I spoke to the one, true Catwoman a few weeks ahead of her appearance at San Diego Comic-Con and here’s what she had to say.
So I was talking with the great Miss Julie Newmar about a couple things last night (more on that soon, wink, wink), the same day Warner Brothers just happened to announce its broad-scope plans for July 24 at SDCC and the first-ever Batman ’66 home-video release. (Check out the sizzle reel here!)
Holy lucky timing!
Anyway, naturally, I had to ask the Feline Fatale about it. And in her coyly deadpan way, without exactly saying too much, she pretty much confirmed what you’re expecting the DVD/Blu-ray set to have, short of saying that she did full commentary tracks for every episode she’s in: “They interviewed the livestock, as far as I know,” she joked.
Now, I’ve had the pleasure of talking with Miss Newmar a few times now and I have to tell you she doesn’t just talk. She really does purr, even now. To just listen to her voice is really a treat — and she really knows how to tell a story. She’s wry and kind and inviting and likes to tease. And she has a very sly sense of humor.
“All I can say is that I’m glad that Warner Brothers is announcing that they are announcing,” she said from Los Angeles, as I laughed at the other end of the line in New York. “The final announcement of what they shall announce. … The secret is upon us, with lack of alacrity I must say. It’s taken them a long time. Right? But, you know, when lawyers get together …”
She also described being on the other side of all the craziness at the world’s biggest pop culture extravaganza.
“It is a maelstrom. Oh, my God. Ninety-foot limousines pulling up, with some minimal actress,” — and she pauses, because here I am, laughing again — “and they pull up underground in these great, gaping places where humongous trucks pull in and it’s very unglamorous. You go through miles of underground, backstage, this, that and the other.”
I asked her what she’s going to be doing while at the show.
“I haven’t even picked out my dress!” she said.
Julie with an old friend.
But she did share one fantastic story from her time on the convention circuit the last few years:
“A man walked up to me, with his son, he was dragging his son behind him and he says to the son, ‘Wait, you’ve got to see, she’s wonderful, she’s terrific. … This is Catwoman,” she recalled. “He’s trying to explain to him and the little boy, he hides behind his father’s pants leg. He won’t come out, he won’t be seen.
“And he keeps trying to convince this kid that, ‘Someday you’ll see what I mean, about Catwoman.’ And as that’s happening, the grandfather walks up from behind the two of them and walks straight, beeline, right, straight up to me.
“And he says to me,” and here her voice lowers, “Miss Newmar, you were my first turn-on.”
And I practically fell off my chair.
“What do you say to something like that?” I blurted out.
And I would wager that on the other end of the phone, she gave a shrug.
“Oh, God bless people. God bless the human race.”
