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but also cant get out of her head.
I was being a location wife to Steven Spielberg onEmpire of the Sun.
Our son Max Spielberg was about a year and a half then.
So he didnt like me and Max to leave the property when he was shooting.
We could go visit at lunch hour or whatever.
Anyway, Im sitting there thinking, twiddling my thumbs.
It was just kind of pennies from heaven.
It was just what I needed at that moment.
What do you remember about the script that stood out?We all fell in love with it.
Its a beautifully written play.
Im from the theater, my mothers from the theater, my stepfathers from the theater.
It just had great characters.
My character was going to be so much fun to dig my teeth into.
The timing was right.
Do you have any memory of that?
And she continued to say that all through our promotion.
This image of me feeding my fat face.
Anyway, yeah, she had been looking for a long time for her Izzy.
She knew her pickle man, Sam, but she didnt know who her Izzy was going to be.
I was with girlfriends in the Upper West Side, where I lived.
I didnt have makeup on.
I was probably high.[Laughs.
]So I was just very relaxed.
And yes, I was scarfing down popcorn, and she got in touch.
When she met me in Spain, she told me that thats what clinched it for her.
The good thing about being married to Steven was that I was married to Steven.
We had a family.
The bad thing was people got very awkward with me, whether we were divorced or married.
Its like, Do I want Steven Spielbergs camp in my backyard when Im shooting this movie?
I was just grateful when Joan just pushed through all the bullshit and just wanted who she wanted.
She saw you outside of that paradigm.Yeah.
I mean, I think Los Angeles, the movie industry, feeds on a lot of fear.
I remember once I wanted a job, it was a little PBS movie.
It was going to be me and Ron Howard acting in this very sweet period piece.
Were in a rowboat with parasols, all that.
My real mother, by the way.
And so Im screaming, take after take after take.
When I arrived that evening for this meeting, I have no voice.
I cant speak anymore.
But I was so confident.
I didnt feel like a fraud.
I felt like I was the real thing.
In a whisper, rather than having to read for the role.
I think that was very indicative of the way hiring and all works in Hollywood.
you’re gonna wanna exude confidence to get past other peoples fears.
But I had a hard time later, and Joan was a real savior for me.
She kind of gave me hope that I could still work in the business.
What happened was, obviously Steven read the script with me.
We vacationed with Steve.
And he loved it, so thats how the financing came out.
But it was funny, because Warner Bros. had never made a low-budget film like this.
They were kind of awkward with it at first.
I dont know if they really gave it the full push they could have.
They were all very nervous about putting a Jewish movie out there.
Joan did feel very confident afterMoonstruckcame out.
It was a very Italian movie.
I read somewhere that the studio was initially like, Well, why dont we make them Italian?
That they were very uncomfortable with the Jewishness of it.
I think once I became involved, everyone kind of shut up a little bit.
I think I had enough cachet at that moment to help get it going.
Or I guess knowing Steve Ross helped a lot.
Your father was Jewish, right?
But you were brought up Christian Science.
I went to Christian Science Sunday school.
I learned all about Mary Baker Eddy andScience and Health.
And because of the power of positive thinking, Im like the opposite of a hypochondriac.
Thats what I got from it.
I dont think I got on the other side of Delancey Street.
Susan Sandler talks about how the love of her bubby was her main love.
I think about going down there and meeting Reizl Bozyk, who kind of became my bubby too.
The most delicious, delicious grandma you could have.
The whole matchmaker thing I didnt really know that that existed.
It was kind of bizarre, but it was bizarre to Izzy, too.
So it was like, I could use all that.
And her resistance to Sam was not just being a pickle man, and it wasnt about being Jewish.
I think she just felt like thats where she belonged.
So she resists the whole matchmaking and the pickle man and everything.
Shed never acted in English before.
She had escaped Poland during the war and ended up in Argentina.
So here she was doing her first movie.
I ended up falling in love with her in that situation.
We had intimate moments.
Plucking her chin hairs.
Its funny, my mothers a hundred years old now, and Im her primary person in her life.
Its my job I do the chin.
Makes me think of Bubby all the time.
I have to back up toYentlfor a moment, one of my favorite movies.
Before that, you were inCarrie, which is this very, for better or worse, Christian film.
And then theresYentl, maybe the most Jewish film of all time.
What was that like for you?
I remember she had such an amazing clarity about what she wanted to do with this film.
Ive never worked on a set with anyone as involved with every single aspect.
At one point, I walked into the room and there was a bowl of peaches.
