Film 77 BBC Interview

Streisand / Television

Film ‘77

Aired: March 6, 1977 on BBC
Opening Logo for Film 77 show
Three screen captures of Barbra Streisand 1977 BBC interview.
English author and broadcaster Iain Johnstone suspected that Barbra Streisand would want to sit down for an interview about her new Warner Brothers movie, A Star is Born, after she had received some negative press in the U.S. “Through Warners, I secured an interview,” he wrote in his memoir.

Johnstone's interview with Streisand aired twice on the BBC. It aired March 6, 1977 as part of Barry Norman's show about cinema, Film ’77.

Two weeks later, BBC 2 aired the full half-hour interview.

Johnstone filmed the interview with a three-man crew at Barbra's Carolwood Drive home in Beverly Hills. “It was hardly an appropriate place to film as it was so immaculate and expensive,” he recalled. “She was petite, surprisingly attractive, wearing a simple pink jumper and a pair of jeans and radiated a woman in love.”

Barbra explained to Johnstone why she remade A Star is Born: “I was never fond of the passivity of the woman in the other two films,” she said. “I wanted my Esther to be proactive, to save this man. I have a scene where I propose to him and I’m wearing a man’s suit. I’m not a radical feminist or anything, but I do believe in women taking hold of their own strengths.”

Johnstone was able to discuss the film's director with Streisand. Frank Pierson had written a scathing article about making the film which upset Streisand immensely. “What made him do it?” Johnstone asked.

“I don’t really know,” she said, incredulously. “ It was destructive to the film and to himself. He could have waited.” She explained, “It was in the contract that he had first cut, but I had final cut.”

“The film was a nightmare,” Streisand continued. “Pierson may be a good director but he and I had … er … different chemistries. I would come up with suggestions about the detail on a set or a look for a costume and he implied I was being meddlesome. Well, a producer can meddle. There were a couple of major rows with Kris, especially when we were filming the live concert which I knew couldn’t be reshot. But we’re good friends. He gave up drinking after the film.”

(The BBC Archive posted a gorgeous new scan of this filmed interview in 2020 on its Facebook page.  Here's a link to it.)
Iain Johnstone and Barbra Streisand.
End / Film 77 BBC Iain Johnstone
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