Barbra Streisand will narrate the audio version of her autobiography
The Hollywood star has taken it upon herself to tell her own story of her hugely successful career in her latest memoir, My Name Is Barbra.
Bang Showbiz
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“My Name is Barbra” is everything you could want from a Barbra Streisand memoir.
In her dazzling 992-page tome (now available from Penguin Random House), the stage and screen legend spares no detail about her difficult upbringing, her illustrious career, and all the friendships and flirtations in between. Streisand, 81, devotes chapters to many of her most popular films, including “What’s Up Doc?”, “Hello Dolly!” and “The Way We Were,” and recounts how she met her husband of 25 years, actor James Brolin.
The memoir is as sharp, funny and refreshingly candid as Streisand herself, as the incomparable singer opens up about stage fright and early criticism of her looks, with “several people” telling her she should get a nose job before her big break.
Here’s what else we learned from the insightful “My Name is Barbra”:
Interview: Barbra Streisand on Judy Garland, “What’s Up Doc?” and Why She “Could Still Play Mama Rose”
Barbra Streisand fought against the “diva myth” and discovered her passion for directing in “Funny Girl.”
In the book’s 14th chapter, Streisand meticulously recounts the making of her very first film, 1968’s Funny Girl, in which she reprized the role of Fanny Brice, which she had previously played on Broadway. She recalls some of the bizarre ways director Sidney Lumet (“Network”) tried to reimagine the musical numbers – including magical instruments and unsightly infants – before he was replaced by filmmaker William Wyler (“Ben-Hur”) .
Streisand fondly remembers working with Wyler and cinematographer Harry Stradling and how they welcomed her feedback. Her suggestion was to shoot the heartbreaking “People” in medium close-up and sing the sassy “You Are Woman, I Am Man” primarily in voiceover. After the film had already completed production, she also requested that the stirring closing anthem “My Man” be re-shot so that she could perform it live on set, rather than lip-synching it to a pre-recorded track.
“Although I didn’t know it at the time, I thought like a female director,” writes Streisand, who became the first woman to win the Golden Globe for best director in 1984 for “Yentl.” “Maybe I would be a better actress if I concentrated more on my role. But the whole movie worried me. How does this scene relate to the next? Does this moment serve history?”
At the time, gossip columns claimed she was difficult and controlling. Wyler defended her, saying she was “totally dedicated” and wanted to “improve.”
“It was the beginning of the diva myth that has followed me throughout my life,” Streisand writes. “I didn’t give any orders. I asked questions. This is how I learn. But I guess some people had a hard time with a woman who had an opinion and word spread that I was taking over.”
At the end of filming, Wyler gave Streisand a director’s megaphone that read “Barbra Streisand DGA.”
“I was so thrilled that he thought enough about my ideas to give me such an inspiring gift and encourage me to direct,” she writes. “It was funny and prophetic and it is one of my most prized possessions.”
‘My Name is Barbra’ memoir reveals love letters from Omar Sharif
Streisand was 25 when she began filming “Funny Girl” in Los Angeles in the summer of 1967. At the time, her first husband, actor Elliott Gould, was filming a project in New York. The couple, who married in 1963, had been “driving apart for a few years.”
“Although we were technically together, we were already living separate lives,” Streisand writes. This made the film’s iconic opening line, “Hello gorgeous,” even more emotional as Fanny reckons with fame and her tumultuous marriage to Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif).
“I had achieved my dream… but at the same time I lost my husband,” Streisand writes. “And I didn’t know how to fix it or if I even wanted to. And I had a 9 month old baby (Jason). I felt so vulnerable. You can see it in my eyes.”
Streisand and Sharif initially didn’t particularly like each other: She found him “rude” and he told a reporter she was “not very pretty.” But the two eventually became closer during filming, although she writes that their relationship never escalated beyond holding hands, going out to dinner or playing cards. While Streisand was writing her memoir, she discovered old love letters that Sharif had written to her after he filmed “Funny Girl.”
“There are lines like, ‘The thing I want most in my life is to have you with me, to go everywhere together, to hold you in my arms, to put you to sleep and to wake you up.’ To kiss you, talk to you, love you with all my heart. … And all the time you sing to me,” writes Streisand. “He had me down to the line about my singing.”
“Our mutual attraction worked for the film, but I couldn’t imagine a future with him,” she continues. “I recently had the opportunity to meet his grandson, who said Omar told him, ‘Apart from your grandmother, Barbra is the only woman who has ever captured my heart.’ If things had turned out differently, she could have been your baby!’ “
Streisand felt ‘stupid’ turning down Brando and wooed Elvis for ‘A Star is Born’
Streisand reveals many other memorable celebrity encounters in “My Name is Barbra.” A chapter is devoted to her long-standing friendship with Marlon Brando, who made many passionate advances before and after her divorce from Gould in 1971.
“Looking back now, I can’t believe my answer,” Streisand says. “How stupid! Today I would be more adventurous, but back then I was too sexually insecure, still a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn with my mother’s admonitions echoing in my head. Free love wasn’t my style.”
Streisand also recalls how she and her former partner, producer Jon Peters, once considered co-starring Elvis Presley in the 1976 musical drama “A Star is Born” before the role went to Kris Kristofferson. She even flew to Las Vegas to meet Presley in person.
“We talked about the film and Elvis was interested,” Streisand writes. “But obviously it didn’t work out. Marty (Erlichman, their longtime manager) says that Colonel Parker demanded more money than we could afford. And Jon says the colonel wanted to produce the film. IM not sure. I know that Elvis had gained a lot of weight and was no longer in top shape, although he still attracted large audiences. Maybe the story was a little too close to his own life and the colonel talked him out of it.”
And in one passage, Streisand recalls the night of the Oscars, when she won best actress for “Funny Girl,” along with Katharine Hepburn for “The Lion in Winter.” Hepburn was not present, but sent her a congratulatory letter afterwards.
“Dear Barbra, I think that you are truly top notch and fed up with everything it is and I am proud to share this space with you for next year. For the rest, I just hope that osmosis transfers a little of what you have to me. Kind regards, Kate Hepburn.”
Streisand, who last appeared on screen in the 2012 comedy “The Guilt Trip” with Seth Rogen, closes the book by writing about her crushing disappointment at leaving the “Gypsy” movie musical that she had long loved dreamed of, never been able to realize. Her passion for the screen is reflected in the memoir.
“I love films! It’s the perfect medium for me,” Streisand writes. “You do every scene and then that’s it. Completed. People can watch me let off steam, sing and sweat… while I take a nice bath at home.”