All language subtitles for The Bionic Woman - 00x05 - Q & A With Lindsay Wagner_track4_[eng]-en

By the time the
series was over,

somebody would say,
"Well, where would you
like to go?

"Let me take you
some place you've
never been."

There is no place in this city
I have never been, and,
as a matter of fact,

none of it would be anything
otherthan, "Oh, I remember
shooting this there

"or shooting that there."
We shot all over Los Angeles,
in particular,

and its surrounding areas,
both rural and suburb.

It was funny. I really
could not go anywhere without
seeing everything as a set.

It took me along, longtime
before I could see anything
in Los Angeles

that wasn't a set to me,

and it was a very funny
feeling when I realized that
that had happened.

You don't think about it
until you're not filming so
incessantly, as we were.

It was a few years later
when I realized just...

I actually had a break
for a little while.

Wow. I can't go anywhere
without feeling like I'm
still working. I'm on a set.

This is one the arguments
that Ken Johnson and I had.

I“ have a bionic ear,
why do I have to pull
backthe hairto hear?

I can hearthrough walls but
I can't hear through my hair?

So he said, "I know,
but it looks better."

So we had done several
shows already bythe time
I got tired of

"Let's do the close-up
on the ear, so now let's stop
in the middle of everything

"and pull it back."

It was also a very funny
feeling to have somebody
do a close-up on your ear.

There's no way to describe
this in words because it's
visceral.

But when I was doing
a close-up and they say,

"Okay, we're zooming
into the ear,"

as an actorthat works
with film, you can feel
the camera in a way,

there's something funny that
happens, an energythat
happens, and you can feel it.

Like, when you're doing
a close-up, it feels
different

than when the zoom is out.
And I'm sure it's the focus
and the concentration

ofthe people that are
watching, too. The energy
that you feel is focalized

versus wide. But to go in
on your ear, sometimes
itjust felt like,

"Ew, this feels creepy!"
You know?

It was really funny.

So I said we don't need
to do this anymore. We've
established the ear.

Why can't wejust have
the camera zoom in and me
just kind ofturn my head?

So we did that a fewtimes
but he didn't like the way
it looked

and so I would
get a little testy
and I said,

"No, I'm just not going
to do it anymore."

So I would do maybe that
or something like that
but I wouldn't go like this

and let him do it.
I refused to do it.
So what did he do?

He went and pulled them
from a previous episode
and stuck the ear in anyway.

So he got me.
You know, he got me.
(CHUCKLES)

I knew who Lee was
from The Big Valley
at the time.

But I hadn't watched
much television
in my life, at all,

so I didn't realize
what an enormous star
he was at that time.

So, probablyjust as well
because I may have been
more nervous about going,

going in there.

I'd just finished working with
Peter Fonda who was also
an enormous star at the time.

So I think I had gotten over
my young actress, not too long
in the business, kind of "ah!"

of worry about
working with a
major star like that.

We were on location
in Ojai, filming that,
of course.

Lee was quite a prankster.
I saw him... He was always
pulling pranks of some sort

on his crew, mostly.
He would terrorize his crew.

That I remember.

Of course, he was darling.
He was as cute as could be.

And so was his wife, Farrah.
They were just the perfect
couple, you know.

It was really sweet
seeing them together.

It was really fun working
with Andy Griffith,

because, though I've done
so much drama and would
love to do comedy,

in the Bionic Woman, that's
about one ofthe fewtimes
I was able to do comedy,

so being able to work
with Andy, who's a
wonderful comedian,

was really fun for me.

Working with Vincent Price
was really fun. What an
elegant gentleman, you know.

You don't think about it.
You think about
his characters,

but what a lovely man.

He was so nice
and he's really,
really intelligent

and very funny,
got a great sense
of humor.

I enjoyed that a lot.

I'd worked with
John Houseman before,
in The Paper Chase,

which was my second feature
a few years before that.

And John, as usual, is...
He was pretty much (IMITATES
HOUSEMAN) "always John."

He'sjust... He's pretty much
like that personality-wise but
he's got such a dear heart.

Yeah, he's fun.

Yes, she was so darling,
Helen Hunt was so cute.

She wasjust a natural.
Of course, most kids
are quite natural,

but she was pretty special.
That was fun.

Oh, Evel Knievel,
my goodness, that was
quite an experience.

He was something else.
(LAUGHS)

There was a... One of
the times, one of
the things I remember...

We were filming at
the bottom of a canyon
and the scene was

Iwas supposed tojump
on the back ofthe bike
with Evel Knievel

and he was going to
zoom up this canyon.

All I was supposed to do was
get on the back ofthe bike,
the camera was static,

and Evel was supposed to
drive three, four feet out
ofthe shot and I'd get off

and then the stunt doubles
would get on, or whatever,
or he would do whatever,

and they would take off
and do all this stuff.

He was really a bad boy.
Evel was just a bad boy
and he loved to terrorize me.

So I got on the back of
the bike and instead of going
four feet out ofthe shot,

he took off up that canyon
and was screaming around
those things and, of course,

the crew was going nuts
worrying about something
happening to me.

But I was so terrified
Iwas literally pounding
on his back.

I can remember pounding on
his back, screaming, "Stop!"

I could hear him laughing
which made me even madder
and I was pounding even harder

and it was like
Miss Nonviolent
has gone berserk.

Ah!

We got up to the top ofthe
canyon, he did a big U-ie and
screamed down to the bottom.

Iwas so frightened
I could hardly even talk.

And I got to the bottom
and I thought,
"I am going to cry.

And I was so mad at him
I reallyjust wanted to
punch him but I got off

and I looked at the crew
and they were all frozen,
the crew was frozen,

staring at me,
and my assistant
was standing there

and I looked at her
and the minute I saw her,

she was also my best
friend, Linda, and so...

