Virginia Wetherell on A Clockwork Orange 7/02

Virginia Wetherell on A Clockwork Orange

Virginia played the Stage Actress who tempted Alex at the Ludovico demonstration.

Q: Had you just made A Clockwork Orange after Demons of the Mind?

A: I had just done that, so I had worked with Pat (McGee) before and we had fun talking about it and how we worked on the shoot. You know how we do. He was a nice guy.

Q: What was Kubrick like?

A: Terrific...when I finally got to meet him. When I auditioned, I think I had did four auditions without actually seeing him. Each was done on video which of course in those days was unique. It was every time I went back, 'Mr. Kubrick would like you to do x y zed'. I had to do the improvisation of being in a forest and being raped - by myself. I had to improvise there were four soldiers who raped me and I was in a little tiny room in an armchair. Then it was the next week, 'Mr. Kubrick would like you to perform doodly do' and now he'd like you to read. It was a piece - Marilyn Monroe from the "Seven Year Itch". What did it all mean? So finally I was sent the script and offered a part. It was to play the psychiatrist and wear the uniform, playing a nurse. Then when I finally met the great man, having had my hair dyed blue as well, he sent me off to a department store to buy twelve pairs of knickers. Which I then had to model in front of him and he chose the pair and that was it. Then we got very friendly and it was very intimate. It was just Malcolm, Stanley and myself and he was fantastic, I mean fantastic. And after I was on it - I think I was on it for one or two weeks maximum and that was September (1970). Then I was called in January to go back in and do one more shot and Stanley was literally on my shoulders with a camera looking down my body - thank you very much. That was it. Nice man.

Q: Was it difficult doing the nude scene in Demons of the Mind?

A: I said I would do it if there were no stills. They said OK. I met a friend who had been (the publicity girl) on ACO during the lunch break and I really wasn't happy about this and she said 'they are trying to get a picture for the poster and it's you love.' Don't forget, what you didn't know was that I'd just done this for Kubrick and was I was slightly pissed off about that as well, but OK it was Kubrick.

Was Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde the first film you made in the Seventies?

No, I did A Clockwork Orange first, because the first day I met Ralph (Bates) he said "What have you been doing?" and I said "A Clockwork Orange". He said "What did you play?" and it was kind of difficult to explain...

Did you realize A Clockwork Orange would have such an enormous impact?

No, not at all. I mean, obviously because it was a Stanley Kubrick film and the trouble he took made it different. I think I was hanging around the set for about a week before I was actually used. It wasn't like the films I'd done before, where you got there, said your lines and then packed your bag and went home. I think I was hanging around the set for about a week before I was actually used.