Kim Novak, 92, reflects on decision to exit Hollywood

Kim Novak is looking back on her Hollywood journey and the life she built after stepping away from the spotlight. 

The 92-year-old screen legend will be honoured with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 1, the same day Kim Novak’s Vertigo, a new documentary about her life, makes its world premiere.

Novak became an international star after signing with Columbia Pictures at just 21.

She quickly rose to fame with standout roles, including opposite Frank Sinatra in Pal Joey and her most iconic performance alongside Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic Vertigo. 

Despite her success, she ultimately walked away from the industry to pursue painting and to dedicate herself to rescuing animals.

“When I left Hollywood, it isn’t like I just wrapped up my life,” she told The New York Times in an interview published Aug. 25. 

“Suddenly I was free to express everything on canvas and not have to be the canvas.”

Novak explained that she struggled against the control of Columbia studio head Harry Cohn, who attempted to shape her image. While she fought for better roles, she admitted the quality of scripts declined after his death in 1958. 

“When he passed away, nobody knew how to control the studio, so nobody ever went out to buy scripts. Harry Cohn did all of that,” she said.

By the mid-1960s, she began distancing herself from Hollywood, settling first in Big Sur and Carmel before eventually moving to an Oregon ranch in the 2000s. She shared her life with veterinarian Robert Malloy, whom she married in 1976, until his death in 2020.

A fiercely independent spirit, Novak said she was never willing to become someone she wasn’t. 

“I’m a very independent person who needs to express myself in my way, in my time,” she shared. “I’m willing to compromise, but I’m not willing to be someone I’m not.”

Opening up in her upcoming documentary gave her the chance to confront the past. 

“With this documentary, I was able to let out a lot of feelings, and there were things that needed to get out and needed to be said. I felt it was an opportunity to document my life, and I was expressing a lot of ghosts in my past.”

She has previously been candid about why she walked away, telling PEOPLE in 2021 that “I had to leave to survive. It was a survival issue.” 

She explained that during her career she “fought all the time” to keep her sense of identity, saying, “I lost a sense of who I truly was and what I stood for.”

Now, as she prepares to be celebrated with one of cinema’s highest honours, Novak reflects not only on her film career but also on the freedom and fulfillment she found once she stepped away from Hollywood.