Raquel Welch Falls Madly in Love with New York City
Manhattan West, April 1980
Raquel Welch was in New York recently to complete shooting “From Raquel With Love” her upcoming TV special that she wrote in collaboration with André Weinfeld, the French writer-producer whom she married last July. The program is about a glamorous Hollywood celebrity who moves to New York City, and it has some obvious autobiographical components.
“I’ve always been infatuated with this city,” Miss Welch told me on her final day in the Big Apple. “New York is full of good energy, lots of ideas, and it’s stimulating, so we chose it for our special.”
She didn’t particularly enjoy the sirens that awakened her virtually every night, a nuisance made all the more unbearable by a schedule that had her working on a daily basis from very early in the morning to early evening. Nevertheless, she likes “all the things that go on here that don’t occur in Los Angeles. Back home, you don’t see people on the street. Here, you see them in all sizes, shapes and colors, and there are many different styles of people.”
One obstacle to her enjoyment of New York is a schedule so crammed with television appearances and public relations efforts that “on every trip to New York I feel as if I get only a taste of the city, never a full meal.” She is not exaggerating; she ate a simple lunch during our conversation in her hotel suite (she had just come from a taping of the Dick Cavett show), and when the interview was over, she barely had enough time to get to the airport to catch her return flight home.
She does, however, manage to enjoy some of what the city has to offer. “I see a certain part of the city. I must say that I like the part that I’m privileged to see because of who I am and how much money I make and so forth. It’s nice to go to good restaurants—I love to eat good food—and to bump into people like Diana Vreeland and Paloma Picasso. It’s fun.”
Instant recognition
Do many New Yorkers recognize her? “Oh yes. And everybody seems pleased to see me. They tell me they’ve enjoyed this or that film I’ve been in, and it’s very nice.” She explains further that this kind of recognition is “very flattering because it’s spontaneous. It’s not as if they sought you out at a place where they know you’ll be, like a premiere or the Academy Awards. These are not just fans of mine. They are the public in general, and it’s very nice to be recognized by them in this positive way. In restaurants, for example, waiters and chefs come out and ask for my autograph. I’m very pleased.”
Miss Welch’s career began in 1965 with “Fantastic Voyage,” but it wasn’t until the next year, when she appeared clad only in a bikini, in “One Million B.C.,” that she received any appreciable notice or attention.
Since then, the stunning actress has appeared in almost 30 additional films. including “Myra Breckenridge,” “Kansas City Bomber,” “The Last of Sheila,” and “The Three Musketeers,” revealing in the latter a flair for comedy sufficient to earn her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.
She now owns her own production company and writes (or at least originates) much of the material in which she is to appear. She and André are currently working on a project for United Artists, and they have several others that they intend to get to in the near future.
Gaining control
In short, at the age of 40 she is beginning to exert considerable control over every aspect of her career. In this regard. does she see parallels between herself and, say, Barbra Streisand or Jane Fonda?
“I don’t compare myself to Barbra, but I’ve always admired her. She’s really one of the first women who had power to really influence all the departments she’s been involved in. I remember all the terrible stories when she first arrived in Hollywood—that she was impossible, that no one could take her. Then “Funny Girl” came out and everyone had to shut up, to concede that she was immensely talented. She proved that her instincts were very good. She’s a fine actress, and many times she’s gorgeous to look at, very beautiful. She is strong-minded and has a great sense of style.’
“In recent years Jane Fonda has had an awful lot to say about what she gets to do, because she has the legitimacy of some kind of political image, whatever that means. People are intimidated by that, although I don’t know why. She is talented, but I think it has to do with her being perceived as an intellectual.”
In Miss Welch’s opinion, actresses are now beginning to take the kind of control over their work that actors have had for some time. But it seems that to her, differences in gender are less important than ambition and energy: People talk about film stars in such lofty terms as ‘career moves.’ What it really boils down to is getting up very early every morning, preparing yourself physically and mentally, and extending yourself— overextending yourself—on a regular basis.”
In person, Miss Welch is gracious, generous, articulate, and far more open and intelligent than one had been led to expect based on many previous journalistic reports. Now that the actors’ strike is over, she begins work on an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s ‘Cannery Row,” and she believes that the public will want to see her and co-star Nick Nolte in a love story. I hope she’s right.
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