Barbara Leigh: The Mr. Skin interview

Visitors to BarbaraLeigh.com are greeted with a picture of you dressed as Vampirella -- which seems strange, since you had this incredible career despite that movie never being made.
That's sweet of you to say. Actually, my webmaster did that. I only had a ten-year career, and I retired because of Vampirella not getting made -- so it's interesting that she's the one who brings you into my website. It's probably because the magazine Vampirella is back in print now. Harris Comics has had many different girls representing Vampirella at conventions and at shows. This keeps Vampirella alive, along with Harris Comics. Stanley Harris is my hero for bringing her back!

I have the original script for the film, but the scripts today are so much better. Perhaps it's best it wasn't made. [laughs] I'm waiting for the big one to come out. I tried getting my friend at Miramax, Kevin Kasher, involved. He took the idea of making a new movie on Vampirella to the Weinstein brothers, but they passed.

Looking at your filmography, it seems as if you always chose really daring and innovative projects.
Oh, I think that was just circumstance, with a career built by being in the right time and the right place. I don't say it's fate, but I think it's really that I was around when those projects were being made. Maybe I was aware of that a little bit, but I got swept up in the Hollywood scene and took things for granted.

You still took roles that always required a bold screen presence.
Even the bad ones are fascinating, right? And usually so bad that they're good. The worst one is probably a tie between Mistress of the Apes (Picture: 1)and Terminal Island (1973) (Picture: 1). Those make me laugh to this day. I had a blast doing Terminal Island. Tom Selleck and I had done a British Sterling Perfume ad campaign, and we'd studied together at 20th Century Fox. He's a great guy, but he wasn't a movie star then. People take those low-budget movies because they're starving and need to work.

Terminal Island is a typical Barbara Leigh role, though, in that it's a drive-in film with some surprisingly feminist undertones.
Well, Stephanie Rothman was the director, and she was an interesting woman, one of the first of women directors. I love the way you think about those films. But, honestly, I made a lot of those movies because I wanted to work. The bigger films were a real blessing, and so exciting. I would have liked to have worked more. When the offer for Vampirella came, it put a lot of things on hold. After the movie didn't materialize, I ended up getting married and getting out of the business.

Even your television work was exceptional, though. Your only regular role on television was on Harry O, which is one of the great existentialist detective shows of the '70s.
David Janssen was a great guy. We played backgammon a lot together. I enjoyed doing the show, but it didn't last a long time. I wasn't thinking of Harry O in those terms. I just showed up and didn't think about the message. That's more like the producer and the director's job. As you get older and wiser, then you look back and appreciate things. A more mature actress could have seen that at the time, but -- well, a young girl in her 20s from my background doesn't see the big picture.

Does it trouble you that you're not considered one of Roger Vadim's girls, along with Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot?
I think I get more recognition for my time with him than I deserve, considering what little work I did. We were friends, but there was no romantic connection there for me. I loved Roger. We had a great relationship. I just wasn't attracted to him that way, because I was madly in love with James Aubrey in those days.

It probably seems strange to people that a name like James Aubrey shares billing with Elvis Presley and Steve McQueen in your memoirs.
Jim Aubrey was the head of MGM movies, and the president of CBS, so he was certainly very well known in his time. He was sophisticated and privileged, and yet blue collar. Do you know who Howard Roark is?

Sure, the hero of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.
Yes, that's the illusion he gave. James actually turned out to be weaker than that, in his life choices. His daughter's still a good friend of mine. But Roger was amazing, too. He spoke seven languages. In Paris, he was like a movie star. In Los Angeles, he was just another face in the crowd. It's amazing how a person can be one way when he's in his element and another when he's not. It teaches you about life.

The one film that Vadim directed you in, Pretty Maids All In A Row, was very…um, controversial because of the subject matter.
You mean because it was a black comedy? Well, it was a comedy making fun of dead teenagers. I think that's why the film wasn't a huge box office success. It's hard to mix comedy with murdering young girls. For a moment, I thought you were referring to Rock being homosexual. Everyone knew about that in Hollywood. The business always knew about Rock being gay, but they try to protect their own.

