The Making of Ann-Margret

Picture a Mrs. Smith. Maybe she’s a lioness at PTA meetings. Maybe she’s your district attorney or your church organist or even your own mother. But that Mrs. Smith sure as hell ain’t this Mrs. Smith. This is Ann-Margret (Smith), neé Olsson. 

A compulsive chronicler of midcentury pop culture on Instagram (@imyourauntiemame), I know that when it comes to capital-E Entertainers, the list of who can hold a candle to Ann-Margret is short. Anyone who’s seen her in action knows why: “powerhouse” is the only word. A multi-hyphenate in Bob Mackie, she’s had the singular, superhuman ability to headline Vegas then turn right around and hand in an Oscar-nominated performance, twice. 

This year marked the 50th anniversary of Tommy. And her bookend TV specials, Ann-Margret Olsson and Ann-Margret Smith. And her being crowned the reigning “Queen of Vegas.” And her unforgettable, bra-less rendition of “I’ve Got the Music In Me” on The Tonight Show. Basically, if 1976 was the Bicentennial, 1975 was the Year of Ann-Margret. I sat down with her recently to talk about these milestones, her friendship with Tina Turner, and the time TV Guide ran a cover photo of Oprah’s head on Ann-Margret’s body, among other things. Here’s what followed:

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ANN-MARGRET: Hello? 

ANDREW HOPF: Hi, is this Ann-Margret? 

ANN-MARGRET: This sure is! 

HOPF: Oh, Ann-Margret, what an honor. My name is Andrew Hopf, I’m calling from Interview Magazine. How are you today? 

ANN-MARGRET: I feel great! 

HOPF: I met you the other week and you looked amazing, too, just electric up close … Hearing you say my name, my god, it almost turned me straight. 

ANN-MARGRET: [Laughs] Oh, dear. 

HOPF: I rewatched Who Will Love My Children? last night. I bawled.

ANN-MARGRET: It’s a true story! 

HOPF: It was? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yeah!

HOPF: Did you have any idea Barbara Stanwyck was going to pay you that compliment at the Emmys? 

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, not at all. I was shocked! [Laughs] I didn’t know anything. I mean, I looked at Roger [Smith, her husband], neither one of us knew anything. Complete shock. 

HOPF: I saw this great clip of Tina Turner and the interviewer asked her about her contemporaries in the industry and she only named you. 

ANN-MARGRET: Oh my gosh, wow. I’m thrilled that she would say that. 

HOPF: You [and Turner] were friends for a long time, would you tell me a little bit about [helping Tina leave Ike]? 

ANN-MARGRET: Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I just always thought she was really talented. What can I say? 

HOPF: Is it true you helped her find a divorce attorney? 

ANN-MARGRET: No, I don’t recall that at all. 

AH: You both made Tommy together. 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes.

HOPF: There’s a great review of you in Tommy, and I’m paraphrasing here, it goes: “Ann-Margret sings and dances as if the fate of the Western World depends on it.” 

ANN-MARGRET: [Laughs] I like that! That makes me laugh, that’s great. 

HOPF: Ken Russell’s ideas were always a little … fantastical. Did you click with them immediately or did they take some getting used to? 

ANN-MARGRET: Well, you know, I had been told about him, and that he screamed a lot, so I was ready for that. In my presence he didn’t scream at all. He just was very… calm. I really had a good relationship with him. 

HOPF: I read that Roger was there when they were filming the infamous soap suds-and-beans-and-chocolate scene, and he’s quoted as saying your career as a “glamour queen” had come to an end. What do you think he meant by that? 

ANN-MARGRET: Well I don’t know that he said that but all those things you referred to, I had never seen anybody do anything like the soap suds and the beans. I guess I was the only one. [Laughs]

HOPF: A few months before Tommy went into production you were on the cover of Interview, that gorgeous Bernstein portrait. Did you meet Warhol? 

ANN-MARGRET: I don’t ever recall meeting him. I certainly found him very interesting. 

