Interview: Juliet Mills - A Lady of the Theatre Plays PRIN at Theatre 40

Next up at Theatre 40 will be the stage reading of Andrew Davies's Prin April 28th and 29th. Jules Aaron directs Juliet Mills (as the titular Prin), Maxwell Caulfield, Ivy Khan, Ann Hearn Tobolowsky, Joe Clabby and David Hunt Stafford. Juliet was most gracious to chat with me on her day off from filming Grey's Anatomy.

Thank you for finding time on your day-off to talk to me, Juliet! How is your day-off going?

Very nice, thank you. Lovely! I've been gardening because the weather's so beautiful. Suddenly we can get out in the garden again and start digging. The earth is soft and my wisteria is blooming. It's gorgeous.

What initially enticed you to take on the role of Prin? The script? Theatre 40? The chance to mount the Los Angeles boards with your husband?

Well, I'd say all of those things really. Gil. I mean, it's a fabulous role. Of course, she's quite a character. Any chance to do anything to help theatre keep going in this day and age and get bums on seats, as they say. Of course, anytime I can work with Maxwell, I like to. We like working together.

Was the last time you worked with Maxwell on stage in 2015 when you both toured Australia in Legends (with your sister Hayley)?

No, that was the last time in Australia. Last year, we went to England, and we did a new play over there called Darker Shores which is a ghost story, a thriller set in 1874. We and producer Bill Kenwright did a tour for about eight weeks in England with that play and we didn't get back until Christmas. So that was the last time in England, and we've worked together in England in the theater quite a bit, actually. We go back there to recharge our batteries.

If you were to submit Prin on a dating site, what qualities of hers would you include?

Oh, God, I don't know. You mean if I was trying to attract somebody to me? Well, I'd say highly intelligent. Quite funny. Very selfish and rather rude.

What character flaws would you definitely omit?

I think she's pretty good fun if she likes you, but you wouldn't want to cross her. She's quite a tyrant really. I don't know who'd want to date her.

Besides Maxwell, have you worked with any of Prin's cast or creatives before?

No, never, except for Jules Aaron who's directing it. We did a play years and years ago when Maxwell and I were first married. At the Tiffany Theatre here called In and Out the Window. It was really a long time ago. So I was delighted when David Stafford said that Jules would be directing this reading, because obviously we need a director. We've got to do something besides walk about and get up and sit down. Somethings to make it more interesting than just standing at a lectern; bring it to life as much as possible.

You started out in theatre and have had a successful career in film and television. What keeps you coming back to mount the theatre boards?

I work in the theatre every so often on purpose. I mean when I say, 'recharge the batteries,' I mean it. Getting back to the theatre, I was getting back to the whole essence of acting and that wonderful exchange with the audience that one has. They are the litmus test. If they are quiet and they listen, you know that you're doing okay, and you're real and you're involving them. If they laugh, you're being funny. If they cry, you're getting to their emotions. It's thrilling to work in the theatre. I started in the theater, and I always go back to it to just get back to what it's all about really. Sometimes in television or on films, you're in kind of a void, you know? But in the theatre you get that instant response and you learn so much every time.

Your godmother was Vivian Leigh and your godfather was Noel Coward. What advice or words of wisdom did they pass on to you that you try to adhere to today?

I don't really remember Noel giving me any advice as far as in the theatre. You know his famous line of 'just learn the lines and don't bump into the furniture.' But I was very close to Vivian. I knew her all of my life as a child and then as an adult. She was highly professional. She has great ethics as far as work goes. Her work came first, and her advice is, 'If you love it, then go for it. But you gotta love it a lot. Because there's an awful lot of rejection. There's an awful lot of insecurity and you never know where the next job's coming from. You didn't plan anything; it's not a bed of roses. And so be prepared for that.' That was her advice. And also of course, my father and the mother said exactly the same. You've got to be absolutely passionate about the work and about doing it and staying with it and not taking things too personally when you get rejected, which you get all the time. You do auditions and you don't get them. It's hard not to be brought down by it.

Coming from such a respected family of the British arts society, you rubbed elbows with many others of the British theatre greats. Can you share some of the most memorable stories you have of some of them while you were growing up?

I met so many of them because of my parents. They knew everybody. They were very social, and they had wonderful dinner parties. Everybody came to the house. There wasn't television then those days, so they entertained each other. I remember David Niven and Douglas Fairbanks coming to the house. They both had little bags, like little doctor's bags. I remember my sister and I thinking, 'What's in those little bags they got?' Well, they had jokes in them, rude jokes. Everybody told jokes and stories and played the piano. Noel would come and play the piano and sing and they'd have singsongs. It was a very different time, and the people entertained each other because there wasn't the entertainment in the box or the TV. That's what I remember.

