You know, they are entirely different. I mean I get into the spirituality a little bit but I like to feel the level of receptivity in the audience. Because I do everything by how I feel. I don't like anything to be planned. So sometimes I notice if I mention UFOs there is a total silence and if I mention a spiritual discipline sometimes they sit up and want to hear more clearly. What do you like in New Zealand? What do you think will happen?
Well, that depends if the show is more for the New Age thinkers or the Shirley MacLaine fans from way back.
No, what it is is a compilation of my life. Hollywood, politics, travelling, writing, love affairs, family, humour ... but what I am finding is "oh, all right, they have heard enough of the Rat Pack" or "they have heard enough of my life with all the lovers". Frankly, when I do questions and answers they want to know about my books.
And it involves video, too, presumably?
Oh yes. It is a big big wonderful compilation of my life. Films and stories and scenes and more stories and things like that.
Is it odd watching your life flash in front of your eyes?
I watched many of them. Why should this be any different?
Very good. How do you decide what stories to tell, otherwise you'd have people there for a week?
That is true and that was a problem and remains a problem. I've had such a full life with so many famous people in it. And, of course, everyone wants to know about them. I have learned to self-edit so I have time for more experiences.
So why has someone who says they have had past lives - and presumably will have future editions - packed so much into this one?
Listen. That addresses my question: is life showbusiness? I think Shakespeare is right, we are all on the stage performing whatever it is we think we'd like the part to be.
So, any regrets?
You know that's fascinating. I don't think I have any. I look at life as a lesson-learning experience. I have had some things that have been very painful happen but I wouldn't change those. I really wouldn't because I have learned more about myself from the pain, from the failures, frankly, than from all the successes and the joys.
You've mentioned the show reflects on family. Your daughter brought your abilities as a mother into question last year with her own book. Do you address your relationship with her at all?
Yes, but not really as I don't want to invade her privacy. We have mother-daughter issues. I would much rather work that out in private.
I ask because her book got a lot of attention.
It certainly did and that was a very, very painful thing.
So apart from the touring show what else have you got going on?
Well, I just finished a picture in the Canary Islands. A very fascinating experience because the Canary Islands are thought to be the remnants of Atlantis.
And so as a former resident you didn't need a map?
Sure. I'm writing a book about my experience with filming on an island that Iberian Airways advertises as "we are the only airline flying to the lost continent of Atlantis ..."
Their life jacket demonstrations must be quite something.
Ha ha ha ha. Right.
I guess people like me will inevitably tease you about reincarnation and spirituality and the UFOs. You've been made a figure of fun over the years because of your views. But you've risen above it. You've met it head-on.
Oh, I think it's funny. So long as the jokes are funny, I don't care. When Johnny Carson was on the air and he said we are going to make Shirley MacLaine jokes tonight, I said: "Let me work with your writers. I'll help them write them. Just make sure they are funny. Anything that lands on its butt about this that is not funny, then I don't like it because then they are not doing a good job."
I have to ask, you live in New Mexico, is that because it has more room to land for your extraterrestrial friends?
It's paradise. I love the Indian lore. I love the tribal mentality that is such a part of our past here in America and also I think you will find every channeller and New Age thinker living here, even more than California. So that's fun.
And it's one of the great homes of UFOs.Yes it is the backyard of UFOs. I've seen them out at my ranch. I've seen them in the sky right before it rains. It's a fascinating place. I don't know why they decided to build Los Alamos and some of the nuclear facilities here but I am sure they were being watched.
So you haven't got the old landing strip from Close Encounters of the Third Kind out the back of the ranch just in case?
No. There was a caldera that exploded quite a long time ago here and what it did was explode crystals over the New Mexico landscape and crystals are pretty well known to amplify consciousness. So I think that there is so many UFO stories around here because they are assessing the consciousness of the people. I wish they would do something to improve the work ethic, however.
Shirley MacLaine.
You just can't get good help these days - talking of which, Downton Abbey. Are you in the new series?
They didn't ask me this year because I think they were going for some younger stuff. I don't know what they will do next year ... I'm there for them if I am available. I am doing a lot of movies. I just love the relationship and the conflict that goes on between Maggie Smith and me. I adore that.
Do you get on in real life, you two?
Oh sure. I've known Maggie for 40 years.
You've known everyone for 40 years.
At least this time around.
Of course. There was some talk of there being a Victorian era Downton prequel which would possibly involve your character, er, in a previous life.
That would have been interesting. I haven't heard that thought.
So who would play your character?
Jennifer Lawrence.
That's a pretty good match.
Yeah, she's like me when I was younger. Never know what was going to come out of her mouth, no filters at all, and fun to be with. Right before she did Hunger Games the producer called me and said would you talk to her and mentor her? We had a nice couple of dinners and stuff. She does not need me, for goodness sake.
How are you regarded in Hollywood these days. Do you feel respected?
I think they are amazed I am still walking upright. I know my books have influenced a lot of people. They wouldn't say so in public but they have told me anyway. I think they look at me as the meaning of longevity.
And you are one of the last connections of what was a golden age of Hollywood.
Oh boy. That's true. God it's so different now. It's corporate minded and everything is copied according to how much money it made. It's not an artistic challenging place.
If you miss those good old days, who do you miss most?
Frank [Sinatra] and [Dean Martin]. It was the kind of humour and spontaneity that does not come along very often. I miss a lot of my co-stars and some of my directors, but that was the fun time, with them.
How did a woman like you hold your own with those guys?
No sex. No sex, uh-uh. That's a weapon of mass destruction. I was never involved in that with them at all. In fact, they protected me from having affairs and they would stand in the way, They were a block. They didn't do that with [Robert] Mitchum because he would beat the crap out of them. They were very protective. I was their mascot.
A little sister.
Yeah, that's true.
So have you been to New Zealand before ... ?
Never been to New Zealand.
... in this life or an earlier one?
Not unless I was a sheep.
Who: Shirley MacLaine
What: An intimate evening with Shirley MacLaine
When and where: Civic Theatre, Auckland, Saturday, December 13
