I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews (28 page)

O’BRIEN: Have you taped every day since you got your tape recorder?

WARHOL: Yeah, I try to. It gets so boring now. The only person I really tape is Brigid Berlin.

HIGH TIMES: Do you keep all of your tapes?

WARHOL: Yeah, I throw ‘em in a box.

HIGH TIMES: Brigid is one of the B’s in your book: how many B’s are there?

WARHOL: Brigid is the only
B
I know.

O’BRIEN: There are other B’s in the book.

WARHOL: Yeah, but Brigid is the queen.

O’BRIEN: You made your dramatic film debut in
The Driver’s Seat
with Elizabeth Taylor. What’s Elizabeth Taylor really like?

WARHOL: WeVe seen a lot of her recently, and she’s just so terrific. I like her mother. Her mother’s really cute. I just got another movie role. I play an art teacher in
Grease
. Eve Arden is the principal, and John Lindsay is somebody, and John Travolta, the star of
Grease
, is in it.

O’BRIEN: How was it acting in a movie?

WARHOL: Oh, I was just really rotten. I couldn’t remember anything. I got too nervous. I shouldn’t be nervous, and I can’t think of why I get so nervous. It’s just stupid. I can’t remember anything. I was on Merv Griffin a couple of times, and I was so nervous I couldn’t even get a word in.

O’BRIEN: Since you’ve been making bigger movies, you haven’t made as many. Do you miss doing it?

WARHOL: Yeah, we used to shoot a scene every night. They were so much fun. But the hardest thing is putting away and packing up. The movie we just made,
Bad
, was a union movie, and it cost so much to do, we’re just hoping we get back enough money to do the real cheap movies again.

O’BRIEN: Who do you think are the best actors you’ve discovered?

WARHOL: Well, my favorite person is Viva, I guess–Susan Hoffman.

O’BRIEN: Why do you think Viva hasn’t made it as a star?

WARHOL: Well, she still might. I think she’s out in Hollywood. We might use her on a TV thing. Sylvia Miles just worked with us, and she’s great. And Joe Dallesandro is making a lot of movies now.

O’BRIEN: What was your favorite publicity stunt?

WARHOL: This? I didn’t do any publicity stunts.

O’BRIEN: What about your Rent-A-Superstar service for parties?

WARHOL: Yeah, I guess that was the best one, but nobody ever rented us. Wait a minute . . . maybe someone did rent somebody. I think someone rented Eric Emerson once.

O’BRIEN: What kind of toys do you have?

WARHOL: I sort of just started getting these toys–what were they called before they were plastic?–Oh . . . celluloid. I just started getting a couple of those.

O’BRIEN: You collect a lot of things that weren’t too valuable when they were new. Do you think there’s a lot of junk being made today that will be valuable some day?

WARHOL: Yeah. I think you should go to F.A.O. Schwarz and buy a new toy every day and just put it away.

O’BRIEN: Do you paint every day?

WARHOL: Yeah, I paint every day. Now I’m painting with a mop.

O’BRIEN: Do you change your clothes?

WARHOL: I have paint clothes. They’re the same kind of clothes I wear every day with paint on them. I have paint shoes and paint shirts and paint jackets and paint ties and paint smocks and, Ronnie gave me a great smock from Bendel’s. And carpenter aprons. And paint hankies.

O’BRIEN: Do you think the underground will ever come back?

WARHOL: No. I don’t think there was an underground before. It’s a silly word.

O’BRIEN: What about
psychedelic?
Do you think that will ever come back?

WARHOL: I think so, yeah. Really soon. I’ll bet it really does come back.

O’BRIEN: Did you ever take acid?

WARHOL: No. Someone thought they slipped it to me once, but I wasn’t eating.

O’BRIEN: Did you ever smoke pot?

WARHOL: No, but I like the smell of it.

O’BRIEN: Did you ever take any drugs?

WARHOL: No, nothing that ever made me funny or anything. When I was in the hospital after I was shot they gave me drugs, but it was so great to get off those.

