By contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Oscarwinning actress Anjelica Huston is part of a legendary film dynasty, of course, and she chronicles the first 20 years of her exceptional upbringing in a new memoir, a story lately told. She of course is the daughter of acclaimed director jon huston and granddaughter of walter huston. But anjelica has carved out an impressive acting career of her own, including her oscarwinning turn of prizys honor, and the emmywinning mini series lonesome dove. It is an honor to have you on the program. Thank you so much, tavis. Good to see you. I was saying to you when you walked on the set that when i got this book, i just stared at that photo on the cover. Can you push on that, jonathan . This picture is you know the old adage, the eyes are the window to the soul, what was in your soul that day . Because your eyes are so expressive. Well, i was newly in new york. I just met the man that i was going to spend the next four years with. My mother had recently died in london. So i think there was a lot of sadness in me at that time, but also new beginnings. I was young. When you say sadness, well get into the story in just a moment. But given who your father was and your grandfather, your lineage, the way you were raised in this beautiful castle in ireland, what is there for a white girl who has been raised in the environs that you were raised in to be sad about . Well, first of all, id lost my mother recently. And so that was a very deep sadness for me. Something i think that you dont really recover from at any age. But at 17, it was a huge thing for me. Sure. And also i was virtually alone at this point. My father kind of disapproved of my penchant for, you know, a lot of eye makeup and i dressed like a hippy. And i liked to go out to rocknroll concerts. And i was generally pretty well, i thought i knew what i wanted at the time. And i dont know that i really did. And he sort of disapproved. And so i think i virtually felt very lonely at that time. Tell me about your mother. Because its impossible to read the book, at least in my read, its impossible to read the book and not feel for her. But thats my own sense of it. But tell me about your mom. Or your mum, as you my mum, yeah. My mum was a ballet dancer. She grew up in new york with a an italian father, called tony, who had a speakeasy during the war, and then it became a restaurant called tonys wife. His wife was called anjelica, and she died when my mother was 4 years old. But my mother grew up with the intention of being a ballerina. And was actually dancing for Jerome Robbins and for ballanchine. She was the youngest member of the new York City Ballet when she was, i think, 14, 15. So thats who she was. Yeah. There is a there are a number of powerful and poignant stories in the book, which is why everybody is talking about this. But the story of when your mother birthed you, and a message is sent to your father, while hes on a movie set with Katharine Hepburn ill let you tell the story. But i want to ask you about this story. But let me ask you to tell the story first of how your dad finds out about this daughter who will be named anjelica. Well, my dad was making the African Queen in uganda in the deepest, darkest heart of africa. And nobody went on location in those days. Everything was done in the studios. So this was an unusual thing for a big studio to allow a film director to take an alist cast down to africa, to the belgian congo. And i was born a big, healthy bouncing baby girl at the cedars of lebanon hospital in los angeles. The news was cabled to the township of qtiba, where a barefoot runner ran for three days through the jungle, finally arrived at my fathers location and handed him a telegram. So my father read the telegram, put it in his pocket, and Katie Hepburn said, for gods sake, jon, what does it say . And he said, its a girl, her name is anjelica. When you heard that story, how did you process that . Your father getting the cable, and and not saying a word. And just sticking it in his pocket. It was typical of my father. He is a master of understatement, yeah. And he liked to drive people crazy. And i think probably everyone had been saying, so whats happened . And have you heard the news . And it was very typical of my father just to sort of prolong the tension a little bit. Yeah. I suspect the easy question to ask you, and i suspect youve been asked this more than once, so i will not ask this question, which is how you found your own voice, your own way in the shadow of a father like jon huston. But there is again a poignant story in the text here about your father directing you in something that you didnt even really want to be in. And there are a lot of people, i can imagine, who would love the opportunity to get a leg up, so to speak, because their dad is jon huston. But you were reticent about that. You did it. Critics slammed you after you did it. So i assume you felt, i knew i shouldnt have done this. But tell us how you felt about, obviously, your father is jon huston, so there is joy in that, but my word, not yours, but discomfort in trying to negotiate that. Kind of reticence. It was a particularly difficult time because he didnt, as we sort of discussed before, he wasnt too crazy about the fact that i was chasing the Rolling Stones and, you know, wearing a lot of makeup. And so we had had a few differences of opinion over this. Meanwhile, i had illustrated myself as wanting to be an actress. And as a matter of fact, there was a School Search going on for juliette for romeo and juliette, and i had been asked back a couple of times by the producers. Meanwhile, my father had been offered a threepicture deal with 20th century fox, and he had done the first movie. And the second one seemed to him like a great idea. To put me in and direct me in, and it was part of a young girl in 15th century wartorn france, france during