On her problems at Fox: "I was perfectly willing to renew my contract but I wanted a chance to do something worthwhile; and they wouldn't let me have it. I was willing to be a sweet young thing or a wicked vamp or even the 'clothes-horse' I had been in so many other pictures - but I put my foot down when it came to be all three of them at once, without rhyme or reason."
On fighting for better roles: "I whined and pleaded for better roles for so long that when finally my temper flared, they were shocked and called me temperamental. I was justified in kicking, but my manner was too subservient, then too demanding. Perhaps I wasn't tactful. When I saw the decrease in my popularity and read the criticisms, I begged them to feature me in good parts, instead of starring me as a dressed dummy. They claimed that I was becoming ungovernable. Well, it was my career that was tilting lopsided."
On her future: "My plans are not set yet. I think it would be wonderful to be with United Artists, but so far there is absolutely nothing to say. I need a rest, however, and mother and I may take a trip. Yes, Europe is a possibility, but we have had no time yet to really plan anything."
On talkies: "It is a case of survival of the fittest . I have to overcome my southern drawl, speak more slowly, and more quietly. But I like them."
On posing for sexy photos: "Ever since I have been in pictures producers have been exploiting my figure. Personally I don't care for such photos, but I have decided that as long as I am in this business I am going to do what I am told to do and not what I may happen to want to do."
On money: "I wanted money, a lot of it. Why? I don't know except that earning it pleases ego, spending it whets vanity. It adds to that absurd importance. With the inflated estimation of self, the more money you get, the more you want, to increase prestige. And it is handy to purchase places and such trinkets."
On selling her mansion: "It's much nicer being in a little house. Now I can sit in my bedroom and call to mother and she can hear me. It used to be that I had to write her a note. What's the use of a big house with only two people to live in it? What's the use of all the pomp and ceremony when you're not the type you're playing."
On wearing a gown: "Clothing makes all the difference in the world. Men say a girl looks charming in trousers, but I'm sure I felt far from that state. There is something about a gown that is immensely feminine and when you don masculine togs you have a funny sensation. At least, I do. I feel like
a rank impostor."
On her first husband Theodore Spector: "Ted wanted me to quit the stage, but I simply cannot do it. I have been in the profession quite a while and love it. We could not agree on the subject, so we decided the only thing to do was separate."
On making Chloe, Love Is Calling in Florida: "Well, I'm on location again. I'm ready to go to work as soon as Mickey gives the word. I just know I'm going to like it here."
On playing Anita in The Eternal Woman: "Playing this fiery girl of the Argentine is different from anything I have ever attempted. This Anita is intensely emotion, vivacious, and unrestrained, but with a capacity for a great love or a great hate. Impulsive, quick in her decisions, she is unwavering
in her loyalty."
On losing her fortune: "Not a penny in the bank. Oh, don't look worried. We eat. Maybe we go to the football game! But I'm square with creditors, the world and my own conscience. And what a highly satisfactory feeling it is too."
On choosing parts: "If I don't like a story or a part I just don't do it. But when I get something I like I work like the devil. Consequently I am accomplishing far more than I ever did before and I'm not working half as hard."
On her exotic image: "Look here, I was never a grand lady. I was always just a crazy kid. I couldn't be what they wanted me to be. And the more I tried the bigger fool I was. How could I have dared myself such grand airs when I was making such bad pictures? I'm not that exotic, vampish type. I don't want to be a great dramatic actress. I'm not sophisticated. Why should I play sophisticated roles?"
On her sudden fame: "Almost any girl taken from obscurity and spot-lighted, highly paid and catered to, would go haywire. Precious few have escaped the stage of distorted viewpoint, unless they had very wise management."
On being labeled "temperamental": "When I left the Fox lot about a year ago I was so nervous I didn't know if I was temperamental or not. So I moved to the beach for three months and became just a kid again, doing the things kids like to do and enjoying myself generally. Then I came back and want to work because I wanted to prove to myself that I am not temperamental."
On rumors she would marry George O'Brien: "We are looking for a house suitable for two."
