by Ryan Smillie, Staff Writer

After volunteering to write about Bette Davis, I knew that there was one person I needed to talk to – my grandmother, Kathy Donahue (aka “Grammy”). Grammy and I share a love of movies, and as far back as I can remember, we’ve always loved watching and talking about movies together. From Beetlejuice and The Wizard of Oz in her living room, to our later movie dates to any Maggie Smith movie and an infamous trip to see Black Swan together. And while her taste in movies is wide-ranging, there’s no star I associate with Grammy more than Bette Davis. I called her to chat about one of her favorite actresses, and we jumped right in: 

Grammy: Last night I watched Feud: Bette and Joan. It was the second time I watched it, and I enjoyed it better the second time. You see things that you didn’t see the first time. I didn’t realize exactly how good Susan Sarandon was with her mannerisms. She had her walk down – Bette Davis had a kind of purposeful walk. She threw her hips forward when she walked and had flat feet, but she had a lot of shoulder motion, and was very flamboyant with her cigarette. Alright, so what are we doing? Ask me a question!

Ryan Smillie: You were born just after Bette Davis won her second Oscar, so she was already a star before you were even born. Do you remember the first time you saw her in a movie?

G: Well, I was probably a teenager. I really got hooked on her when her movies started appearing on television. We got our first TV in 1948. A little 8-inch screen TV. They used to have a show where they would show late night movies back in the late 50s, early 60s, so I guess that’s when I probably started watching her on TV.

RS: When you first saw her movies, was she immediately one of your favorites?

G: Oh yeah, absolutely, and still is – of course.

RS: What was different about her? What drew you to her?

G: I liked her mannerisms. I thought she was very sincere. She was very believable in her roles. You either hated her or loved her, depending on what role she was playing. And I think you rooted for her no matter what role she was playing, because she was so good.

RS: Even when she’s playing unsympathetic characters or doing something bad, you want her to get away with it.

G: Right, exactly. Like in The Letter, where she was having an affair and she accidentally shot the guy – 

RS: She intentionally shot him!

G: Right! You were hopeful that she’d get away with it.

RS: One of my favorite stories from your childhood was the time you went to see Gone with the Wind and Grandma Fay [Grammy’s mother] had to drag you out of the movie theater.

G: That’s true.

RS: How old were you when that happened?

G: I probably was fourteen or fifteen, but the movie just ran so long… I’m surprised you remember that! It was late, and Grandma Fay just said, “I’m getting her out of there!”

RS: When they were casting Gone with the Wind, Bette Davis was reportedly the audience’s choice to play Scarlett O’Hara. Do you think David O. Selznick made a mistake by not casting her?

Interesting question. On one hand, Vivien Leigh was really good in Gone with the Wind, but after seeing Bette in Jezebel, I think she could’ve played the role too. It was almost another take on Gone with the Wind – her portrayal of Julie Marsden in Jezebel. 

RS: Today, Bette Davis is famous for her feuds with other actresses, especially with Joan Crawford and Miriam Hopkins. Were these feuds common knowledge at the time?

G: No. I don’t know when exactly – well, it wasn’t common knowledge to the public. I didn’t know about them. I’d assume that press people probably knew about them, Hedda Hopper probably knew them.

Bette Davis was very good to her costars, from what I know. If somebody did a good job, she would compliment them. But of course, she had feuds with Joan Crawford and Miriam Hopkins. In Old Acquaintance with Miriam Hopkins, there’s a scene where Bette was supposed to grab her off the couch and shake her, and apparently, she left bruises on her arms because she really shook her. Go Bette!

And in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, there was one scene where Joan fell out of her wheelchair, and of course, they used a dummy for Bette to be kicking her while she was on the floor. But then they had to do a couple of close-ups of Joan on the floor, and Bette kicked her in the head – actually. 

RS: I didn’t know that!

G: And supposedly, when Bette was dragging Joan across the floor to take her to the beach, she had a real difficult time. When they weren’t filming, Joan had put these weights around her waist. It’s amazing.

