Julie Christie in the LA WEEKLY

Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago, Julie Christie as Lara in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (top); Julie Christie as a woman suffering from Alzheimer's and Gordon Pinsent as her husband in Sarah Polley's Away from Her (bottom).

Ella Taylor on Julie Christie in the LA Weekly:

"Spend half an hour with Christie, and you'll experience her ambivalence about Hollywood and almost everything else. Plainly shy and gun-shy, the actress hates being interviewed as much as she hates speaking in public. But as luck would have it, we had met two weeks earlier at a panel discussion about Away From Her, with Christie, her genial co-star Gordon Pinsent and a preternaturally confident [Sarah] Polley. Only Christie looked as though she was expecting to be shot at dawn. Casual but classy in black pants, white top and an elegantly streaked mane of hair, she all but cringed when she got a standing ovation, then uneasily fielded questions while appearing poised to bolt at any moment.

"One on one, she's more relaxed and conversational, but guarded at first. Sixty-six years old and sporting no visible surgery, Christie remains a total fox in burnt-yellow cargo pants and a reddish scarf. She still has that lithe, lovely body, slim-hipped and small-breasted enough to lose her — way back in 1962 — the part of Honey Ryder in Dr. No to the more amply endowed Ursula Andress. But it's that face, with its promise of sexual challenge, regret and despair, that directors have always loved to film in tight close-up."