O’BRIEN: Did you ever get drunk?

WARHOL: Yeah.

O’BRIEN: What happens when you get drunk?

WARHOL: Nothing. I tell everyone they can be on the cover of
Interview
. It’s fun getting there, but when you get there, it’s such an awful feeling. It’s not worth it.

O’BRIEN: Do you think drugs make people more or less creative?

WARHOL: I don’t think they do anything.

O’BRIEN: Do you think pot should be legal?

WARHOL: Yeah, I do.

O’BRIEN: Do you have any habits that you’d like to kick?

WARHOL: Constipation? No. Waking up people? Gossiping? Refusing to buy luggage.

O’BRIEN: Do you like traveling?

WARHOL: When I get there I really like it. Flying is really great too. People care for you on a plane. They never care for you like that on the subway. You can get a drink whenever you want. They haven’t gotten to the point where planes are really rotten yet.

O’BRIEN: What’s your favorite airline?

WARHOL: Iran Air? No. Pan Am? Pan Am was our favorite, but it’s not around any more.

O’BRIEN: It’s not around?

WARHOL: You can’t take it to Paris any more.

O’BRIEN: What’s your favorite place to travel?

WARHOL: New York City.

O’BRIEN: What do you think things will be like in the year 2000?

WARHOL: I think it’s just going to be the same. Just like it is now.

O’BRIEN: Have you been to Russia?

WARHOL: No.

O’BRIEN: Would you like to go there?

WARHOL: No.

O’BRIEN: Have you ever been to Czechoslovakia?

WARHOL: No.

O’BRIEN: Would you like to go to Czechoslovakia?

WARHOL: No. I don’t like to travel.

O’BRIEN: Do you think people will still be buying art in 2000?

WARHOL: Oh, I don’t know. Everybody keeps saying nobody will be buying anything, but they keep buying, so I don’t know about that.

O’BRIEN: Do you think your work will go up in value when you’re gone?

WARHOL: No. It’ll just stay at the same level.

O’BRIEN: Do you believe in life after death?

WARHOL: I believe in death after death.

O’BRIEN: Now that you’ve made films with Hollywood stars like Carroll Baker, Sylvia Miles, and Perry King, would you like to use big stars instead of superstars?

WARHOL: I don’t think a big star makes a movie. I think interesting people make movies. Anybody could be a big movie star if they’re interesting. A big star won’t even make anybody go to a movie now.

HIGH TIMES: Who are your favorite movie stars now?

WARHOL: I like them all–I mean anybody who’s in a movie.

HIGH TIMES: Will you do anybody’s portrait who has the money?

WARHOL: Yeah, and I’ll do anybody’s portrait who doesn’t have the money.

HIGH TIMES: Do you think that because of women’s liberation there will be more women artists?

WARHOL: I always thought that most artists were women–you know, the ones that did the Navajo Indian rugs, American quilts, all that great hand-painting on Forties clothes.

HIGH TIMES: Who are your favorite women artists?

WARHOL: Lynda Benglis, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson.

HIGH TIMES: Who has the best gossip?

WARHOL: Actually, I think the newspapers have the best gossip.

HIGH TIMES: What’s your favorite newspaper?

WARHOL:
The Daily News
.

HIGH TIMES: Do you think that people should live in outer space?

WARHOL: Oh yeah, I think that would be really great.

HIGH TIMES: Would you like to take a trip to outer space?

WARHOL: No, I really hate heights. I always like to live on the first floor.

HIGH TIMES: Do you think the future will be futuristic?

WARHOL: No. I always wished it would be but I don’t think so. I guess it could–if people didn’t have to do anything they could just sit around. I don’t understand it. Maybe people will just think that they’re alive or something and therefore they might not be alive and just think they are, so they won’t have to do anything.

HIGH TIMES: Do you like to work?

