Mia Farrow Reflects on Relationship With ‘Kind’ Vivien Leigh, Joan Crawford’s ‘Strange Vibe’

Mia Farrow’s first uncredited role was in 1959’s “John Paul Jones” (a movie directed by her father), and she was raised around old Hollywood royalty, including Vivien Leigh and Joan Crawford. In a sprawling conversation published in Interview this week, Farrow praised Leigh as “kind” and Crawford as “scary” — both on screen and in person.

While speaking to fellow Tony Award nominee Cole Escola, Farrow explained Leigh went to school with her mother, actress Maureen O’Sullivan. When she was 17, Farrow performed in a stage production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” and Leigh showed up — something she described as “terrifying.”

“When I stood up to pour tea and deliver my lines, the chair got stuck to my dress and I couldn’t unstick it. I proceeded with the entire scene with the chair on my behind. I knew I had blown it, but Vivien couldn’t have been nicer,” Farrow said. “She sent her agent to see me, and when the press reopened, she sent press to see me as well. That’s how kind she was, and how I got an agent.”

The pair also discussed Crawford’s film “Dancing Daughters.”

“She’s scary. And she was scary in person as well,” Farrow shared. After Escola asked if the two had met, she answered, “I more than met her. I forget what movie was shooting, probably that one with Bette Davis, the scary one.

“And for whatever reason, she started sending a whole refrigerator of Pepsi Cola for my trailer ’cause I was in a TV series called ‘Peyton Place,'” Farrow continued. “I don’t particularly like Pepsi Cola, but a lot of Pepsi Cola kept coming to my trailer, more than anyone would ever want. And then she came over to see me and I got a strange vibe from her.

“So I’m back in New York, and she knew my mother. I hung up people’s coats for my mom when they came into the house. And I hung her coat and out falls a flask of alcohol. She grabbed it like that, and she put it in her handbag. She drank quite a lot. Then she invited me to her apartment. I thought it was a party, but I arrived, and I was the only one there.

“I was 17, and everything was green in her apartment. It just had very low lighting. And there were no other guests, just Ms. Crawford and me. And I just wasn’t very comfortable,” Farrow added.

Read the conversation between Farrow and Escola at Interview.

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