Thrust into my profession without any training whatsoever, I had to just flounder and just find my way. It was an agonizing experience. It’s like jumping off a diving board in the Olympic contest without knowing how to swim or dive, and I just had to find my way. So one day, I said to Jimmy Cagney, “Jimmy, what is acting?” and he said, “I don’t know.” He said, “All I can tell you is whatever you say, mean it,” and I thought that marvelous counsel.
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Olivia de Havilland
Film actress; twice winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress
United Kingdom · 1916–2020
Arts and letters
About
British-American actress who appeared in forty-nine feature films, among them Gone with the Wind, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for To Each His Own and The Heiress.
3 answers
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