Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 20 February 1963, page 1


THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY Presents

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WEEK LY

?ATLEY IS ABOUT TO GROW UP

Supplement to The Australian Women's Weekly

Not to be sold separately

February 20, 1963

. Hayley Mills, the 16-yearold English pixie, was the most popular film actress in Britain last year, according to box-office returns from

2500 theatres.

HER appeal was greater than such in-

ternationally established stars as Doris Day and Sophia Loren.

Now, having reached the very top as a child star in pig-tail^ and jeans, Hayley is about to blossom as a teenager in a role in which she

finds rcmance for the first time.

This will be in her next Walt Disney film, "Cassandra Captures The Castle," which will be made at Britain's Pinewood Studios about the middle of this year.

In the meantime, Hayley is having a wellearned rest at her family's farm at Cowden, in tile heart of Sussex, indulging in her favorite sport - horse-tiding - and playing with her pet dogs, pictured with her at right.

Success cat:, fast for Hayley after "Tiger Bay." In 1961 she was named "Star of the Year" in America, and two of her Disney films, "Polly-anna" and The Parent Trap," are estimated to have taken nearly £4,000,000 in the box-office.

Last year she made "In Search of the Cast-aways'with Maurice Chevalier, and immediately ¡t was completed she flew to Hollywood to make "Summer Magic" with Burl Ives.

Away from the film set Hayley has been con-ducting her own campaign to leave behind the httle-girl intake which has made her a star.

Her bid to become more sophisticated began «on after she had completed "Summer Magic" and was about to set forth with her mother »n their recent Far East tour.

Looking extremely chic, she began to be Photographed at famous nightspots - but with "other not far out of reach - and she has «en buying more grown-up clothes.

1 lue to wear clothes that are comfortable,"

»»j says. "If I don't look right or fee] comfortth'' \* *asnion I never wear it. I like casual I m® best; sports clothes, bermudas, and things

°r ,fenagers which are available in America."

"She's nicer since

w «ucees*" - page 3

^

I BA YLEY MILLS-fram page 1

Sh *§ even nicer Lin e her success

By LYN TORNABENE

f The legree of success achieved by Hayley Mills in the four shi rt years since her first film, "Tiger Bay," is heady

stuff, especially for someone so young.

IHE person who would

know be- whether ,ccess has spoiled Hayley

her 21-year-old sister,

(diet, now married and an

jess on the British stage. When I wrote to her about ivley, she sent me this touch

! rep'y:

fm not in the least con-fined about Hayley and star

k If she was going to be [ected by it, sh« would have

so by now.

("Hayley is a very strong

jaracter in her own right -ld always has been. She is

impressed b\ superficial »pie or things.

"If anything, sh« s nicer since ? success. Shehumble and

jateful for her opportunities. J"She is my best friend and |love her very mut h. I admire

as a person and as an Jtress."

j Juliet pointed out the key

understanding he kind of ild star Hayley . "You must ^member," she wrote, "that

has been beautifully proÍedby my parents, who know

the tricks of : ie trade." In1 they do.

tier father, of < i .urse, is Eng' actor John Mills, and her other, a former actress

ted playwright, Mary Hay

Bell.

Pother pre td

When many views of 'ger Bay" said that Hayley, 'naged 12, out. formed her her, she was tit ; first in the

''ly to see them, and »mptly hid them.

' had to explain to her," P"i Mills said, that I was

hurt, but oniy extremely Dud °' her. I Iud taken the " m the picture for the ex

. purpose of helping Hay? she needed me."

The Mills famJv always had

?wfortable hon.p where their

'"fen could enjoy a family

fi» there were cottages, m kncy London flats, then manor house, finally a 450P¡ working dairy farm in ? L r ?here Jll)iet- Hay'ey^ '"'le brother Jonathan g W'at the- rack of dawn p2,m the life fjf a gentleman

Today they are a millionaire WT>- John, at 54, is fresh

from one of his finest films, "Tunes Of Glory."

Nevertheless, he finds him-self in the position of being besieged for autographs because he is Hayley Mills' father.

"I am asked constantly these days if I am jealous of my daughter's success," John says. "Preposterous. How can any-one be jealous of someone he

loves?"

The Mills' look back almost

wistfully on the days before Hayley's comet shot across their

lives.

John remembers their rare free time together: "Those days were smashing for Hayley. We were out at all hours, cooking food in woodmen's huts, walk-ing through the glens."

"Got to do it"

Mary recalls stages the chil-dren went through: "There was a time when talking like Noel Coward (their godfather) was their special family game."

About Hayley's stardom, Mary says: "It is really a won-derful feeling to know that your children are intelligent, really good at a satisfying job, and on

the road to success.

"But every mother feels sad when she sees her daughter stepping into the adult world and all the problems that the world holds, and Hayley has had to grow up more quickly than other children of her age.

"She has lost the right to be free of responsibility and be-have and feel as other chil-dren her age do."

