DYING OF POLITENESS

A celebrated actor reflects on her identity.

Academy Award winner Davis makes an engaging literary debut with a candid, appealing memoir recounting her evolution from self-effacing young woman to feisty activist. “The characters I’ve played,” she writes, “have helped transform me, slowly, in fits and starts, into someone who can stand up for herself.” The author’s parents, models of politeness, expected her to be undemanding and acquiescent. By the time she was an adult, she realized that she had spent her life “trying to massage everyone’s feelings, walking on eggshells, subjugating my own wishes to keep the peace.” In her early jobs as a model, throughout several marriages, and in her first roles as an actor, Davis struggled with diffidence—until she was cast in Thelma and Louise (1991) and met her co-star, Susan Sarandon. “How had I never been exposed to a woman like this,” Davis asked herself, “a woman who very simply and clearly said what she thought?” The author takes readers behind the scenes of movies that include Tootsie (“that whole experience was a masterclass in filmmaking, and from two industry geniuses—Sydney Pollack and Dustin Hoffman”); Beetlejuice; The Accidental Tourist, for which Davis won an Oscar for best supporting actress; A League of Their Own, in which she starred with Tom Hanks; and Stuart Little, where she and Hugh Laurie played Stuart’s parents. Although she imparts gossip (“Only as time went on did I understand how rampant sexual harassment was in my business, and the extremity of what so many of my peers were suffering”), for the most part, she portrays her colleagues with kindness. In her 40s, she invented a vastly different role for herself. As a new mother to a daughter and twin boys, the dearth of female characters in kids’ entertainment led her to create an institute that serves as “the go-to resource for research and insights into onscreen bias.”

An entertaining and ebullient memoir.