Welcome to Her Latest Life

Talk about a snapshot in time. For people of a certain age, the primary image conjured up by the name Patty Hearst is a single frame of film shot on a surveillance camera. It shows her at age 19, brandishing a carbine, in the act of holding up a San Francisco bank.

In this iconic picture, she looks the very embodiment of radical chic--rail-thin, with a beret atop her distinctly shaggy, shoulder-length hair. While she has the stance and manner of a desperate young subversive, there is also an intriguingly plaintive look in her eyes.

This image dates from 1974, a year in which Hearst was arguably the most famous young woman in the world. An heiress born into a publishing dynasty (the flamboyant, fantastically wealthy newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was her grandfather), she was kidnapped by an obscure radical group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and held captive in a cramped San Francisco studio apartment for 57 days.

The SLA gave her a code name--Tania--that the whole world soon knew about. She joined them in a series of robberies, was finally captured by police, and served 21 months in prison before then-President Carter commuted her sentence, allowing her release into her parents’ custody. She has always maintained that she was brainwashed and coerced by the SLA into joining its criminal activities.

Well, that was then. Today, at 47, Patricia Hearst (new acquaintances are warned not to refer to her as Patty) looks every inch the woman she would have become anyway, even if the SLA had not played a fateful part in her life story. Apart from her aristocratically high forehead, she is unrecognizable from her days as Tania. Her hair is expensively coiffed, she is immaculately groomed, and her conversation is laced with an easy wit; it is hard to imagine her feeling daunted by any society gathering.

Given the turbulence in her early life, Hearst might understandably have spent the rest of her life as a wealthy recluse. That has not been the case. She has a minor acting career and, in such films as “Cry-Baby,” “Serial Mom,” “Pecker” and “Cecil B. Demented,” has become a member of the informal repertory company surrounding the trash-fixated satirical filmmaker John Waters. She also had a role in the comedy “Bio-Dome,” a best-forgotten 1996 flop starring Pauly Shore, and that same year made a guest appearance on the TV sitcom “Boston Common.”

Now she is planning to extend her range--as a TV presenter. Hearst arrived at Pasadena’s Ritz-Carlton hotel to meet a twice-annual gathering of television critics, who were shown a cable documentary she is hosting and had a chance to ask her questions at a press conference. The two-hour special is, literally, close to home for her.

Titled “Secrets of San Simeon,” it outlines the history and offers a look behind the scenes of Hearst Castle, that massive, remarkable home built on a California coastal hilltop by William Randolph Hearst. (It will premiere on the Travel Channel, part of Discovery Networks, on March 19.) Patricia, who grew up in San Francisco, visited the castle as a weekend retreat in her childhood.

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“I’ve seen photographs and I first went there when I was very young,” she said. “Then as a teenager, I would go up and join my aunt and uncle for summers up there. It was an outdoors experience. In the morning, after the fog rolled out, my cousins and I would run around the place, go horseback riding, have a picnic.”

It occurred to her gradually that she was growing up in a remarkable family, and that Hearst Castle was an extraordinary place. “Vacations at San Simeon helped make that sink in,” she reflected, in a voice that says blue-blood Yankee. “How could they not? People were taking tours through the house, there’s lots of property up there. I guess [the prominence of the family] really sank in after I was kidnapped. But no negative aspects were apparent before that.”

She recounts humorously how her parents Randolph (who died recently) and Catherine tried to play down the fact that the Hearst family was not like others: “No one said, ‘You’re better than anyone else,’ or ‘Don’t play with that riffraff,’ which was good. But the complete denial was pretty strange too. So when friends at school would say: ‘We learned about your grandfather today. He helped start the Spanish-American War,’ I was, like, ‘I beg your pardon?’ ”

Her parents also tried to convince her that Orson Welles’ film “Citizen Kane” had nothing to do with her grandfather, and that such a notion was ridiculous. “Well, the first time I saw ‘Citizen Kane,’ I was 25, and it was blatantly obvious,” she said, laughing at the recollection. But she takes issue with one aspect of “Citizen Kane,” which became a factor in wanting to make the TV special: “It’s that myth of what Hearst Castle is, that gloomy, foreboding Tim Burtonish thing up there on the hill. Few people are able to separate the movie ‘Citizen Kane’ from William Randolph Hearst the man, and they think it’s a documentary.”

“Secrets of San Simeon” tackles this issue head-on, in a tongue-in-cheek sequence in which Hearst catches a snow globe like the one Welles employed in “Citizen Kane.”

