Jessica Tandy: Be Gentle

Jessica Tandy, captured by Douglas Kirkland, in 1989

Interview with Jessica Tandy

Conducted by James Grissom

New York City

1991

Of course you learn things and see things as you progress, and you can lose faith. Innocence dies away. One can get hardened. But you protect yourself and you lie a little and you look away, because you feel you will be the exception: Your friends and favorite peers will be the exception. We will make the plays and the films that are different and better; we will be kind and noble. You have to see if the dream can take place. And you really have to allow those younger than yourself to keep the dream: You shouldn't look at them and tell them to wake up and open their eyes. Everyone needs the dream and everyone needs the waking up part. You have to let everyone have the honeymoon and then the confrontation with the truth and then the settling, which we all reach, and which we deal with every single day. But let them do it on their own, with your support, with your kindness, with your example. Be gentle.

© 2014  James Grissom