HOPF: I know Bette Davis was super supportive of you [when filming Pocketful of Miracles]. Did you ever see her queenly side? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes! Well, I was about to have a close-up, and of course Pocketful of Miracles was my first movie and I didn’t know close-shot, medium-shot, you know. She was there and she, at one point, stopped all the filming and said, “Ann-Margret, this is your close-up, I want you to look as good as you possibly can. Makeup! Hair!” The makeup person and hair person came and when they finished she looked and said, “Okay, now we can go on.” Oh, she was lookin’ out for me. I played her daughter and I really felt like it. 

HOPF: By the late 1960s it’s almost as if people had written you off. Did that light a fire under you to prove them wrong? 

ANN-MARGRET: I knew that I had something to offer. I just kept going no matter what people said. 

HOPF: It seems like people wanted to frame you as someone who didn’t call the shots or have her own agency. Did that ever rankle you? 

ANN-MARGRET: I tend not to read something that is about me. 

HOPF: Did you ever go to Studio 54? 

ANN-MARGRET: No, I never went. I didn’t have the chance, actually. Boy, that’s a long time ago! No, I never went. 

HOPF: You were the Queen of Las Vegas for a long time, did you really get wheeled to the stage on room service carts? 

ANN-MARGRET: I remember going every night on the room service things, yeah. I loved doing that. 

HOPF: I’m a little embarrassed to admit this but my favorite thing you ever did was a two-and-a-half minute Canada Dry commercial.

ANN-MARGRET: [Laughs] Wow. 

HOPF: Do you have any memories of taping that? Because it is just so wild and out-there.

ANN-MARGRET: You like it because it was wild and out-there? 

HOPF: Oh my god! It’s mod, it’s kicky, you call yourself a “soft drink expert,” which I love.

ANN-MARGRET: Oh dear, you certainly have seen a lot of my work. 

HOPF: Another project of yours I’d love to talk to you about: A Streetcar Named Desire.

ANN-MARGRET: Boy, that was a rough one. 

HOPF: Why? 

ANN-MARGRET: I knew it had to be as honest as I could be and that was it. I did the very best I could. 

HOPF: I read Tennessee Williams wanted you to play Blanche ten years earlier. Do you remember what those early meetings were like? 

ANN-MARGRET: I was thrilled that he liked my work and he wanted me to do it, I was thrilled! My goodness, Tennessee Williams. I admired him so much. 

HOPF: The director [of Streetcar] had to go into your trailer on the last day of shooting and say, “Ann-Margret, this is just a movie, this is just a movie.” 

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, yeah, because people saw me crying when I was all alone and that’s when he came in and said that, because I had gotten to such a point that I was always sad, so that’s when he came in. 

HOPF: And it took you a while after filming wrapped to get out of that mindset as Blanche DuBois?

ANN-MARGRET: That is true. 

HOPF: That’s awful. 

ANN-MARGRET: Yeah, it was. 

HOPF: There’s a lot of fictional characters I’d like to be but Blanche DuBois ain’t one of ‘em.

ANN-MARGRET: Ain’t one of ‘em, you’re absolutely right.

HOPF: On a 1989 cover of TV Guide, they had a picture of Oprah Winfrey on the cover, but from the neck down it was your body. 

ANN-MARGRET: I remember Bob Mackie calling Roger and saying, “Do you have a copy of TV Guide?” He said what you just said, I was wearing one of his creations, but… it was just weird. And of course we saw the cover and noticed. Things like that, I guess, happen in daily life, but I certainly was shocked by it. 

HOPF: I have to know what it feels like to wear an original, custom Bob Mackie.

ANN-MARGRET: Elegance, yes. 

HOPF: But my favorite thing you ever wore was that Nolan Miller black rhinestoned head wrap to the Academy Awards. 

ANN-MARGRET: It was the most unusual I had ever seen. I knew there would be people who would not like it.

