Claire Bloom: From Stratford Rejection to Limelight

After Broadway audiences rejected Harold Pinter’s The Innocence and it closed in just ten days, Claire Bloom still remembers it as a wonderful production. In this candid conversation with Julian Schlossberg, Bloom also recalls the demanding exposure of playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, working with Anthony Hopkins on A Doll’s Life, and the unusual distance Julie Harris kept from her fellow actors while filming The Haunting. She reflects on missed opportunities with Laurence Olivier, the directors who gave her freedom—and the strong criticism she wanted—and why she never thought of herself as a movie star.