Page "Norma Shearer" Paragraph 18

She accepted her next role in Pleasure Mad, knowing " it was well understood that if I didn't deliver in this picture, I was through.

" After only a few days of shooting, things were not looking good.

Shearer was struggling.

Finally, the film's director complained to Mayer that he could get nothing out of the young actress, and when summoned to Mayer's office, she fully expected the axe to fall: " But to my surprise, Mr. Mayer's manner was paternal.

' There seems to be a problem ,' he said, ' tell me about it.

' I told him that the director had shouted at me and frightened me.

Nobody had warned me that Mayer was a better actor than any of us, and I was unprepared for what happened next.

He staged an alarming outburst, screaming at me, calling me a fool and a coward, accusing me of throwing away my career because I couldn't get on with a director.

It worked.

I became tearful, but obstinate.

' I'll show you!

' I said to him.

' You'll see!

' Delighted, Mayer resumed the paternal act.

‘ That's what I wanted to hear ,’ he said, smiling.

" Returning to the set, Shearer plunged into an emotional scene.

" I took that scene lock, stock, and barrel, fur, fins and feathers ," she remembered, earning her the respect of her director and her studio.

As a reward, Thalberg cast her in six films in eight months.