Barbara Eden remains a touchstone of television and Hollywood, one of the most beloved stars of the classic era of sitcoms. But there was a point when it all felt like it wasn't worth it.
The actress, 93, made a recent appearance on Jennie Garth's podcast I Choose Me, speaking about their work together on the 1989 TV show Brand New Life, and the star's own rise to fame.
Barbara explained that for the longest time in her teens, she was interested in becoming a singer, and studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. However, her mother Alice recommended she instead take up acting.
© CBS via Getty ImagesShe began taking acting classes soon after, but during her second year of college, her teacher told her to study acting full-time, which she pursued for another couple of years before encouraging her to move to New York or Los Angeles.
Barbara decided then to move in with her uncle and aunt in San Marino, California, joking she "went from one nest to another." The I Dream of Jeannie star also stayed at the studio club, where she and other women she was living with would audition for bit parts together.
However, she then remembered one incident, when she was still living with relatives, when she was sent to meet with a casting director at Warner Bros. "He knew my background. I told him everything, where I studied, what I did, how many plays I'd done, and I was a member of Actors' Equity."
© Getty Images"And he looked at me and he said, 'You're just not Hollywood,'" she painfully recalled. He then shocked her when he pulled out a picture of his daughter, pointed at it and blurted out "big tits," saying that was what the industry wanted. In between Jennie's laughter, she pointed out that while it doesn't seem like a big deal now, it was back then.
Emphasizing that he thought she wasn't "pretty enough," she explained that the words left her stunned because "my father, my uncles never said that word, I never heard that word in my life."
© NBCShe remembered holding back the tears as she went back to her incensed uncle's car. However, fate had a different role to play, as she found herself face-to-face with the same casting director once again eight months later. Barbara had met a coach at the studio who asked her to work with him.
When she was on the lot, someone started shouting for her, and she was worried she'd be thrown out because she wasn't under contract, and it was the same man. "He said, 'Are you going up to so and so's room, you know, for the class?' I said, 'Yes. I am.'"
© GARRETT PRESS/MEGAAnd then he surprised her by saying they'd be offering her a screen test, the "same man that told me I wasn't pretty enough, I didn't have big tits" she recalled with a laugh. The Beverly Hills, 90210 star wondered how "devastating" that comment was for Barbara, who shared that she had gone home to her aunt and uncle's "and then I cried."
"And then I thought, not everyone looks alike. You need different characters for every play. What is going on here? I don't care. I'll be a character actress. I don't care if I'm not pretty enough."
