An epiphany

Shirley MacLaine sets the record straight

MALIBU >> Shirley MacLaine is putting something together about her life for the first time.

Tucked away in the corner of a shaded patio at a sea view restaurant in Malibu, MacLaine, now 82, is thinking about the onetime expectations of women of her generation.

“I asked my own mother once, ‘What are we supposed to be?’” MacLaine says. “She said, ‘You’re supposed to have nice hair and nice clothes and look pretty.’ She really said that to me.”

MacLaine defied those modest prospects at every turn. The gamine, natural beauty became a movie star when the popular look was lacquered glamour. She sued a studio when she knew she’d been wronged professionally. She demanded the best of everyone she worked with, sometimes leading to less-than-effusive assessments from co-stars.

And she has continued to remain relevant in the youth-obsessed industry at every stage of her career. As she matured, so did her characters.

She doesn’t attribute it to ambition, however, but to dance.

Her mother famously enrolled her in dance classes at age 3 to strengthen her weak ankles. It was there that MacLaine fell in love, she says, with “discipline, music, teamwork, pain, balance and strength.”

“If you can get through a ballet class every day of your life when you start at 3 ... I’m just putting this together as a matter of fact ... If you can do that starting at 3, then you are confident,” she says. “I wasn’t like the other girls who were out there trying to be pleasing. I was in class trying to be strong and survive.”

Not unlike MacLaine and her journey, the character she plays in her new movie “The Last Word,” now in theaters, is a woman (Harriet) who also rose above societal gender constraints to become successful in business. Now in her 80s, and lonely, Harriet is thinking about her legacy and impact on the world and hires a local obituary writer (Amanda Seyfried) to write hers.

“I love playing bitches,” MacLaine says with a smirk. “I love the whole idea of being so

impossible that it’s funny.”

MacLaine doesn’t like to reflect on the scope of her career, because, she says, “I think I’m going to live a long time.” Yet she’ll tell stories for days about her films in the studio system and the icons she’s worked with.

She smiles proudly recalling how she taught Audrey Hepburn how to swear and how Hepburn, in turn, taught her how to dress (“sort of”). She remembers getting a call from Paramount

production head Don Hartman scolding her for gaining weight during the production of “The Trouble With Harry” because of all the meals she was eating with Alfred Hitchcock.

“Look, I wasn’t tall, thin, blonde, ethereal, and all that stuff that was essential for men to jump on. Hitch wasn’t interested in me, but, he was interested in me as a food partner. So, he insisted I have every meal with him. I think I gained 20 pounds,” MacLaine says. “I was just out of the chorus; I hadn’t had a full meal in years!”

The only director she’s ever had a problem with was Billy Wilder because, “he had a problem with women.” And she was horrified that he wrote her character in “The Apartment,” Fran, after observing her learning how to play gin with “Dean and Frank” and the Rat Pack crew.

“God, is that what he really thought of me?” she wonders.

“He terrified Marilyn. That’s why she was always late,” MacLaine says. “He was Austrian and he wanted everything exactly his way.”

PHOTO BY TAYLOR JEWELL — INVISION — AP, FILE This file photo shows actress Shirley MacLaine posing for a portrait to promote the film, “The Last Word”, during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

PHOTO BY TAYLOR JEWELL — INVISION — AP, FILE Actress Anne Heche, standing from left, writer Stuart Ross Fink, director Mark Pellington, actor Thomas Sadoski, actress AnnJewel Lee Dixon, seated left and actress Shirley MacLaine, seated right, pose for a portrait to promote the film, “The Last...

BETH DUBBER — BLEECKER STREET VIA AP This image released by Bleecker Street shows Amanda Seyfried, from left, Shirley MacLaine and Ann’Jewel Lee in a scene from “The Last Word.”