel Air living room sofa dressed in a billowing purple caftan. She is surrounded by amethyst crystals--in obvious homage to her famous violet eyes. Above Taylor is a Van Gogh. Nearby is a sculpture of a majestic horse entitled “Northern Dancer”--done by her daughter, Liza. She is in a perky mood--looking overweight and yet strangely, inexplicably alluring.

Question: “Sweet Bird of Youth” marks your return to Tennessee Williams. After your acclaimed work in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Suddenly, Last Summer,” what do these old and new Williams heroines have in common?

Answer: They (the women characters) are all slightly larger than life and a little off the wall--and a little crazy. Tennessee’s women are all a little crazy, which makes them infinitely playable.

Q: Do you grab hold of and attach yourself to their quirky side?

A: Oh yes, because it’s the most colorful side. Tennessee’s women are so rich and full-bodied . . . all larger than life. Alexandria is an actress. Well, actresses are a little larger than life. (The late) Mike Todd (Taylor’s third husband) used to say: “An actor is a little less than a man . . . and an actress is a little more than a woman.” An interesting observation. I’m not saying that men are a little less than men at all but actresses are very colorful and Alexandra, even if she had been a housewife, would have been colorful.

Q: I doubt that she would wield a vacuum cleaner unless it was to hit a badly behaved lover. . . .

A: (laughs) True. She’s very selfish, self-centered, but I think she is three dimensional--especially when she can get out of her self--she is very single minded about that. She does care. She does have compassion.

Q: But in the end, is she redeemable?

A: (Pondering, then quietly) Barely. But, yes, I think so.

Q: You were close friends with Tennessee Williams but there are conflicting press reports as to when you actually met and what the circumstances were.

A: I met him after I had done “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in New York. I’m not sure exactly which year. . . . I was in the hospital with pneumonia and he came to see me. It must have been about ’57. It was after “Cat”--no, it wasn’t after “Cat”--yes, it was--must have been . . . now I am confused. It must have been after “Cat” but it couldn’t have been because Mike (Todd) was killed when I was shooting “Cat.” Well, I was in the hospital, but I think it was the hospital in New York because that’s where we lived. Now I am confused. Mike was killed in ’58. It must have been after. After 1958. Must have been.

Q: How did you get along initially? Do you remember your first impression of him?

A: Well, we fell about laughing.

Q: Why? What did he say to you?

A: I don’t know. But we just hit it off immediately. We got on so well and he just made me laugh and I made him laugh. I had pneumonia and Dr. Dana Atchley was running the hospital then. He was a wonderful, brilliant doctor and everybody was quite in awe of him. He was quite an old, small and diminutive man. I remember that he came charging into my room the second that he heard that Tennessee was there. He came charging into my room and Tennessee had just handed me a cigarette and, or course, I wasn’t meant to be smoking, so I made a tent with my knee and slipped my hand under the sheet between my knees to form this sort of tent to hide it from the doctor. I had just taken one mighty puff off of it when he flew into the room and started chatting away with Tennessee. Their conversation got further and further along and I kept trying to sit on the cigarette and keep it in the confines of the sheet. You realize that this doctor would have killed me if he found out. He was capable of throwing me out of the hospital. Tennessee kept looking at me and I kept trying to avoid his stare and we were cracking up. Dr. Atchley wanted to know everything about Tennessee from Tennessee himself. He was a big fan. Finally, the smoke was really getting heavy. I didn’t have an ashtray and no way of putting the cigarette out except on my skin. Finally, he left and we fell about laughing. It was just down to a butt. So that’s what I remember. A lot of smoke and a lot of sweat. That was our first meeting.

Q: Time magazine called you the quintessential Tennessee Williams heroine. . . . A: They did? When did they do that?

Q: Quite some time ago. I think it still applies.

A: Thank you. That means I’m highly melodramatic.

Q: Is that what it means?

A: I think steamy. Full of drama. I take it as also being poetic. I’m sure they didn’t mean it kindly. . . .Tennessee’s heroines are all fraught. They’re on the brink of disaster--some personal disaster. They are infinitely playable. They give you something to wrap your lips around.

