Faye on Christina

Jessica Lange said something similar when she did Feud:

The honest truth is I did not read that book and I never saw the film so I can’t speak to it with any great insight or knowledge. Joan’s relationship with her children, from what I know and all of my research, was very … Here’s a woman who grew up in one of the worst, imagined childhoods. A terrible family life, crushing poverty… Really farmed out, almost like an indentured servant. Physical abuse, sexual abuse. So that’s not the makings of somebody who comes to motherhood with a tremendous amount of personal experience. From what I can tell, she wanted desperately to be a mother. But I think she also felt strongly about certain things like discipline and generosity. She would make the children give away toys or Christmas presents. But they were children of a Hollywood star; they had hundreds. So why not? Why not have them learn that lesson of being generous? She grew up under such hard circumstances and she wanted them to understand sacrifice, discipline and what hard work means. I don’t see anything necessarily wrong with teaching your children those lessons.

But I was not one of her children, nor were a lot of other people who have made judgment on her. I don’t know Christina’s book, I don’t know the movie, so it’s hard for me to speak to it relevantly. I can just speak about how in all the research I did, which included many books and interviews, that it didn’t support that kind of monstrous motherhood that a lot of people think of when they think of Joan Crawford.