WEBVTT - Barbra Streisand 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:05.640 I'm Hillary Clinton, and this is you and me both. Well, 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.000 today's guest truly needs no introduction, but I'm going to 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:14.320 give her one anyway. Barbara Streisand is a singer, actor, 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:20.200 film director, producer, writer, activist, you name it. Her list 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:25.279 of accomplishments spans seven decades and every facet of the 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:26.599 entertainment industry. 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:29.240 But the short version. 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.040 Is that she is just one of a handful of 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:37.760 people to have won one or more Emmy, Grammy, Oscar 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:43.320 and Tony Awards. Now, some people revere Barbara for what 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:47.520 she does with her amazing singing voice. She is, after all, 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.760 one of the best selling recording artists of all time. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:57.960 Others love her for her iconic performances on stage and screen, 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.360 from Funny Girl to was Star Is Born to Yentil, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.240 you name it. And it is not just that she's acting, 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:11.200 but she became a director as well. None of this 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:18.360 was preordained. As a young teenager from Brooklyn going into 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:23.399 Manhattan in the early nineteen sixties performing in New York 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:28.440 City nightclubs, she had no connections or any formal training. 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:33.000 She was just a hungry kid from Flatbush who knew 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.560 what she wanted and was determined to go out there 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:41.080 and get it. You know, some early critics made negative 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:47.480 comments about her quote unquote unconventional looks. A few talent 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.920 hunters even told her to fix her nose. Thankfully, she 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:57.480 ignored them, but no one could deny her talent. I've 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.800 known Barbara since the early nineteen nineth We've supported a 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:06.400 lot of the same political causes, including my husband's campaigns 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.480 for president. Now I feel like I know her even better. 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:15.519 After reading My Name Is Barbara, her brand new, expansive 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:20.880 and very entertaining memoir, I was delighted she agreed to 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.079 come on the podcast to talk with me about it. 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:31.280 Hey, Barbara, can hear me, Hillary, I can hear you. 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:32.920 I can hear you. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.600 Oh. I am so so happy to be doing this 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:38.160 with you. 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.040 But I have to tell you I have a big 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:41.919 bone to pick. 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:48.720 I am so sleep deprived from reading this amazing, incredible memoir. 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.680 Oh I am I literally I could not sleep. 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.600 I kept saying to myself, Okay, just half a chapter more. 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.040 I'll get to one of the page breaks. 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:01.640 And then I'd get to the page break and I 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:02.519 would keep going. 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.240 It is phenomenal. 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.240 Oh, I'm so that is such a compliment coming from you, Hillary, 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.480 It is so personal, so honest, so self reflective. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.080 I could just gush this whole podcast. 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:18.760 That's all. Do it, do it please? 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.040 It was worth the wait, my friend. You've been working 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:25.120 on this for I don't. 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.080 Know how ten years, ten years. 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.640 And you know, I love the way that you opened 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:34.840 the book by talking about the nicknames said, the descriptions 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.080 of you in the press early in your career. It 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.840 gave me a good idea about how to open my 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:41.640 next book. 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:42.840 Oh really good. 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.520 Do these kinds of criticism still bother you at all? 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:51.200 Well? Now I don't read them you either, No, I can't. 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.760 I can't because I guess I used to early in 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.760 my career, and I thought, but that's not true. That's 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.440 not true. Why did they you know? So it's better 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.560 not to read anything about yourself. 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:05.760 I have found that after many years. 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:09.520 You know. I also was very touched by your dedication. 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:14.120 You dedicated your book to the father I never knew 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.880 and the mother that I did when I was reading 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.320 about those early years because you lost your father when 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.800 you were only fifteen months old. You have a scene 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.080 where you used to go up to the window to 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:29.120 wait for him to come home. 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:29.880 Do you remember that. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.039 I know my mother told me that story, so I 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:34.120 know it's true. 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.680 His absence was so profound to you. 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.839 I guess it's so primal. And we know so much 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.479 as infants. Don't you think we feel things even though 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.040 we can't, you know, speak the words. 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:55.320 Parents cast such big shadows over our lives. And you 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.520 are very honest about the difficult relationship you had with 0:04:59.560 --> 0:04:59.960 your mom. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.279 It wasn't simple, was it. 