Bright Light Cafe - Anecdotes - James Mason and Clarissa Kaye

James Mason and Clarissa Kaye

James Mason was in Australia, filming Age of Consent, when he met his wife-to-be, Clarissa Kaye. She was an Australian actress, working with James in the Michael Powell film. She was also extremely sick, and had no idea that James was attracted to her. In her own words, she says:

“The woman in the film was supposed to be an old girlfriend of James's, and the whole scene was shot in bed, though when I arrived in my nightdress, Powell looked appalled. I told him I was a 36 year old woman with a 36 year old body which sagged in parts and didn't look that good in the nude, but the real trouble was that because of the pneumonia I rattled every time I drew breath, and I think even James found that a little strange. I didn't like to explain how ill I'd been, in case I lost the job.

Anyway I shot the scene with a temperature of about 103 and at the end of it we just got out of bed, said a polite goodbye and I thought that was the end of it. He was awfully sweet to everyone on that set, so I never thought he had taken any special notice of me until a few weeks later when someone else on that film said, 'You know he's very enamoured of you?' and I thought that was a lot of nonsense; but a few weeks later I got a very long, sweet letter from him saying that I was a marvellous actress and how much he had enjoyed working with me and how he hoped I would get a lot more work because of our film. Then on the next Valentine's day I got a card from him, so then I did start thinking that maybe, just maybe, there was something special going on."

James Mason Photo
Buy at AllPosters.com

Reviews (applause received)

Be the first to review this anecdote - click here.