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Raquel Welch on , Mae West, and Janis Joplin

Raquel Welch on , Mae West, and Janis Joplin

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Actress Raquel Welch calls her 1970 film version of Myra Breckinridge, in which she played a transgender woman, a "stinker" and hopes someone remakes it as the "funny and erudite" movie it should be, in an interview with Out.

The iconic star will be the subject of a retrospective of her films at Lincoln Center in New York February 10-14 and says her costar Mae West, with whom she reportedly feuded while making the film adaptation of Gore Vidal's best selling novel, was unhappy on the set. Welch recalls a visit to West's home prior to filming. While West was often surrounded by a bevy of musclemen, none were present when Welch stopped by. "But a lot of white furniture," Welch says." A lot of 25-watt pink bulbs around. You could barely see! She was something..."

Welch reveals she's glad she made the film, which was a notorious flop upon its release. "I think it means that someday, someone somewhere will have the cajones to come along and really do it the way Gore intended it," she says. "And make it the funny erudite movie it really should be. Because this stinker... If you had a contemporary version of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon writing the stuff between Myra and Myron the way Hepburn and Tracy talked, then it would be a hoot!"

Welch also recalls meeting late bisexual rock star Janis Joplin when the two were guests on Dick Cavett's popular talk show the day after Myra Breckinridge premiered in New York. "I was so upset for one reason when I was looking at her," Welch remembers. "I was thinking, 'I'm such a big fan, I'm sure she doesn't know I had been to three of her concerts.' And then I didn't say anything! I was so upset afterward, but she was looking at me like I was from the moon! I reran it the other day. You can look at it on YouTube. It's like the two opposite women on the planet!"

Watch video of Welch and Joplin on Cavett's show below.

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