The Deadliest Pussycat of Them All: A Conversation with Tura Satana

Grindhouse icon Tura Satana as Varla in Russ Meyer's classic "Faster Pussycat!...Kill!...Kill!"(1965)

Tura Satana is both everything you’d expect, and not at all what you would imagine.  There really seems to be two sides to her.  Upon first meeting her I was surprised how sweet her smile was.  Tura has a very warm and inviting persona and is actually quite friendly.  At first glance the angry she-devil that we all know and love from her immortal performance as Varla in the grindhouse classic Faster Pussycat!…Kill!…Kill! is nowhere to be seen.  However after a few minutes of talking with her the Varla persona starts to seep through.  The truth is Tura Satana is tough.  Seriously tough.  Don’t for a minute doubt that this woman can cripple you in a moment.  Give her a one reason and, boy, will you be sorry.

Tura beats Ray Barlow to death in a key scene in "Faster Pussycat!...Kill!...Kill!' Was she only acting?

Tura Satana is one of the legends of exploitation film.  Take one look into her story and you’ll see why.  Her whole life is one true life exploitation film.  Perhaps even more unbelievable then anything you could see at a movie.  Growing up on the mean streets of Chicago, Tura was a standout because of her voluptuous figure and her Asian heritage.  However, after she became the victim of a violent assault she trained herself in the arts of karate and aikido and went all I Spit On Your Grave on her attackers, tracking them down one by one and getting her own brand of revenge.  Starting her own girls gang during her teens which lead to a stint in reform school, Tura found herself married and divorced by the age of thirteen.  With a fake ID in hand, Tura traveled to Los Angeles and took up modeling.  It was during a nude photo shoot that she met silent movie actor Harold Lloyd who encouraged Tura to go into movies.  Finding herself quickly down on her luck Tura returned to Chicago where she took up exotic dancing and quickly became one of the most popular burlesque stars in the US.  It was through her dancing that she soon gained the attention of some of the most popular and powerful entertainers in Hollywood.  Rumored to be lovers with Rod Taylor, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra and Billy Wilder, Tura was also a close friend and confident to Elvis Presley.  Soon Tura was taking roles in films.  While most of the roles were small, Tura became a movie icon when she appeared as the leader of a deadly gang of drag racing go go dancers in Russ Meyer’s classic Faster Pussycat!…Kill!…Kill! Although buried at the time of its release, Faster Pussycat has become one of the most famous exploitation films of all time, and Tura Satana is the true icon of the picture.  The rest of her life would be filled with love, sex, violence and drama as she put on many roles and personas from wife and mother, actress and entertainer, nurse, body guard and even police dispatcher.  Tura Satana has been many things in her lifetime, but to her fans worldwide she’ll always be the deadliest pussycat of them all.

Having the opportunity to meet Tura Satana was a unique thrill all of its own.  I have interviewed dozens of pop culture legends in my career, but never before have I had the opportunity to meet someone that was so iconic to me that pictures of her hang in my home.  Tura Satana is one of the few personal pop culture icons of mine that is still alive. You see, Faster Pussycat made such an impact on me when I first saw it that I never watched films the same way again and Tura Satana has become one of my all time favorite femme fatals.  I was delighted by Tura’s openness, sense of humor, honesty, bluntness and kindness towards me.  However, every now and then the tone of her voice would slightly change and hardness would appear in her eyes making me realize that Tura Satana could snap my neck…if I gave her reason to.

Join me as I talk to Tura Satana about her incredible career as:

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT PRESENTS

THE DEADLIEST PUSSYCAT OF THEM ALL:

A CONVERSATION WITH TURA SATANA

I talked with Tura Satana in Toronto, Ontario on August 23rd, 2008

Early Tura Satana publicity photo

Sam:  Now I was researching your life and one of the first things I thought to myself was “Oh my god!  Why is this not a book!”  And then I saw that you actually have written your autobiography and it’s coming out.

Tura Satana:  Yeah.  It’s being ready to be published right now.  We’re just tweaking a lot of it and picking out pictures to go into it.  They say that I need more minor details and it needs to be refurbished.  I don’t know what they mean.  When I read a story I just want to get to it.  I don’t care if the walls were pink or the doors were brown or the car was orange.  I just want to get [to the point].