“That had to be addressed,” she said. “Many people go up there expecting a dark castle, clicking heels across cavernous interiors that echo from the emptiness and loneliness of it all. And it just wasn’t that. It was one big party up there for the most part.”

Indeed. The special makes frequent mention of the role played by Hearst and his mistress, actress Marion Davies, as hosts to a large assortment of eminent people and Hollywood stars, ranging from Winston Churchill to Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant and Howard Hughes. Patricia Hearst was also encouraged to make the TV special because she was unhappy about the quality of videos offered to Hearst Castle visitors. She calls the project a labor of love, an assessment shared by its executive producers, Albert Fisher and George Merlis. Noting her writing and producing credits for “Secrets of San Simeon,” Fisher added: “I assure you those are not courtesy titles. Her input was real, and it was substantial.”

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At the press conference, the massed ranks of reporters, who are not renowned on these occasions for their inquisitorial style, gave Hearst an easy ride, mainly concentrating their queries on her TV special. Only one saw fit to ask a tough question. “What exactly are you these days?” he demanded. “An actress? What?”

Two hours later, Hearst sat in the living room of one of the hotel’s cottages and pondered. “Good question,” she said dryly. (Though Hearst knew nothing about it at the time, she was only hours away from being pardoned for her involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army. She had first applied for a pardon in 1988, and Carter had supported her cause consistently. The pardon finally came through as one of dozens controversially handed down by President Clinton before leaving the Oval Office.)

Confronted by a sea of faces at the press conference, she had seemed nervous, but now, one-on-one, she was visibly more relaxed, allowing her wicked humor full rein. During this interview, her husband, Bernard Shaw (who became her bodyguard after her release from jail and who is now the Hearst Corp.’s security director) stayed quietly in an adjacent room.

“Yes, sure, I’m an actress,” she said, finally answering the question. But what percentage of her life is devoted to acting? “Well, certainly not enough. I’d like to do more of it. My kids [she has two teenage daughters, Gillian and Lydia] say to me, ‘We wish you weren’t gone.’ But my stock answer to them is, it’s the only time I’m truly happy--if only to teach them you have to do something productive, and you should love what you do. Most of my work has been for John Waters, but that’s not exactly tragic. I work for a really great director. And the work turns out that way on screen.”

Until meeting Waters, Hearst entertained few notions about becoming an actress. “I was in high school plays. I was planning on deferring my major in art history and was just at the point of doing that.” She gave an exaggeratedly meaningful glance. “But that fell apart rather dramatically. I think I thought I’d work in a museum, maybe do something for a magazine like Connoisseur, find a way to work in a field I enjoyed.”

After her kidnapping, jail sentence and release, she wrote a book about those events, “Every Secret Thing.” Producer Marvin Worth bought the rights, and Paul Schrader directed the 1988 movie, simply called “Patty Hearst,” with Natasha Richardson in the title role.

“It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and they asked me to go along,” Hearst recalled. “At first that seemed a bit much, but then I thought, why not go? It would probably be the only time I’d ever go to something like this.”

It was at a dinner party in Cannes that she met Waters, who cornered her, told her he had believed her guilty (of voluntarily joining the SLA’s crime sprees) until he had seen “Patty Hearst” and asked her to appear in one of his films.

Why did Waters approach her? “Oh, please,” said Hearst, scornfully. “He’d walk over to anybody. He’s not exactly a shy person.

“But I did think he was joking. Then a year later he sent me a script, I went to see him, and I ended up in ‘Cry-Baby’ with Johnny Depp. That’s how it all began. When people ask how I got started, I warn them that waiting tables is a far better way to pay your dues and break into films.

“Do not be kidnapped by terrorists,” she went on, tongue firmly in cheek. “It’s not the best way. I mean, it worked out for me, but there are no guarantees with that one.”

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Despite her sardonic tone, Hearst said she takes acting very seriously. “Comedy is hard--you have to make things look offhand and natural. So you show up, on time and prepared, because film costs thousands of dollars every minute. People depend on you. John has a happy crew and happy actors, but he’s very strict. On set, he doesn’t put up with foolishness.”

To round off the Cannes story, she even liked the way “Patty Hearst” turned out: “It was well-done, well-acted, it pretty much stuck to the book, and absolutely no one saw it. I was kind of glad it didn’t do well. It meant no one else was tempted to do their version. Because, who needs it?”

She was not consulted about the film: “Which was fine. With Paul Schrader, I was less concerned. But you know, Marvin Worth also made ‘Rhinestone’ [a notorious 1984 musical bomb, starring Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton]. So how do you know? It’s fraught with danger. But if you live too safely, nothing ever happens. Still,” she added slyly, “there was no singing involved.”

