I was born in Saltsjo-Duvnas, a little town outside of Stockholm, Sweden, and am of Swedish/Swiss heritage I was sent to a boarding school with nuns at an early age because those were the best schools in the country and I was pretty promiscuous as a little one— not with men, but with books. I loved reading and at age 6 I decided I wanted to learn languages because I couldn’t stand reading books that had been translated — they lost the essence. By age 7 I had read every book in the little village library.
Uschi, what accent do you actually have?
It’s a mixed accent, unfortunately, because although I was born and grew up in Sweden, since I was fifteen. I have lived for a number of years in other conn tries—Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France and now the United States.
You have played many nude and erotic scenes in films here—have your travels helped free you for this?
Well, my travels have broadened me. Like in the Canary Islands I went into the red light district because I wanted to see how the people are there, where they are natural and talk freely. There was a girl in one of the bars who had a thing about having the biggest breasts around and she was boasting about them, and when she saw me she said. “Hey, you foreigner. I’ll bet you’re not for real. I’ll bet you’re all stuffed in there!” And I said back. “How do you know that I am? Ill bit you so many pesetas that I’m not, that I’m all real” So we laid our bet and we went together into the ladies room and I showed her, and she paid off.
I was interested in sex because it had been so forbidden in school. This is not the same as nudity, though. When you grow up in Sweden, nudity is very natural because we have so much cold weather that to be able to expose the skin to sun is a big treat.
Even in the 1950s, all the women’s gymnasiums and athletic places, they had nude sunbathing, and I was a nudist most of my life.
Did she ask you to let her handle them to make sure?
Oh no, they don’t know about silicone shots, only stuffing pads into the bras.
Then in another bar, in Portugal, again in a red light district on a waterfront, the girls were very nice, many of them, and they would tell me that they have six or seven brothers and sisters, and maybe the father was dead or gone away, so they were supporting their family as the older sister. Whoring is the only thing they know, a way of working to make enough money to take care of their family.
One time I was sitting in a bar and my friend went to buy cigarettes, and a man came up to me and he said. “How much?” So I named him some ridiculously high figure and he got disgusted and said, “I’ve had much better than you for half of that!” So I smiled and said, “How do you know what I can do?” But before he could answer my friend came back and I went off with him, and this man was probably thinking, “Oh, what a fool, paying all that money for her!”
In one of the places they had two girls making lesbian love, but I think they were acting. I don’t think that they cared for each other—probably prostitutes, because they’ll do anything for money.
But in Sweden you grow up being nude, more or less. We have a lot of islands, and even in the restaurants on the islands everybody is nude, and you don’t identify the two—sex is sex and nudity is something else. A nude body has really nothing to do with sex.
What has the nude body to do with, then?
It’s just very comfortable. Why put clothes on to go to swim and then lie next to the pool in a wet swim suit, if you can live without clothes.
I am married, but free to have relations… We realize that everyone desires someone else occasionally…
I came to the US in 1967 for the freedom. Coming from a small place in Europe, I remember my mother saying, “You can’t possibly get out of the house in these tight skirts. What will the neighbors think?”
Is there reason for clothes in a warm room like this?
None whatsoever.
You would do the interview in the nude if you felt more comfortable?
Not with you, because I don’t know you, but if I were on my own I certainly would be nude. But I live in this society so I adapt myself.
But in Sweden—?
I would have clothes on also because a guest is coming and I don’t know him and how he reacts. I would only be nude with friends which I have been around all my life or I know well, I respect other people’s attitudes.
You say you grew up with freedom in nudity— how do you feel when you encounter other societies with different altitudes? Do you feel you have an advantage?
Yes, I think that people who grew up nude have a tendency to look at themselves as they are and be honest about themselves, I think people are against nudity so much because many men, or many persons, would lose their status. Imagine that a director or someone with a big expensive suit and a cigar and the whole thing, having a hit of belly, and him suddenly being nude! He doesn’t have the status any more, so of course he would think it’s ridiculous. But if you are nude all the time you lose all your phoneyness and you are just you, what you are, a person—and I think that’s great. Why pretend or put on something—why not just be you? I don’t suggest now that everybody is suddenly going nude shopping or whatever, but I don’t think they should make such a fuss about it, just take it for granted.
There in Sweden you would enjoy the freedom of the other people who would have the same experience with nudity?
Yes, and I do it here too because I’m a member of a place called Elysian Fields ever since I came to this country. I go there once, twice a week to sunbathe, swim, play tennis, and it’s beautiful. It’s not like a nudist camp, but it’s a growth center. And people don’t have to be nude, but of course everybody is nude, because it’s suddenly ludicrous to have clothes on and get marks and sun burns and things if you don’t have to.
Possibly that’s what I saw in your stills and didn’t realize it?
Yes, no marks of bras or bikinis. So for the nudie films you don’t need body makeup on untanned skin, anywhere.
You joined this nudist group out of habit then — and how about in Switzerland, the same?
No. the Swiss are very much conservative and prudish, but there is one place which a group fought for, in the middle of Switzerland, but it’s just a tiny place and you feel caged in— no comparison with Sweden or other such places. It’s just like a swim place that you would find here that you pay your fees and you got your cabana—very small with huge walls around it, But of course if you go up into the mountains there are lots of lonely places with little streams where you can be nude, not official but just you alone, so no one cares.