the 100 years war. Very romantic. I thought incredibly corny. [ laughter ] i wanted to go to italy and be juliette. A situation which i didnt know anyone, so i could invent myself. But my father wanted me to go to well, first it was going to be france, but then the student riots broke out in 68, so we wound up in austria. I did not want to be in austria with my father and telling me what to do, basically. And so i went in a very reticent frame of mind into this film. And i wasnt any good in it. I was stubborn. He was insistent. We just we werent hitting it off. What can i say . And then the reviews were simply terrible. And actually that was kind of good. It was my personal vindication, bad reviews. [ laughter ] i told you. Exactly. I told you id be bad. And so i didnt work as an actress for, i guess, five or six years after that. So let me jump ahead and well come back. So juxtapose for me, anjelica, how that story turns out with being directed by your father years later in prizzis honor, and an Academy Award comes from it. Well, prizzis honor was a very different state of affairs. My fathers producer from a film that he made called man who would be king was a great, sort of supporter of mine, for no apparent reason, because he hadnt seen me do anything. His name was john forman. And at a certain point, he offered me a part in a film called ice pirates, which was kind of a b movie at mgm. But i gratefully accepted because it was about me. It wasnt about where i had come from or who i was with. And i had fun making that little film. And when he came to me on the set with a book by Richard Comden called prizzis honor and said would you like to read this, i said sure, and read this wonderful, funny book. I said to him the next day, i love the book. Its wonderful. I read it overnight. And he said, what do you think about the part of may rose prizzi . And i went, oh, thats great. Id love to do that job. Do you think youre going to make this movie . And he said, yeah, i want your father to direct and Jack Nicholson, who happened to be my boyfriend at the time, to star. And i went, oh. Oh, why . [ laughter ] but at that point, i had realized that, you know, if your bread is buttered, why not take advantage of it . So, you know, i think for the most part my difficulties were obstacles that i put in front of myself. Yes, you know, they were they were obstacles for me. But it was because i wanted i wanted to earn things myself. I didnt want handouts. I didnt want things to come so easily to me. And that i mean, if ive had a struggle, that was really the nucleus of my struggle, i think. That sounds like a great segue for a line i wanted to get to that jumped out at me. On page 175 of your book, a story lately told, and the line here is, i was no exception to this fortunate rule, but in retrospect, i remember wishing i had something to fight for. I remember wishing that i had something to fight for. Tell me more about that line and how you navigated this journey of finding something to fight for. Well, the idea of being given things that you dont necessarily deserve was always a difficult one for me to negotiate. And so i really always felt that i had to prove myself, being the daughter of a famous man. I guess its more easy than being the daughter of a famous woman, but at the same time, there was a sense of really with me of wanting to earn my own way, of wanting to pay my own way. I never asked my parents for money. I prefer to steal from my parents than ask them for money. [ laughter ] i dont know. What can i tell you . Im an odd creature. And it definitely when i was growing up, there was a sense of dads being the provider, being the one from the source from which all sort of things positive or negative came. And i wanted very much to be my own person. I was stubborn and obstinate. And i i had to acquiesce, but i wanted it my way. I still do. Well, nothing wrong with that. When you are the child of that kind of privilege, and you have as a result that kind of access, there are always the hangerson. And i want to go back to the story you told a moment ago about mr. Forman, who reached out to you and gave you an opportunity because, as you put it, he was a supporter of yours. You dont know why, but he was a supporter of yours. The flip side of people supporting you for no reason is that there are people hanging on, trying to get access for no reason or for apparent reasons. How did you decipher the two . How did you know the difference between people who were genuinely interested in you because of who you were, your gifts, your talent, your skills, and those who were trying to use you for access or whatever . You know, i have a really bad awareness of that, of that latter possibility. I have to say i dont really have an awareness of people crawling on my back to get anywhere. Im always grateful for any help i can get. And i think and thats for any help that i can get from maybe people outside my family. I was always reticent about taking offerings from my father. And i think it was maybe because i felt the caveat was that i had to give something back. And i didnt like that position. But ive never felt incumbent on anyone to kind of to keep them lifted or to support them necessarily. I do that by i do that by wish or by option. Yeah. Why choose i can make the argument pretty easily for why you would go in the direction that your grandfather and father, you know, were already rooted and steeped in. But why go that direction . Why not take a different route, because you are invariably inviting not only comparison but the critique that anjelica got this because her daddy was so why not do Something Different . Why be an actress . I dont know. From the age of 5, 6 years old, thats what i wanted to do. And the women who surrounded my father, the women that i thought were beautiful and that i respected, were actresses. I wanted to be Katie Hepburn in African