Mariette Hartley has appeared in at least ten motion pictures and more than 150 television shows, but she is best known, and most lusted after, as the sarcastic beauty who steals the last frames from James Garner in their popular commercials for Polaroid. Freelance writer Dick Lochte met with her at her home just outside Hollywood. He reports: "She has an answer for any question. I had wondered if it had been Laurence Olivier who had finally legitimized commercials. Without missing a beat, she smiled sweetly and replied, 'Actually, it was Ricardo Montalban.' No wonder Garner doesn't stand a chance."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: What was your first commercial?

Mariette Hartley: Safeguard soap. I was Martie in the drugstore. Procter & Gamble had a 15-page bio on this lady who has lost her husband and whose kid has been run over by a car. She walks out one day and almost gets killed herself. Anyway, she ends up at this drugstore, selling Safeguard. Honest to God, this is the truth. I had to read the whole bio. I told the producers, "Yes, I think I can handle it. 'Hi! Do you want Safeguard soap? 'Cause you sure stink.' " That was in 1966, it seems to me.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: How did you get into focus with James Garner on the Polaroid spots?

Mariette Hartley: That was the result of a very classy call. I arrived to find several beautiful ladies waiting. I get intimidated by youthful beauty. Not in an aging, menopausal-actress way but in a how-can-we-be-up-for-the-same-commercial? manner. You know, ladies with their hair down to their bottoms and those great blue eyes. I had a boyfriend who used to say that my eyes were like two piss holes in the snow, so I've always been conscious of my little slanted eyes. And I'm big and tall, and the minute I see these ladies, I get bigger and taller, with slantier eyes and shorter hair. I end up with a hunchback, and it's just awful. So I got in there, and all of this venom that I was feeling spewed out on the screen and I got the part. Actually, I'd been putting men down for years. And not getting paid as much for it.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Did you get a lot of money for snapping at Garner?

Mariette Hartley: I was paid scale for the first six or seven commercials. Then, when they continued to call me back, I began to realize it was sort of a campaign. Jimmy's contract was up by then, and one of the stipulations in his new contract, he says, was that I was to be paid more, because my being paid scale was embarrassing. In any case, I'm being paid more now. A lot more. Polaroid has been very generous with me and with my charities, such as the California Child Study Foundation. Because of the Polaroids, I can literally work 16 days a year and then do anything else I want to, such as appear in a play for little or no money.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Are you and Garner supposed to be married in the commercials? Or are we seeing a more modern arrangement? Most male viewers probably hope that that's the case.

Mariette Hartley: Me, too. I would much prefer to play his mistress. But she's really too nasty to be his mistress. Mistresses have a tendency to try to keep the status quo. She takes real risks with some of the things she says. She seems quite real to me. They're kind of old shoes together.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: The Mean Joe Greene Coke commercial has been turned into a TV movie. Is there any chance that the Polaroid pair might wind up in their own movie?

Mariette Hartley: Oh, I've tried. A friend of mine wrote a wonderful script for us. But Jimmy said no. He's a fascinating, very talented man, but he has specific ideas about what he wants to do and when he wants to do it. I think he's a little afraid that we'll become too much of a team. I don't think that will happen. I'd love to do a full-length feature with him. I think it would be successful. But he doesn't seem to agree.