YOUNG PLAYERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1940, Page 9

YOUNG PLAYERS

ARE THEY SOFT? . May Robson sometimes wonders if i present-day movie actors and actresses can "take it." She thinks per- . haps they are softies. ( Miss Robson has no sympathy with . players who profess to be all worn out ■ and in need of a long rest after doing . three or four pictures in a year. [ At the age of seventy-five she has ■ made six pictures in the past year, ’ and is rewarding herself with a sight- . seeing tour until her next picture starts. "I’m not tired.” she says. "But I have a little time between pictures so I'll Co a little travelling.” She averaged six week of camerawork in each of her pictures during the past year. That time is exclusive of tests and wardrobe fittings. "But that isn't a strenuous schedule,” she said at the Warner Bros, studio. “I’ve worked a lot more steadily on the stage. I can’t understand these young players imagining themselves into a state of exhaustion because they’ve gone from picture to picture. “I can understand thoroughly a star like Bette Davis needing a vacation after doing the number of kind of dramatic roles she played last year. Flesh and blood and human nerves will stand only so much of that kind of work. But there's too precious little of that kind of work being done." Perhaps, Miss Robson added, some of the youngsters she was castigating know how to enjoy leisure better than she herself does. “I'm probably a bit envious,” she admitted. "I don't know how to rest. I never had time to learn how in my younger years. And it is too late for me to learn now.” The screen's "grand old lady” said it is her greatest ambition to be working when she receives the “last curtain call.’ 1 "There may be a bit of ego in that.” she admitted. 'I don’t want to spoil my record. This is my fifty-seventh consecutive year in harness. | "I made my stage debut in 1883 and I've never missed a season. I never want to miss a season, or even part of one.” It was her great friend, the late Marie Dressier, who persuaded Miss Robson to leave the stage for films. She has never regretted it. Miss Robson said she never had been seriously ill in all her life. She attributed her remarkable health to keeping too busy to have time tcworry, "eating everything that is pur before me,” and sleeping eight hours ! each night. ‘l've never smoked or drunk.” she added. “Funny about that. If there’s! any disreputable old female drunk k be played. I always get the call. Ana I once smoked a cigar in a picture.” j