Queen or mary astor in maltese falcon. Those were the women. When i met ava gardener, i felt undoubtedly, this is who i wanted to be. They were beautiful. They were glamorous. They were sort of shining entities. And they got a lot of attention. How did you process as a kid being exposed to performing, in fact, in front of these persons that we now know as icons in the theater and in film . Well, initially i had a very bad experience about the age of 6 in front of peter otoole when he caught my eye. But for the most part, these were dreams. These were childhood dreams. And then all of a sudden, with love and death, it all became a reality. And the reality was a lot more difficult than the dream. I think all little girls dream of a certain kind of level of glamor and barbies and fairy dresses. So it was for me just an illusion up until the point where it became a reality. Yeah. Maybe i missed this in my read of the book. Are there regrets, any regrets, that you had about your relationship with your father . I think ultimately, if there were regrets, we worked those out. My father wasnt an easy man. He was a complicated man. And, yes, i guess if i had if i had known how to negotiate a little bit more with him, or if id been less stubborn or less sure that my way was the best way, and if id maybe been more obedient, it might not have been such a struggle. I take it, though, that obedience is not your way. Afraid not. [ laughter ] its just never been something that came naturally to me. Are you like that in all relationships or just with your father . I dont understand why obedience is required. [ laughter ] i really dont. And particularly between men and women, you know. I dont i dont think its really appropriate in the 21st century. And i have always felt that i should have a voice the same as and guy. So, no. Beyond not wanting to be obedient, and i take your point in relationships with men, i take that, when you look back on this, you know, 20something and younger Anjelica Huston, where your womanhood is concerned, the way you view the world as a woman, what do you see in this young anjelica that you like and that you i dont want to say loathe, but dont like . Not like so much. Yeah, not like so much, yeah. What i like was the fact that she wanted to do it her own wanted to do it on her own. That she felt things deeply. That she had ambition. That she knew she had it. That somewhere she was a dreamer and that she could imagine that she would be good at what she would do. And the things i dont like so much, her insecurity, her longing for affection and for love, her loneliness, her sense of knowing better than anyone else. Of course, without all that, you wouldnt have we wouldnt have this Anjelica Huston. Whoever she is. Have you not figured that out yet . No. Im always in process. [ laughter ] i think we all are, though. I hope so. Were all cracked vessels, and were always in process, i think, every one of us. Why i could have started our conversation with this. But as we get to the eend i could do this for hours. But it occurs to me ask, why even right this . Did anyone push you into this . Let me rephrase. Shes not obedient to anybody. Shell accept suggestions, though. Who suggested this idea . A couple of good friends, one of whom was gradon carter. Vanity fair. Yes, vanity fair. But here i am, i have been in my business for 40, 45 years, and theres a lot people dont know about me like the whole period before i came to los angeles, before i met Jack Nicholson and before i became an Academy Award winner and had a life as an actress. And these are kind of these are the early underpinnings of my life that many people dont know about. And i think probably some people can identify with. Also, i like to write. I really like it. And i was doing this show called smash, and i was working really hard, like four nights out of four days out of the week, and the rest of the time, i was a little bit at loose ends. And that was when i started to write the book. We will see you, i know, i pray, as a matter of fact, im going to get you on camera committing to this right now we will see you when the second part of this comes out, right . Yes. You got that on tape . Shes coming back for the second half, because it stops when youre 20, basically. Thats right. My exit question is, guess, whether or not you since you like to write, whether the exercise, the experience, the therapy, for lack of a better word, of doing this has made you more anxious or less anxious to tell the rest of the story . Well, actually, as it turns out, i sort of wrote 900 pages, just to begin with. Right. So a lot of the second book is there. And im working on it with my editor right now. I think its given me energy and courage, and particularly the reaction to this book. And initially, all those questions came up, like am i ready to tell these stories, and am i ready to expose myself, and so forth. But if not now, when . And i think just the pure enjoyment of being able to sit alone and look back over my life and come up with this thing has given me ambition to do another one, ambition. And also in a way to come to terms with my own story. Yeah. So i dont know what 2014 holds for this show, but i have one booking under my belt already. Anjelica huston will return when the second piece of this comes out. The one thats out now that everybody is talking about is called a story lately told coming of age in ireland, london, and new york. Anjelica huston, i am honored to have had you on the program. Thank you for the book, and thank you for the opportunity to take to you. Thank you so much, tavis. Its an honor for me too. Thanks for watching. And as always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with david crosby about his first solo album in 20 years. Thats next time. Well see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Announcer image makers is made possible by the members of kqed