Interview with Anne Francis
What’s your fondest memory of Forbidden Planet?
(Laughing) “Uh, lunch? I don't know. I was working with a bunch of great guys. It was really terrific and I enjoyed almost every moment of it.”
How did you feel about the costumes?
“It was funny, the one costume that they would not allow in the picture was one that was extremely modest. It was silver lamee up to here, long sleeves, coat/tunic and clinging - I guess you’d call them leggings - and then boots. All in silver lamee. I think it even covered my hips. (Someone) saw the wardrobe tests and said, ‘We can’t do that. It’s just too vulgar. It’s too sexy.’”
What’s the story of the three martini lunch?
“There were two young gentlemen who each took a turn wearing Robbie. Anyway, both very nice young men, they were able to fit into this very uncomfortable suit. One day at lunch, this one young man who was working in the suit went to lunch and it turned out to be, I guess, close to a three martini lunch. Came back and in the first scene where Robbie comes out of the vehicle, when you first see him, we were shooting it that day after lunch. When I was a little girl, they used to have a toy that was a little wooden character with huge feet and if you put it on an incline, it would just walk down the incline. It was kind of like a clothespin kind of looking toy. But this is exactly what happened with Robbie the Robot. He started to step off and it was like his feet took him this way and the top of him started to go that way. You have to remember that this film, I think, was $2 million. Robbie cost a million. We were just along for the ride. You never saw 20 grips run so fast.”
What was it like to work with Walter Pidgeon?
“Oh, Walter was adorable and he was always doing limericks, remember? He was a limerick collector, dirty limericks. Jack [Kelly] would come in each day trying to bring him one that he hadn’t heard before. He was a sweet man, very sweet, very funny. Quite a gentleman, really a gentleman.”
How do you feel about the idea of a Forbidden Planet remake?
“You can’t remake different people’s energy. You can take plays that have been done often with different casts, but it’s always, even though it’s the same script, it’s different because the people were different and the energies are different. It’s not going to be the same.”
What did you think of the metaphysical concepts of the film?
“When I was 16, I became fascinated by metaphysics and the mind, subconscious and all that sort of thing. So when I read the script, I thought, ‘Wow, this is really terrific. This is showing that the subconscious masks the conscious, the fear that is put into it by thought and how it comes up.’ It’s still doing that today all over the planet. So anyway, I thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’”
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