Continual charmer on and off screen

Continued from Page 1-D gracious warmth, but always a sense of distance. She speaks softly but distinctly.

She is lovely to look at, but it is quite another thing to delve behind her exterior.

Regarding her refusal to mix politics with films, she said, "When you do something, it is important that you be clear about what you will do and do that. When I want to 'speak about my political views, I will set up the occasion to do so, and everyone will know that is what I will talk about by agreement. I do this all the time at home.

"But except under the most ex-

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traordinary circumstances, I would never break into a performance to give a political speech. That just isn't the sort of way to go about things," said Miss Redgrave, lighting up the first of many cigarettes to follow.

Regarding similarities between her personality and the character of Julia, she said, "I never like such comparisons, and I try to discourage them. Comparisons like that ultimately turn attention away from assessing the piece of work that's been created.

"Of course, you can't discount similarity as a factor. What an ac-

tress is and what she has done, she. brings with her wherever she goes. But a piece of art has to be assessed separately. If an actor's work is similar to his personal experiences, that is fine, but that is neither here nor there."

It has seemed that in recent years, publicity has centered more upon Miss Redgrave's controversial personal life and less upon her stage and screen career. In fact, she has not really granted interviews since her starring role as the free-spirited dancer Isadora Duncan in "The Loves of Isadora" in 1969, which won her an Academy Award nomination.

What is it about “Julia” that has motivated Miss Redgrave to engage in film promotion?

"I couldn't place it in the order of importance, but I think that first of all, it's a moving story that principally concerns the friendship of two women of very different makeup, but both fighters in very different ways.

"Obviously, I'm glad that the film has good parts for women, but I don't feel that is what is important about the movie."

"What is significant to me is that the film is about two human beings in this case, they happened to be two women who, acting with a group of some other people whose names we never know, did something. very important in the critical days of World War II.

"In this case, Julia enlisted Lillian's aid to smuggle $50,000 of her money into. Germany to help buy religious and political refugees out of prison.

"Julia and Lillian are marvelous characters, and, of course, what makes the story so powerful is that it concerns real people and events. that did actually happen.

At home in Hammersmith, a London borough, Miss Redgrave lives with her children daughters Natasha, 14, and Joely Kim, 10, by Richardson, and son, Carlo, 8, by actor Franco Nero.

Asked if she had difficulties in rearing three children alone, or if there were any problems with the fact that her son's father is a man she never married, she answered:

"If there were problems, I think they are for the family itself.

Is there a special man in her life at the moment? "I wouldn't talk about that."

There was something refreshing yet frustrating about her simple answers, with no need to elaborate or qualify. For example, when asked if she had ever had a close friendship similar to that of Julia and Lillian Hellman, Miss Redgrave's answer. was a straightforward, "No. I have never had any close friendships at all."

One wonders why Miss Redgrave is so guarded during interviews.

"I'm not disturbed by interviews. I've just developed a certain wariness," she explained. "I try to answer questions clearly and completely, but that's all.

"After Isadora,' I told the press some personal things about which I was later very embarrassed."

(At that time, she spoke openly about her political philosophy, the war in Vietnam, apartheid in South Africa and her relationship with Franco Nero.)

In her next role, Miss Redgrave will star in a new project, "Agatha," by an English writer, Kathleen Tynan, who theorizes what might have happened to Agatha Christie when she disappeared for two weeks in 1926.

"I will take the role of Miss Christie and will star with Julie Christie and Alan Bates. I'm really looking forward to the production, which begins the end of October in England."

Miss Redgrave has no particular beauty regimen she follows to preserve her clear complexion and slender, frame, "I just work hard."

Finally, what does she say about Ms. magazine's recent analysis that the film, "Julia," contained lesbian overtones?

"Well, Lillian Hellman in the story said that there were strong erotic feelings. But she also said later that she didn't kiss Julia in the funeral home because she had never kissed her. It just hadn't been that way.

"If people want to read in lesbianism, let them. Everyone has a right to their opinions, and we have a right to say that their opinions are rubbish."