HOPF: To hell with them, it was gorgeous. 

ANN-MARGRET: I’m glad you liked it. I did, too! 

HOPF: The best shots Harry Langdon ever took were of you. What were those sittings like? 

ANN-MARGRET: I was very, very comfortable with him. I was very calm with him. He wanted me to be comfortable and I was. 

HOPF: You had this great line [after her near-fatal 1972 onstage fall] about how “diamonds are better than Darvon.” 

ANN-MARGRET: That is correct, and I have my diamond ring on me right now. And they are better than Darvon! 

HOPF: Is it true Roger stole a plane to get to you? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes. He left a note, though. He said that he needed to use it for something and he would return it after he had done what he wanted to do. And he did! 

HOPF: There’s something so romantic about that. 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes, there is. 

HOPF: The two of you really had one of the greatest Hollywood love stories of all time.

ANN-MARGRET: 54 years. 

HOPF: You met Mike Nichols [who directed Carnal Knowledge] at one of Sue Mengers’ dinner parties. Did you attend a lot of those, because I’ve heard those were wild.

ANN-MARGRET: I only remember attending one. 

HOPF: You got your first Oscar nomination for that film. Was it at that point that you knew your career had switched over from “sex kitten” to dramatic actress? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yeah, it had changed. 

HOPF: Then right after you did Carnal Knowledge you did Dames at Sea. 

ANN-MARGRET: What were some songs from that? [Ann-Margret starts to softly sing the first verse of “Open a New Window.”] Is that from there? 

HOPF: You did “Star Tar”—

ANN-MARGRET: [starts to sing “Star Tar,” her big finale number.] “Navy! Blue a-a-and go-o-old!” Yeah, I remember, I love it. 

HOPF: And you still had time to go on the road. 

ANN-MARGRET: Lots of energy, lots of energy. I’ve always had it, that’s from my mother and father. 

HOPF: George Burns warned you about sticking to drama and told you to get back on the stage. 

ANN-MARGRET: He was right! He was right. I could do both, so I did. 

HOPF: A while ago I had a double feature for friends, Carnal Knowledge and Dames at Sea, and to see you go from one to the other… 

ANN-MARGRET: That’s quite a double feature. “Is that the same person?” Oh my gosh, what a delight you are. You really are a person of quality.

HOPF: You’re going to make me cry, Ann-Margret! You’ve described yourself as a recluse, is that a defense mechanism to stay sane in Hollywood? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yeah, Roger and I liked to stay home. We had the same friends for like, 50 years. 

HOPF: Many industry friends?

ANN-MARGRET: Yeah, a couple. 

HOPF: Do you think actors tend to make better directors? 

ANN-MARGRET: I don’t know if I can say that. I mean, there’s so many people that are not actors who are great directors. 

HOPF: It seems like the kids today aren’t as talented. If you asked someone big right this second to do a dramatic film then turn around and mount a huge Vegas production, I can’t imagine they could. 

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, I’m sure they could if they had the right people around them. 

HOPF: I saw you in Our Sons the other night and you were a tough cookie. 

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, I know, I know. That’s another side of me. We’re all different people, we’ve got a lot of different sides to us. 

HOPF: There’s a scene where Julie Andrews grabs you by the shoulders and calls you a “stupid bitch.” Did you have to fight a keep a straight face? 

ANN-MARGRET: No! I was really into the scene, too much into it. 

HOPF: Your biopic starring Lindsay Lohan, when can we expect that? 

ANN-MARGRET: I really don’t know! 

HOPF: Are there any points you really want them to include or omit? 

ANN-MARGRET: When we get into actually filming I will go in on certain things to make sure that it’ll be done the way I want it to be done. 

HOPF: Someone’s quoted as saying yours is the greatest untold story in Hollywood history.

ANN-MARGRET: Well, I don’t know what they mean, but I know what my story is. 

HOPF: Are there any onscreen kisses that stand out in your career?

