A Golden Girl

Susan George

Susan and Horses

Susan and husband Simon

An Executive Woman

“I’m so sorry I’m late. I’d forgotten how frantic city life can be. I’ve been fighting my way through London traffic for the last forty minutes.”

Susan George - lithe figure, blonde hair and the same youthful sparkle to her eyes that remained such a distinctive feature of the 70s pin-up actress – extended a hand and quickly took her seat opposite me at the table.

Having only the night before re-acquainted myself with the movie Straw Dogs in preparation for our interview I decided that asking about this film was the best place to start.

“It’s the film that everyone wants to talk about, despite the fact that I have made 35 international features as an actress during my career, but I totally understand, as it became such an iconic movie – both for the era and, for myself.”

Co-starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by the legendary – and notoriously crazy – Sam Peckinpah, it was a decisive piece of film making and often cited as being one of the director’s best works. But the media backlash which ensued had much to do with the controversial ending and a significant rape scene that to this day still causes much debate.

“Over the years there has been a lot of controversy over the interpretation of that rape scene, some suggesting that Sam’s intention was to debase women but responsibility for the role and how it was played, rests entirely upon my shoulders.”

“My perception, of the character portrayal, was of a woman somewhat lost for identity and in an unfulfilled relationship with her husband. She was seeking attention from him and ironically receiving it from all others. Amy Sumner’s rapist, was in fact an old flame, someone that she had loved in her teens, therefore there was an immense conflict of feelings. I certainly never portrayed the condoning of rape and neither was that Sam’s vision.” 

Susan performed in 11 plays for television before she was 12 years of age when she auditioned for the role of Brigitta in The Sound of Music – a production that her husband is now starring in at The London Palladium.  Her life has been constantly chronicled by the world’s press and her love life the subject of much debate throughout the 70’s. In 1984 she finally met and married the man who was to provide the “grounding effect” in her life, Simon MacCorkindale.

“Simon and I are very similar characters in that we are both free-spirited and high achievers.”