Piper Laurie to speak in Huntington

Not everyone can count Ronald Reagan and Mel Gibson among their list of lovers. Piper Laurie may be the only woman who can say that.

They're just some of the names dropped in the three-time Oscar nominee's frank new memoir, "Learning to Live Out Loud," which she'll talk about following a screening of her 1961 drama, "The Hustler," Wednesday night at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington.

Laurie, 80, recently discussed the film, her starlet days at Universal in the 1950s and her painful shyness in her youth that she talks about in the book.

Why were you afraid of George C. Scott when you did "The Hustler"?

We had done "Winterset" on live television . . . and he would arrive in the morning all bloodied and bruised from some brawl he'd been in. He was a big guy and just looked threatening. So when it came time to work with him on "The Hustler" and [director] Robert Rossen asked me to go meet him after a performance in "The Wall," I didn't tell Rossen I was scared of George. Those feelings of fear and discomfort would be very useful to me in playing Sarah.

You were disappointed in the movie when you finally saw it. Why?

It took me 15 years to begin to appreciate it, but I realized only a week or two ago when I saw the movie on a big screen again for the first time in many years, I realized I was looking at it for the first time. While I had learned to appreciate it over the years, I wasn't as moved. I saw Sarah there, not myself for the first time. I loved the script so much and I threw myself into it so completely that it's taken many years to separate myself from it.

Do you remember the moment when you found out you were nominated for an Academy Award for "The Hustler"?

No, because it was meaningless to me. And I didn't go to the ceremony. I was angry at the whole system.

Would it be easier for you today starting out not being tied to a studio?

If you're talking about if I was the person I was, with the same fears and inhibitions of communicating, I don't think I could succeed at all.

Why did you enter a profession like acting where speaking up for yourself is such a key part of a successful career?

It's the obvious thing for someone to do who can't find their own words. There's nothing wrong with my brain or my thoughts. I just couldn't find the right words. So when somebody else is writing them, that's a great place to hide.

Do you think things would have been different for you at Universal, maybe better roles, if you had been able to stand up for yourself more?

It's hard to know what would have happened if I had been as open as, say, Bette Davis, in going to the front office and giving the bosses hell. The studio I happened to work with did not have the resources to give me good roles. They were making program pictures. Fighting them might have meant I might be fired or put on suspension.

When I interviewed Tony Curtis a few years ago, he talked about going through the same sort of thing at Universal.

And he got $50 a week more than I did. In those days actresses got $100 a week and the guys got $150.

Your career seemed to have these peaks and valleys, like you were rediscovered every 10 or 15 years.

Well there are four very definite stages of my life, and the time between "The Hustler" and "Carrie" was 15 years, during which I was somebody else -- a housewife, a mother, a sculptor, a baker -- and I lived in the country and never thought about being an actress. My life has been interesting because I've been able to make changes in it. I've had at least three different careers, and I've been fortunate to have been able to change my life.

You were separated from your parents for several years when they sent your sister to an asylum in California for health and asked you to go with her. Did you ever your experiences in the asylum ever help you as an actress?

I really couldn't draw on them because they were too painful. I could hardly even speak about them until I wrote about them in the book. The best I can say is that the experience honed my imagination and my ability to focus for long periods of time on things, and that's a great gift.

Writing your book, was it difficult remembering some things that were not all that pleasant?

I really used my imagination, like I do when I'm acting, to really put myself back to those days that I was writing about. There were surprising periods where I found it the most difficult. Amazingly, the part of the book people enjoy reading about most are the movie star days when I was under contract to a studio. It was the most difficult part of the book for me to write because living it was so unpleasant for me.

I liked your book, and I have to say, it has quite a lot of sex in it.

Compared to some biographies, I didn't think there was that much sex. I don't think I was as explicit as many. I just think they were with interesting people.

Compared to some biographies I've read, I didn't think there was that much sex. I don't think I was as explicit as many. I just think they were with interesting people.

WHAT "The Hustler" screening, interview and book signing with Piper Laurie

WHEN | WHERE 7 p.m. Wednesday, Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington, $20, 800-838-3006, cinemaartscentre.org