Imagine acting in films alongside leading men Jimmy Stewart, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Actress Katharine Ross has done that and more, sharing highlights of her long and varied career last Saturday with a rapt local audience.
Kicking off its own version of “Inside the Actors Studio,” the Malibu Playhouse presented the first of the new “Conversation with…” series featuring Ross as the first interview subject. The interview was done by Steven Gaydos, executive editor of Variety.
Ross, probably best known for her performances in “The Graduate ” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” has received a number of awards and nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, two BAFTA awards for Best Actress, and Golden Globe awards for Best Supporting Actress and New Star of the Year.
She began her acting career with the Actors Workshop in San Francisco.
“It was a time when they were trying to spread theater across America, and were giving grants to perform important works,” Ross said. “I got to watch some incredible actors in some incredible plays.”
Ross confessed that she “never had a game plan” for her career.
She broke into television acting when she was cast in a two-scene part of “Sam Benedict” while it shot in San Francisco. After that, things began to fall into place. She landed well-known L.A.-based talent agent Wally Hiller.
“My first love was the theater, and in some ways, it still is,” Ross said. “I was very arrogant about what things I wouldn’t do, like TV. There was a very sharp divide between TV and movies back then. If you got put in TV, you were almost never used for a movie.”
Despite that proclamation, Ross was a contract player and appeared on a number of TV shows in the early ’60s, including westerns like “Gunsmoke.”
Her first movie was “Shenandoah” with acting legend Jimmy Stewart.
“Stewart was very much a gentleman and very professional,” Ross said.
On a personal appearance tour for the film, when Stewart was asked how he prepared for a certain scene, he said, “I don’t know, I just did it.” Ross said she realized what he said was true. “No matter how much you work on a scene ahead of time, in the end, you just do it.”
Her first big movie, 1967’s seven-time Academy Award winner “The Graduate,” was her fifth film.
“It was a rewarding, fulfilling experience to work with people like director Mike Nichols and actress Anne Bancroft,” Ross said. “I used to think ‘The Graduate’ ruined me for doing anything else. Not only was it fun, it was creatively rewarding. We rehearsed for three weeks, which was an incredible luxury that makes it really easy when you start to shoot.”
Two years later, she played the main female character in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” a five-time Oscar winner. She and Director George Roy Hill had a falling out early on during filming. Ross was dating the cinematographer, who let her operate a camera located in an obscure position. Hill saw her and banned her from the set, except when she was acting.
As for her co-stars, Ross said, “Paul Newman knew every joke known to man … He drove a VW with a Porsche engine in it.”
Co-star Robert Redford was “getting ready to produce ‘Downhill Racer’ and was always on the phone,” Ross said. “I worked with Redford twice. Earlier that same year, we made ‘Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here’ in Palm Springs with Robert Blake.”
Ross took questions from the audience, and talked about working with her husband, her love of horses and a fear of heights. She said one of her favorite projects was the film “Conagher” (1991), based on a Louis L’Amour novel.
“That was my biggest involvement, from beginning to end, even including the edit room,” Ross said. She has also written a series of children’s books.
Ross and her husband Sam Elliott will present a special Valentine’s Day encore performance of A.R. Gurney’s award-winning play “Love Letters” on February 14 at 8 p.m. at the Malibu Playhouse, with a post-show Q&A.
“It’s a nice piece of writing, and the fact that we’ve been together for a long time comes into play,” Ross said.
Future events for the Malibu Playhouse’s “Conversation with” interview series with actors, writers, and directors will be announced. Inquiries can be emailed to info@malibuplayhouse.org.