Her films for Waters seem like harmless fun. But his fascination for Hearst seems endless; one journalist visiting his Baltimore home reported that Waters maintained in his bathroom a shrine to Hearst, including the glasses she was wearing when arrested. And their most recent collaboration, “Cecil B. Demented,” had obvious parallels with Hearst’s life. Here’s a summary of the plot: A deranged indie-film director and his renegade gang of teenage revolutionaries kidnap an A-list Hollywood actress (played by Melanie Griffith) and force her to star in their underground film. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Whether or not Waters was trying to help Hearst exorcise her past traumas through humor, she readily admits to the parallels: “Oh, of course. I told him I really should sue him for copyright infringement. He said: ‘It’s not about you, but there are similarities.’ I told him he had a lot of nerve. We had a good time shooting it, though at one point he said to me: ‘I’m glad your mother is not alive to see this. I’m feeling really guilty right now.’ ”

Asked if her association with Waters had made her something of a gay icon, Hearst raised an eyebrow and said: “You have to wonder that? My agent wouldn’t take me down to Santa Monica [Boulevard] on Halloween. He was afraid he’d never get me out of there.”

Now she is preparing to make another Waters movie--”It’s about sex addicts in Baltimore,” she noted, keeping an admirably straight face. Still, she also hopes to develop her career as a TV presenter and is pleased by how “Secrets of San Simeon” turned out.

“With voice-overs and hosting, there seems to be this rule that if you’ve never done it before, you’ll never be allowed to do it. Luckily, I was allowed to do this, so I was offered a breakthrough into a little club. The final say of how well I did will be if I ever get to do anything else.”

This brings her back to that loaded question: Who is she these days? “In this country, reporters like to pigeonhole people,” she said caustically. “For me, it’s been an effort for my own sanity not to be a victim. That’s been hard. I love acting and I love [presenting]. I’m lucky to be able to work in the film industry and I want to keep doing it. I’ve had to struggle to make sure I can make a life beyond one horrible event, and for that to be it. You just have to fight to make a life the way you want it.”

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And she does. She, Shaw and their daughters live in Fairfield County, an affluent Connecticut enclave. Hearst raises her kids, involves herself in charity work and, when she is not acting, lives a quiet life. She is not politically active, though at one point she observed: “I get along with plenty of people, but really right-wing men? No, I don’t get on well with right-wing men at all. Not even a little bit. I’m too blunt. I say what I think.”

Hearst said she and Shaw briefly debated casting a vote for Ralph Nader, but when they heard the lines were long at their local polling station, they decided to stay home. Nader attracted them not only for his policies; they feel the major political party duopoly in America should be broken up. “I have strong opinions,” she said, sighing. “If only my actions matched them.”

She admits to feeling contentment at this stage of her life: “It would be shocking if I weren’t happy,” she said. “And even if I weren’t, who could possibly sympathize? I have a nice husband, two great kids and a nice house. What’s not to like? I can’t imagine who I’d complain to.”

Hearst seems to have done a good job of putting her past traumas behind her. After her pardon, her Tiburon, Calif.-based lawyer, George Martinez, issued a statement saying that she was “profoundly grateful to Presidents Clinton and Carter for their faith in her and relieved that this process has finally concluded. This action by President Clinton has enormous significance for Ms. Hearst and her family.”

But she may soon have to confront her past yet again. Hearst is set to be a witness in the trial of Sara Jane Olson, who, under her former name of Kathleen Soliah, was an alleged former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Olson faces charges that she planted bombs under Los Angeles Police Department cars in 1975.

A stipulation of the interview was that Hearst would not be questioned about the Soliah case, or the SLA. But she willingly reflected on the prospect of having to face a court to revisit this troubled period of her life.

“I’ve been subpoenaed, and when you get subpoenaed, you go,” said Hearst. “That’s about it. Otherwise, you know as much as I do. I haven’t talked to anybody. I just sit here and let things [move] along. I figure at some stage it’ll happen or it won’t.

“I haven’t talked to anybody, and people assume I’ve got this incredible interest in it--like I’ve talked to the D.A., or something. But no--I won’t even let my lawyer talk to me about it. Tell me when I have to be in some place, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s my only obligation.”

She doesn’t even sound as if she’s taking it as seriously as her next movie--the one about the sex addicts in Baltimore. “That’s right,” said Patricia Hearst. “That one’s much more pressing.”

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“Secrets of San Simeon” premieres March 19, 9 to 11 p.m., on the Travel Channel.