Episode 61 – Chatting With Actress Rutanya Alda About Her "Mommie Dearest” Diary - Part 1

What this episode covers

On this episode of Hollywood Obsessed, host Tony Miros speaks with actress Rutanya Alda, who is best known for playing the role of Joan Crawford’s assistant Carol Ann in the mother of all camp classic films “Mommie Dearest”! During her conversation with Tony, Rutanya tells him about her traumatic childhood as a survivor and refugee of World War II, the film she wrote about it during Covid called “Land of The Mustaches” – which is currently in post-production, memories of seeing her first movie with Gary Cooper at the age of six that inspired her to become an actress, moving to NYC to pursue a film career, how she starting her acting career working on experimental films with director Brian De Palma and an unknown actor named Robert DeNiro, how she worked as a stand-in for actress Mia Farrow in the Roman Polanski film “Rosemary’s Baby” and for Barbara Streisand in the movie musical “Hello Dolly” and her memories of working alongside John Cazzle, Meryl Streep, John Savage, and Christopher Walken in the critically acclaimed, Academy Award-winning Best Picture “The Deer Hunter”. RUTANYA ALDA Rutanya Alda has been a distinguished actress in film, television, and theater for over 40 years. She is also the only Latvian-born actress who has been voted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Rutanya has appeared in over 100 movies and television shows. She began her illustrious career with two early films by Brian De Palma, “Greetings” and “Hi, Mom!”, in which she starred with Robert De Niro. Following these, she appeared in such highly acclaimed films as “Panic in Needle Park”, “Scarecrow”, “The Long Goodbye”, Sam Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid”, George Romero’s “The Dark Half”,”Last Exit To Brooklyn”, “Racing With The Moon”, the Christmas perennial “Prancer”, and the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter”, where she reteamed with Robert De Niro.   At present, Rutanya has the distinction of being a cult icon in two categories: “Amityville II: The Possession”, in which she stars opposite Burt Young, and “Mommie Dearest”, about which she published her first book, the critically and reader-acclaimed “The Mommie Dearest Diary”.   Rutanya has appeared in dozens of theater plays, recently including Tennessee Williams’ “The Fat Man’s Wife”, “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s” at Theater Row, “The Portrait” at Theater 54, and John Guare’s new play “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven”. She is presently writing a one woman show based on her childhood living in a displaced persons camp in Europe after World War II. Rutanya Alda’s Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/RutanyaAlda/ To Purchase Her Book “The Mommie Dearest Diary: Carol Ann Tells All" Click Here - https://www.amazon.com/Mommie-Dearest-Diary-Carol-Tells/dp/1515260607 The Official Hollywood Obsessed Website - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.hollywoodobsessedthepodcast.com/ ⁠⁠⁠ Follow the Official Hollywood Obsessed Facebook Page -  ⁠⁠⁠HOLLYWOOD OBSESSED PODCAST⁠⁠⁠ Follow our Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/hollywoodobsessedpodcast/⁠ Titles VO Talent – Cam Frierson - ⁠⁠⁠http://camfrierson.com/voice⁠⁠⁠ Music by⁠⁠ ⁠QubeSounds⁠⁠⁠ from ⁠⁠⁠Pixabay

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