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:08.679 No? No, because I couldn't fathom that a mother could 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:13.880 actually be jealous of her own daughter. I mean, you 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.280 must have been not the word touched. I don't mean 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:22.880 to give myself a compliment, But my relationship with Virginia, 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:25.279 your mother in law, how about that? 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:31.680 Well? I can barely talk about it, and for everyone listening. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:37.080 Barbara Matt Bill's mother Virginia at the Arkansas Inaugural ball 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.880 back in January of nineteen ninety three. And you'd been 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:46.120 such a great supporter of Bill's campaign, and it was 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.800 so wonderful getting to know you starting in nineteen ninety two. 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.640 But there was something magic about the connection that you 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:55.599 and Virginia made. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.120 Well, when he said from the stage, go with my 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.560 mom and Virginia took my hand. I think we were 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.800 both on the stage at the time, and it was like, 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.000 all of a sudden, it felt like family because we 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:16.360 had so much invested in his becoming president, changing the country, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:21.839 you know, so walking that night and Richard Baskin and I, 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.360 who are still friends, took that picture from the back. 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.560 I love pictures from the back. You know. You don't 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.240 have to see people's faces to get the emotion and 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.720 the feeling of connection from a photograph, you know, I mean, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:39.600 it's quite extraordinary. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.919 The way you talk about Virginia and your relationship in 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:49.880 the book was really moving. And the last public event 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.440 that she did in her whole life was to go 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.320 see you in your appearance in Las Vegas. And she 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.880 died shortly after that. And neither Bill nor I nor 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.720 anyone who knew her could have been happier for her 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:08.600 that she got to see you return to the stage. 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:13.120 Can you imagine? I mean, I remember talking to her 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.000 on the phone and I was telling her in May 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.080 for something that was going to happen at Christmas. Can 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.800 you imagine New Year's Eve? Actually? And I was telling 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:28.680 her that I decided to sing again after twenty some years, 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.920 and she said, well, I have to be there. And 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.760 I said, oh my god, would you really you know, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.040 schlep all the way across the country to see me. 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.240 And she said of course. And I said, well, I'll 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:44.520 be singing on a Friday or Saturday and Saturday night, 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.440 so which night do you want to come? And she said, well, 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:52.440 aren't you singing both nights? I said yeah. She said, 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.480 well I want to be there both nights. You know, 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.720 in the past, my mother, well even that last time 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:05.240 I sang, you know, the first time after twenty some years, 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.160 my mother didn't come to my opening night because she 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.600 was out with girlfriend, she said. And she came the 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.040 second night. And that's when I put a picture of 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.840 Virginia and my mother. I was the cheese in the middle. 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:20.440 That's right. 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.920 The picture is very telling. You know, Virginia and I 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.720 are holding hands, but my mother's hand does not clasp mine. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.760 I I don't know what to say after that. 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.120 I noticed that when I got to the section of 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.360 pictures in the book, I noticed exactly what you're describing. 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.480 But I want to go back to your earlier days, 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:49.440 because you know the story you tell about moving out 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:52.000 on your own. I think what were you sixteen, Yeah, 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:58.720 leaving Brooklyn, going to Manhattan, supporting yourself with a variety 0:08:58.800 --> 0:08:59.800 of odd jobs. 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.080 I was a clerk licking envelopes. 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:09.520 I mean, you really started your career very young. But 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.480 no matter what was going on inside of you, and 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.800 you write about some of your feelings, you presented yourself 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:17.600 as self assured. 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:23.880 I like to say, gutsy. Just describe for us how you. 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.800 Made the decision number one to leave Brooklyn get to Manhattan. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.880 You always knew you wanted to be an actoract. I 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.720 mean you have great reflective scenes where you're saying to yourself, well, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.240 when I'm a famous actor, when you were like thirteen 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.040 years old, when I'm an actor, I'm going to do this. 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.760 I mean, you always had that feeling about yourself. Where 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:43.640 did that come from? 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.240 You know, that's the mystical side of life. I think. 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:52.920 I remember I told a story in my book that's 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:57.079 when I got an apartment next to my acting school. 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:02.040 I was sixteen. I turned sick. I graduated actually when 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:06.200 I was just fifteen. But I was standing in my 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:11.439 doorway that story that I didn't like to make my bed. