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Loretta Swit: ''I never contemplated being a television star.''
The actor said that she was "seduced" by the series.
Though Loretta Swit never realized that she was destined for such a surreal level of fame, the M*A*S*H actor knew that she wanted to pursue performing as a full-time career. However, during an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Swit confessed that she hardly gave a second thought to working in television.
“All my life, all I ever wanted to be was an actress,” Swit said. “I never contemplated being a television star. But that’s what happened to me, because I just kept working.” In the 1970s, television began an incredible journey from “boob tube” to a medium capable of telling compelling and thoughtful stories. Many of these stories were featured in M*A*S*H. Swit, who starred in the popular program, was thankful for such a development.
“For me to have wound up in the class act of television with these intelligent scripts is just incredible. I have no complaints...I’ve never felt hampered or unhappy. I had lots of other offers. I did the pilot of Cagney and Lacey. I’ve always been offered other series and movies. But I always stayed with M*A*S*H. I was always seduced by the wonderfulness of the writing and the people.”
The quality of the series was aided by Swit, who began sharing her own ideas for character storylines.
“After a while, the writers began to listen,” said the actor. “Sometimes they would say, ‘Hey, that’s better than what I thought of.”
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