Never not dare to hang yourself

Bette Davis said that the best professional advice she had ever received came from Charles Laughton. Laughton, an actor Bette greatly admired but with whom she had never worked (to her enormous regret), visited her one day on the set of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). It was the first time the two had ever met. That day Laughton would give Bette a piece of advice which she treasured for the rest of her career. 

On 9 April 1972, at the request of a journalist, Bette described in a letter Laughton's visit to the set and the advice he gave her. As can be seen from the hotel stationery she used, Bette was writing from Rome where she was probably filming Lo Scopone Scientifico (1973).

Source: RR Auction

Transcript:

April 9, 1972

Dear Mr. Letters (?),

I hope the enclosed will be a satisfactory answer to your request.

I'm sorry it has taken so long to answer you. I came to work here very suddenly and some of my mail has just reached me.

Thank you for including me in your book. If you do.

Most sincerely,

Bette Davis

Will you send me a copy to o.k.

Will be here another month

During the filming of "Elizabeth and Essex" Charles Laughton visited the set one day. The best advice professionally came from him that day. As he played my professional father, Henry the Eighth, I said "Hello papa." I told him I had my "nerve" playing his daughter at sixty years old. I was at the time thirty, myself. He replied "Never [not] dare to hang yourself." In other words attempt parts that you feel are beyond your capability. That is the only way for an actor to improve his work.

Bette Davis

Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth I in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and Charles Laughton as her "father" King Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933).