Cher Interview

WOMEN.COM INTERVIEW

Cher
Staying power
by SHERYL ALTMAN, 3/99

Make no mistake: Cher is back. With a top-10 single on the Billboard charts, a starring role in the upcoming film "Tea with Mussolini" and a new autobiography in bookstores, the 52-year-old entertainer is in the spotlight again. And happy about it.

"I feel like I have a lot on my horizon," she says. "At first I didn't like the idea of being in my 50s. In fact, I hated it. But you have to always be figuring out new ways to stay in the game, you know?"

So marks the end of a temporary retirement, one which Cher blames on chronic fatigue syndrome and an entertainment industry obsessed with youth. "What am I supposed to do until I'm old enough to play the Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft parts?" she asks. "Go camping for 10 years?"

Seems like the same feisty Cher -- but it's not. She's softer, more reflective and virtually tattoo-free thanks to several laser treatments.

Which doesn't mean she'll be sporting sensible shoes any day soon. She still prefers spike-heeled boots and leather jackets. "I've never compromised who I am -- not ever," she says firmly. "If I've gotten anywhere in my life it's been on my own merits."

The Anti-Blonde
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Cher has never been one to play by the book -- which is perhaps why she's finally written one of her own. "The First Time," her autobiography, is both frank and funny, chronicling her rise from awkward girl to superstar.

"It's honest, not sensational," Cher says of the book. "And God knows it could have been. I've led a sensational life."

Born Cherilyn Sarkisian in 1946 in El Centro, Calif., Cher dropped out of school at 16 to become an actress. "I was always fascinated with celebrities," she recalls. "But all I saw was Sandra Dee and Doris Day, and I knew I would never look like either of them. I remember idolizing Audrey Hepburn just because she wasn't blonde!"

"My mom used to tell me to be glad I was different," says Cher, who is part Native American. "She said, 'Your day will come.'"

Bringing Sex to TV
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Cher's day did come -- when she met 27-year-old Sonny Bono, an aspiring songwriter who was working as a meat deliveryman in Hollywood, in 1963.

"I remember thinking he was the strangest little man I had ever seen," she laughs. "He looked like Julius Caesar. But it was like one of those bolt-out-of-the-blue moments, when something inside of you just says, 'From this second, you're never going to be the same again.'"

Sonny and Cher teamed up both professionally and personally, marrying in 1964. The single "I Got You Babe" became a number-one hit the following year and the pair landed a series of TV specials in 1971 that turned into a regular weekly variety show.

"We were really radical for the times -- we brought sex to TV," Cher says proudly. "People tuned in to see how naked I got. I dared to bare my belly button."

Although "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" ran until 1974, the couple's marriage broke up 1972. Why did it end? "I wasn't 16 any more," Cher says. "Sonny needed to control things and I didn't want to be controlled."

Her Nine-Day Marriage
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Following her breakup with Sonny, Cher struck out on her own, making solo albums and marrying "bad boy" musician Gregg Allman in 1975. She left him after only nine days, but their rocky relationship lasted another two years and produced a son, Elijah Blue. Cher and Sonny briefly resumed a professional relationship in 1976, after each had failed as solo acts.

"You can't go back -- I know that now," she says of the reunion with Sonny. "You can't beat a dead horse. But trying something new, striking out in a whole new direction, that's not an easy thing to do. It's like reinventing the wheel."

Cher did go on to reinvent herself -- first as a Las Vegas performer with sold-out concerts and later as a critically acclaimed screen actor in the films "Silkwood," "Mask" and "Moonstruck."

"People would laugh, 'Cher -- a serious actress?'" she says, somewhat bitterly. "But I got the last laugh." The Oscar statue she took home in 1988 for her role in "Moonstruck" now serves as her bedroom doorstop.

In the '80s, her singing career also resurfaced with four Top-10 hits including "If I Could Turn Back Time." "I felt pretty good about myself," Cher says. "Things were going well. Too well."

Chastity Comes Out
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In the late 1980s, Cher found herself battling a debilitating condition later diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome. "I couldn't summon the energy to even go out of my house," she says. "I turned down work because I had no strength." Passing on starring roles in "Thelma and Louise" and "The War of the Roses," she instead turned to infomercials ("they were easy and I needed the money"), a move she later regretted.

"I became a joke," she says, referring to the constant spoofs on Saturday Night Live. "My career took a dive."

Then came another blow -- her daughter Chastity announced she was a lesbian. While she's since accepted her daughter's sexuality, Cher admits she was initially shocked. "I was angry and confused," she says. "How had I not known? I didn't know how to take it so I turned away from it."

For much of the early '90s, Cher stayed out of sight. Except for the occasional tabloid story detailing her failing health, the public seemed to forget about her entirely. "I became an afterthought," she says. "The offers stopped coming in. But I wasn't ready to throw in the towel. Not yet."

Sonny's Death
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If she couldn't appear in front of the cameras, Cher decided she'd work behind them. In 1996, she directed and co-starred in the HBO movie trilogy, "If These Walls Could Talk." The series, which delved into the issue of abortion, also featured Demi Moore and Sissy Spacek.

"I always wanted to direct," Cher says. "I liked the idea of being able to bring my vision to a project -- to build something from the ground up."

In her new role as director, Cher also found an outlet to mourn her former partner. Following Sonny's fatal 1998 skiing accident, she organized a televised tribute that aired on CBS last spring.

With her current success as a musician, author and director, Cher's vision of her own life is once again optimistic.

"You can't just sit around and watch life pass you by," she says. "You have to keep dreaming. Sonny taught me that, and I intend to do him proud."

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Last updated August 1, 2000
Moved in July 5, 2000
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