“We were all as blind as bats. Theda Bara couldn’t see a foot ahead of her and poor Rudy (Valentino) groped his way through many a love scene and I really mean groped. They all used big reflectors to get extra light from the sun – that’s how we acquired that interesting Oriental look. We didn’t have any censors in those days, but we did have our own bosoms and our own eyelashes… And we never took ourselves seriously.”