Joan Crawford Left a 'Scary' Impression on Mia Farrow: 'I Got a Strange Vibe from Her'

Joan Crawford had a lasting impression on one actress.

In a recent conversation for Interview magazine, Mia Farrow opened up to actor Cole Escola, 38, about some unusual encounters from her early Hollywood days – particularly with the late screen icon.

As Escola shared their admiration for Crawford’s film Our Dancing Daughters, the 80-year-old didn’t hold back. “She’s scary,” Farrow revealed. “And she was scary in person as well.”

During her teenage years, while filming the TV version of Peyton Place on the Fox lot in California, the actress described a strange encounter with Crawford.

At the time, the Academy Award winner – nearly four decades Farrow’s senior – was married to Alfred Steele, the then-president of Pepsi-Cola. 

According to Farrow, she began behaving in ways that struck the young actress as deeply odd – leaving a lasting impression that clearly lingers to this day.

“For whatever reason, she started sending a whole refrigerator of Pepsi Cola for my trailer ’cause I was in a TV series called Peyton Place,” she explained. 

“I don’t particularly like Pepsi Cola, but a lot of Pepsi Cola kept coming to my trailer, more than anyone would ever want,” Farrow added. “And then she came over to see me, and I got a strange vibe from her.”

Away from the set, Farrow also had a few weird moments with the legendary actress in New York at her mother, Maureen O'Sullivan’s, house. 

“I hung up people’s coats for my mom when they came into the house. And I hung her coat and out falls a flask of alcohol,” she recalls. “She grabbed it like that, and she put it in her handbag. She drank quite a lot.”

Following that, 17-year-old Farrow was invited to Crawford’s apartment in the city. Thinking it was a party, she agreed to go. “But I arrived, and I was the only one there,” she told Escola. 

Everything in the apartment was green, bathed in low, moody lighting. There were no other guests.

Feeling extremely uncomfortable, young Farrow made up an on-the-spot excuse to leave. “I just made up a lie that I wasn’t feeling very well and I didn’t want to give her any diseases,” she shared. “I think I said the word ‘diseases’ as I walked out of the room. I was scared of Ms. Crawford.