It is very difficult to be taken seriously when you're introduced at a party to somebody as the fourth Mrs. Rex Harrison.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It's easier to make fun of a first lady than for a first lady to have fun. The scrutiny is ferocious.
I think it's quite extraordinary that people cast me as if I'm Warren Beatty: until I met my present wife, at the age of 35, you could name two girlfriends.
It's a lot of fun to just say to people, proudly, 'I get to play the First Lady.' It's just fun to say.
I cannot be Mary Hart - or even worse, Samantha Harris - and stand there with my hip out talking about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes taking Suri to an art museum without making fun of it.
So, one way or another, I found myself in a few movies. I take it seriously when I'm on the set, but I don't take myself seriously as an actor.
How rude would I be, walking around and saying: 'Hello. I'm Eleanor Mondale. My father was vice president of the United States. Treat me differently.'
It's just a fact of life that I don't think I've ever been taken particularly seriously in movies by movie makers. I don't know why.
It doesn't interest me to be Harrison Ford. It interests me to be Mike Pomeroy and Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan. I don't want to be in the Harrison Ford business. I take what I do seriously, but I don't take myself seriously.
I met a congressman who claimed that he could introduce me to two people who saw Amelia Earhart.
Acting is a very limited form of expression and those who take it seriously are very limited people. I take it seriously.