RS: I think it’s kind of funny that she had feuds with Joan Crawford and Miriam Hopkins because I don’t really think of either of them as being on the same level as Bette Davis.

G: Well, they each admired their work. Thought they were good actresses. Bette thought that Joan was a good actress. But Joan was very conniving. She had made an arrangement with Anne Bancroft to accept her Oscar for her, and of course, Bette thought she was going to win, but then she saw Joan Crawford going up to the stage. 

RS: I was surprised the other day when you said that Now, Voyager was your favorite Bette Davis movie and not Baby Jane.

G: Well of course, Baby Jane goes without saying…

RS: I remember you singing “I’ve Written a Letter to Daddy” before I’d ever seen Baby Jane.

G: Aunt Jaime used to sing it too; that’s sad when you teach that to your four-year-old daughter.

I didn’t realize how white her face was in Baby Jane because it was in black and white. Watching Feud last night, it was garishly white makeup that she wore. If I had realized that, when I was Baby Jane for Halloween, I would have painted my face white.

RS: That was a good costume.

G: I saved that costume! I still have the wig. Maybe that’s what I’ll be buried in.

RS: Is there any other Bette Davis character you’d like to dress up as?

G: Well, I always said to bury me in the costume of your choosing! I’m sorry…

RS: No! This is fun. Is there any Bette Davis movie that you think is underrated or underappreciated that you think more people should see?

G: Did you ever see In This Our Life?

RS: No, I haven’t

G: Olivia de Havilland plays her sister, and Bette Davis is supposed to marry George Brent – George Brent and she made a lot of movies together – but instead, she winds up stealing her sister’s boyfriend and marrying him. And then later on she made his life miserable, and she was in a car accident It was good but…

RS: Well, I think Bette Davis is better able to sell a melodrama than other actresses.

G: She was nasty in this! The other one I liked was The Petrified Forest. Have you seen that?

RS: I have! I think it’s kind of a weird movie for Bette Davis, she’s on the sidelines for most of it.

G: Well, that’s because it was in the 30s, and she wasn’t a star yet. What else did I like? Oh! All This, and Heaven Too.

RS: I haven’t seen that one either.

G: That’s where she was the nanny to Charles Boyer’s children. He has a nasty wife, and he falls in love with Bette. The wife gives her a hard time and eventually fires her, and [spoiler alert]. She was very good in that.

What about All About Eve?

RS: Of course I’ve seen All About Eve! I think that’s her best movie – not necessarily her best performance, but the best movie she starred in.

G: She wound up marrying her costar, George Merrill. That marriage didn’t last long. I’m not answering your question, because I can’t think of an underrated movie of hers. What do you think?

RS: I like her in Watch on the Rhine, with Paul Lukas.

G: Oh yes! That’s where they come home to her house in America with their children

RS: Yeah, and they’re working with the Resistance against the Nazis.

G: And the family friend wants to turn Paul Lukas in

RS: It’s a different type of performance for her – she’s still very strong and determined, but it’s all in support of her husband and a political cause. There’s not as much romantic intrigue.

I’m curious – not so much about Bette Davis – how did you get interested in movies? 

G: Grandma Fay! I used to go to the movies with Grandma Fay when I was little. I remember there was one movie I went to see with her when I was about eight years old: The Lost Weekend.

RS: You saw The Lost Weekend when you were eight years old?

G: Yeah, it scared the shit out of me!

RS: It’s a scary movie!

G: Ray Milland played a drunk. There was a rat coming out of a wall. I’ll never forget that. 

My brothers and I would go to the movies every weekend for 25 cents. I used to go for the cartoons. Mickey Mouse, Mighty Mouse. I liked the musicals. What could I understand when I was eight? I couldn’t understand rats coming out of the wall. Or Ray Milland having the shakes. 

RS: Let’s bring it back to Bette Davis to wrap this up – why do you think she has continued to be such a well-known and beloved Hollywood icon, even decades after her death?

G: Because she was so good at her craft. No bullshit, she told it as it was. She didn’t do make believe. She was upfront and charismatic. What’s not to like? Print that – “what’s not to like?”