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nominated director] Sidney Lumet [
That Kind Of Woman
, with Sophia
Loren] – I had worked with him a few times before – and we were
doing what was supposed to be a very emotional scene in Pennsylvania
Station in New York, and he said, “Tab, you’re playing it safe. If you’re
going to play it safe, just stay in bed; it’s the safest place but also the
most boring.” I said, “Sidney, I’m never going to forget that.” And, I
haven’t.
Do you remember the scene and what you did to make it less “safe?”
Well, Sophia was leaving after I had an affair with her, and
she just considered it more of a fling whereas I had taken it much
more seriously. And my choice [in reacting to the situation] as an
actor wasn’t as rich as Sidney thought it should have been. He was
absolutely right.
A couple of years before
That Kind Of Woman
, as I understand it, you
were working at a stable near the Warner Brothers studios and part-time at
a soda counter. So, I need to get this straight. Three or four years later – after
being “discovered” – you have become a movie star, a top movie star, the
studio’s biggest box-office draw. You are a recording star. Your song is Number
One on all the charts. How did all that happen in such a short period of time?
[Because] I was under contract to a studio. The studio days are long
gone and they’ll never be again, but they were magnificent for starting
young people [into the business]. You just do your job.
Yes, but you rocketed to stardom. You weren’t just doing “your job”; you
were an actor, so you obviously cared about being an actor.
I wanted to be an actor but I couldn’t read this new name [Tab Hunter]
on a piece of paper. It was really difficult. I was really uncomfortable.
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Tab Hunter in 1959, with
director Sidney Lumet on the
set of Paramount Pictures’
That Kind Of Woman