Dear fans,
this past weekend, I had time to catch up with some of my DS DVDs. I was "test driving" my copy of set three (in the Barnabas series), and found clips from an interview with Lela Swift obviously dating to late 1990 or early 1991 (I noticed that several of the interviews on the early sets seem to be from this period).
Lela only spent significant time discussing one actor on the show--Joan Bennett. Lela praised how down-to-earth, warm, gracious, and generous Joan was. She mentioned some things I had never heard discussed before. For one thing, Lela said that Joan would arrrive, as would all the actresses, without any makeup because they needed to start out that way so the makeup for the cameras would take properly. She said that even with just "her own eyes and her own skin," Joan always looked beautiful, even at 8 a.m.! She also said that Joan always wanted to help, and that included helping to set up chairs for the first script reading of the day, AND running lines with anyone who needed to do so--not just people who were in her own scenes! Lela recalled that she exclaimed to Joan at one point that she would have made a great production assistant!
Lela spoke so warmly about Joan, and her feelings for our very own "mistress of Collinwood" seemed quite genuine. I thought it was worth mentioning for those who don't get to see the discs.
G.