I worked with John Gielgud. My first play was with him. He directed my very first play, which was Peter Shaffers' first play. who remained a great friend of mine. The play was called Five Finger Exercise. It was a huge hit in London and ran for a year. And then it went to New York and ran for six months. I was with it all of that time. And working with Sir John was just absolutely heaven, he was so funny. So clever. He gives you about three or four different options for one line. He was just so great and so loved the theater so much. That wonderful melliferous voice of his, he'd just go off and read a line for you and then you'd go. 'No, that's no good. No, don't listen to me. Try something else.' Just always keeping you on your toes. He was really wonderful.

I remember my father did a play. This has really nothing to do with me. But my father did a play called Charlie's Aunt, which is a very, very funny comedy. And Sir John directed it. They did a dress rehearsal and they were doing their best. Daddy was dressed up as the Aunt and falling about. At the end, it was dead silence and from the stalls came John's voice saying, 'Interminable, isn't it?' That's all he had to say. Very funny.

Then we went to New York. He loved New York. And I remember him walking me and my darling friend Brian Bedford, who's no longer with us. We played brother and sister, and we were like brothers and sister. We stayed like brother and sister for the rest of our lives. But I remember walking with Sir John on our first night in New York, and neither of us had been to New York. Brian was 23 and I was 17. And I remember Sir John, walking down Fifth Avenue with a list going, 'And there's Tiffany's, and there's Cartier, there's St. Patrick's Cathedral' as though it was all his town. He was so excited to take us there.

Besides performing at some of the major theatres in England, you toured shows in the U.K., the U.S., Canada and Australia. How would you categorize the audiences in all these different countries? More verbal? More boisterous? Politely quiet?

I think New York is the most exciting. They are the most demonstrative and verbal. Standing ovations are not unusual in New York if they appreciate the play. I think New York theatre is the most exciting. Broadway is swimming. London is also very exciting, but they're not quite as sort of demonstrative, the Brits. They appreciate and they clap a lot. But they don't stand up and shout and scream and cheer like the New Yorkers do. But actually, as far as an audience response goes, I don't really find that much difference from Australia or London as far as appreciating a play. There are good audiences some nights and bad audiences another night in every country.

What do you remember of the moment in 1960 you were told you were nominated for a Tony Award for your role of Pamela Harrington in Five Finger Exercise?

I was very, very ignorant. I didn't really know what it meant or what an honor it was, and how important it was. By the time the nominations came out, I was back in England doing something or other. My dear parents didn't make a fuss about it at all. They didn't encourage me to go back to the Tonys or anything. I didn't realize until later years just what an honor it was to be nominated for a Tony and at such a young age as well. I've only learned to appreciate it as I got older.

You've been married to Maxwell since 1980. In Hollywood terms, that's 280 years! What's your secret to your decades-long marriage?

We have so much in common. We love what we do. We have great trust in each other and a lot of laughs - a lot. He has a great sense of humor and so do I. There's a lot of laughter and not taking oneself too seriously. I must say, when I met Maxwell, he was young and extraordinarily handsome and he had women would just fall over themselves for him, in front of him. And I have never in my marriage ever felt any sweat. I've never seen him turn around and check some girl out. He always made me feel very secure in his love and devotion. He always promised me he would love me forever. And I believed him. And it's true. He's a very, very special guy. I'm very, very lucky. We're very, very lucky. I know it is unusual in this business, particularly. 42 years coming up this year. I mean, it's a hell of a lot. 43 this year, sorry. I can't keep up. Time is going so fast. It seems like there's a full moon every two weeks.

What's next in the future for Juliet Mills, besides recurring on Grey's Anatomy?

Ha, ha! I can't say too much about it, but there's a film I'm supposed to make in the summer. It's a sequel to a horror film I made 50 years ago called Beyond the Door. It's become a sort of cult horror. I did it with Richard Johnson. We shot it in San Francisco and Rome. It was hugely successful. The Italian producer who made it suddenly called me up and said, 'Would you be interested in making a sequel? Would you like to be an executive producer?' I jumped at it because I really love the idea of being involved on that level creatively, at the beginning, with the script and the casting and everything, having some input in that. So that is on the cards. Hopefully that is going to happen. You never know in this business until you're actually on the set. That's the plan. Anyway.

Thank you again, Juliet! I look forward to meeting your Prin.

Well, I look forward to seeing you again after all this time. Gil.

For tickets to the live reading of Prin April 28th or 29th, click on the button below:

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