Vadim might have cast Hudson because he could give a properly skewed performance as a ladies' man.
That's a good thought. Rock was certainly the kindest actor I ever knew. When I'd be at Universal, he'd always come over and say hello.

The entire cast of that film is amazing.
Yes, I got to work with so many great actors. I used to visit Telly Savalas' trailer and we'd play cards. He was a big card player. And Roddy McDowall was an interesting character, with his amazing life spent in the entertainment business. I grew up watching him in all his movies.

Wow, all those guys are dead now. And I'm not young anymore, either-but I guess it's all relative to the mind and spirit.

But it would take a woman who could make Pretty Maids All In A Row to go on to films like Mistress of the Apes.
I used to hate that one. Now I laugh at it. The one that really became a cult film was Junior Bonner. Steve's become bigger than ever, and people love to see him as a cowboy. I think there's a little cowboy in every man.

And you give a really amazing performance in The Student Nurses (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3), which was another Stephanie Rothman film with lots of ambition.
I really like my nude scene in that. They did a very tasteful job. I also appreciated the challenge of the abortion scene and all those flashbacks. That was bold to have an abortion scene in 1973 -- and then, I had to actually experience that for real later, with Steve McQueen's baby. I remember [co-star] Richard Rust was an interesting character. He actually put sunshine acid in that orange juice we drank on the beach.

Why do you think that filmmakers sought you out for that kind of demanding roles?
I'd like to think they sought me out. I was just taking roles to survive. If I had it to do over again, I'd be a much better actress, and be more focused. You can see the difference in performances when actors are older and know who they are.

Still, a producer had to be grateful to get an actress of your caliber when casting a wild blaxploitation western like Boss Man (1975).
Jack Arnold didn't want me for that film. He wanted his daughter in the role. Fred Williamson chose me for that part. Sam Peckinpah didn't want me in Junior Bonner, either. He chose Tiffany Bolling, and when she couldn't do it, Steve got me the part. Fred was a cool guy. He still is. I don't even really remember my role, but he was very respectful on the set.

You only made one film that isn't some kind of classic, and that's the comedy Swim Team (1979).
Somebody just sent me a copy of that, along with a copy of [the Harry O pilot] Smile Jenny, You're Dead (1974). I'd never seen Swim Team -- and, my God, it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I had to laugh at myself. Jenny Neumann was a talented actress, though. I didn't even know she was in that movie when we made Mistress of the Apes together. I'm not sure where she is now. So many people just get out of the business.

Was that a difficult decision for yourself?
Well, look at the price of fame. It's horrible, the pressure on movie stars to be movie stars all the time. People tell horrible stories about them, and they're followed so that they can take pictures of them having an off day, daring to look like a normal person. I'm glad I got out of that and could grow old gracefully.

Anybody who's seen you at a convention knows that you're now a gorgeous older woman.
Well, thank you. I've tried to stay the person I am. Plastic surgery can make you beautiful, or it can change your looks. Either way, you're not the person you used to be. I've chosen to go without the plastic surgery and try to stay myself as best I can.

You're still in the glamour business, though, working with the West Coast photography studio for Playboy.
Yes, it's a different relationship. I was never a Playmate. I'm just an actress who did some pictorials. When I did a GlamourCon, it wasn't really my crowd. I was kind of misplaced. They didn't have a place for actresses. The crowd was mainly there for Playmates and porn girls-some of whom are pretty cool. I ended up sitting next to a very popular porn star, and she was very interesting.

And something like Vampirella does more to reflect your importance as an icon.
Well, if I'm going to a convention, it's more for fans of Vampirella than for people caring to see me as Barbara Leigh from Playboy. I'm lucky to have really wonderful fans. I love to do the Chiller Theatre convention in New Jersey, although I probably won't do another appearance until 2006. They're the ones who originally found me and brought me back, so there's loyalty there. Vampirella got me out of the business, but it seems like she came through in the end.