Larry King TNT Extra: A Very Special Conversation with Elizabeth Taylor

In celebration of TNT’s festival of some of her most iconic films, Elizabeth sat down with veteran interviewer Larry King for Larry King TNT Extra: A Very Special Conversation with Elizabeth Taylor. The interview, which TNT promoted as being between “The King & The Queen,” was recorded for King’s entertainment magazine-style show at her home on Nimes Road in Bel-Air, and marked the first of their five conversations together over a thirteen year period.

Larry King was known for rarely preparing for interviews, which is sometimes evident, such as when he asks if Elizabeth feels like a grandmother at sixty. She reminds him that she “was a grandmother when I was 38.” (That being said, Elizabeth gets her movie debut wrong in the interview. She recalls 1943’s Lassie Come Home as her first film, forgetting about There’s One Born Every Minute, released by Universal the year before.)

She shares memories of some of her most famous co-stars, such as James Dean, Rock Hudson, and of course Richard Burton. “The fact that he never won an Oscar, I think, is appalling,” she says. King asks whether she saw the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride with Steve Martin. “I did, finally. It was kind of hard for me because I had such a very special relationship with Spencer Tracy. I loved that man.” She calls Cat on a Hot Tin Roof the hardest film she ever made because of Mike Todd’s tragic death two weeks into filming, and explains that she could only talk without stuttering when she spoke in Maggie’s Southern accent.

Elizabeth tells King that while she doesn’t look back, she does look ahead to many tomorrows “With great expectation.”