Why did Mary and her hus-band let this happen? She quoted Hayley herself, then aged 13: "At home we feel that if you've got it, and you feel you can do it, then you've just got to do it."

"Tiger Bay" director J. Lee Thompson tells this story about how Hayley became his lead-ing lady.

He knew the Mills family and remembered Hayley as the little girl, tiny, blond, he needed for the part. He arranged to meet her and her parents at

the Ritz.

"My first glimpse of Hayley was a shock, because she'd grown quite tall.

" 'You've grown up a bit,' I said to her, and began mum-bling apologetically about her being too tall for the part. Hay-ley didn't say a word.

"We left the restaurant to-gether, planning to think things over. Hayley was ahead of us

and she seemed shorter. Look-

ing closely, I realised she was hunching and crouching to

make herself smaller.

"How she wanted that part! I couldn't resist her, and de-cided Hayley was my girl."

On the first day's shooting Hayley had a fit of giggles. After that, Thompson would deliberately make her laugh be-fore shooting to get her over

her nervousness.

Though Hayley is in every way a professional performer, very early in her career she earned a reputation for being a prankster that she hasn't been

able to live down.

Mrs. Lee Bragg, Hayley's guardian in California, tells this story: "Work in 'Pollyanna' was such a game to Hayley. She'd

hide under the furniture or

crawl up in the beams and shoot peas from a pea-shooter.

"Her hiding from me was a game with the whole crew. They'd finally point her out and she'd emerge giggling."

But on the set of "Summer

Magic," the Disney film she just made in California, there was no evidence of the prank-

ster.

When she had free time she

played word games with her dialogue coach, and the most extreme prank she engaged the crew in was getting up a peti-tion to have iced tea served during work breaks.

Jet of bubbles

She can, however, become very tense at work. Maureen O'Hara, who played Hayley's mother in "Parent Trap," re-lates this incident:

"It was an average work day and a simple scene for all of us. Hayley, however, seemed terribly tense. She whispered to me with her teeth clenched, T want to be better than I've ever been before, ever.' The reason? Her parents were

there."

What has made Hayley such a spontaneous star? You know how it is when you shake a bottle of soda, release the cap and wsh-sh-shsh-a jet stream

of bubbles?

That's Hayley. Bubble, bubble, bubble. Eyes widening and narrowing and crossing.

HAYLEY . . . she likes her hair long and loose, and wears

lipstick only when she dresses up in the evening.

Words spilling: "That's smash-ing . . . did he really . . . did you really ... oh golly . . . I'd love that . . . geewhiz may I? would you? did she?

could he?''

When does Hayley learn her lines? Mrs. Mills volunteered that she has a photographic mind, but Hayley had a much more graphic explanation.

Crying is hard

"I learn them the night be-fore," she said. "I take a nice long bath when I get home from work (she stretched for dramatic emphasis), and then I read them, mumbling to my-self or Jonathan or Daddy or Mummy."

Does she have trouble with any particular kind of scene? "Yes, crying scenes," Hayley confessed dramatically. "Crying's very hard, I can't do it

all the time.

"In one scene in 'Whistle Down the Wind' I had to stand against a wall and cry and I just couldn't-I got only one

tear out.

"When they stopped shooting I burst out crying because I couldn't cry."

She paused, scowling, then added: "The best way for me to start crying is to look in a mirror. I look (eyes cross, nose scrunches) and I get very de-pressed."

To a degree, she means it. She's a hard judge of herself in almost all ways.

"You could not call me beau-

tiful," she says. "If you took everything apart it's just noth-ing. I never look in the mir-

ror before noon. I look ter-rible in the morning .

worse than now'" (she made a funny face for emphasis).

Mrs. Mills confirms that Hay-ley covers the mirrors in her room in the morning. "Or I

breathe on them to cloud

them," Hayley adds.

Apparently on the theory that nothing's going to help, so why bother, Hayley doesn't fuss about her appearance. She likes her hair long and loose and doesn't experiment with styles.

She wears very little make-up, explaining: "If you use too much, when you take it off people get a nasty shock. I do use lipstick when I dress up in the evening, though."

Boy-friends

What are dress-up evenings?

Those on which she dates

("Boy-friends? Yes, I have many friends who are boys"), goes to parties ('T love par-ties"), entertains with her par-ents ("The rule about being seen but not heard doesn't apply in our house"), or, very specially, goes to a premiere of her own pictures ("I never cry at my movies. They don't move me").

Mary doesn't feel it's import-ant for Hayley to continue her formal education, so Hayley's schooldays are over. She

doesn't seem to mind that at all. "It's much easier to learn lines than lessons," she says.

And what of Hayley's future? She looks vaguely ahead only as far as most 16-year-olds can. She wants to be a "seri-ous actress" and play the role of "someone just a little bit mad and with a wild, shrieking

scene or two." And she would

like a "very glamorous period role"-set in the time of Henry the Eighth or "with lots of knights and princes."