Sam:  So when might we see it in bookstores?

Tura:  Probably next year.

Sam:  Fantastic.  Has anybody ever approached you about turning your life story into a movie?  I mean, your story is better then most exploitation thrillers I’ve ever seen.

Tura:  Yes.  A Japanese producer wanted to do the story but then he passed away.  If anybody wanted to do it I’d want Quinton Tarantino or John Waters to do it.  We’ll see what happens.

Sam:  Now I’ve read about your early years and they were pretty rough.  Did you channel that when you were creating the character of Varla in Faster Pussycat!…Kill!  Kill!

"Varla was really me. A lot her anger and a lot of her power basically came from stuff that I let out after a while."

Tura:  Yeah.  I didn’t realize how angry I really was until I was able to let it out with Varla and a lot of people have asked me if I was Varla or if she was another character and I say “No, Varla was really me.”  A lot her anger and a lot of her power basically came from stuff that I let out after a while.  I didn’t realize that I was holding it in but I was.

Sam:  So you haven’t really broken a man’s back in the desert and left him for dead, have you?  Do you think you could do that?

Tura:  I probably could.  Yes.  I am very capable of doing that.  I have broken arms.  I have broken legs.  I have put a couple of guys in hospital when I’ve found them in my closet when I’d be getting off of a show.  I am capable of killing someone who tried to hurt me.  I don’t necessarily go around looking for trouble but if it comes and finds me I’m very capable of handling it.

Sam:  Now you did a number of films prior to Faster Pussycat, but how did you get involved with Russ Meyer.

"Faster Pussycat's" director, famed grindhouse/pornographer Russ Meyer: "Russ was, as an artist, very liberal. As a director he was lenient. As a producer he was an asshole."

Tura:  I got a call from my agent.  My agent had apparently read the script and said I’d be very good in the part and I guess he knew I had a little anger issue there somewhere.  He tried to talk me into it and I said “I don’t do porn movies” because that’s what Russ was famous for and he said “No.  This is totally different.  There is no nudity and no bad stuff in it.  You won’t have to take off your clothes.”  So I said I’d go read it.

Sam:  So what was Russ Meyer like to work with.

Tura:  (Laughs)  Russ was, as an artist, very liberal.  As a director he was lenient.  As a producer he was an asshole.  Russ would let us have a lot of leeway as far as dialogue was concerned because I told Russ “You guys wrote this dialogue like it was the 1940’s or early 1950’s.  You just can’t do that.”  But with us, as long as he allowed the leeway to do it, I was able to throw lines in there like “You won’t find it down there, Columbus” or “Hey.  I don’t try anything.  I just do it.  You want to try me?”  I mean these things were stuff that just came off of the top of my head or when someone would read a line.  When [Ray Barlow] says that he races cars and I say “why bother” and he says “because it’s to beat other people’s time,” the original line they had for me was something like “aren’t you a little antiquated when it comes to that stuff” and that’s not something Varla would say.

Sam:  It sounds like he wrote that for Lesley Gore or something.

Tura:  Yeah.  Well I told him “Russ, that does not go with Varla.  It doesn’t go with her image.  The dialogue just doesn’t fit.  Maybe Billie might say that or Haiji might say that but not Varla.”  So basically he gave us the leeway to play around with it.

Sam:  Now Russ Meyer worked with a lot of the same actors from film to film.  Haiji did at least three movies with him.  You never did another film with Russ again.  Was there a reason?

Tura:  He kept asking me why we never did another film and I said “Well, I don’t do the type of films that your doing.”  And secondly I said “You haven’t come up with a good enough script for me.”  And he said “We ought to make a sequel” and I said “That’s what I said to you.  We ought to make a sequel.”  “But I killed you off so well” he said.  (Laughs)  But I said “No, actually you just dumped me off in the desert.”

Sam:  What do you think the appeal of Faster Pussycat is for audiences.  I mean it was underground for decades and now it’s one of the most legendary cult films of all time.

