When I arrived, a hundred women were there [auditioning]… I raised my voice three registers, curled up in a chair, licked my hand and did ‘meow’s, the director said, "I didn’t tell her to do any of that stuff" – but the next day I got the part. Caesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, I was so lucky to work with all of them.
To this day I don't know why they voted for me. I'm hoping that it was because I chose a talent that made them sit up. I played a 70-year-old Irish mother lamenting the loss of her last son to the sea. I took off all my makeup, wore a shawl and my father's black socks — the costume I had worn when I'd done the play when I was in high school. It was the only thing I knew to do. I'm an actress, that's what I wanted to be.