{"id":113966,"date":"2025-09-02T10:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T10:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/113966\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T10:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T10:32:07","slug":"kim-novak-92-says-its-close-to-the-end-as-hollywood-legend-reflects-on-leaving-industry-at-career-peak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/113966\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Novak, 92, says ‘it’s close to the end’ as Hollywood legend reflects on leaving industry at career peak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kim Novak<\/a>\u00a0reflected on aging and her decision to turn her back on Hollywood in an attempt to reclaim her story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy getting old,\u201d Novak, 92, said in the upcoming documentary \u201cKim Novak\u2019s Vertigo,\u201d according to\u00a0People magazine.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m feeling it\u2019s close to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been feeling the need to free something\u2026.\u201d the beginning of the film began.<\/p>\n

Novak famously chose to leave Hollywood at what many considered would have been the peak of her career. \u201cWhen I left, I was at the top of my game,\u201d she said in the documentary about her exit from the industry in 1966.<\/p>\n

\u201cHollywood swallowed people whole,\u201d Novak said, referencing\u00a0Marilyn Monroe\u2019s death.<\/a>\u00a0The actress died at 36 and her death was ruled a possible suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner\u2019s office. \u201cI didn\u2019t want that to happen to me,\u201d Novak noted.<\/p>\n

The \u201cPicnic\u201d star turned her back on Hollywood <\/a>after her Bel Air home was destroyed in a mudslide. She chose a cliff dwelling in Big Sur to become her place to start over, where she focused on other artistic skills.<\/p>\n

Novak famously chose to leave Hollywood at what many considered would have been the peak of her career. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left, I was at the top of my game,\u201d she said in the documentary about her exit from the industry in 1966. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHollywood swallowed people whole,\u201d Novak said, referencing\u00a0Marilyn Monroe\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kim Novak accepting the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cMy survival mode was to paint,\u201d Novak said.<\/p>\n

Novak opened up about how she felt waking up on her first morning after leaving Hollywood in a 2021 interview with Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

Novak opened up about how she felt waking up on her first morning after leaving Hollywood in a 2021 interview with Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

James Stewart and Kim Novak kissing in Vertigo.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiberated. Totally liberated,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI thought, \u2018Wow, I\u2019m going to live my dream and not for someone else.\u2019 It was wonderful. My cat was purring, the birds were singing, the waves were crashing \u2013 we were all just content.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I did when I woke up was to get\u00a0all my art equipment, set up my easel and look\u00a0out the window,\u201d Novak added. \u201cI thought to myself, \u2018This is paradise.\u2019 Hollywood offers money <\/a>and prestige,\u00a0but nothing ever compares\u00a0to that feeling I felt that morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell, Book and Candle cast.<\/p>\n

Years later, Novak\u2019s true story will be told in \u201cKim Novak\u2019s Vertigo.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a Hollywood-y documentary of famous names, this is about Kim, the person,\u201d Novak\u2019s manager, Sue Cameron, said. \u201cShe turned down a million dollars to write her autobiography 25 years ago. Because they wanted all the Hollywood dirt, and she says, \u2018No, that\u2019s not who I am, I won\u2019t do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the last living golden goddess of film,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cAnd what\u2019s more important is in this documentary, we show her as the true fighter she was for women, even way back in the \u201950s, when they tried to force her to wear certain makeup, and she would go wipe it off. She was the very first woman to have her own production company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Novak\u00a0reflected on aging and her decision to turn her back on Hollywood in an attempt to reclaim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64210,49,48,361,5649,75,9713,61877],"class_list":{"0":"post-113966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-best-actress","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-documentaries","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-hollywood","15":"tag-kim-novak"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}