Tura with "Faster Pussycat" co-stars Haiji and Lori Williams

Tura:  It went underground when it was first released until the mid 70s and it basically became a cult thing for a lot of the Goth people and the very sadistic kind of people.  I hate to use that kind of word because that’s not what it really is but the people who were really interested in it were the ones who were dominatrixes and things like that.  Yes, in some ways it does fit but in some ways it doesn’t.  But I would say that I think the appeal for it is basically because women are powerful.  Especially Varla.  Varla was the one who just went around killing everybody and taking what she wanted.  She knew what she wanted out of life.  She went for it.

Sam:  Well that’s basically why she’s become a feminist icon.

Tura:  Yes.  And I know that I have a humongous following in the gay community, and it’s mostly the gay men.

Sam:  Really.  That’s sort of surprising.

Tura:  Yeah.  It sort of surprises me too.

Sam:  Why do you think gay men have embraced the film.

"Sex has always sold well in films but there are certain factions that like to have the violence along with it and that works out to be something that will constantly...go together."

Tura:  First of all they know that Varla isn’t competition for them.  Varla is someone who is entertaining them and they are wishing that they were Varla.  One of my gay fans wrote me and said “If I were a woman I would love to be Varla because she knows what she wants and she goes after it.”  I think that basically is true for a lot of people.  Guys and women.  The women feel that Varla has the power and the drive to continue on.  She’s going to keep going for it until someone kills her.  She has the incentive to go after it.

Sam:  A big part of the appeal, I think, of Faster Pussycat is the mixture of sex and violence.  Why do you think there is such an attraction to sex and violence and why do you think it sells in films?

Tura:  Well sex has always sold well in films but there are certain factions that like to have the violence along with it and that works out to be something that will constantly…go together.  That’s why they have dominatrixes and S&M clubs.  I’ve had more then one person ask me if I could start a dominatrix school.  (Laughs)  I told him, no, it’s not my bag.

Sam:  But Varla’s an S&M icon as well.

Tura:  No.  Basically Varla is an icon of female empowerment.  That’s the difference.  Varla made sure she was the leader of the pack always.  But then the pack had to do what she said.  So that was female empowerment.  The only difference other then that is that Varla was a switch hitter.

Director Billy Wilder makes some adjustments to Tura Satana's costume during the filming of "Irma la Douce." (1963) Tura was discovered by Wilder and his wife in a night club while performing her burlesque act.

Sam:  Now lets talk about some  of the films before Faster Pussycat.  You were in Irma La Douce with Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon…

Tura:  And Shirley MacLaine.  She was in that.

Sam:  And then you were in one with Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery…

Tura:  Yeah.  That was Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed.

Sam:  And then you were in Our Man Flint with James Coburn.  What were some of your memories from these films and working with these people?

Tura:  Well the reason I got into Irma La Douce was because I was performing at a night club called the Pink Pussycat in Los Angeles.  Billy Wilder, I.A.L Diamond, Mr. Diamond’s wife and Billy’s wife and Hershel Bernardi came in and saw me dancing and Billy Wilder’s wife said [to Billy] there’s your Suzette Wong.  And Billy says “What makes you think she can do it?” and she said “Yeah.  She’s capable of doing it.”  She was getting the biggest kick out of it.  I was talking to the audience and throwing my tassels and dancing.  So next thing I know I got a card coming back saying “My name is Billy Wilder.  Would like you to come in for an interview.”  So I wind up doing that.  So while I’m doing Irma La Douce I got a call to go in and see Russ Meyer and it’s hard to be Varla wearing hot pink.

Sam:  Did you go in to see him in hot pink?

Tura:  I went in during my lunch break from doing the wedding scene from Irma La Douce and I was wearing a hot pink outfit in pink shoes, pink elbow length gloves and a pink box hat.

Sam:  What was Dean Martin like?

Tura:  He was a sweetheart!  Everyone kept asking me if he drank as much as in his shows and the answer is no.  He did not.

Frank Sinatra: "When you were with him you were special to him."

Sam:  Now you were involved with Frank Sinatra….

Tura:  Yeah….I slept with him.  Frank the stud. (Laughs)

Sam:  What can you tell us about Frank Sinatra.  I don’t know how well you knew him…

Tura:  Well Frank was one of those type of people that if you were his friend, you were his friend.  If you were not his friend you were “non granta.”  When you were with him you were special to him.  You were basically the undivided attention for him.  That’s the way he was with me anyways.  I always loved that because he made me feel very very special, but then so did Elvis.

