Tina Louise. Photo Courtesy of CBS Television.
Tina Louise, veteran actress, singer, and entertainer, chatted about her “Sunday: A Memoir” book (and audiobook) and she discussed her career in the entertainment industry.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” This quote applies to Tina Louise.
She is known for playing movie star Ginger Grant in the popular TV situation comedy “Gilligan’s Island.” She began her career on stage in the mid-1950s before landing her breakthrough role in 1958 drama film “God’s Little Acre” for which she won the Golden Globe Award for “New Star of the Year.”
She had starring roles in “The Trap,” “The Hangman,” “Day of the Outlaw,” and “For Those Who Think Young.”
Her other films include “The Wrecking Crew,” “The Happy Ending,” “The Stepford Wives,” and “Johnny Suede.” She also had a recurring role on the primetime drama series “Dallas.”
Synopsis of ‘Sunday: A Memoir’
She opened up about the audiobook version of her book “Sunday: A Memoir.”
When Tina Louise was around six years old, she was shunted off to boarding school by her parents, who were divorcing. “Sunday” is her poignant memoir of growing up in an uncaring world of strangers. With fidelity to the thoughts and feelings and language of a young girl, Tina writes about her childhood fears, fistfights, friends, and fantasies.
A blue stone, the color of her mother’s eyes, becomes her link to the world that left her behind; a childhood prank has adult repercussions; and Sunday, the day when parents visit, becomes a day of hope and dreams of reconciliation.
A vivid evocation of the purity of heart, trust, and the magical belief that only children have, Sunday is a poetic expression of the power of memory and the bittersweet legacy of childhood.
Audiobook version of her book
“I prefer people listen to it because I think they understand it emotionally more than people that wouldn’t understand that kind of situation,” she said.
“That’s why I wanted to record it. I didn’t record it the first time, and also, I never liked the cover the first time; it was a different publishing company. Then, the publishing rights ran out and then another publisher wanted to work with me, so I said ‘okay.’ Mainly, I wanted to record it,” she elaborated.
“I had never recorded it, and I also wanted to talk about it because I really didn’t talk about it the first time,” she said. “It was not what was going on… with different people that were alive then that are not alive now. It was not an easy thing to deal with at the time.”
“Now, I’ve talked about this so much,” she said. “Prior to this, I was never allowed to talk about it or bring up any of these things in the book. Back then, I was working, I was busy, and I was traveling all over the world. I was used to not speaking about those topics in the beginning.”
Volunteering at a school in the Upper East Side
While the global entertainment community knows her as “Ginger” from “Gilligan’s Island,” her young students at her Upper East Side elementary school known her simply as “Miss Tina.”
“When I volunteer at my New York City public school, on Wednesdays, it’s my happiest day of the week,” she said.
“My school is in the Upper East Side, and it’s one of the best in the city,” she said. “Wednesdays are a really fun day for me. Happy to me means getting uptown to the school and just seeing my lovely little students… they look so healthy, adorable, and they are so sweet and lively. It is such a pleasure to be with them,” she explained.
“I’ve always loved to work with first and second graders because they are learning how to read,” she acknowledged.
“First and second grade is what I love,” she exclaimed. “The children are lightheaded, happy, and they are having all their needs met. They are surrounded by lovely people that love them. The teachers in my school where I tutor are wonderful. It is just a very happy experience.”
Writing this book was a cathartic process
“It was very cathartic,” she admitted. “I didn’t know how I was going to do it. I thought I was going to make a movie out of it. I had a close friend, who was a professional writer, and he inspired me to write a little book. I told him that I had never written a book.”
“My friend told me to go out, get some index cards, and write down my thoughts on them, and later, I would put them in the order that I want. I had to give myself time and just do that, and that’s exactly what I did,” she elaborated.
“The good thing was that my daughter, Caprice, was about seven or eight years old, so living with her voice made it much easier to simplify the writing and to be in the mind that a child was. The simplicity of childhood and being around that also helped very much to do that,” she explained.
“Obviously, I’ve had a lot to draw on in terms of my work. It has been an unusual path, but I was used to being a gypsy since I would move from place to place,” she noted.
“Basically, that’s acting… you just go where the film is. I moved around a lot, and I’ve even been to different countries. I worked in Italy, Berlin, and France, among other places,” she said.
“I always wanted to make a movie out of it; the dramatic moments can be enlarged. If anybody ever connected with me that was interested in it, I would love to do that,” she added.
Tina Louise has a love for New York
“I love New York,” she exclaimed. “I was born here and I’m a city girl. I raised my daughter out in California, but I always wanted to get back to New York, and I did. When I started my career, everything was in New York.”
Defining moments: Being taught and mentored by Lee Strasberg
Tina Louise was taught and mentored by legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg.
