Lana Wood: The Mr. Skin Interview

After working as a teen actress, you made a very adult debut in 1966 on the scandalous TV series Peyton Place (Picture: 1). Can you remember your storyline?
I probably can't remember it exactly, but I was a married waitress living on the wrong side of town, and being abused by her husband, and running after Rodney Harrington … and I had a blind brother, and what else?

Someone just reminded me the other day about what an impact it had when my character once came back to the show and told off everyone on the cast who was doing that awful stuff. It's always great when something you've done means something to a person.

You also played your first adult role in the racy comedy For Singles Only (1968).
Oh, I have a great story about that. I was offered that role the same time that I was offered Easy Rider. I'm not kidding. Every time I see Dennis Hopper, he says, "Why did you turn down Easy Rider?" He wanted me for the Karen Black role. I still have no idea why I turned it down. I guess I didn't want to leave town. He still never lets me forget that.

That's funny, because your next role was the kind of film that Easy Rider made possible. Free Grass (1969) is one of the wildest hippie films ever made.
So many brilliant films! [laughs] Why have I never been nominated for an Academy Award? Well, that one should prove I took whatever came along. They gave me a terrible blonde wig for that one. I don't know why.

We should also mention the ad campaign for that movie, which was based on your working with co-stars Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer. The poster had your picture, between those of Tamblyn and Beymer, proclaiming: "Now! The Stars Of West Side Story Together Again!"
Hmm… Interesting. I thought it was peculiar that I was working with two people that Natalie had worked with.

You came out of that nicely, though, working with legends such as Walter Brennan and Fred Astaire in the TV-movie The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again (1970).
Oh, that was really incredible. Fred Astaire was one of the dearest people I ever met. The first day was a scene where I visit him in jail, and he literally dragged this chair across the stage for me: "Where's Miss Wood's chair?"

We began talking about a song of his that had been cut from Top Hat (1935). Before the shoot ended, he brought the original sheet music and signed it for me.

I was leaving to New York after the movie, and was being given this "Bon Voyage" party, and I asked that Fred be included on the guest list. I was told, "Well, Fred never really goes out." I said, "Well, invite him anyway" -- and he was the first to arrive and the last to leave.

Then the Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (Picture: 1 - 2) was a major return to big-budget filmmaking. Your character of Plenty O'Toole is really unique among Bond Girls, in that her character seems to be doomed. Was that a conscious decision in how you played her?
Well, I went on an audition to play Tiffany Case, but they told me there was pressure to use someone else. Then they offered me the role of Plenty O'Toole, and I said, "Absolutely. I'll be happy to."

Then I got the script and said, "Oh, dear."

She was written as someone who could easily be disliked. She's working as a shill for a living. How attractive is that?

So I decided to make her very big-hearted, and very na?, and very simple. I even spoke in a higher voice. I didn't want anything about her to be heavy or premeditated. I told all this to [Diamonds director] Guy Hamilton, and he told me to do whatever I wanted.

You followed that up by working with Cheri Caffaro in the racially-charged political drama A Place Called Today (1972).
[Laughs] I don't really recall Cheri's part. I remember feeling stuck, and doing this film that I was hoping would be more important than it was. It was an ambitious script. Cheri went on to do a series that was kind of softcore porn, right? I had no idea for a while that she'd ever gone on to do anything else.

Your own career kept being unpredictable. After roles in the prestigious 1974 miniseries QB VII, and the acclaimed TV-movie Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975), you appeared as a female prisoner in the notorious made-for-TV film Nightmare in Badham County (1976)
I made some good friends on that one -- Della Reese and Fionnula Flanagan. It was also made for a company that I had worked for several times before, so that would explain why I said yes. It was very unglamorous, and that stuff is fun to do sometimes.

I made a couple of people angry with that film, because they wanted a lesbian scene added between me and Tina Louise. It wasn't in the original script, and I refused to do it.I think it really pissed some people off. [Editor's note: The scene was later shot with another actress for the film's international theatrical release.]

You're also amazing as a brutal hooker in the critically-acclaimed TV-movie Little Ladies of the Night (1977)
That was, again, something I really wanted to do. The film did really well, too. I enjoyed being offered roles that weren't what people expected.

I was offered an episode of Baretta, and I went into wardrobe, and Bobby Blake arrived and said, "I want her to do something like she's never done before. She's not going to be a sexpot. We're going to put her in size 12 clothes and put a pair of coke-bottle glasses on her face." Then he turns to me: "Is that okay with you?" I said, "I'm fine." Honestly, whatever.

We should mention your spooky turn as a sexually-harassed robot in 1972's "You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore," which was one of the few classic episodes of Night Gallery.
Oh, I loved that episode. My character was an android, so she wouldn't have normal human reactions. I still had to play her just doing her job and not accepting what was inappropriate behavior. It was the complete opposite of anything I'd ever done.

And you were playing against one of the great scenery-chewers of all time.
No kidding. Cloris Leachman was interesting. She changed things every time we started to film the scene. She wouldn't hit the same marks, and she'd always touch something different during each take.

The director finally said, "Cloris, what are you doing?" She said, "I never know what I'm going to do," and he said, "Cloris, we have to put the camera somewhere." I just went off while the director dealt with all that. She was way out there.

Then you had a whole new look as a psychic helping Joe Don Baker nab a car thief in Speedtrap (1977).
Actually, I had stomach flu all during that film. I didn't shoot one scene where I wasn't ill. I arrived, checked into my hotel, and went shopping. That's when I got sick. I spent that whole film with a trashcan next to me for when I'd throw up -- including for my love scene with Joe Don Baker.

Your films never got predictable. You went international with Sons of Sassoun (1975), and Grayeagle (1978) (Picture: 1 - 2) featured you in a plot based on The Searchers.
Oh, that was [director] Charlie Pierce's thing for Grayeagle. I don't know what he was thinking -- but I really liked working with Ben Johnson a lot. You just give it your best shot.

I don't have the faintest idea why I was cast in Sons of Sassoun, but that was really interesting. I remember having to learn Armenian songs. The film was about the Turkish/Armenian war, and it was a real downer.

Demon Rage (1981) (Picture: 1 - 2) -- which also gave away the plot when released as Satan's Mistress -- must've been a real challenge as an actress. You have those bizarre sex scenes with an invisible lover, and those eerie moments on the beach where you're pursued by a dark stranger.
Oh, I was just trying hard not to laugh and to not freeze to death. I'm tripping all over myself, and the guy's hair is falling off his costume. At that point, we just wanted to shoot whatever we could get and put it in the can.

Did it bother you when Barbara Hershey made a comeback with the same kind of sex scenes in The Entity (1981)?
Not at all. It's like the old writer's joke that asks, "How many different plots are there?" There are five stories and they just keep changing the names. I didn't realize it would get quite so rinky-dink and nickel-and-dime. You always go in with the best of intentions. The people who make those things are always hoping they'll be making a decent film. We're all hoping it will be.

That sums up a lot of your career. You've given great performances in bad films -- and in great films, you're often playing against type, and you're so good that no one knows it's Lana Wood.
I wish I felt the same about my roles as you do. I go back and forth with how I feel about my acting. I feel like I have more to give now -- and, hopefully, I'll have the opportunity.

I've never really been back on the market after my work on the Capitol soap opera. I did one episode of Mike Hammer as a favor in 1985, but I'd helped to develop and produce the movie-of-the-week that became the series.

I'm very content developing projects now. You feel much more comfortable when you're in control of a project.