Sam:  Well I was going to ask about Elvis.

Tura:  Elvis always made me feel like I was the most special woman in the world.  He made me feel like I was the queen.  This is what he said.  He said “You are the only female I will ever love.”

Sam:  That’s hardcore.

Tura:  I said “What?  You could wind up falling in love with somebody else.”  He said “No.  They will be somebody I’ll care about but not necessarily someone I’ll love.”

Sam:  How did you meet Elvis?

Tura Satana was a close confident of Elvis Presely: "He would call me all the time and anytime he would get down or depressed. He’d usually call me in the middle of the night."

Tura:  I met him on a beach in Biloxi Mississippi.  I had just finished my show and I was walking on the beach along the gulf coast and I was unwinding because I usually do that after I entertained because my routines were usually anywhere between fifteen and forty five minutes long.  So I was basically unwinding and as I was walking down the beach, he was coming up the beach and I [was thinking] “Oh, here comes some guy that’s gonna hit on me” and then as we walked closer he smiled me and I looked at his eyes and I saw these gorgeous blue eyes and those are the kind of eyes you fall into.

Sam:  Now I’ve talked with some other people who have had encounters with Elvis and they all made the comment that when they were with him it was like they were in a different world.  How would you describe Elvis’ world?

Tura:  I found that he was one of the loneliest people in the world.  With all the people who surrounded him he was extremely lonely.  He tried to detach himself from the rest of the people.  With me he used to say “Your one of the only people I can sit down and talk to.  Your one of the only people that makes me feel that you don’t want something from me.  You just want to be with me.”  Everybody else was just take, take, take from him and I never took anything from him.  He always said that I gave him more then he could possibly repay me, and that was a very nice to say, but basically that was about it.  He was down to earth with me while somebody else he would be separate.

Sam:  Do you remember when the last time you say Elvis.

Tura:  Last time I saw Elvis was 1962.

Sam:  So you never saw him near the end of his life.

Tura:  He talked to me but I didn’t see him.  He would call me all the time and anytime he would get down or depressed.  He’d usually call me in the middle of the night.

Sam:  So you two just had a really long friendship.

Tura on the rumour that Quinton Tarantino was going to remake "Faster Pussycat" with Britney Spears in the role of Varla: " think if he ever did that that’d I’d kill him. He’d kill my part so I would kill him."

Tura:  Yes, and I always felt that it was really bad for me that I didn’t marry him because he would probably be alive today.

Sam:  So earlier this week there were reports that Quinton Tarantino remaking Faster Pussycat!…Kill!…Kill!

Tura:  Yes.

Sam:  What do you think of that?  Why do you think there is a need for a new version of Faster Pussycat?

Tura:  I don’t think there is.  Quinton Tarantino doesn’t think there is either.

Sam:  So this is just a rumor.

Tura:  Yeah.  I heard him say on more then one occasion that you can’t improve on perfection.

Sam:  Well that did surprise me because remaking classics doesn’t seem like his kind of thing.

Tura:  He loves that picture just the way it is.  He doesn’t think he can do any better then that.

Sam:  He seems to have a real respect for those kinds of films.  But there is another ridiculous part of this rumor saying that Tarantino wants Britney Spears to play Varla.  What do you think of that?

Tura:  I think if he ever did that that’d I’d kill him.  He’d kill my part so I would kill him.

popcultureaddict.com's Sam Tweedle with Tura Satana.

So there you go Mr. Tarantino.  You’ve been warned.  I don’t know about you, but there is no way that I’d mess with Tura Satana.

Tura Satana is truly a delightful woman and a real pop culture original who has lived a life beyond what most of us can even imagine.  A documentary on this amazing lady is in the works for 2009, as well as the release of her upcoming book.  Make sure to check out her web-site http://www.turasatana.com for more information.

I would also like to thank Ryan Bruce Levey of Vagrant Films for helping put this interview together.  Thanks very much for your assistance for giving me an opportunity that I’ll never forget.