“I always go back to Lee Strasberg,” she recalled. “I was alerted to the fact that my first film, ‘God’s Little Acre,’ which has always been my favorite, streamed on Saturday night in primetime.”
“That movie really is a classic,” she said. “It has so many different hills and valleys, and when one situation ends, there is always another drama. It really was an exciting movie; I enjoyed it.”
Tina Louise on Aldo Ray
“I really enjoyed the whole film and I was very close with Aldo Ray and Buddy Hackett,” she said. “All the actors in the movie ‘God’s Little Acre’ were great. Aldo, in particular, who didn’t study to be an actor at all, is a great example of natural talent. He was a sheriff in northern California, and somebody found him and signed him to Columbia Pictures.”
“Aldo was amazing to work with and he made it so real to me. Whatever Aldo said, he said it in the most normal way and he just made it easy to function in the scene. He was very special,” she recalled.
“I hadn’t looked at that film in many years, and it was interesting because that was before I met my teacher Lee Strasberg, and I thought that you are either born with it or you are not. I wasn’t a child that woke up thinking ‘I’m going to be an actor,’ I did not,” she added.
Seeing her friend on Broadway inspired a teenage Tina Louise
“When I was 17, I saw one of my friends on Broadway and that impressed me,” she said. “When I started college and I was there for six months, I told my mother that I wanted to study acting and I decided then that I wanted to do that. I didn’t know where it was going and I didn’t have any giant plan of how and where it would go.”
“I wanted to take it one step at a time, and I just knew I wanted to study,” she said. “That was a pivotal moment for me… seeing my friend on Broadway was pretty overwhelming, so my mother put me in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, which is a very important school in New York City. I believe that Paul Newman and Steve McQueen went there as well.”
“You study everything in that school, and you would do little scenes. I would stay there all day. I liked studying; I always liked studying,” she added.
Working with Lee Strasberg
“When I first met my teacher, Lee Strasberg, that was extremely illuminating,” she said. “I learned more of a way to work and a way to live. You learn basic things that nobody ever teaches, and he taught us relaxation.”
“We would sit in hard chairs and we would have to relax every part of our body, and he would come and check to make sure we were doing it right. It was very important to learn deep relaxation. It was not about the words; it was deep relaxation,” she explained.
“Then we did different scenes and things all around the words. Sometimes, he would tell us not to say any words; just babble the scene and know what it is about, and just do it. Don’t speak the words. What is all boils down to if that you have a natural ability to acting,” she elaborated.
“When I re-watched my film ‘God’s Little Acre’ this past Saturday, I realized that I have a natural ability… That was the first movie I ever did,” she said. “I hadn’t done a film before. I had worked on the stage and I did a little bit of TV but I had never done a movie.”
“I seemed to have fallen into it, and it looked very real to me; much more real than I would have thought. So, I guess I was born to do this,” she added.
Advice for young and emerging actors
For young and aspiring actors, she said, “Always try to work on the stage first. Don’t look for cash because they don’t have it. Look to be working on your craft and being seen. You can’t get a job unless you have an agent, so if you work in low-budget plays then you can invite some people to see you, if you are lucky enough to get them to come.”
“In any case, there is always somebody who will see a winner with young people,” she said. “There is always somebody who is in the audience who will say ‘wasn’t that extraordinary.’ I believe in getting it right the first time… you have to perform on stage, and you have to make it new each night.”
“That is totally different than being able to do it 10 times. I do think it’s important to work on the stage. That’s the best training; not California, I would not suggest that. You do learn by doing,” she said.
“You just can’t hope to be discovered, and you can’t look to be paid for every job. You better have another job,” she said. “If they are depending on fame for their recognition or their happiness, it is too hard. You have to find something that contributes to somebody else.”
“You probably need to have two jobs… that’s why so many actors are waiters,” she said.
“If you are going to get into something, usually, they barely pay newcomers at all, and some people just want to work and practice their craft in New York,” she noted.
“That’s the way you learn your craft… by doing, by doing stage, and by getting it right. Knowing that you have to get it right the first time, and study! Work with other people and learn by doing,” she elaborated.
Dialogue-heavy
When asked how she handled being dialogue-heavy (as an actress), she said, “I don’t know how I did it in the beginning. I never had a problem with my memory ever. Lee Strasberg taught me that it’s not about the words… it’s about the thoughts and the scene.”
“I ask myself ‘what am I doing here?’ and ‘what do I want in this scene?’ It’s all about what is going on, and what is the behavior in the scene. What do I want to accomplish? What am I trying to get? What am I trying to give? What am I trying to change?” she explained.
“The brain a muscle at that point… you are thinking, you are living, you are learning by doing,” she added.