On her ideal man: "At boarding school back in Baltimore, when we used to gather in somebody's room and talk about our ideal man, some of the girls used to say things like "he must be very tall" or "he must have blue eyes". I always just said "he must be the sort who understands moods, and is kind, and he must have a sense of humor about himself and other people."
On love: "I never thought much about the men folks. It would be mighty nice to have money. But the man would blot out the dollar if all I hear about
love is true."
On playing Saina in Yellow Fingers: "Little Saina has been reared by an indulgent foster-father who had pledged his word to his own father, his best friend, that the little girl would grow up to believe she was all white. I put myself in Saina's place, mentally, before going into the scene, in fact since the picture started I've lived the character of Saina."
On getting into character: "To me the girls in the pictures are real live people. I always try to put myself in their position and imagine how they would feel under the same circumstances. Then I act accordingly."
On making dramatic movies: "I feel a thousand times better equipped to handle really dramatic work now that I have had the benefit of this comedy experience. When I was getting my start, I thought it quite ridiculous when an extra would spoil her own chances by either declaring or thinking she wasn't the type for a certain part, so, when the chance to play comedy vamps came to me, I took it gladly, trusting that clothes and cosmetics would make the woman."
On success: "The acclaim of the theatergoers, no matter how enthusiastic they have been, does not put an actress in the front ranks of success. Success to be real and positive must be won. It has to endure the test of varying viewpoints the world over of incessant criticism. It is a logical thing - success - the logical outcome of underlying conditions."
On her goals: "I've two ambitions. On the screen I want to be a good comedienne. And off the screen I want to be a real, honest-to-God woman!"
On acting: "It is highly enjoyable, I'll admit it. We love acting too much to stop it when we leave the studio; besides everything fosters stellar vanity, urges the continuance of the 'act'. We pretend until it becomes problematical which is real and which sham."
On being a WAAC (Women's Auxiliary Army Corps): "I didn't have any children dependent on me. I wanted to help where I could do the most good. I figured the WAAC's would know where that was. Being a WAAC is harder work than being an actress. Drilling on ice is hazardous but an actress has to get up as early as a WAAC when on location."
On life after World War 2: "Since I got out of the Army I've gone from job to job. Something always goes wrong."
On her health problems: "The whole world has fallen in on me. But the doctor's will make me well. What will I do then? Perhaps I can help my mother here where she's found her happiness."
On her regrets: "I am sorry for having fought over salary. That was unwise. It stamps you as a troublemaker. And none of us is worth, in comparison with other vocations we might follow, half of what we get. I regret going grandiloquent, and being sassy. And I am glad that it is all over."
On trying to make a comeback: "Not sitting on top of the world exactly but climbing up again. I'll hook onto each rung more carefully this time."
On living at the Sunshine Mission: "I have found the one thing Hollywood couldn't give me - happiness."
Quotes About Olive -
From Motion Picture Magazine - "Having the longest and blackest locks in Hollywood, it's only natural that Olive Borden should go violently gypsy ever so often. She could play Lady Godiva and still look respectable. She divides herself impartially between Boudoir and Wilderness roles, both of which call for a slight disorder in the dress. If you've seen the delectable Olive, you know why."
From Sister Essie West at the Sunshine Mission - "Everybody loved her. She was still a beautiful girl, with soft hands never made for the kind of work she insisted on doing. She'd do washings, change diapers for infants of all races - driving herself always to try and overcome what I know was
only a sickness."
From writer Dan Thomas - "The young actress is not beautiful as the word is generally used - neither is she difficult to gaze upon. But she has a sparking charm and appeal. And those big brown eyes - I'm afraid my typewriter couldn't stand the strain of suitably describing them."
From actress Priscilla Bonner - "I had a lot of bad luck on Three Bad Men. Olive Borden played the lead, and Olive was just beautiful, and I played the character ingenue, a very dramatic part. But I was all cut out. Olive Borden was so adorable, they used three reels of her and cut out everything that was dramatic in the picture."
From director John Ford - "Watch that little girl. She has ability and pluck. Some day she will do big things - or I'm not a prophet."