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:18.160 I couldn't comprehend certain things like today, I can't comprehend phones. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.120 I really can't. I'm constantly asking my husband's next to 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.079 me in the bed, you know, how do you do this? 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.360 I mean, why does this arrow disappear? How come I 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:34.000 can't figure it? I cannot. I'm smart about certain things, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:39.320 but not about phones. Anyway. I was reading a book 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.280 because I liked Ibsen as a playwright, and so I 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.400 bought a book called The Quintessence of Ibsenism, which I 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:50.280 thought was going to describe his plays, because they were 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.920 great parts as an actress, you know, for me. And 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:59.080 at one point I thought I read Thoughts Transcend Matter 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.480 by the way. Looking for that later on, I could 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.120 never find it in the book. So I don't know 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:11.160 where that came from. But I believed in the power 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.480 of thought and how it can create reality. And I 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.079 remember as if it were today, you know. I remember 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.280 standing in that doorway looking at the bed, which the 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.000 room was so small you could, you know, when you 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.040 find a small bed and no end table or anything 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.520 like that. And I thought to myself, I have to 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.200 get famous in order to get somebody else to make 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:36.679 my bed. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:39.480 I love that, Do you know what I mean? In 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.440 other words, you know what you mean, you thought your 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:45.280 life and you invented it. 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:45.760 Yeah. 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.760 You know, you made your Broadway debut when you were nineteen. 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:53.360 You leave Brooklyn, you're fifteen, sixteen, you're young, you don't 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:55.840 know how to make a bed. You go to Manhattan 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.120 and you're in I can get it for your wholesale. 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:01.840 And then two years later you're. 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.679 Starring as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, and that role 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:10.000 was iconic, it lives in history. Did you sense the 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.800 cultural impact that role would have when you were playing it? 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:21.360 No? No, But Julie Stein, who had written Gypsy m 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:26.200 this was before he even wrote Funny Girl, invited me 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.240 to his apartment with Alan and Marilyn bergman. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:35.480 Ah, the wonderful songwriting duo and such an amazing couple. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.440 Yeah, and who ended up being, you know, my family. 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.360 They played something for me that they thought I might 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:48.400 be interested a new Broadway show. And that's when I 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.640 didn't realize Julie Stein was a big gambler. I just wondered, 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.199 how do you live on Park Avenue and you only 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.120 have a card table in the living room? You know, 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.800 I thought that's interesting. Can I ask for a sandwich 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.280 and between shows that I can get a for your Holezelle. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:08.120 So I remember Maggie, his wife, gave me something I love, 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.679 like white, soft, white bread with some chicken in it, 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:16.400 you know, and mayo, a little mustard perhaps. But they 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.360 played the score for me and I said, you know, 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:23.640 this is not anything that's right for me. And Marilyn 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:27.319 tells me this story, she said, you know, and then 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.560 you went on to describe what you wanted to do next, 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.880 what you wanted to do in the theater, what kind 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:40.600 of role. I wanted a dramatic story, a story where 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:44.360 I could stretch myself, you know, play her as some 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.319 person young and then older. And it had to be 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.880 a story that I could really relate to and feel 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:57.320 like I was using my acting capacity, you know. And 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:01.840 she said in retrospect, she said, you dinny girl, before 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:03.240 I had ever heard of it. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:05.120 Well there's another. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:07.959 I'm telling you. I'm telling you. 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:16.000 Just two years after, Barbara conjured up that perfect role 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.360 for herself in her mind, she would be playing the 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.360 role of comedian and actress Fanny Brice in the hit 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:29.760 Broadway musical Funny Girl. Critics and theater goers were blown 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.720 away by her performance. Since she was appearing on all 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.880 the talk shows and showing up on the covers of 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.040 all the big magazines and getting fan mail from admirers 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.880 like Henry Fonda and Frank Sinatra. You'd think she had arrived, 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:51.960 but no, Barbara was just getting started. Next up, we 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:56.360 talk about her introduction to the big screen. That's right 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:12.160 after the break, so please stay with us. A big 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:16.920 part of Barber's book is about being in and creating movies. 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.000 To understand the allure they had for her, we have 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.920 to go back to when she was about thirteen years old, 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.040 living in a small apartment with her mother and her 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:35.520 very difficult stepfather. She talks about those days so vividly. 