Cybill Shepherd Talks Chemistry With ‘Moonlighting’ Costar Bruce Willis and Dating Elvis Presley

Closer Weekly: What inspired you to play a seriously ill woman who searches for an estranged son in the road trip movie ‘Being Rose?’

Cybill Shepherd: I committed to it more than 10 years ago because I saw writer-director Rod McCall’s other films, and it was so wonderful. It had [my ex–L Word costar] Pam Grier and James Brolin. Who can beat that?

You recently talked about having lunch with James’ wife, Barbra Streisand.

I was invited to [Barbra Streisand‘s] house! I can’t tell you how thrilled I was, and she was so much fun. She said, “All these things we’re eating are from my garden and they’re organic,” but I didn’t know what organic meant because I’m from Memphis, [Tennessee]. This was a long time ago. Did you ever see What’s Up, Doc? Before then.”

That’s the 1972 film your then-beau Peter Bogdanovich made right after he directed you in ‘The Last Picture Show!’

Barbra’s brilliant. [Later when she] married James Brolin, I thought, “He’s got to be a good man!” He was very smart because [on Being Rose] there was a scene where we were supposed to be on a horse. There’s only one thing more dangerous than one person on a horse — that’s two! So James took care of that.

With Elvis, what happened in the theater?

We were waiting for him forever. When he finally got there, everybody in the row to my right got up. [Laughs] In Memphis, he had kind of a Memphis mafia.

You’ve said his drug abuse was what caused your relationship to end.

Well, first of all, he was drafted into the Army, so they gave him pills to keep him awake. He loved his mother, so his mother’s passing was a huge blow to him. He also was a survivor. There was a twin that died…

Did you also get asked out by Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson?

No, it was Robert De Niro and … I can’t mention who else it was! [Laughs]

OK! Your first film, ‘The Last Picture Show,’ was in 1971. What would you attribute your longevity to in this business ?

Stubbornness and intelligence!

Any examples?

Well, for one thing, when I first got the Taxi Driver script, I had no lines! De Niro and [Martin] Scorsese and I improvised at a hotel in Manhattan. Scorsese, I think, videotaped or filmed it, and then he wrote the script based on our improvisations.

And now it’s a classic! So is ‘Moonlighting,’ which marked the 30th anniversary of its final episode in May.

I had seen all the great films because I was with Peter for eight years, and he’s one of the great directors of all time. So when I met Glenn Gordon Caron, who wrote every word of Moonlighting, I said, “I know what you’ve written — a [Howard] Hawks-ian comedy’ like His Girl Friday. We talked that fast. Also the key was that Bruce Willis and I had great chemistry, but we never consummated it, because that can breed contempt.

There was also friction on the set, correct?

Familiarity can breed contempt [too]. We were always fighting. We were kind of like rats in a cage. We did a lot of overlapping [dialogue] and had to keep firing sound people because they would say, “Well, you have to [speak] separately,” and Glenn would go, “No, we don’t.” It’s an interesting challenge.

What was it like working on your CBS sitcom, ‘Cybill?’

Oh, Alan Ball was a genius, and Christine Baranski and I were the soul of the show. There was never anybody else considered for her part. We had this chemistry. So when networks were rebooting shows like Roseanne, I said, “We can’t reboot Cybill, because you have to have Christine.”

But whether it was [ex–CBS head] Les Moonves coming on to me or threatening me or saying, “You can do another episode on menopause, but you can’t say ‘menstruation'” … I’ve never written my story, and I will be willing to tell it, and I am going to take some action.

You’ve suffered from irritable bowel syndrome for years and even had a near-death experience. How’s your health these days?

I’ve had four emergency abdominal surgeries, and after the fourth they said, “You can’t go back to work for five weeks.” I said, “I’ve got to go finish this movie, Rose.”

Glad you’re OK now! How’s everything today with your daughter Clementine, 40, from your first husband, David Ford, and your twins Ariel and Cyrus, 31, from your second husband, Bruce Oppenheim?

I have two grandchildren from Clementine: Elijah, he’s 5, and Welles, a little girl who’s 2-and-a-half and named for Orson Welles because Orson had an enormous impact on my career. I said [to Orson], “I don’t know enough about acting. What should I do?” He said, “Do theater anywhere but L.A. and New York.”

Any mottoes you live by?

Find a way to send out a message of love. If you do have something constructive to say, say it! Save your rage for when the cameras are running.