Tennessee on Anthony Quinn: Ambulatory Penuche




Interview with Tennessee Williams
Conducted by James Grissom
New Orleans
1982


When I was in Mexico--and when I was around Mexicans--I was introduced to penuche, a lovely brown-sugar fudge confection that is often reserved for Christmas or other special occasions. It is light brown, usually, smooth, sweet, dangerous in its addictive qualities. Ambulatory penuche is what he [Anthony Quinn] was as Stanley [Kowalski, from A Streetcar Named Desire]. His sexuality came in on stealthy feet--there was no blowing down of doors, no sexual gusts sending flowers through the streets. He glided toward poor, hungry Uta [Hagen] and offered an enormous plate of light brown, sweet, smooth penuche, and she ate it up. He was enormously charming, beautiful, sneaky. An entirely different Stanley, but one to whom many would have happily submitted.


© 2014  James Grissom

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