Jonathan Harris.....Any questions more?
[Audience question] Has there ever been any character in your career that you would have liked to have played, but didn't get to?
No, never. I'm not one of those. I know a lot of actors who want to play Hamlet, and who want to play MacBeth. No, I never did that. I was very lucky. I've never stopped working. And I loved it all. I loved all the characters. I loved creating characters. Some of them quite strange and they were wonderful mysteries. I loved the eerie culture. I loved strange characters. And that's what I do. And that's what I'm known for. We're all on a lists in Hollywood. It's easy for casting people. We're all on lists; you can't get out of it. And my list is elegant, strange, charming, foreign, all that crap. That's the way.eh. But I never did that. I admired Lawrence Olivia's work. I say it on stage as well. Did you know at one point in his life Lawrence Olivia suffered from hideous stage fright? It's true. Couldn't walk out on stage. Someone had to push him. It lasted for about a year and a half, well into his career. One of the best actors of all time. Suddenly couldn't face walking out on stage. Total stage fright. Which we all have, of course, opening night. Opening night you have to see it to believe it. The worst possible [time] . Marvelous [atmosphere] , but it's terrifying, I've seen actors throw up in the wings before they went out. Everybody has their own horror to deal with. For me it was ice. I turned to ice. Really, I mean ice. Just my energy's gone. Pure ice. Once out, I'm fine. I've seen actors when it doesn't hit to the second act. That's very dangerous. They're fine for the first act, and we hate them all. But suddenly in the second act, it's opening night; they fall apart. Sustained reaction.
I was once in a play with Helen Hayes, the great lady of the theatre. And we were both stage left, and we both made our entrance together. And I looked at this lady with vast experience and I looked, and she looked like I knew I looked - waxing! That awful 'what's the name of this play?' [Audience laugh] That's what she looked like. That's what we all looked like. So I leaned down and whispered 'Miss Hayes still?' 'Gets worse every year.' [Audience laugh] Later in years, I understood what she meant. Because as your reputation grows, the jig is up! Someone else can blow lines, not you! Then I understood.
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