The New York herald., 1922-09-17
PoIa Negri Charms
off as On Screen,
Interviewer Finds
But Film Star Paints the Lily
With Dashing Three
C0rnered Hat.
+ n saying, after he returned from

IT. n saying, after he returned from
Berlin, that Mile. PoIa Negri was
even more fascinating off the
screen than on. Charlie Chaplin now
turns out to be about the best biog-
rapher she could have. Those who
met this handsome foreign star when
she reached New York last week prior
To making Bella Donna In Los An
geles for Paramount, were willing to
take oath after talking to her that
Chaplin could interpret character with
his words as well as with his hands
and feet.
She has that manner peculiar to
continentals with a cultural back
ground of thinking other thoughts
even while she is conversing, subtle
thoughts going on behind a polite
mask of a face that make an American
Interviewer feel like a schoolboy talk
Ing to a college president.
Although she has won her fame by
playing vampire roles and has the black
hair and eyes regarded in the movies
as trade mark OF the enchantress
there is nothing Of the heartbreaker in
her private appearance, unless you con-
slider dashing three-cornered hat, a
deliberate attempt to overwhelm sus-
ceptible masculinity. Her dark eyes are
serene rather than provocative. She has
re narkable fine poise, something which
him actor over here sometimes thinks
Is represented chiefly b,D the broad "a"
Possibly she acquired this control OF
her personality after she married Count
Dompskey in Poland. and was intro
duccd into Polish society. She divorced
the Count year ago, but still has the
poise. But her greatest asset. from
motion picture standpoint. Is after all.
not her personality but her skin This
Is remarkably fine and soft. as was
evident even through the conventional
flour-barrel makeup affected by Euro
peans. Evidently hcr cheeks have a
translucency which gives a glow to her
countenance under the studio lights and
enables her to express emotions which
would otherwise be smothered by a
coarse skin.
She speaks German with nuency, clar-
ity and not a little wit, all expressed
in pleasant, unforced tones that malSeA
one regret the muffling process Of the
movies. She speaks English with ease,
all the more remarkable because she
says she did not use 1t after learning
the language in school as child. until
two months before she sailed from Ger
many, when she caught up on the Anglo
Saxon tongue again. However. she pre-
ferred to speak German during her in
terview. and Adolph Zukor. president of
Famous P,ayers-Lasky. acted as inter-
prefer
Asked as to whether she preferred
historical characters, with their inter-
pretations virtually laid down hard and
fast by time, to modern society dramas.
where the artist could use her own in
depreciation, Mile. Negri committed her.
self thus:
II prefer the historical drama, but
even in that must modify the character
to suit my own personality. When l
played Du Barry 1 had to alter her
character-e did not play her as black
as she had been painted. / have to
change all my roles to suit my person
ality. else / cannot play them. SO you
SEQ II does not make so much difference
whether 1t Is an actual part from the
past or a ictional personality from the
present.
Sees Best Movies,
IL go to see only the best motion pic
lures, of which have heard good re-
ports, and stay away from the poorer
ones, so that seeing photoplays does not
have harmful effect on my work of
making them. 1 have seen number of
American pictures and 1t seems to me
that in making modern society dramas
America leads the world. In Germany
excellent character work. is achieved
and they do their historical plays quite
well. But in dressing their actresses
in modern fashions, and in other details.
American producers wip every time.
'Just as / hear Is the case in this