Do You Really Think I Look Like Shirley Temple? Asks NOVA PILBEAM

Radio Record, 3 July 1936, Page 54

Do You Really Think I Look Like Shirley Temple? Asks NOVA PILBEAM

TALL, leggy girl of sixteen, with big hands and feet-- ‘simply enormous’ ’ she calls them frankly-leant over the’ gate of?a.suburban garden. She clutched a dog in her arms to prevent his following the car. Her dress ‘was’ blue, her cap was bine, her eyes were angry and blue. "Do you really think," she asked ° severely y "that I look.like Shirley Temple? ae . "Good heavens, no," I -said... "Why? faa ‘= "Or Baby Leroy?" har dly. fo) "Or-Freddie Bartholomew? ?. "' "Perish the thought." >; "Phen: I ‘wish,’ " she said "you would say: eo". -'%

; Nova Pilbeam, at sixteen, is: going through ‘a hard stage of her career, writes’ "C.A.L." in "The. Observer," . London. . She has grown far and: fast since the: time, two years ago, when an unknown child sidled into the casting office :at Shepherd’s Bush. and was tested for. the part of the unhappy’ tw elve-year-old in. "Little. Friend." Since thei. she has been’'kidnappéd in’: the Hitchcock » picture, "The Man Who Knew Too Much, *~ She has: followed the | flying’ shadow of Pauline Chase, ‘and Jean Forbes-Robert- | son: .as, ‘Peter..Pan- in. the London theatre; she has toured the : provinces as. Peter: and . been jostled by crowds outside the stage door. Her first film with a "love interest," ""Pudor Rose," is now released: in London, and this month she is to go to Oxford’to play. Rosalind: in, the O.U.D.S. production: of "As You Like It.’ Nova, if ‘only ~ people would believe it, has grown wp: a 7 She isn’t any, longer a child ‘star. She is an actress. She has. ideas about hér ‘craft ;: hard, ‘sensible,’ experienced ideas, and can phrase, them, She is -beginning to get: a very exact seale of values between the ‘theatre and: the cinema, to know. just where the theatre is a widér training ground, just where the camera ‘cain teach precision, The Awkward Stage «= ° " Nova is still at ‘that awkward stag ze between childhood and womanhood When motives are mixed, but instinets plain. She is "looking forward passionately, for instance,’ to this.0.U.D.S. performance of "As You Like It";.because , it-is her first ‘Shakespearean part; because she stay * a week in Oxford and can ‘take. her dog, because she had a good time there during. the tour of- "Peter Pan," because it is such an honour to be invited;: and. ‘because,’ after playing ‘Rosalind, there can’t any longer be a: doubt that she... is "quite grown up. "Perhaps, after that," she says darkly, "they. will begin to think of me along ‘with, the other girls of my agepeople like’ Hazel Terry and Anne Shirley-and: not as. a Shirley Temple or a Baby Leroy,,. You wouldn’t believe _ the letters I get, telling me what..a clever little girl I am : te-remember my lines’so nicely. And the plays they send. me to read, with parts for a child of ten, little girls scrambling up trees, being patted on the head by kind old gentlemen, Of. course," she added honestly, "I do get plays: for mar ried ‘women, too." t "What. do you’ really -want, ‘Nova P71 asked, "Whit sort of parts would you. play if you could choose?’ "I'd. like to do modern comedy," she said promptly,

"ora thriller. I wish I could do a thriller with Hitchcockthe ‘sort of part he made Madeleine Carroll play in ‘The 39 "Steps’ and ‘The Secret Agent.’ I’m awfully tired of being a tragic heroine. All my films have been sad, and I’m not a‘bit a sad person really." ‘She is: not. In everyday life, as she was on the stage as "Peter, she’ is a bright, impetuous, rather glowing person:- Thé films, which make her out as dark and wistful, -havé under-rated her. Her. hair has a tawny look to it. Her colour is eager. She would look well as Rosalind, and later prove a Koon to the colour films, ‘Shoes-Size 54 _ he.one thing I regret about Nova is that she never played the child in "National Velvet." It was planned at one time that she was to go to Hollywood to make the film for Paramount, but the dea] fel] through. Now she says she is too big for it. "Look at my hands," she says, "and my feet-five and .a half shoes-and see how tall Iam. Fancy me a jockey! ‘Besides, Velvet was just a child. It was a nice part, but ‘I’m glad I didn’t have to go to Hollywood." "Don’t you like America?’ | "Thad three weeks, in New York, when ‘Little Friend’ was first shown there, and I was just terrified. Bveryone was. tremendously kind, and sent me flowers, and there were: luncheons and receptions every day, but I felt such a fool, and it was all so noisy. I got lost, too, one day, talk--ing to.a cat behind a dustbin. It was a nice cat, like the one'at’home. But mother thought I had been kidnapped. " "So, you’re not going to America?" F "Oh, I hope not. I’d like to make Bnglish outdoor films though,, with lots of exteriors and riding.. I’d like --" she: stopped: "What?" .. "Oh, it’s silly, I suppose, but I’d like to make a film of Heights.’ I’ve always wanted to play Emily. And’ then ‘there’s ‘St. Joan. ’ And, perhaps, Mary Rose. And. ‘Shirley’ " ° : :We:-passed on to the.chances for Norma Shearer's screen Juliet and |Hlisabeth Bergner’s Rosalind. She wondered how Bergneér, with her small, intimate voice, would compass We talked about "The Constant Nymph" and. ‘Wscape Me Neyer. " -"T wish I could ‘find a ‘part like Tessa," she said, éagerly. ‘We: talked about "These Three." She wished there could bean English version of "Madchen in Uniform," and she .could. play .the Hertha. Thiele part.