The following interview of Warhol star Baby Jane Holzer (by Anita Pallenberg)
appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Cheapdate magazine (Issue No. 5):
|
| Jane: |
Anita, how do you stay so skinny?
I have such a problem with staying skinny. |
| Anita: |
I don't know. I think my mum
was very skinny. |
| Jane: |
So was mine! |
| Anita: |
It could be that I ride a bicycle
everywhere around London. Everyone is so |
|
polite here.
I would be terrified to do it in New York. How did you get the name |
|
Baby Jane? |
| Jane: |
There was this columnist called
Carol Bjorkman who wrote for Women's Wear |
|
Daily, and
she coined the phrase after the movie, which nobody had seen. When |
|
I saw the
movie I thought oh my God, what have they done to me? It was the |
|
most frightening
thing. The name stuck, which is a drag. |
| Anita: |
You've never liked it? |
| Jane: |
No, Jane is better. But what
are you gonna do? You can't change history. |
| Anita: |
Shall we talk a little bit
about those days? You must have been one of the |
|
first people
that I met in New York. |
| Jane: |
It was with Allan. Do you remember
when I asked you if you remembered him? |
|
And you said
'vaguely'. That is the funniest answer in the whole wide world. |
|
It's just
like the 60's: vagueness. |
| Anita: |
I saw you at Ondine's, in about
'65. It was a magic sort of place, on 59th Street, |
|
under the
bridge. You met Brian Jones as well. |
| Jane: |
Were you dating Brian? |
| Anita: |
Yeah, I was going out with
him. |
| Jane: |
And then you switched to Keith? |
| Anita: |
Yep. Horrible isn't it? We
had a tumultuous relationship, and then Brian actually |
|
got a bit
sick, taking acid and stuff. |
| Jane: |
How long were you together? |
| Anita: |
Until about 1967. Then he turned
into a kind of schizo. He got agressive and |
|
abusive. |
| Jane: |
When did he die? |
| Anita: |
1969. Would you call yourself
a survivor? |
| Jane: |
Definitely. We're both survivors. |
| Anita: |
But the word 'survivor' makes
us sound like we're been to boot camp, as if we |
|
were barely
getting by. Do you see it like that? |
| Jane: |
Yes and no. No and Yes. |
| Anita: |
I don't want
to be thought of as a survivor. I'm living a good life. I've heard that |
|
you have
a great art collection. What are your favorite pieces? |
| Jane: |
Warhol. I'm mad on Warhol.
Also Keith Haring, Jean Michele Basquiat, |
|
Nan Goldin. |
| Anita: |
What are your thoughts about
Warhol? |
| Jane: |
He was a
master. He was a religious person: very catholic, very spiritual, |
|
loving and
giving. He was afraid to give anyone money in case they would |
|
take drugs,
but he ran a tab at Max's Kansas City, so people could eat. |
| Anita: |
I spent more time upstairs
in the painted bathrooms! |
| Jane: |
Well, I was downstairs chomping
away on chickpeas. That's the difference, |
|
right? |
| Anita: |
Do you remember Edie Sedgwick?
I remember her being very sad. |
| Jane: |
She wasn't so sad. She was
just stoned all the time. |
| Anita: |
But never happy stoned. Maybe
it was her makeup that made her look sad. |
|
So what do
you remember about doing those films with Warhol? |
| Jane: |
We'd always be waiting for
Edie. We would all be straight and uptight by the |
|
time she
arrived, and she would be so loose, so beautiful, so perfect. Everything |
|
she did was
perfect. She was amazing. AMAZING! I wish she were still here. |
| Anita: |
I remember going to visit Andy
at the Factory, when I had just had Marlon, |
|
and he was
so sweet to him. He took him to this room packed with toys, and |
|
said he could
have any toy he wanted. Marlon was blown away. |
| Jane: |
Andy loved children. |
| Anita: |
It's great now. All the kids
are friends, and all the mothers and daughters |
|
hang out
together. It gives you a sense of continuity. I like feeling a part of |
|
it too, especially
with the grandchildren. That makes me feel almost immortal. |
|
Do you ever
feel like that? |
| Jane: |
Not really, dammit! |
| Anita: |
There was a moment where I
thought, this is it. I'm immortal. |
| Jane: |
The funniest thing is what
people say about Keith: 'Cheating death for, what is |
|
it, thirty
or forty years?' He's funny right? |
| Anita: |
He is funny, very sharp. Witty
by day, must say. Do you feel differently now? |
|
Compared
to the old days? |
| Jane: |
Yeah, I feel older dammit.
Well, I don't really feel older, but I know I am older. |
| Anita: |
Sometimes when I glance in
a mirror, I still see the same person I had inside |
|
me thirty
years ago. But when I go in to the bathroom and look at myself |
|
with all
the lights on, I think wow, what happened? |
| Jane: |
You look great. |
| Anita: |
As a whole, but if you look
closer you see the wear and tear. I heard that you |
|
keep sheep.
How many do you have? |
| Jane: |
I have one black one and one
white one. They are so cute. |
| Anita: |
What else are you up to? |
| Jane: |
Just working away, trying to
get my house in the country done. Same old, |
|
same old.
I feel lucky to be alive and healthy; doing a days work; feeling like |
|
I have accomplished
something. |
| Anita: |
Are you married now? |
| Jane: |
No, I work too hard. I don't
have the time. Men of our generation need a lot |
|
of attention,
unlike the younger ones. The younger ones are very good about |
|
giving. |
| Anita: |
Yeah, its true. I went to see
a psychic in London, who told me I should look |
|
for a Tibetan
or an Indian. |
| Jane: |
I don't think so. Darling,
you're rock n' roll aristocracy. |
