In a new cover story for VARIETY’s Power of Women issue, Carol Burnett speaks with Senior TV Features Editor Emily Longeretta about whether “Palm Royale” will be her last on-camera job, why she ended “The Carol Burnett Show” on her own terms, staying out of politics, equal pay, and more.
On whether “Palm Royale” will be her last on-camera job: “Probably. Unless there’s a cameo or something fun!”
On ending “The Carol Burnett Show” on her own terms: “I called it quits because I thought we had done just about everything we could do, and we had started to repeat ourselves in sketches. I said, ‘I want to leave before the network starts flicking the lights on and off and saying, ‘Goodbye. Don’t do this anymore.’ I wanted to say goodbye.”
On staying out of politics: “I stay out of it.” Burnett has never publicly endorsed a candidate. “It sounds corny, but I want people to be happy again, to love and be joyful, and that’s what I’m seeing as a possibility.”
On equal pay: “I went to a lot of meetings [about equal pay], and at one point, I was calling fellow celebrities. I won’t say who, but I got this one man, a very big star, rattling on about it. He said, ‘I don’t want to do that, because that means all the women are going to be smoking cigars.’ ‘OK? They could smoke cigars now! We’re not stopping them, if they want to light up.’ Is that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard? What about equal pay for equal work?”
On living in New York before her career took off: In the early 1950s, Burnett was paying $18 a week to live at the Rehearsal Club in New York, which housed women pursuing a career in show business. Every casting meeting the young women went to, an agent would say, “Let me know when you’re in something.” But they couldn’t land a role without an agent.
“So I called a meeting. There were 25 girls, and I said, ‘Let’s put on a show.’ We wrote it, and everybody wanted to do their own thing…We sent penny postcards to every agent, director and writer in town saying, ‘You’re always saying, “Let us know when you’re in something.” We’re in something. This postcard is your ticket. Please come.’ And we put on a show.”
On losing a role to a younger woman earlier in her career: “What kept me from being disappointed or dejected was a wonderful thought: It wasn’t my turn; it was her turn. That saved me from being sad.”
[Photo Credit: Victoria Stevens for Variety Magazine]
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