Amber Tamblyn Jokes About Giving Dad Russ Tamblyn 'An Edible' Before 'The View' Appearance
Amber Tamblyn and her Oscar-nominated father, Hollywood legend and West Side Story star Russ Tamblyn, appeared on The View on Tuesday to promote Russ Tamblyn's memoir Dancing on the Edge: A Journey of Living, Loving, and Tumbling Through Hollywood. During their joint interview, Russ' daughter revealed that her father may have been experiencing a different kind of edge. As reported by Decider, Joy Behar told Russ, "You said that tumbling is your main skill and that’s what got you into these parts."
Russ responded, "I used it in all the films that I did. If I did a Western, I was able to leap on the back of a horse." He was watching a clip of himself stumbling through a scene from one of his classic films when Amber, age 40, interrupted him to make a joke: "I gave him an edible before we got here. Sorry, I interrupted you! You were able to leap on the back of a horse!" In addition, the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers actor was questioned regarding his signature movements performed on the sets of different productions, as well as a story he recounted in the book regarding his instruction of Elvis Presley on how to sway his hips.
He recalled, "I met him [at my house] then and I also came to visit Alex Romero who was the choreographer of ‘Jailhouse Rock.’ So I went to Alex and see how he was doing and saw Elvis again. I hung out with him a lot. I went to the movies with him. The limos would pull up in front of the theater and everybody would get out and form a line." Amber went on to continue the story and added, "Basically — let me jump in here. This is one of my favorite stories from when I was a little girl … Elvis came to the green room — you came backstage and he was like, ‘Oh, Russ. What do you think? Do you have any advice?’ Tell them what your advice was to him."
Russ's professional trajectory, romantic partnerships, familial life, artistic sojourn in Topanga Canyon, California, and much more are detailed in Dancing on the Edge. Russ, whose final screen appearance was in a 2018 episode of The Haunting of Hill House, twenty years after starring in The Haunting in 1963, is ecstatic to have published his memoir, which has been in development for over twenty years. Russ and his wife Bonnie Tamblyn disclosed in an exclusive interview with People before the book's April 9 publication that Amber was instrumental in capturing the actor's life on paper. He told the outlet, "Our daughter, Amber, is an author, and she edited a lot for us. And she brought a more modern perspective to it. She brought to it a more contemporary sensibility, especially from the viewpoint of women. That's really important."
