“The World According to Garp” had just opened, and a thirty-five-year-old Broadway veteran named Glenn Close was playing Robin Williams’s mother (!) and she was perfect! I had to photograph her.

My subject arrived in Malibu, bearing a very un-Hollywood face and style—more like your preppy East Coast roommate from boarding school—and the clothes and accessories that were provided for the shoot were a disaster (someday I’ll show the portraits with the tri-corner hat!). I got nervous—actually, I was in a quiet state of terror. How would I shoot her?

She soon reappeared in make-up looking absolutely radiant. But the clothes! In desperation, I threw her in a baggy coat and we went for a walk down by the lagoon. She became inspired, and immediately morphed into Meryl Streep as “The French Lieutenant’s Woman.” Finally, we were forced to return to my place and to the clothes.

She picked out a really “practical” double-knit suit (Oh no! Not the practical double-knit suit!). I grumpily set up the scene and she primly too a seat, morphing this time into a sweet but slightly awkward “proper” lady. She then did a ten-minute nonstop monologue (in pantomine) about a woman during a job interview explaining that while she had no secretarial skills, she’d be more than willing and quite adept at “putting out.” I found myself without assistants; they were literally rolling on the floor, crying with laughter.