Elizabeth and Bette

It’s common knowledge that I am a huge fan of Bette Davis. So after an all too long time, I watched another Bette Davis movie – The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1938) in garish Technicolor. Bette of course delivered a stunning performance. There might be some places where she went a tad bit overboard but that was the way they acted back in those days (late 30s). She went as far as to shave her head to create the bald look of the aging queen. Her face was painted white for the entire movie.

In all this hideousness, there was something heartbreaking about her portrayal of the Queen. There is this famous scene where she goes on a mirror shattering rampage in the palace. In about 4 seconds in this scene, she examines herself in the looking glass - at her most insecure, most vulnerable, most yearning and most without-a-mask moment. My heart went crack when I saw her just for these 4 seconds. For a minute when you see Bette acting out this breathtaking turmoil on screen, u do not cry for Bette, or for Queen Elizabeth, or for yourself. But for the cruelty of life, fate and time.

Nominated for an amazing 10 Best Actress Oscars, she won two. Remember Bette Davis in “All About Eve”? A mind blowing performance as the acid tongued, sharp witted, catty, spiteful and insecure prima donna. Remember the movie’s famed line, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night”. I don’t think any actress in decades could have done what she did to that line. I don’t think any actress could have managed playing some of the bitchiest and ugliest roles in Hollywood and yet bring such subtle vulnerability and touching strength. This very quality earned her a place on the pedestal.

Here’s a sampling of what she sounds like in real life:

“Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you're not a star."

"Old age is no place for sissies."

"There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen."

"Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism."

"I would advise any woman against having an affair with a married man believing he will ever leave his wife, no matter how often he says his wife does not understand him. Love is not as necessary to a man's happiness as it is to a woman's. If her marriage is satisfactory, a woman will seldom stray. A man can be totally contented and still be out howling at the moon."

"To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy."

"I will never be below the title."
(She never was. The billing was always: Bette Davis in “XYZ”. No matter if the director was Wyler, Lubitsch, Preminger and other greats.)

"I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life."

"You know what I'm going to have on my gravestone? 'She did it the hard way.'"
(She kept her word. Her epitaph was that. I saw it.)

I was once asked why I liked Bette. I mumbled something inane about loving her movies. Nethi, Nethi (It’s not just that. It is much more).

It is my admiration for all people, especially women, who fight to the last breath, who handle stupidity with searing, brutal sarcasm and yet never forget greeting the spot-boy in the studio, who do not wear their hearts on their sleeves and yet posses a generous soul that is capable of tremendous kindness and giving. If I can summarise the women she played on screen and her real life persona as vouched by her associates – that is what she is to me.

They don’t make actresses, no, women like that anymore.