European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 11, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Do Iii Magazine Mcgraw Story the possibility til be atrocious9 new York times i know i can t just dazzle them anymore Mcgraw at 37 making her fourth film Convoy. T by Aljean Harmetz new York times Here is a considerable risk in what i m doing says Ali Macgraw. There s every thing to be lost by this the possibility that my children will think i m deserting them and the possibility that i la be atrocious in this movie. But if i m atrocious i think i can handle that better than i did five years five years ago film critic Pauline Kael saw the Geta Way and wrote i used to think Candice Bergen was the worst actress in America until i saw Ali leaning against one of the enormous Silver trucks that Star with her and Kris Kristofferson in Sam Peckinpah s Convoy Ali Macgraw quotes that line and laughs it is not that she does t feel terror with a capital to fear with a capital fat making her first movie in five years. She became a movie Star in her first movie As the spoiled Rich jewish Princess in goodbye Columbus she became a National event in her second As the dying girl in love Story. Now she is 37 years old and Convoy is Only her fourth movie. And i know i can t just dazzle them any much time has gone by and there s my Lack of she is coming out of a self imposed retirement be cause i needed a reminder of my own in the Wake of the getaway she divorced producer Robert Evans and married her co Star Steve Mcqueen taking her 2-year-old son and disappearing into the isolation Mcqueen imposes on his own life. It is a tranquil marriage. It s been a Good four years and i feel in control of my life and infinitely less afraid of what people think of the Tranquility and the control Are partially based on three intensive years of psychoanalysis. I wish i had done it 15 years ago. I would have saved myself a lot of bad for the last three months she has been living in a Motel in Albuquerque. The bedspreads Are overripe Avo Cado Green and the window has a Bird s Eye View of the eight freeway Cloverleaf. Ali Macgraw has always had an extraordinary ability to make any space she occupies her own and the room is a Kaleidoscope of Paisley scar ves draped Over ugly lampshades of $2 Mobile butterflies hanging from the ceiling of beads and tahitian fabrics and chinese Kimonos disguising the lifeless Motel still lifes. She revels in the fact of the room. It is incredible to have a room of my own. It s the first time in my whole life that i be Ever been alone. I be always had overlapping relationships. I come Back to the room every evening take a Sauna eat a cheese Sandwich talk to my family for two hours on the phone read for two hours and go to sleep. It s an Independence i be never had she would like to Transfer this Independent woman tothe screen in Convoy. I Hope to god i can pull it off can present an Independent intelligent woman who is a survivor. Someone who does t fall apart when her car Breaks Down. She s got Money and credit cards and she can always Call a the exigencies of the script require that the taxi never arrive and that Ali Macgraw find herself in the front seat of Kristofferson s truck an observer participant of his Battles with local sheriffs and grander government units. But i refuse to be simply the girl with the Short brow hair sitting in the front if she does t succeed it will not she says be the fault of Sam Peckinpah who also directed her in the Geta Way. They can t Lay this on Sam. If i Don t perform it s not because he s not taking a lot of time with me. Those myths about the Way Sam treats actresses and women characters Are no longer True. He did a really seedy love scene Between a waitress and a truck Driver in a very sensitive she still wonders How her decision to go Back to work will affect the children 6-year-old Joshua Evans and 16-year-old Chad Mcqueen her husband s son by his pre Vious marriage who has lived with her Ever since she and Mcqueen were married four years ago. You can t just phone in and say i love you a lot and i m off to make a movie i m not a selfish hedonist. I m a decent human being. I spent four years driving them to school every Day and making hamburgers at night. But right now i need something for something for herself does not exclude either Chad or Steve Mcqueen who have spent two weeks in Albuquerque or Joshua who has come to the location three times. He is there now leaving a Trail that extends from the wet bathing suit on the floor to the drawings of Captain Amer Ica spider Man and the Hulk that Ali has pasted on her bathroom Mirror. If All goes Well the four of them will be together next summer in some wonderful place while Steve Mcqueen and Ali Macgraw make a movie to Gether. My husband is a Brilliant movie actor she says and it would be stupid not to work together. But not in a movie like the getaway. I can t conceive of myself stick ing it out with a gangster even if the gangster was Steve Mcqueen. I want to do something with Steve that involves the kind of woman i want to be an intelligent contemporary woman dealing intelligently with any Situ Paramount with Ryan o Neal in Lov Story in 1970 a National event. National general picture actress Mcgraw with Steve Mcqueen in the be Rowoy before they were married. Sunday september 11, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 9
