I went to Hollywood to get Bette Davis [for
Jezebel (1951)]. She wasn't all that keen to come, so I said to her, 'You can bring your own director over,' and she said, 'There's a man called
Irving Rapper I like,' so he came over to direct the film. Not that she took much notice of him. She was a cow! But, you know, she was very talented, *very* talented, and her husband [
Gary Merrill] was a very nice man ... You have to remember that Hollywood was founded on sex, though it was said that Bette Davis was the only female star who hadn't slept her way to becoming a star. But Irving Rapper couldn't handle her at all. She was a very dominating character and at that time she was on her way down, but she was an interesting woman all the same.