You know when you're okay
and you're holding it
together, sometimes when

you've been upset about
something and then you see
somebodythat you know,

and you love, and you trust?
And all of a sudden
you lose it?

It was kind of one of
those moments. I thought,
"Oh, I'm going to lose it.

"Let me get out of here
and get to mytrailer."

I looked at her and she saw
that look on my face

and she knew to come get
me and take me out ofthere.

So Ijust turned around
and I looked at the crew
and said, "Wardrobe,

"I think I'm going to need
another pair of pants."

And I thought, "I cannot
believe... Thank you, God.
You gave me a line

"to save face." I went in my
trailer, cried my eyes out,
had to redo my makeup.

Iwas like,
"Oh, how dare he do that!"

That was one of my experiences
with Evel. There were several.

So, when we did the
Maximillian episode,

they had this incredible dog

that was a single dog
owned by a single owner

and the dog was almost human.
You could develop a
relationship with him

pretty quickly and he would
listen to you and kind of
do things you'd say.

He responded to love
and petting, of course,
treats sometimes, too,

but not solelytreats.

And there was...

It wasjust, almost,
at times, like working
with another person,

this dog was so good
of an actor.

But then we had this group
of stunt dogs that were

from a company that had
several dogs

because they needed a dog that
would go into fire and that's
not a normal dog thing,

and they needed a dog that
would jump from whatever
and so...

When it looked like Max was
going to be an ongoing
character, I guess this

negotiation went on that
you can't use that actor dog.

You have to use our
acting dogs also.

So this incredible dog
that I could work with
so well

had to go away
and I had to work with...
Not that these dogs weren't

good at what they did,
but they were completely
trainer-trained,

so instead of being able
to lay down and him tell
the dog to come over and give

me a kiss, I had to rub
liver, baby liver,
on my cheek,

so that this dog that had
been treat-trained would
come over and lick my cheek

and then they would take him
away as soon as it would be
over and the whole time

I spent with my
close-ups and my shots
talking to an apple box

because these stunt dogs
and these other kinds of dogs
would have to be taken away.

So I neverwas
acting with a dog.

Talk about acting!
That I should have
gotten an Emmy for.

Talking to that apple box
and crying to the apple box.
(CHUCKLES)

I can't say that I have
a favorite episode.

There are several
and they're all for
different reasons.

One ofthe most fun ones
to film was the country
western one,

where Hoyt Axton and
Doc Severinsen were
on the show.

We laughed so hard
through that whole
darn show.

Those two guys together were
just hilarious. I felt like I
was right back in high school.

They werejust such
bad kids, ifyou will.

That was a lot of fun.
Plus, the music part of it.

That was one of my
favorites to film.

Another episode that
meant a lot to me was
the one that I had to barter

Bigfoot and Fembots
with Kenny to
get it done,

was the "Biofeedback" episode

where we actually go in
and talk about how people

can control their body
and themselves with their
mind and how powerful

that really is and
we don't realize it.

That one meant a lot to me.

I'm sure both Ken and I
would make that very
differently today.

It was a very
progressive show,

conceptually.

Another episode that stands
out in my mind is the one
that we did with Charlie Hill,

who is a Native American
comedian, actor,

and it was probably the first
time that there was any
interracial romance,

ifyou will, on television.

Certainly, by the star
of a show.

And in that same show,
we kind of pushed the
envelope again, because

we were expressing, through
his story, through his
journey in that show,

the Native American spiritual
beliefs about communicating
with the ancestors.

And that was avery
courageous show forthem
to write and for us to do.

That was also breaking.

And again, it was that
same time in history. It was
right about that time,

quite frankly, that
Native Americans were
literally, in this country,

given the right to practice
their religion. It had been
a Iawthat they couldn't do

certain things in their
religious practice,
like sun dance or whatever.

And so it was a real
hot subject at that time.

So I was really proud of our
team for coming up with
that episode. That was cool.

It wasn't until years later
that I really had a sense
ofthe cultural impact.

Young women were coming up to
me and, now in their twenties,
saying, "Hey, you know what?

"I'm working at NASA because
of you." I was like, "Whoa,
cool. What are you doing?"

"Well I'm an engineer.
My dad wanted me to
go to beauty school."

It'sjust amazing to me
that it has been so

long lasting.

We talk about the impact
that the show had and
that the character had

on kids when they
were growing up.
But I see it still.

When I meet people today,
I don't care ifthey're
30, or 40, or 50,

when they see me,
even at this age,
when they look at me

and they come up,
their face completely
transforms and

they're anywhere from
four to 12 years old.

And they talk and they stammer
and it'sjust like they were
when they were a kid.

I've had women just
start to cry when they're
talking to me because

they want to express how much
that meant to them, how
empowering that was to them

at an age and in a point
in history where we were
just beginning that shift.

Even the men who talk to me
today, which is so cute, they
talk about how they used to

watch the The Bionic Woman
and they didn't want to tell
their friends because

they were afraid
they would thinkthey were
a sissy orwhatever.

Several times, men
have said things like,

"It was so interesting that,
as a man, now I realize

"you gave me,
or your character gave me,
permission

"to be strong, as a man,
and still sensitive.

"I learned, by watching
your show,

"that I could be strong
and sensitive
at the same time,

"that they were not
mutually exclusive qualities,
even though you were a woman."

That was fascinating to me
because I neverthought
about that.

A lot ofthe things
people tell me, I put in
intentionally,

Iwould work on
intentionally, we would
all work on it,

but that one never dawned
on me, that it would affect
little boys like that

and literally give them
permission to be strong and
sensitive at the same time.

'Cause they sawthe two
working together, even though
it was awoman.

That was cool.