Ruth Gordon: Time Comes for Talent
"I’m not saying that rejection is easy or that it’s nothing, but it’s not everything. It’s not the final word."
James Grissom: Marian Seldes tells me that you often feel that your quote about never facing the facts is misunderstood. Do you agree?
Ruth Gordon: Well, what do I know? I think I should have been a little bit more specific. Of course I face some facts. I mean two plus two is four, you know? I believe in the facts of gravity. What I was talking about were the so-called facts that were presented to me, and are presented to so many others, and how you have to reject those. They are not facts: They are opinions. And who the hell are they coming from?
A studio executive thought Fred Astaire was boring and balding and could dance ‘a little.’ Where is he now? Fuck his facts! Bette Davis overheard the head of a studio as he looked at footage of her, and he said, ‘Who did this to me?’ What did he know? Those aren’t facts, but they can hit you like a bullet to the gut.
I believe that a time comes for talent. I do. That’s my fact. I’m proof of it. I stood on that corner for a long time, and every once in a while, someone dropped by and picked me up and decided I was worth a trip, a journey. But I was told I was ugly, I had a bad voice, I had legs and a nose and some teeth that needed work. Well, here I am. I believed in myself. Everyone has to believe in what they have and what they can do. Is that ego? Well, it’s good ego. There’s a fact. It’s good ego if you say you belong in a field and can bring something to it, and then you do bring something to it. It’s bad ego if you think you can do anything or everything, and you wait for it to be brought to you.
But I said that line about never face facts because I was talking to young actors, many of them so discouraged by rejection. I’m not saying that rejection is easy or that it’s nothing, but it’s not everything. It’s not the final word. It is not a fact about all that you are or will become. To yourself—never to them—you just say, 'Thank you very much. See you later.’ But inside, to yourself, you say, ‘They’re wrong. They’re not evil, but they’re wrong.’ And you go on.
The facts are on the stage, on the film, on the page, in the hearts of those you love and work with. The facts are not with people behind desks and tables who will be forgotten in twelve minutes and who just might not ‘get’ you. Get yourself. That’s the winning formula.
Telephone Interview/1984