I read somebody who said, an actor who said, "It took me 40 years to become a good actor."

I think that's me too.

I think it took -- How many years have I been acting?

55 years.

I think it took 45 years to become a good actor.

I think it takes that long.

You strip away everything, you strip away all the junk, you strip away all the ego, you strip away all the temperament, and you just deal with the person you're playing.

That's all you have to do.

But it takes years to learn that.

♪♪♪ Hi, I'm Barbara Barrie, and this is "How Art Changed Me."

I must have been about 11 or 12.

Somebody asked me to do something for the Corpus Christi Little Theater.

That was my first introduction to acting.

I mean, I had seen movies and stuff, but I didn't do anything myself.

And that was the beginning.

Then I went to a junior college for my first year in Corpus Christi, and they had a drama club, and that drama coach really came after me and she changed my life.

I had great teachers there, a small college in Corpus Christi, Texas.

You have no idea how important that was.

That was really -- That piqued my interest because she was so incredible and being part of a group, because I was a Jewish girl in a pretty non-Jewish school, and I felt I had a group.

And then after that, I went to the University of Texas and decided to be a teacher of education, I mean, a theater -- theater teacher.

And then I started being cast in a lot of plays at Texas University.

And the second year I was there, they called me in and they said, "You're not going to be a teacher."

I said, "I'm not?"

And they said, "No, you're going to be an actress."

I said, "No, no, I have to have a way of earning a living.

I'm going to be a teacher."

"No, you're going to be..." And they changed my whole curriculum [laughing] and forced me to be an actress, literally.

And I was really -- I really protested because I didn't see any future, any way of earning a living, do you know?

My father had died.

I felt I should stay and help support my mother.

"Forget it," they said.

And that's how I became an actress.

Well, I came to New York, right from -- from Corpus Christi.

I graduated, but I started to study with Uta Hagen and she said, "You're too slick, you're too fancy.

You don't have a craft."

She told that to the whole class, by the way.

She said, "None of you can act."

And she really gave me, us, a craft.

And then I realized what I -- what you needed to do to survive in a professional situation.

You need a craft.

I was with her four years.

That was the best instruction I ever had, and I changed.

I became not a slick little professional actress.

I became a student of acting, which is a whole different thing.

I was just out of college, just out of college, and George Stevens was doing "Giant," you remember, with Elizabeth Taylor.

And --And the call went out that they needed a Texas girl.

And somehow my boyfriend heard about it from his agent, and they took me to see George Stevens.

And George Stevens said, "Fine, you're it.

You got it."

And that's how I -- That was my first film.

That was, you know, that was the film where James, um, James Dean would refuse to come to work.

And so we sat around for days, for hours waiting for him to come to work.

He was really a bad boy, James Dean.

He really was.

My entire professional life, almost, I was married, I had children to take care of.

If the -- If the part came along that I wanted to do, I would do it, and I don't -- I mean, I had some dark places, I had cancer and I was in chemo every Thursday, and I was doing Anne Meara's play at the Manhattan Theater Club, which was called -- was called Manhattan -- which was called "After-Play."

And I told the director, first of all, I said, "I can't do that part.

It's too hard.

I can't do it."

He said, "You can do."

I said, "Oh, well, okay."

So I would go up to Columbia Presbyterian every Thursday.

And usually, you know, you get an infusion.

But I was in a hurry.

I had to go to rehearsals, so they would jab me with this stuff, and I'd go to rehearsal, and at lunchtime, they'd all go to lunch and I would take a nap.

That was the kind of turning point because I thought, "Obviously, this work means something to me... if I will go through this to get this done."

And I did, and I think that's because I wanted -- I want to tell my story.

I want to tell the story, not my story, but the story.

I think acting means to me communication.

And I don't think it has to do with ego at all, really.

And I don't think actually most actors are -- they do it for ego.

They do it because the art means a lot to them.

It's art, and the communication with the audience is so great.

I did "Twelfth Night" in the Park for Joe Papp, and I was talking to the audience one day.

I love that part.

That was my favorite part.

And I realized that if I stopped talking, they kept listening.

And so I would pause and I would say, "How long can I pause?"

And they'd -- You would feel the audience come forward.

It was such a connection, an inner thought taking over.

And when the inner thought takes over, somehow it connects to the audience.

I can't explain it.

They know what you're thinking.

I just think it's connection between human beings.

You're on the stage and they're in the audience and you're connecting.

That's telling a story, isn't it?

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