I mean, literally down to that.
It was every little aspect.
She just couldnt do it in rehearsals.
She just would get the giggles.
Then finally when we shot the scene, I kissed her.
She pulled back after they said, Cut.
Then she goes, Its not so bad.
Its like kissing an arm.
Ive never been so insulted about my kissing in my life!
That was a pretty good Barbra you just did.We spent a lot of time together.
Then you worked with Joan.
Ive actually worked with a lot of women directors now.
There werea lotof women.
Can you see my nipple in this shot?
What was Joan like as a director?
Shes an intellectual, and shes not necessarily a passionate person.
She cares and shes smart, but she talks very sedately.
She had a serious clarity about the story she was telling.
The performance of Peter Riegert is kind of brilliant.
When I was actually on the set with him, he was playing Sam as not trying hard.
It was kind of more like, Come to me.
And when it wasnt there, part of me felt there was something wrong.
So I always took credit for that eyebrow lift.
But when I saw the movie, I wanted them together so badly because of what he did.
Because he didnt try hard.
Because theres this guy who you think is not her equal, but is definitely her equal.
He makes her come to him, just as Peter made me come to him.
There is a central question in the film about chemistry.
Izzy has this sort of immediate sexual spark with Anton, but its a slower burn with Sam.
Izzy at one point says, Two people need heat.
Do you think thats true?Theres that old thing, when best friends fall in love.
Its getting to know someone first, not in a romantic situation.
You almost get to know them better.
I think theres probably validity in not jumping into things like that.
Slow burn … its a good way to approach it.
What do you think happens at the end, after the freeze-frame?
What do they go on to do?Ive changed my mind about this.
I have to say I never thought theyd make it.
So I imagine they had a shot.
I have a boy, he has a girl, whatever.
And later on we come back together because our children fall in love.
I think you should do it.
Theres an appetite for it.
What do you remember at the time about the critical reception and the box office?
I dont ever pay attention to how much box office it makes.
So I just know that I get a lot of attention for it now.
And every pickle man wants to talk about how in love with me was.[Laughs.
We present the film.
We get flown out; TCM had a big event.
Its really fun to watch with an audience, because Id never seen it with an audience.
I saw it by myself.
People laugh like crazy.
It is almost like its having another life.
Because it still works.
Some films, theyre dated, and this one is not.
Speaking of not being dated, the outfits are incredible.
The styling, the hat, the hair all of it is so specific but is still so chic.
I really want to feel at home in the clothing.
So pretty much all the clothes are out of my closet.
Im so impressed.Thank you.
I pretty much dressed myself.
I mean, I had guidance, of course.
I dont care about fashion.
So I think I just kind of instinctively, as Izzy, put clothes on my body.
If my house hadnt burned down in 2009, Id have them all.
One jacket a blue and white jacket that I still wear it survived.
But everything else went in the fire.
I wish I could give you some.
Im so sorry.This house actually Im in now, it burned to the ground.
I had costumes from every show Id ever done.
But yes, we lost them all.
My two sons, Max and Gabe, were pretty upset for me.
But I said, I dont have to do spring cleaning.
How did playing this role or making this film change you at all?
That kind of screeching up from zero is sometimes very hard.
So I loved working in a lower-budget film like this, where you had to keep moving.
Its a way I feel comfortable working.
And that was the closest to that feeling that Id ever had.
It was a really awkward time for people dealing with me.
Because right after the film came out, Steven and I were divorced.
Why?What if Steven thinks Im in Amys camp?
They didnt realize Steven and I had parted as friends.
But they just assume or whatever.
I actually had to leave Los Angeles.
Thats when I moved to New York.
Which is what I did.
I went back to New York to do theater.
I assumed that film wasnt going to be my medium.
Its a one-note town, and I was a San Francisco girl first.
I moved to New York when I was 11, and then New York was home.
I did my time in L.A. Thats how I feel about it.
But I love living in New York.
I just think its real life.
I dont have plastic surgery all over; when youre out there in L.A., they all do that.
They all just suddenly get worried about wrinkles, and Im kind of embracing mine.
Im old enough to be able to not have to look young anymore, which is freeing.
Theyre not going to start a film on my ass in a bikini.
Like inThe Fury, when Brian De Palma told me that was our first shot.
I was like,Oh, my God.
Thats horrifying.I went on one of those fad diets.
!Swear to God, there were so many ridiculous fad diets.
They would shoot pregnant womens urine into your thigh?
Did it work?Well, did you see my ass inThe Fury?
