Maureen Stapleton: Light Up A Room

Marlon Brando and Maureen Stapleton in The Fugitive Kind (1959)

Interview with Maureen Stapleton

Conducted by James Grissom

Lenox, Massachusetts

1991

Never forget a kindness. I don't; I didn't. I remember every kind word said to me: I remember every slight as well, but we're not going to go there right now. Marlon [Brando] always said we should hang with writers and musicians, because they filled the air with magic and the perfume of creativity. You know, he said things like that. So we hung with writers and musicians, and Marlon fed them and gave them money, and he says they always paid him back by creating their work--often for him. I can't discriminate. I'm just nice to everybody because it makes the world a better place, and because, as a Catholic, I think it's going to matter at some point down the road. Never forget a kindness, and always let kindness be what others remember about you. The plays and other shit are secondary. Light up a room.