Channel 4 sends off Liz Truss with Taylor Swift tribute
A new three-part documentary about one-time screen idol Elizabeth Taylor will feature previously unheard audio tapes from the Hollywood film star which touch on her darkest moments.
The haunting narration from Taylor is heard throughout the three films on which Kim Kardashian is an executive producer.
“She was the blueprint,” Kardashian tells the film.
Taylor explains in the first episode: “People were interested in me…. I thought, ‘Instead of resenting it, I’ll use my fame’.
“If people want to hear something from me, OK, you’re going to hear it. But it’s not going to be about how to apply lipstick. I'm going to thunder through their brain.”
She would use this fame later in life to become a campaigner for changing attitudes to AIDS.
She tells the documentary: “People don’t wanna know about it. Ignorance breeds fear. What happened to compassion? What happened to caring? How dare these so-called religious people get up and say it was God’s idea. God’s wrath. We’re all God’s children!”
The documentary suggests she may have been addicted to painkillers from the age of 15, when she became unhappy under contract to MGM.
She was signed initially for 18 years.
“They studio referred to us as the ‘MGM stable’.
“Stable are for animals, not children.”
The first of her eight marriages was to Conrad ‘Nicky’ Hilton, a publicity stunt to promote her starring role in Father Of The Bride.”
Joan Collins, who contributes to the documentary, also dated Hilton.
“He was nuts!”
“One morning he pulled a pistol out and shot it at the ceiling.
“He had a problem with being too good looking, and too rich.”
The film reveals the deep mental health problems that were endured by Taylor.
She said: “I was self-destructive. There were times where I almost deliberately threw myself in front of a speeding train.”
There are also insights from Elizabeth’s son Chris Wilding, her granddaughter Naomi Wilding, goddaughter Paris Jackson, friends Sharon Stone, George Hamilton and fellow child star Margaret O’Brien.
Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, BBC Two, Fri, 9pm
