Geraldine Chaplin

This is a 1966 Lydia Lane article. Enjoy!

“You never achieve individuality by striving to be different,” Geraldine Chaplin declared on her recent American visit. “It comes from a basic honesty, from inner searching.

I never had a desire to conform, even when I was an adolescent. “When I was 15 I’m now 21 1 tried to look older. I used a great deal of eye make -up and took up smoking. It was a silly pose which fortunately I gave up. “Individuality,” Geraldine continued is a matter of plaas-ing yourself.

You have to know what you want and don’t want, and this means facing yourself.” To my remark that those close to her were impressed with her maturity she explained, ‘I went to a convent school, and I also studied ballet. One gave me mental discipline, the other physical. “Ballet can contribute to confidence. When you know how to move with grace, you’ can appear poised even when you are not. “A good education, one that trains the mind, makes you capable of handling your problems.

At school I had to get up each morning at 5, and we had classes until 7 in the evening. It was a hard schedule, but I appreciate it now.” When Geraldine was on location in Spain for “Dr. Zhivago,” the food they served was so delicious and rich she gained 10 pounds in those six months. “I had no trouble losing as soon as the picture was over because I returned to ballet classes again. And I planned my own meals.

I never count calories, because it is a constant reminder that I am overweight. “I prefer to think thin, to plant the suggestion that my body has an oversupply of food, and I do not require much to feel well and keep going. I exercise and keep occupied and turn my thoughts away from eating. In a very short while, without any sense of frustration, I am happily back to normal.”