Barbara Hershey on Beaches, Woody Allen and breastfeeding on TV: ‘I was an innocent’

Now 73, the star of Hannah and Her Sisters shines in Jason Blum's new horror. She talks about why audiences are hungry for mature movies, and her unhappiness at becoming an accidental poster girl for cosmetic surgery

In 1973, Barbara Hershey - then known as Barbara Seagull, for reasons we'll get into shortly - went on the popular US talkshow The Dick Cavett Show and torpedoed her career. She was on alongside her then partner, the actor David Carradine, but when Hershey/Seagull walked out on stage, she could hear their eight-month-old baby crying off-camera. So she ran off and returned with the little boy, named Free. Unfortunately, Free continued to fret. So Hershey/Seagull breastfed her baby live on air. Cavett was stunned and so, clearly, were the producers, who cut to commercials.

Did you breastfeed the baby earlier or was that my imagination?" Cavett asked when they returned, Free now fed. I did it," Hershey, then 25, replied, entirely unabashed.