by Katie McLaughlin, CNN
(CNN)—When Piers Morgan asked Barbra Streisand who her favorite actor of all time was, the legendary actress and singer opened up about a unique road trip she took with the late Marlon Brando in the 1970s.
In an interview on Friday’s Piers Morgan Tonight, the actress, singer and director talked to the CNN host about Brando, her long career, the Democratic Party, her new movie The Guilt Trip and more.
“(Brando) wanted to take me to the desert, to see the wildflowers,” said Streisand.
She said he wanted to “sleep over in a ghost town,” but Streisand refused his advances.
“I was such a nice Jewish girl that I just said, ‘Marlon, I can’t stay overnight with you. I’ll go with you for the day,’” recalled Streisand.
“Marlon clearly wanted to do more than just look at flowers with you,” Morgan pointed out.
Streisand said that while she did turn the legendary actor down, the pair remained friends and often talked on the phone “for hours and hours.”
Fans of Streisand may be surprised to learn she considers herself to be an actress who sings and not the other way around.
“I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress,” Streisand said.
In The Guilt Trip, Streisand plays Joyce, who Morgan calls “the archetype of Jewish mama.” Joyce is a single mom whose inventor son, Andy (Seth Rogen) invites her on a cross-country road trip to try to sell his product.
Streisand’s career has spanned more than a half-century and netted Grammys, multiplatinum albums, Emmys and Oscars for acting, directing and, of course, singing.
“You must have the cabinet room that’s the size of the New York Yankees,” Morgan said. “I mean, does any of that really motivate you? Do you ever look at it and think, yes, I’ve not done badly for a young girl from Brooklyn?”
Streisand, 70, said losing her father at such a tender age—she was only 15 months old—fuels her urge to be remembered.
“I want to have made marks here,” she said, “and records and films, television shows, they do that. They say you existed, you were here.”
Nevertheless, Streisand doesn’t like performing in front of people, which she said she realizes is odd.
“I never know what to do during the applause,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”
In fact, Streisand did not perform live for 27 years after a 1967 concert in New York’s Central Park where she forgot the lyrics to some songs in front of a crowd of more than 130,000.
Morgan told Streisand that The Way We Were remains his “single favorite movie of all time,” and that he once even broached the subject of a sequel with Robert Redford.
Alas, movie fans hoping for an on-screen reunion of Katie (Streisand) and Hubbell (Redford) will be disappointed to learn that a sequel is just not meant to be—not unlike Katie and Hubbell.
“I talked to Robert Redford about it,” Morgan said, “and he said he had been resisting your clarion call for a sequel ever since.”
“It’s such a good story; these people,” said Streisand, who noted that while she understands Redford’s urge to avoid sequels, “this happens to be a great story.”
Streisand told Morgan she had hoped to release a sequel on the film’s 21st anniversary. Her idea for the film would have centered on Katie and Hubbell’s daughter Rachel’s political activism at UC Berkeley and the Democratic National Convention in 1968.
“Why have you been so consistent in support of Obama?” Morgan asked Streisand, a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party.
“I can’t even imagine thinking about what would happen to the Supreme Court if a Republican were the president,” said Streisand.
When Morgan asked Streisand if she had ever been in love with a Republican, she said “never,” and that it wasn’t likely to happen “unless there was an enormous sexual chemistry” and the would-be couple never discussed politics.
Streisand noted that for her, President Obama’s proudest moments have been his support of gay rights and his stance for women.
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