Q: What are the actual elements you relate to?

A: Good dialogue. . . . He writes like a poet and it’s so wonderful to have good words to say because you can relax and be free. I don’t know, it just gives you a sense of security--or it does me. . . . You can concentrate on feeling the words and let them invade you.

Q: Williams rewrote “Sweet Bird” several times and at one point the central figure was actually a man. Was he being partially autobiographical with your character?

A: (Shaking her head “no.”) They say that about all his plays. Well, he did rewrite a lot. So they were saying that he’s writing about himself just like with (playwright Edward) Albee. They say that all of Albee’s parts can be interchangeable with a man or a woman. They said “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” was made for two men. (She rolls her eyes.) It wasn’t. It was written for a man and a woman. But people like to say that.

Q: Is this one of his better works or is it flawed?

A: I don’t think there is such a thing as his best work. I mean, “Streetcar Named Desire” is such a fabulous play. This (“Sweet Bird of Youth”) is a fabulous play. “Cat” is. “Glass Menagerie.” There’s just so many. Certainly, I think it’s one of his best.

Q: You’ve been talking about doing “Sweet Bird of Youth” for well over a decade. Why now?

A: Why not? It just seemed like now is the right time. And it just fell into the right place. Even weight wise, it was perfect. I would have had to put on weight if it had happened earlier, like I did for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” It just happened at the right time.

Q: Do you know intuitively when the right time is? Obviously, you could have done it any time.

A: I could have but for some reason I didn’t. It’s not because I didn’t like the play. I’ve been flirting with it for years. I don’t know why. Sometimes it happens for the right reason.

Q: Nicolas Roeg is an interesting choice for a director. He’s never directed television before and is known for being eccentric--and not taking any guff from his stars.

A: Nick has a wonderfully macabre sense of humor. He has a jagged blackness in his soul. His quirkiness is quite unexpected and that dark element, of course, is central to fully understanding Tennessee. I think they complement each other so beautifully because Nick’s unexpected qualities give it such a burst of energy and revival and renewal and rebirth.

Q: How did you know from his work in feature films that he would be able to do what is, more or less, a classic American play in a medium (television) he’s never directed in before?

A: I knew not from talking to him--not specifically that--but rather observing his work . . . he seems a natural for Tennessee. I’m surprised they haven’t merged before.

Q: Do you still need a strong director or do you prefer to be left alone to your own devices?

A: A strong director does leave you to your devices. A strong director allows you to be free and you trust that he’s there and he will tell you if you’ve gone too far. A strong director allows you to be much more experimental and take greater chances than a director who isn’t secure within himself.

Q: Clearly, you must be quite aware of the irony of playing this particular role--she is the ultimate fading movie queen.

A: No. Because I’ve played so many actresses. People love to write about actresses.

Q: But this is the literary world’s ultimate “has been” actress.

A: I mean at least once a year I play a “has been” actress and I keep on going, so I obviously haven’t been has’d yet! (Laughter). I’m a great success as “has beens.”

Q: Inevitably, comparisons will be drawn between your performance and Geraldine Page (who originated the role both on stage and on screen).

A: I haven’t seen it (the 1959 film starring Page and Paul Newman). Deliberately, because I didn’t want to be influenced. She’s such a brilliant actress.

Q: Did you know you would play the part?

A: I don’t know why I didn’t see it when it first came out. I just haven’t seen it. Probably deliberately didn’t see it since ‘59, consciously because I thought one day I’d do it.

Q: How was it working with Mark Harmon, a media magnet of another generation?

A: He’s terrific. I think he’s pulled out a dimension that, as an actor, he may not even have been aware of, because he’s been playing a certain kind of part. In this, he shows a dark side that I don’t think people were aware of.

Q: Why Mark Harmon over Patrick Swayze and Don Johnson, who were also under consideration for the role?

A: Why not? He’s perfect. He’s all-American. He’s the right age. The Sweet Bird of Youth is about to say goodby to Chance Wayne. Not Mark, but Chance, because of the way he lives and what he has inside: a terrible, dark turbulence eating at him. Mark doesn’t have that in his own life and yet he portrays it well in this, which I think will surprise a lot of people--the despair that he shows.