Working with Richard Brooks
“By the time I did ‘The Happy Ending’ with the great Richard Brooks, he directed it, and I was fortunate enough to have a part in it,” she said. “Richard taught me to always look someone straight in the eyes. Always. Don’t look away when you are having thoughts. I remember him saying.”
Tina continued, “Richard wrote this beautiful movie for his wife, Jean Simmons, and she hadn’t worked in five years. I asked her, ‘how can you do that?’ did you go to a class or something?’ and she told me ‘It’s either, you know what you know, or you don’t know it.’ In a certain point, you need to have figured out what you are doing.”
“At that time, I thought you still had to go to a class,” Tina said. “I learned from different people’s approaches. Jean knew what she knew and she was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie.”
“Richard did everything himself: he wrote the scripts for her, he directed it, he edited it and he produced it, even though it was a bit too long. I think ‘The Happy Ending’ was a great movie but it needed to be shortened,” she added.
Stage of her life
“Now, I’ve become a businesswoman,” she said. “I used to have a manager all my life up until two years ago, so moving back to New York, I’ve taken on the task, so it has been quite a learning process.”
“I learn new things every day about something. The last two days, I’ve learned about taxes and things, and I would have done things differently had I known what I discovered yesterday,” she added.
Tina Louise has a passion for walking
“I just love living in New York, and my daughter Caprice inspires me,” she said. “I am very aware of my health, I do a lot of walking, and I walk close to two miles each day. I was exhausted doing my walking but that’s what I like.”
“Walking is so important to staying alive. I don’t like to come home unless I exhaust myself from walking. I feel that walking is so key to your health. It is very, very important,” she said.
“I pay more attention to the world’s situation and I pay a lot of attention to that. I love to read; I read a lot, and New York is an exciting place,” she admitted.
“I have a couple of close, good friends, and I have no desire to live in Los Angeles even though I miss my daughter and her children there,” she expressed.
“I try to catch a play in New York every now and then,” she said. “I don’t do things online. I’m a visual person. I am looking at the beautiful trees that are blooming with white… they are so lovely now. I am looking at the yellow daffodils on the street, which are so pretty.”
Superpower of choice
When asked about her superpower of choice, she responded, “If I had a superpower, I would live forever and my family would live forever, and everyone would be healthy. My family is No. 1 to me. Caprice is always No. 1. I want everyone to stay healthy and successful in all the ways that count.”
Success
On her definition of success, she said, “Success is security in everything. Success means contentment, peace in your soul, and gratitude for what you do have. Gratitude is so important, especially to realize what you do have.”
Closing thoughts on the book
For fans and readers, she remarked, “I hope other people can see and find themselves in this book, so they don’t feel alone I was very excited to record it because more emotion would be in my voice, and the people that have very normal families might get it better once they hear me tell it,” she explained.
“There are so many people that will identify with it in so many different ways because childhood is not easy for everyone; it is for some and that’s why I wanted to record it so they would understand the emotions,” she noted.
“I had a couple of breakdowns recording it myself because saying the words were very difficult for me,” she said. “It’s not something I would listen to at all. It is just too emotional.”
“Everybody has a different experience. I hope it will resonate with many people; I sure hope so,” she noted.
“This is something I needed to say because I wasn’t allowed to speak of it because when I moved in with my mother (that wasn’t until I was 11), she had a different life. I thought now, as an adult, I wondered what everybody thought of this 11-year-old girl appearing,” she elaborated.
“Somehow, the subject never came up; it was just not going to be talked about. It was obvious that I wasn’t allowed to talk about it, and I wouldn’t cause her any unhappiness. I didn’t want to do that. I just kept it all inside of me,” she noted.
“Life is very exciting. Life is the best movie you can be in. Just enjoying your life is the best movie. There is much to enjoy and much to be grateful for. Every day you live and you learn,” she acknowledged.
Message for her fans
For her loyal longtime fans, she said, “Thank you. I have to say that I was recently interviewed by the New York Times, and I’ve never had an experience like that before.”
“No matter where I would walk to, people would tell me ‘great article’ and that they ‘loved my story,’ and basically, my life now, and I am so appreciative of that, especially the way they related to this story that she wrote,” she said.
“That New York Times reporter definitely did her investigative reporting. People really liked that story. I’ve never had a reaction to any story like that; it is so much fun, and it keeps happening,” she said.
“That article created some kind of happiness that I still can’t believe. My story just resonated with everybody. I never had any experience like that with any story ever. I guess I am everybody’s friend now,” she said with a sweet laugh.
Ella Fitzgerald once said: “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” Tina Louise embodies this wise quote.
“Sunday: A Memoir” is available on Amazon by clicking here.
Content shared from www.digitaljournal.com.