ANN-MARGRET: Yes! But I’m not going to mention what they are. 

HOPF: Now, motorcycles.

ANN-MARGRET: Oh yes! 

HOPF: Do you still get around? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes. My father, before he met my mother and I came along, he had two big motorcycles. And also, my uncle had a big motorcycle so I guess it’s all in the family. 

HOPF: Yours is lavender with white daisies? 

ANN-MARGRET: Oh yes. White daisies all over the gas tank.

HOPF: Did the suits at the studio ever give you any flak for the motorcycles?

ANN-MARGRET: Well I know they were not thrilled, but they never said anything to me, never did. 

HOPF: They knew better? 

ANN-MARGRET: They knew better. Yeah, I love my motorcycles. I love the speed! 

HOPF: [Film critic] Pauline Kael wrote that “Ann-Margret comes through dirty no matter what she plays.” 

ANN-MARGRET: [Laughs] Well that’s the way she felt, obviously. She wrote it, she felt it. Each person has their own point of view, what can I say? 

HOPF: Well, you know what they say? “Nobody ever builds statues of critics.”

ANN-MARGRET: [Laughs] Is that what they say? That’s funny, I love it. I love listening to you, I just love laughing with you. It’s fun. 

HOPF: What are you doing for the holidays? 

ANN-MARGRET: I’ll be with my family on Christmas Eve and open presents and everything. And on Christmas Day I’ll fly and see my boyfriend.

HOPF: Your boyfriend? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes, I’ve got a boyfriend. I’ve been seeing him for a couple of years. 

HOPF: Do I hear wedding bells? 

ANN-MARGRET: No-o-o, you hear friends. 

HOPF: Are y’all gonna spend New Year’s together? 

ANN-MARGRET: I think so, yes. 

HOPF: So we know Ann-Margret’ll be getting kissed at the stroke of midnight.

ANN-MARGRET: Yes! 

HOPF: He’s not intimidated at all by the image of Ann-Margret? 

ANN-MARGRET: No, no. I’ve been seeing him for two years and he’s a very strong man. 

HOPF: You like that, a strong man? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yep! 

HOPF: Me too, sister. In your private life I imagine you to be a very centered, mellow, approachable woman. You seem to put people at ease. 

ANN-MARGRET: I hope so! I sure hope so. 

HOPF: In his book Bruce Dern writes that while filming a love scene in Middle Age Crazy you told him to “take off those goddamned underwear.” 

ANN-MARGRET: Well, that sounds like Bruce talking. 

HOPF: No truth to the rumor? 

ANN-MARGRET: No. I adore him. 

HOPF: When are we going to see Ann-Margret back on the screen? 

ANN-MARGRET: I don’t know, I’m having a good time relaxing, I’ll tell you that. 

HOPF: What do you do to relax?

ANN-MARGRET: I have a group of friends I’ve had for a long, long time. We’ll go out and have lunch, or we’ll go out shopping, or whatever. I have a great time. 

HOPF: Would you call yourself a shopaholic? 

ANN-MARGRET: No, that would get me very nervous, yeah. I’d be very nervous doing that. 

HOPF: You’re still dancing, right? 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes indeed-y! 

HOPF: Oh, thank god. 

ANN-MARGRET: [Laughs] I love music. I love to sing it, I love to dance to it. 

HOPF: Do you ever go to karaoke? 

ANN-MARGRET: No, I don’t have enough confidence to do that. 

HOPF: You’re Ann-Margret! 

ANN-MARGRET: But I love hearing other people perform. 

HOPF: Well, Ann-Margret, I’ve already taken up so much of your time, thank you so much for this.

ANN-MARGRET: Thank you so much for my laughter, I love it! 

HOPF: You are a class act. 

ANN-MARGRET: So are you! God bless you and have a great day, alright? 

HOPF: God bless you, Ann-Margret, and happy holidays! 

ANN-MARGRET: Yes, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and happy everything! Bye-bye.