My favorite novelist is Jerzy Kosinski. I read his "Painted
Bird" right after shooting "Misty Beethoven" [The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976)]. It probably saved my
life. I was so depressed after that movie. The book lifted me out of
it.
"Misty" [The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976)] is a good movie because it is real. The incidents in the film
were happening to me at the time, especially my relationship with Jamie
[Jamie Gillis]. Henry Paris [director Radley Metzger] made me that character. He told me
I couldn't act, so I fit the part.