Betty White: In My Experience
Photograph of Betty White at The Takeaway studio
This story was originally covered by PRI’s The Takeaway. For more, listen to the audio above.
Comic, movie star and seven-time Emmy Award winner, Betty White, will turn 90 next January, but she has no intention of slowing down. She has just written her fifth book, “If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t),” has a deal to write another and her TV Land show, “Hot in Cleveland” is slotted for a third season.
When asked by The Takeaway’s Celeste Headlee about retiring, White responds:
I don’t know the meaning of that word. I’m afraid you’ll have to define it for me. Retirement? Why? Why should I retire from something I’m enjoying so much? Why quit what you like?
In addition to acting, the 89-year-old is fulfilling her high school dream of being a writer, and in many ways, she sees her age as a plus: “Old age has some wonderful advantages. People spoil you rotten, you can get away with murder, and no matter where you go, you’ll turn around and somebody’s pulled up a chair for you. Whether you want it or not, there it is.”
Part of White’s appeal is her ability to deliver uncouth lines and still seem like a sweet granny. She explains that this is her own sense of humor, “You hear something, and an answer pops into your head and my mental editor goes to sleep, and before you can stop it, it comes out. So, I have a bawdy sense of humor, sure, but I don’t like dirty. I just like bawdy. But bawdy to some people, is dirty to others.”
White’s enthusiasm for what she does is palpable, and she’s made it clear that she’s not going anywhere:
Well I’m the luckiest old broad — as I always say — on two feet, because I’m doing the things that I love.
You can watch a video of the interview below:
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This spring, PRI’s The Takeaway is sitting down with some of America’s most fascinating elder statesmen and stateswomen: older Americans, long past retirement age, who are nonetheless still working to change how we live and work in this country in a series called “In My Experience.”
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