{"id":108046,"date":"2025-09-02T00:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T00:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/108046\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T00:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T00:58:11","slug":"hollywood-legend-kim-novak-92-opens-up-about-getting-older-and-feeling-its-close-to-the-end-in-new-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/108046\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Legend Kim Novak, 92, Opens Up About Getting Older and ‘Feeling It’s Close to the End’ in New Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

Kim Novak, 92, says “it’s getting close to the end” in the revealing new documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo<\/p>\n

In the film, she shares thoughts on Marilyn Monroe: “I didn’t want that to happen to me”<\/p>\n

Kim Novak’s Vertigo premieres today at the Venice Film Festival, where she will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement<\/p>\n

In the late ’50s, she was the No. 1 box office star in the world, but within 10 years, Kim Novak<\/a> left it all behind and walked away from Hollywood.<\/p>\n

In the decades since, she\u2019s given few interviews, but at 92, she\u2019s reclaiming her story in a new documentary, Kim Novak\u2019s Vertigo, a deeply personal look at her family, her Hollywood years and her decision to live life as a painter in the woods of Oregon. <\/p>\n

The film premieres at the 82nd Venice Film Festival on Sept 1, the same day she\u2019ll receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.<\/p>\n

\"Silver<\/p>\n

Silver Screen Collection\/Getty<\/p>\n

James Stewart and Kim Novak in 1958’s ‘Vertigo’<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it really represents who Kim is,\u201d says her manager and close friend Sue Cameron, who is also the film\u2019s executive producer. \u201cNobody knows who she really is, nobody knows what she went through, the disasters in her childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film, directed by Alexandre Philippe, has an immediate intimacy. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy getting old,\u201d\u00a0 says Novak at the outset, before noting, \u201cI\u2019m feeling it\u2019s close to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

As such, she continues, \u201cI\u2019ve been feeling the need to free something\u2026.\u201d as she begins to unburden herself of the past.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a story of how her life intertwined with her most celebrated film, Vertigo, of which she notes, \u201cIt\u2019s my story too\u2026. They want to make you over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Screen Archives\/Getty<\/p>\n

Kim Novak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u201d were the Hollywood studio heads who wanted to mold the then\u201321-year-old Marilyn Pauline Novak into somebody they could control. She battled with the studio system, notably Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohn, who wanted her name to be changed to Kit Marlowe (she refused) and who forbade her to continue her affair with Sammy Davis Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery part of my life was controlled,\u201d says Novak. \u201cHe called me \u2018the fat Pollack.\u2019 \u201d (Novak, who was born in Chicago, is of Czech descent.)<\/p>\n

Her allure captivated audiences in such films as Picnic with William Holden and Man With a Golden Arm, opposite Frank Sinatra<\/a>. Still, she notes, \u201cI never felt I was a movie star.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s Vertigo, the 1958 cinematic masterpiece, she found a role that allowed her to explore her own duality. Though she hadn\u2019t yet been diagnosed, Novak later discovered she was bipolar and found parallels with her character’s story. \u201cI always resented being made over,\u201d she says as she watches the film, \u201cThat was why I was so right for the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

She left Hollywood in 1966 after a flood destroyed nearly everything she owned. \u201cWhen I left I was at the top of my game,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As she reflects in the film, \u201cHollywood swallowed people whole.\u201d Just as it did Marilyn Monro<\/a>e, whom she also knew. \u201cI didn\u2019t want that to happen to me,” she says quietly, referencing Monroe’s tragic fate.<\/p>\n

\"Sunset<\/p>\n

Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty<\/p>\n

Kim Novak on the set of 1955’s ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’<\/p>\n

She moved north to Carmel, where she painted and lived quietly until she moved to Oregon, where she resides and also rides horses. \u201cMy survival mode was to paint,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Looking back, she reflects, \u201cI don\u2019t have to be the pretty one now.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This is not a Hollywood-y documentary of famous names, this is about Kim, the person,” says Cameron. “She turned down a million dollars to write her autobiography 25 years ago. Because they wanted all the Hollywood dirt, and she says, \u2018No, that’s not who I am, I won’t do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Matej<\/p>\n

Matej Divizna\/Getty <\/p>\n

Kim Novak in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s the last living golden goddess of film,\u201d says Cameron. “And what’s more important is in this documentary, we show her as the true fighter she was for women, even way back in the ’50s, 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.”<\/p>\n

At the end of the film, Novak thanks the director and says, \u201cI needed to free myself from all of these ghosts\u2026. I mean Hollywood ghosts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve given me permission,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019ve given me an appreciation of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Kim Novak, 92, says “it’s getting close to the end” in the revealing new documentary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,123,50909,51166,52430,2839,12046,52429,56,54,55,10306],"class_list":["post-108046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-hollywood","tag-kim-novak","tag-marilyn-monroe","tag-marilyn-pauline-novak","tag-movies","tag-premieres","tag-sue-cameron","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-venice-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}