I’ve told this story before. When I was an extra on Bernie, we filmed inside a church and I was sitting right behind Shirley MacLaine. The extra playing her son was sitting in a different pew, but they started talking. He said he saw himself as the son of Fran Kublik. She said she didn’t know who that was. Somebody told her it was her character from The Apartment and she replied that she didn’t remember any of her characters’ names.
She was incredibly nice. Talked with all of us, joked about how she was surprised the church hadn’t fallen in on her, given her history. She kidded Jack, who was having trouble remembering lyrics to a hymn used in the scene, and was all professional when Richard Linklatter worked with her.