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.640 I used to eat over a pot, you know, in 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.680 this little kitchen from the projects. I mean they were 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.720 tiny little kitchens. 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:47.560 Yes, God, what do. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.440 You just say? I mean, I thought it was normal 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:51.600 at the time till I saw other people and how 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.080 they lived and how they sit down at dinner. I 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:58.479 was like a wild animal in a way, very primitive, 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.720 you know. I just was a taught manners or anything. Donna, 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.160 Karen and I talk about how we both sat with 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.680 our knees up, one knee sitting at a dining room table. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.080 But you were also at this time living with an 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.480 emotionally abusive stepfather. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:21.720 Exactly who never saw me, never spoke to me, really literally, 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:26.920 never asked a question like how a school or how 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.840 are you doing or anything. Yeah, so I never felt seen. 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:36.680 I think that that was my motive. I think that 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.640 when I saw movies. When I first saw Marlon Brando 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.240 when I was thirteen, and we didn't know in those days, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.280 you know, that there were times for movies. So I 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.800 would come in the middle of movies because I didn't 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.360 realize they started at a certain time. And I saw 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.400 Marlon Brando and he just knocked me for a loop. 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:59.280 Oh well, he was so beautiful. 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.720 He was incredibly beautiful, wasn't he. I mean, drop dead 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.879 gorgeous with his strange nose kind of to the side 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.679 and a bump. I loved his bump. The sound of 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:17.320 his voice. Yeah, and his his just his whatever you 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:22.159 call that, that charisma and his honesty, you know, And 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.480 that's why I think we became friends. Not that I'm 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.359 saying that about myself, but that's what drew me to him. 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:31.680 But you should say that about yourself, because that comes 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:34.040 across in the book. I mean, I'll say it for you. 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.240 You come across as as being really honest. I mean 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.640 in a way that is unusual for anyone, but especially 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.840 a young woman just starting out. The questions you asked, 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.960 the observations you made, and you know, in the book 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.960 you talk about the attitude of the so called boys club, 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:01.199 first working on Broadway, then in film, even during a 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:05.000 television interview with Mike Wallace. You know, there's so much 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:09.920 to the challenge of navigating men's egos and expectations. 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.919 How would you describe how you did that? 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.720 Unfortunately, it still is a reality in the lives of 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.720 so many, uh, you know, women trying to navigate careers. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.439 That's what's so pathetic. I mean, we've come this way, 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.119 but we haven't really attained that equality yet, have we. 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:30.000 No. 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.719 I mean it's still you're a woman wanting to direct. 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.800 Isn't that interesting that you're asking me that? How did 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:41.879 that come about? I just had visions actually in my head. 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:47.320 I could imagine certain things that I had to fulfill. 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.359 I wasn't afraid of losing the job. I wasn't afraid 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.280 of that. I thought, Okay, this person turned me down, 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.600 now and I'll become a hat designer. You know. I mean, 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.880 I'll do something else, I'll pay, I'll design clothes, whatever. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.280 So I wasn't afraid to lose, you know, to not 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.120 get what I want the first time around. 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:14.000 You know, through your career you have paved the way 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:19.080 for other women. You've produced films that wrestle with questions 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.960 of women's choices and rights, and you helped us set 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:27.240 up a higher standard of pay authority for women because 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.280 you know, not to put too fine a point on it, 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:35.200 you are still one of the only women ever to write, direct, 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.359 produce and star in a major motion picture and you 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.159 have done that, you know, with three successful films. So 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:50.520 your honesty, which some people can be upset about, especially men, 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.359 really kind of cleared the decks for you to keep 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.320 moving even when you met disappointment or rejection. 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.480 It's just that I was never taught manners in a sense, 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:04.600 you know, I just come to the point I'm blunt 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.240 about it. Also, when you have a vision of something, 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.359 let's say a movie or an album or something like that, 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.000 I think it has to be a singular vision. In 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.480 other words, doing a movie. Yeah, that's why it was 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.520 so hard to get yentl made fifteen years because it 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.320 was like you want to direct, you want to write, 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:27.800 you want to do this, and the same time, well, 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.440 how can you do that? Well there were men doing that, 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.639 There certainly were, you know, And so what does it 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.000 have to do with my gender? I think you really 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:41.240 have to have an overall vision. What does it look like? 