Earlier this week at the 2014 YMA FSF Geoffrey Beene National Scholars Dinner, The Daily caught up with Iris Apfel about her upcoming documentary and what recently caused her to slow things down. J’adore this woman!
How are things going with the documentary you’re doing? Any release date?
We’re very excited, but I don’t know because it’s not quite finished.
Are you enjoying the filming?
Well, if I didn’t enjoy it I wouldn’t do it and then Albert [Maysles] and his crew are very unobtrusive. I haven’t got any idea what it’s going to be like because they just tape me doing things and they’ll put it together in some way, I hope. We’re never in the same place at the same time for very long, so it’s difficult to get together.
They aren’t with you tonight?
No, they’ve had me going to any number of parties, so they don’t need any more footage of that.
It must feel very glamorous!
They are all so nice and it’s also low key. They don’t make me feel awkward at all. I didn’t want to do it at the beginning. I thought, ‘Oh my God, who would want to see a documentary about me? That’s stupid, thank you very much, bye bye.’ Then Linda Fargo said to me you must be crazy, people would drop dead—they pay the Maysles to do something and here he’s begging you and you’re saying no! So I went up to visit him in Harlem and we all fell in love, so I said I’d give it a crack.
How were your holidays?
Very quiet! I hurt my leg so I had to rest.
Oh, no! At the busiest time of the year!
Well, it was good for me. For me, it’s always the busiest time of the year. I never sit still. And when I get so over tired, God always sees that something happens to slow me down. I really believe that. I almost didn’t make it here tonight but Ken [Duane] was so upset I couldn’t come that I dragged myself.