MARY PICKFORD’S WORK.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1920, Page 4

MARY PICKFORD’S WORK.

ART, BUSINESS, AND LOVE.

(Daily Mail Interview). LOS ANGELES, California

This is a story of the present-day world’s best known woman and what she loves best. It is also an intimate sketch of her as an artist, and shows how she directs an organisation that is perhaps the most unique of its kind in the world.

It is a complete interview with Mary Pickford, the most remarkable personality on the screen to-day.

When Miss Pickford is at work one would think she is at play. She will not allow dull moments to creep into her daily routine, and she wants everybody working with her to be happy and always smiling.

Her greatest love is not for her art

It is for her mother.

“The only thing that worries me in this world is the possibility that I,will some daylose my mother,” she said. “Mother has been my best friend, the most wonderful friend in this world, and I almost worship her. No one caii take her place in my heart.” I saw tears creep into her eyes as she talked. The sincerity of her declaration impressed me deeply. Here was a woman who receives a thousand letters a day from nearly everywhere, many of these letters breathing passionate love and great adoration, and not one of them can turn her from her life’s deepest affection, the love for her mother. And next to her love for her mother comes her love for her art. She lias appeared in 38 photo-plays during her career, and she expects to make the total 50. SMILES AND TEARS.

Mary Pickford believes that pictures should mirror the souls of men and women, should reflect their every mood, should always present the sunny side of life with just enough tears to make happiness even more golden. “I want people to think good things about me,” she continued. “I like to play happy, wholesome roles, because I believe all of us, no matter what our station in life, want to see good triumph over evil.

“I want every member of my company to be happy. If anybody for any reason whatsoever becomes dissatisfied, I want to help solve his or her problems and make them happy in their work. “I do not want people to think of me as an actress, and I do not know whether lam a great artist. But Ido ant to be sincere in my work, because it is the height of artistic achievement to be sincere and to ring true.” She selects her own plays. Her stories must always have a ring of sincerity in them. THE PICKFORD BATTLE-CRY. Her organisation is a big happy family. She is its directing genius. “Are you ready?” is the Pickford battle-cry.

And when this battle-cry is sounded there is not an idler in the company. She assists in directing, and she insists that every member in the cast shall study his or her part, and that each interpretation or piece of character delineation shall be a mirror of life it-, self.

She is now filming “Pollyanna,” the first “Big Four” production, and the very nature of the story has called for numerous “sets” on the big stage and scores of journeys to locations.

Thus an enormous amount of work devolves upon the shoulders of the little star, but she keeps on smiling, is buoyant and happy, and is ever the miracle worker of .the films.

There are so many people constantly clamouring at the gates of the studio trying to see Miss Piekford, so many thousands of letters arriving each week asking advice or giving advice, so many telephone calls, that a great army of people is kept busy handling this situation, a situation growing out of the fame and popularity of the star.

DEFINITION OF PATIENCE

I have read the definition of patience, and I have seen the word illustrated in many ways, in school and out of school, but perhaps the most fitting definition of the word is—Mary Piekford. Everything may go wrong on the set, scores of people may be seeking her advice simultaneously, and many other things may come about to upset her equilibrium, but she is always the last person to lose her patience. Strangers who have met her have remarked on her graciousness and have wondered how she maintains it.

Miss Piekford has a great affection for children. Next to her mother and her art she loves little boys and girls. She has been known to leave rehearsals, or even tiie filming of a scene, if told that a child was outside wanting to see her.

She is the most severe critic of her own pictures. She does not look upon them as Mary Piekford pictures, but as Mary Piekford watching someone else in the films.

“I like to see myself and criticise myself as others see and criticise me,” she said after she had sat in the audience ok a Los Angeles theatre during the showing of “The Hoodlum.” “My aim is to forget that I am in the play. And then 1 deliberately and coldly analyse my work, make a note of what the audience likes and dislikes, .and in future pictures try to avoid what did not please me or the audience in the previous play.

“I realise that my public is an intelligent public, and that it will not tolerate makeshift acting. It wants sincerity.”