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.199 How to tell the story? You know? What do the 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.120 shots look like? I mean, how does the camera move? 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.840 How do you tell the story of each person? How 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.240 do you limit the movement? You know what I mean, 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:58.600 There's so many things that interest me beside acting. Put 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.679 it that way. To me, it's that's the easy job. 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.719 But the vision comes across in the book. It's almost 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.919 like there are two parallel stories, I mean, the story 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.400 of your life, you know. But also then you spend 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:20.560 a really considerable amount of time sort of explaining the 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:24.320 movies you were in and the questions you had. I mean, 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.159 obviously with yentl, the you know, the fact that you 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:31.320 were writing it, acting in it, and directing it gives 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:32.280 the reader. 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:36.320 Such a front row seat and how movies are made. 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:42.439 I found talking about the process more interesting than talking 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.159 about myself. Put it that way, I never watched my 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:49.680 movies once I finished them. I'm not like Ronald Reagan 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.119 who used to sit and watch the movies. I was told, 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:55.399 but no, I can't. I can't listen to my music. 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:57.080 I can't listen to my albums. 0:21:57.760 --> 0:21:59.640 Oh my gosh, you're kidding. So you don't watch your 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:01.720 movies and you don't listen to your singing. 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:06.040 No I can't. I mean, after I finished the book, 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.399 I couldn't read it. Working on it for ten years, 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.840 I thought, when I finished, you know, the epilogue, I'm 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:19.160 trying to design the cover and the because again, it's 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.080 like making a movie to me, I have to design 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.560 the cover. That's my way of doing, you know, being 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:27.520 in control in a sense. 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.080 But you know, I mean when somebody says that a 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:34.639 woman has to be in control, I always roll my eyes, 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:40.240 because you know, somebody who's making big bets, who's taking 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.200 big risks like you have with your career and your 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:45.120 life going all. 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:45.600 The way back. 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:48.680 I mean, yeah, you do want to be in control 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:51.000 to the extent any human being is ever in control. 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:54.880 That's right, And anybody who reads this book will see 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:57.800 that you are so much more right than not in 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.480 the decisions you're making and in the you know direction 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:04.800 you want to go. And of course, as someone who 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:09.639 knows you and cares about you, the best decision was 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:14.639 marrying James Broland Jim Brolan, I mean, I love the 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:18.640 way you get to that. I mean, I'm waiting for it. 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.000 I'm reading It's three forty in the morning. Come on, 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.399 come on, let's get moving. We've gone through your very 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:29.080 you know, your very sweet first marriage with Elliot Gould, 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:32.760 who we all like and loved seeing, and then you know, 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:35.240 there are a couple of other interesting men that kind 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:36.560 of go in and out of your life. 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.919 I can't talk about them. See. You know. My editor 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:44.000 was wonderful. She kept saying, I can't tell that. I 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:46.600 can't say that. No, no, you have to do you 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:51.479 have to let people in somewhat to your intimate life. 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:54.600 But I can't even read it or talk about I 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:58.920 can't mention names. Even I'm so still a little embarrassed 0:23:58.960 --> 0:23:59.280 by it. 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.760 Well that's I've skipped everybody from Elliott to Jim. 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:04.520 Okay, good, thank you so much. 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.119 I'm not asking you about anybody in between. People are 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:08.800 going to have to read the book. Go out and 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:16.360 buy the book. Barbara did share with me the story 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:20.360 of how she met James Brolan, her husband of twenty 0:24:20.440 --> 0:24:24.320 five years, and that's coming up right after the break 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:38.040 By now you know that Barbara believes that there's no 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:42.360 such thing as a coincidence. Things happened for a reason. 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:45.840 The story of how and when Jim came into her 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:49.520 life is no different. And a quick note, you'll hear 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:53.680 her mention someone named Renata. That's Renata who's been her 0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:56.160 personal assistant for many years. 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:02.399 He appeared while I was edit star. No, a mirror 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:06.320 has two faces. Where I took that job and that 0:25:06.520 --> 0:25:11.680 film because for once myself as an actress playing roles 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:15.399 like funny girl and the way we were we don't 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:18.399 get the men at the end, and I thought to 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:22.399 myself self, maybe I should take this role. It's like 0:25:22.960 --> 0:25:27.719 life imitates art in a sense. He shows up and 0:25:27.800 --> 0:25:30.560 I leave my editors. While I'm editing, I had two 0:25:31.440 --> 0:25:34.679