WARHOL: Nowadays I really like to work a lot. It makes time go by fast. Traveling makes time go by fast too. So maybe traveling in space will give people time. You know if you’re traveling for five years or something like that, you’re going somewhere. But five years are being used up, and you don’t have to do anything. You just sit on the plane. That might make time go really fast.

HIGH TIMES: What do you like to do when you’re not working?

WARHOL: I like to work when I’m not working–do something that may not be considered work, but to me it’s work. Getting my exercise by going to the grocery store.

HIGH TIMES: Do you play any games?

WARHOL: I’m learning how to play bridge. It’s nice. You can play with four people instead of two.

HIGH TIMES: Did you ever play any sports?

WARHOL: No. I was never any good in any of them.

HIGH TIMES: Do you know how to swim?

WARHOL: Well, I think I could swim.

HIGH TIMES: Do you know how to drive?

WARHOL: I ran into a cab, so I stopped. On Park Avenue and Forty-seventh Street.

HIGH TIMES: Do you have a license?

WARHOL: I had a learner’s permit.

O’BRIEN: Was anybody hurt?

WARHOL: The cab had a big dent in it.

O’BRIEN: What time do you get up in the morning?

WARHOL: I get up early-7:30.

O’BRIEN: Do you have an alarm clock?

WARHOL: No, I wake up naturally.

O’BRIEN: What do you do in the morning?

WARHOL: Now Brigid Berlin calls me every morning because she’s on a diet. I’ve taped her for ten years, and she always told me what she ate. She used to lie. Now she tells me what she ate and what she lost. Today she did the best story. She called me up to tell me she was being bad and went off her diet, and she felt so bad she took a dehydration pill and within an hour she lost 10 pounds. She’d lost 50 pounds, so this made it 60. Then she took her laundry out, and she fainted in the laundromat. She got so scared. While she was on the floor she asked the laundromat lady to give her some water; she drank two glasses of water, was able to get up again, crawl out and go to a cafeteria and drink eight more glasses of water. Then she called back the laundromat and asked the laundromat lady to do her laundry. Then she took a lot of salt, and she was back up to where she was before she took the dehydration pill. She’s making a whole career out of losing weight. She’s been dieting for two months. She decided to get down to 149 from 275.

O’BRIEN: Do you eat breakfast in the morning?

WARHOL: Just a cup of tea.

O’BRIEN: What time do you go to bed?

WARHOL: I go to bed early now, around 12:00.

O’BRIEN: Do you sleep alone?

WARHOL: No, I sleep with my two dogs, Archie and Amos.

O’BRIEN: Do they behave in bed?

WARHOL: No, they fool around.

O’BRIEN: Do you sleep in the nude?

WARHOL: I sleep with my underwear. And my corset.

O’BRIEN: Do you wear boxer shorts or jockey shorts?

WARHOL: Jockey shorts. Small. 30.

O’BRIEN: How much time do you spend on the phone every day?

WARHOL: Not as much as I used to. I like to tape on the phone. I like to tape Brigid. But I go to work earlier now, so I only tape her in the morning and at night.

O’BRIEN: Does she tape you?

WARHOL: No, I think she stopped. Ever since she’s been on her diet, she has no ambition. Her only ambition is to lose weight, so she doesn’t do anything.

O’BRIEN: Do you still watch TV?

WARHOL: Oh, yeah. Now my favorite show is the “Gong Show.” And they asked me to be on it. I really should go.

O’BRIEN: As a performer?

WARHOL: No, as a judge. Performing on it would be funny too. But I decided that the performers are all professional people. They just dress up as an act, because they always know when they’re going to get the gong. And “Hollywood Squares” with Peter Marshall is one of my favorites too.

O’BRIEN: Have you ever been asked to go on “Hollywood Squares” or any of those celebrity guest shows?

WARHOL: No, but I would really like to do them.

O’BRIEN: Do you still go to church?

WARHOL: Yeah. I just sneak in at funny hours.

O’BRIEN: Do you go to Catholic church?