Because Fred Astaire has never liked watching his own movies

For decades, anecdotes about Fred Astaire and his constant pursuit of perfection have delighted urban myths, or at least those of Hollywood. Ginger Rogers, for example, said so in Invitation the dance he made her try for so many hours that she blistered and her feet bled.

Now, film history revisionists have unearthed an old Fred Astaire report on the Dick Cavett TV show in 1971. There, the driver asks the 72-year-old actor if he has watched his films, which have often been shown on TV channels. afternoons. And the star told him that he was aware that they were being broadcast quite often, but that he couldn’t see the “horrible” work he had done.

Very critical

“I don’t really watch those movies,” he said, “because if I meet them by chance it gives me a shock. I don’t like watching them! It happens to me that I immediately think I could have done it better.”

Fred Astaire has never stopped making films for cinema or television, but apparently he was never satisfied with his performance. Nor did he review his shots at the time of filming, at least in the spoken parts, because he obsessively reviewed the choreography.

Cavett had the courage and originality to ask a Hollywood star something that many people are curious to know: watch his films at reunions or previews? As Astaire replied, “I think I’d leave the place. Once, not long ago, I was on screen and I couldn’t remember what it was. I didn’t recognize the scene, so I turned off the TV.”

-But what’s bothering you so much, his performance?

I always thought I was not very talented. Not to belittle myself, but I really don’t think I’m a good actor. There are things I can do and I do them well. In the end, I like making movies. Otherwise I wouldn’t have done anything.

without many prizes

Throughout his career, Fred Astaire received an Oscar nomination only in 1975, for hell in the tower. His theatrical career and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which time he appeared in 31 musical films. He formed one of the best dance partners in film history with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films that revolutionized the genre.

In 1981 he received an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar.

He died on June 22, 1987 at the age of 88, of pneumonia. He was buried in Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. Shortly before his death in 1987, he told the media: “I didn’t want to leave this world without knowing who my successor was, thank you Michael Jackson.”

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