SPOTLIGHT
This is the only way you can do it. You get back in there and stop crying!’” Debbie Reynolds is such a joy to watch on Will and
Grace. Re-runs of the hit comedy are still in syndication on television. Reynolds explains how the role of Grace’s mom came to her on the show. “The producers. The pro- ducers are just adorable. Max and David. Max is gay and David is not. Their school friends and they produced Will and Grace. They are so funny and they’re great writers. They asked me, ‘Would I do it?’ And I said, ‘Sure. I’d love to.’ They wanted a funny mother. I said, ‘As long as you write her funny, I’d love to do her. I just don’t want to do a boring mother. Because I’m not a boring mother and I don’t want to do a boring mother.’ So, they wrote her kind of like me…you know.” Debbie Reynolds shared a few memories of her
friendship with Judy Garland and how difficult it can be working in the studio system during the 1950s. “We were great friends. We met at MGM and she was making The Pirate. She was going to do Annie Get Your Gun but she got sick. She was not feeling well. She was very thin. Unfortunately, she was taking too many pills. The studio had put her on a lot of these anti-depressant pills be- cause they had their own doctors there. They’d give her vitamin shots, which we know now was probably speed. They offered that to everybody. It wasn’t new. She wasn’t the only one who took the pills or shots. I didn’t take them because I was afraid of needles. I didn’t want them because I didn’t like them, so I never went on them. They worked many hours [the stars] from six in the morning until twelve at night and no days off…except Sunday to fall apart. Then, shoot again on a very tight schedule. If you are a big star like Judy and Mickey Rooney…the musical people were pushed very hard. So, Judy was taken off the strict production schedule, which really broke her heart and made her very depressed. It’s just like they did from Fox with Marilyn Monroe. They fired them and just throw them out and let them stay home and be depressed. They’re very cruel. They use them up and throw them out. ‘Cruel’ is the word. But, we all loved Judy. She was just the funniest lady. Judy and I were on the road. We worked nightclubs together. After work, we’d hang out together. Judy was having her cocktails then. I didn’t drink then yet so then I learned how to drink white wine…I rather enjoyed that so…I still enjoy that.” Debbie Reynolds is a classic entertainer with a his-
tory of remarkable achievements in film, television and theatre. In closing, being the legendary trouper she is, she reminds me to make sure of her upcoming dates, “July 28 through August 1. You got that down? And three matinees, so you have to mention that. Gee, thank you Bill. Thanks a lot.”
Debbie Reynolds July 28-August 1 Welk Resort
Welktheatresandiego.com 888.802.7469
“It’s just like they did
from Fox with Marilyn Monroe. They fired them and just throw them out and let them stay home
and be depressed. They’re very cruel. They use them up and throw them out.”
44 RAGE monthly | JULY 2010
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