Jane Fonda

From a forum moderated by film producer David Puttnam (identified in this article as Lord Puttnam), June 3, 2005: 

LP: ... I had the experience, when seeing Raging Bull the first time in 79, of really thinking that maybe I should just jack the whole thing in, because it was so much better than anything I'd ever done and, frankly, the way it was made, I couldn't imagine getting to that.... Did you have a film like that? 

JF: No, but I was in a play with Geraldine Page, a Eugene O'Neill play called Strange Interlude.... Monumental play, and first day of rehearsals, Geraldine Page came in and she not only knew the whole script - she'd memorised it - she inhabited it already. That was the time I said, "I'm packing it in, forget it, I am never going to do a play again." In movies, Sophie's Choice, I guess. I did Meryl Streep's first movie with her, and it was Julia. I'll never forget it. I'd never heard of her because she'd never done a movie. We had a scene where Lillian Hellman walks into Sardi's after the triumphant opening of Little Foxes. And there's a character called Anne Marie, with black hair and everything. I wasn't even paying any attention to this actress; I just did my stuff. The next day, I went to rushes, and the camera - Doug Slocombe, brilliant cinematographer - they bring me into Sardi's and they pan across several people, one of whom is this black-haired character called Anne Marie. Then I walk off and they stay on this Anne Marie, and with a slight gesture to her mouth, and a cloud across her eye, an entire character and all her thoughts about Lillian Hellman became apparent, and I went, "Holy shit!" Me and my partner were casting for Coming Home, and I went right to the phone and woke him up, I said, "Bruce [Gilbert], it's really a weird name, Meryl Streep. I'm telling you, this is the first actress since Geraldine Page. This is something phenomenal." I feel so honoured that I experienced that with her. 

 June 3, 2005, The Guardian Interviews at the National Film Theater (original post by me Jan 21, 2006)