Q: (Co-executive producer) Peter Locke says Harmon adds an innocence that wasn’t inherent in Paul Newman’s film performance.

A: I think that’s what I mean by all-American, clean-cut. Innocent is good. I think that’s what attracts the princess to him in the first place, and makes her hang in, makes her want to try to save him. If he were just gone, and a gigolo and a total user, she wouldn’t be bothered. She’s seen too many of them, being led around in other grand hotels. She thinks he’s got a kind of golden innocence and sweetness.

Q: What about beyond acting? What are your personal priorities at this point in your life?

A: I don’t have a set pattern. I take things as they come. Usually with a great amount of relish. I just lay back and wait for it to happen. And it usually does.

Q: Are you revealing that you’re highly fatalistic or just without a plan for the future?

A: I think I’m becoming fatalistic. Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic.

Q: How do you deal with tabloid reporters going through your garbage and invading your children’s lives day after day?

A: There are certain things that you can do to insure as much privacy as possible, and I do all of them. When they speculate and put false words into your mouth, like intimate friends and close sources . . . that’s b.s. I know it’s b.s., the people close to me know it’s b.s., and that’s all I can do.

Q: Are you more hurt by attacks on your children?

A: When was the last time I was hurt by tabloids? I don’t even remember. They’re really unimportant to me.

Q: Your son (Michael Wilding) has a small role in “Sweet Bird of Youth.” I asked him if you ever offered him any advice as an actor and he said something to the effect of “Why would she?” But what sort of advice does Elizabeth Taylor--mother--offer her children? Do you allow them a certain independence?

A: Oh God, yes. I regard and respect their privacy as much as I do my own. They respect my privacy. I admire my kids as people. They’re individuals, with individual lives. We’re very good friends. I would never drop over their house without calling, and they call before they drop over here. It’s a mutual respect. I think because of that, we’re much closer. They know I’m here, and they’re free to call me whenever they want to. They have their lives.

Q: Do you care about misconceptions that circulate about you?

A: No. I really don’t care. Supposedly I’ve been on the verge of getting married about seven times in the last seven years. There’s no point in setting the record straight, because if people want to believe that, they’ll believe it.

Q: Will you act until you drop?

A: (Big laugh) Till I drop? I don’t know when I’m going to drop. I don’t know when I’m going to retire, either. I don’t feel like dropping today. I must be active. I’m active outside of working. I must have my own thing to do, and I don’t mean acting. I’m an active person. (Acting) is probably the thing I know best. Certainly it’s the thing I’ve been at the longest. I do enjoy it. Once in a while it’s fun.

Q: Do you hear the voice so many actors hear inside themselves burning away asking: “Where’s my next great part?”

A: I never have been driven in that way, and it’s probably evident in my work. You don’t need to comment on that. I know you’re dying to.

Q: What’s the one thing that makes you the most passionate at this stage in your life?

A: My work in AIDS. That’s the most important thing in my life.

Q: What are your goals?

A: There are so many things. I’m the National Chairwoman of AmFAR (The American Foundation For AIDS Research). It’s an on-going, 24-hour-a-day thing. It doesn’t let up. It won’t let up until there’s a cure and people are educated. There’s still so much stigma left. Where we have helped, aside from giving away about $14 million, we’ve been highly educational, I hope. We are trying. It’s like fighting city hall, but the government at least is opening an eye now.

Q: Is the American government now being more responsible toward making the AIDS issue a priority?

A: Responsible? Oh God, yes. The tone in Washington is beginning to change. But it won’t be enough until there is a cure.

Q: The New York Times once wrote that your highly publicized personal life has largely overshadowed your acting accomplishments. Is that a fair assessment and if so, does it bother you?

A: I think it’s true. No, it doesn’t bother me. It gives me a chuckle now when I hear critics talk about my work in a glowing way, because they sure weren’t glowing then. To gain respectability in hindsight, I find rather amusing.