So I went home and I told my mom that I wanted to quit and be an actress and she said, “Huh, that sounds fascinating. It’s wonderful!” And I told my father and he literally said, “I don’t care if you want to be an elephant trainer if it makes you happy.”

A Woman Under the Influence was my favorite. I loved doing that. And it was challenging.

So after the Shadows he acted and directed. And it worked out very nicely. And he wrote, obviously.

I just loved Bette Davis and the fact that I had a chance to work with her [on the 1979 TV movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter] was momentous.

John Cassavetes wrote A Woman Under the Influence as a play. He said, "Hey, I wrote you a play." And I said, "Great, let's read it." I read it and I said, "John, I couldn't do this every night and twice on Wednesday and Saturday".

He[John Cassavetes] was just being an actor. A very successful actor, especially in live TV. He did many wonderful performances.

I think that I was lucky to have that period of time [ like coming to New York] because everything was so exciting and new.