Piper Laurie – Take two

This is a 1959 Lydia Lane article. Enjoy!

Turning your back on stardom and $1500 a week takes courage, but Piper Laurie did this when she felt her acting opportunity came before she was prepared. When Piper was in her teens she was given a term contract with Universal and publicized around the world as the girl who ate flowers. “I was young and eager to be cooperative,” Piper told me. “At first I was thrilled at being a movie star and did my best to look like one at all times. On a personal appearance tour I used to set my alarm for five o’clock in the morning so I would have time to look my best for early appointments. “I have freckles, and I spent hours covering them with makeup. I was terrified that I would let my fans down. I wore artificial eyelashes that I put on one at a time. I became dexterous at filling out my eyebrows with tiny strokes that looked like individual hairs. What care I took getting the exact point on my eyebrow pencil!” We were lunching In the Beverly Hills Hotel when a fan asked Piper for her autograph. “You’re my favorite actress.” she said. “When you are on TV I stay home and watch you.” Piper was gracious but poised. “No one ever felt like that about me before.” she said when we were alone. “Is that why you fled Holly, wood to study acting in New York?” , “No. I did it for other seasons,” she replied. “I felt trapped by something that was phony. I wanted to be free and by myself. “I was dedicated to the wrong hings. I had false value. I hated the scripts they sent me and what I saw on the screen when it was finished. When I went to New York I was running from a personality created by Hollywood publicity.” “You started dating when you were very young, didn’t you?” I asked. “Yes, I went out with older men, but I learned a great deal of valuable advice from them. I don’t feel that age should be a deciding factor in anything. Your age is just a number. What counts is how compatible you are. About six years ago, Piper used to visit the veterans hospital regularly with me. As I looked at this girl in a simple cotton dress,’ her hair drawn straight back from a freshly-scrubbed face with a small sprinkling of freckles. I felt as though we had never met. I told her this. “I made a complete break,” she explained. “At first I went too far in the other direction. I wore no make-up not even lipstick. I put away all my premiere-type clothes that were too beautiful and too uncomfortable. I tried dressing as inconspicuously as possible. Because I wanted a complete change. I dyed my hair dark. “I saved enough money to live in New York a year without working, providing I stuck to my budget,” she confessed. “I admire your courage.” “Starting all over again was a bit frightening. I remember flying to New York. I sat there wondering if I would ever regret what I was doing. But something was soon told me by a wonderfully interesting woman sitting next to me. “She said, ‘The reasonable man will adapt himself to the world the unreasonable man wants to adapt the world to himself. All progress is made by the unreasonable m a n.’ When she said this. I was no longer worried. I was happy to be on the side of the unreasonable.” . Piper has so – successfully escaped the girl she was running away from that she can face Hollywood now, knowing it can’t change her again. With so many brilliant TV performances and Emmy nominations for the last two years, she can choose scripts to her liking.

Piper Laurie

This is a 1952 Lydia Lane article, where actress Piper Laurie talks about how she beat shyness and a lot of other stuff. Enjoy!

Piper Laurie has come up fast but her success has in no way gone to her head. “I’m just lucky,” she told me last week when we were lunching at Universal. . The sun was in back of Piper accenting the copper in her hair. “What a lovely color your hair is,” I commented. “It’s natural,” Piper said, “and at one time was a great problem to me because my eyelashes and eyebrows were red, too, and you couldn’t see them. I hate to see a teen-ager look made up and I had to learn how to use an eyebrow pencil so that it didn’t look heavy.”

“What’s the secret?” I wanted to know. “Having a real sharp point on your pencil,” she explained. “Instead of making mine round I make it flat on each side and then stroke as if I were drawing a lot of separate little hairs.” “WHAT IS THE top glamour trick Hollywood has taught you?” “Learning to use make-up so that you don’t look made up. The studio gave me a cream base that I like very much. I don’t use any powder with it but instead I pat on cologne and this dries up the excess oil.” “Do you have it on now?” I asked. Piper nodded “yes” and I had to admit the effect was strikingly natural.

“WHAT HAS BEEN the biggest thing you’ve had to overcome?” I asked this girl who is a star success at twenty. “Shyness has been a real problem to me,” Piper said with hesitation. “I used to be so shy that when my folks had Company of an evening I would stay in my room because I couldn’t get up enough courage to go in and say hello.” “You don’t seem in the least shy now.” “WHEN I GOT MY contract in pictures three years ago I realized I would have to learn to meet people,” Piper said. “I asked myself, ‘What are you afraid of?’ It seemed to boil down to a fear of not making a good impression of being disapproved of. “I realize now that shyness is a form of conceit Of being so self centered that you imagine everyone is looking at you.

“When I went to a party I forced myself to concentrate on what I thought of other people instead of worrying what they were thinking about me. I tried to pick out some one person and fix my attention on him. When I was shy I would never say a word,” Piper continued. “I wanted to, but whatever came to my head I didn’t think was important enough while someone was talking to me I was only half listening because I was busy trying to think of a reply. I found if I gave a person my complete attention I wasn’t self-conscious any more.”

“WHAT YOU HAVE told me I am sure will prove helpful to others who are shy,” I told her. “I hope so, Piper said. “It is a mistake to feel you have to be a personality kid, or the life of the party. Just go out and think about other people and their problem and listen to what they have to say and you won’t have time for shyness.” . “What was your reaction the first time you saw yourself on the screen,” I wanted to know. “It was a horrible experience,” Piper said with emphasis. “After I saw my first test I felt there was no use for me to try to be an actress.” “What was the matter?” “Everything,” Piper groaned. “My voice, it was so high pitched.” “It isn’t now.” “I worked hard to lower it” I wanted to know how.

“MOST OF the trouble come from not breathing properly she said. “If you learn how to let your voice come out on your breath, the rest is easy. When you’re trying to change you have to go through a period of transition which sounds affected. But don’t pay attention to what your family and friends say. Keep working and one day you’ll find your voice is lower and you won’t even have to think about it” “What else have you had to correct?” “My posture. I still remember looking at that person on the screen who walked so awkwardly and stood with such a sway back and feeling I had never seen her before.” “What did you do to correct your posture?”

“I JOINED A posture class at school. It was really very good. The teacher would have us walk around the room slowly and she gave each one of us exercises to correct our faults. I had to work on sloping shoulders, sway back,’ balanced walk and sitting straight.” “Do you remember what you had to do?” “I don’t have to think about posture anymore I just do it automatically. But I’m sure I’ve written down these exercises. I’ll try to dig them up and send them to you, along with my secrets on breathing.”