“Tony Richardson shooting A Taste of Honey was the new cinema in a way in Britain, and to be part of that you were breaking through barriers that would have been unheard of a couple of years before that.”
Working with the director is an experience that has stayed with Tushingham and taught her lessons she draws from today.
“He was just wonderful,” enthuses the lifelong Liverpool FC fan.
“He was fabulous with his actors, he was just so encouraging and he was an incredibly generous man.
“He would often give people opportunities they would never have been able to get, directing or being a lighting cameraman.
“What I learned from him, it was only on reflection that I realised I had, is that he not only cast his cast but his crew.
“It was very important for him to have the right people in the job because everyone is so important. People were happy and proud to be doing it and there was great enthusiasm for the project.”
Tushingham enjoyed a successful film career throughout the 60s, nominated for a further two Baftas and a Golden Globe for Girl with Green Eyes (1964) and The Knack . . . and How to Get It (1965).
When the British film industry started to dry up in the 1970s, she mainly acted in Europe then spent 20 years living in Canada with her second, now ex- husband.
A role in Carla Lane’s Liverpool-based TV sitcom, Bread, followed in the 80s, and she still works in TV and stage as well as on directorial projects.
Tushingham was last in her home city in July, to collect an honorary fellowship from John Moores University and to visit her nephew’s new-born twins.
She will be popping by to see them again this week, while she is in Liverpool for the screening of A Taste of Honey.
“I love it,” she says of the Clapperboard youth film project, for which the event is raising funds.
“To be able to encourage young people to be involved in a creative field is incredibly important and also it gives them a satisfaction and some confidence in themselves.”
CLAPPERBOARD Presents . . . Rita Tushingham and A Taste of Honey, tomorrow 7pm at FACT. Tickets £10 (£7 concs), 0151 707 4450.
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