Would you just as soon be nude alone as with other people?
Oh, much rather. Again, it has nothing to do with sex. I’m more attracted probably to a person with some clothes on than nude, because l find a person, a woman mainly, looks much more sexy with maybe a beautiful negligee or a nice sexy little outfit.
How about a man — the same?
Oh. I like the male body, but find it just as attractive with some clothes on. Really, I don’t identify sex with nudity at all.
When I undress for nudity I feel nothing special because I’m nude all the day in my house. The only time I get dressed is when l have to go shopping. I find clothes hot and uncomfortable. I haven’t had clothes on all day. I put clothes on when I was expecting you. Only people who are not used to nudity have a sexual response. Many men who have never been to a place like Elysian Fields say, “Oh, what if I see a girl that I really like and I get a hard on?” I say, “It never happens,” You’re out in the open and you see ten, fifteen, twenty girts so nothing happens. At home with candlelight, it might be another scene, but to me it doesn’t mean anything, because I live like that.
I needed to break away from all fences, from all rules, and I heard somewhere that all the nuts and bolts and loose people would roll into California and so I came straight to Los Angeles. I joined Elysian Fields as soon as I was in Los Angeles because that was the nudist place which appealed to me. I went up to Sandstone once on an invitation from the owner, just to see what it was like, but I got so turned off because I remember they had this huge living room with mattresses on the floor and there was like three or four couples making love on these mattresses and then there were some guys standing around them, one with a stopwatch to see who could go the longest. And it was such a turn off. it was more analytical than anything else.
My husband tells me about women he comes to know, as a matter of sharing the interest, and I do the same.
Does nudity have any effect at all to heighten or dismiss sex appeal?
None whatsoever.
Then sexual relations are not necessarily part of the nudity at the place you go to?
Not at all, though it’s logical that people who are nude don’t beat about the bush. They talk about what they want to talk, straightforward, and if a man is attracted to a girl he’ll come up to her and say—or a girl to a man —not because she is nude so much, but because you have that attitude.
He or she suggests that they become lovers?
Yes, he asks her and if she’s interested, fine, and if not, fine too.
Then do the sexual relations take place there or is it a matter of subsequent dating?
Dates, or go home, or whatever. This is a place where children can go, a family place.
So there are no facilities for the sexual relations?
Not directly
Except maybe the bushes?
Not outside, because there are places which can be overlooked from other houses, so the establishment would be against people making love in the open. But there are little meditation rooms where people can go in and do whatever they want, but they are not to be locked, so sex is possible if you really want to. But it’s not a swinger’s place, by no means.
Now, I do believe that if two people are really in love and married, and the husband occasionally goes with another woman, not having a big affair or anything but like when he was unmarried, and he finds the other women attractive, so what’? It’s only normal.
I’m married and living with my husband when he’s here in Los Angeles.
I started making $50 a day and I worked up to $1,000 an hour. Being in sex magazines never bothered me. If I could give somebody some joy, all the better. I did covers for rock albums and calendar work as well.
And then I started to get into films. The first was Cherry, Harry & Raquel! for Russ Meyer. The film was actually finished. but I didn’t blend. There were a lot of awkward parches in it and he just couldn’t edit it, so he needed a girl to pop up at the most unusual situations for no real reason, and he cast me.
He’s not here?
Not right now — he’s not in the country.
So wherever he is, he’s free to have relations with anybody?
And so am l, because although we love each other, we also realize that everyone has desires for someone else occasionally.
So that way you solve the problem of variety with marriage?
Yes, but I think when a couple is married and they could be together, but he’s going out with someone else, that’s wrong, because he should pay her attention and be with her as much as he can. But if she’s working on doing something else and he has someone he’s infatuated with and finds attractive, he should be free to go ahead, but he should be honest about it — he shouldn’t cheat.
You mean when business separates them?
Yes or like when she’s working and at that time he’s free, so he should be free to see someone, but he should tell her about it—he shouldn’t cheat. I think that dishonesty is the worst thing that can happen.
Is your husband American or European?
European, from England. We had this attitude before, from our life.
Is this true of Europe always, or of this and recent generations?
Of recent generations. People are together because they love each other, and they want each other, companionship, but they don’t chain each other down and they give each other freedom.
Do you think that keeps them together more?
Yes, and they’ll never fall in love with someone else. Because if you have someone you really love, you don’t fall in love again. You really have something, but you still find sexual attraction for someone else, and you should be free to express it. Otherwise you fed like a canary in a cage and you want to break out, especially the man, and this makes for unhappiness and leads to divorce eventually. Under those circumstances to get the other relations you must get a divorce. Or what a man does, mainly in the Spanish countries— I lived in Mexico and in Spain for four years— he is perfectly free to have a mistress but the wives never go out of the house — you’re there to have your children and that’s it, and do the cooking. And that’s really wrong, I think a woman and a man should have the same liberties, And if a man is free to have a girlfriend occasionally, so should the woman. It’s ridiculous to say that only the man has the sexual urge for others — the woman has it just as much. Not every woman, because there are women who are not interested in sex, but they are few and far between!
Then your husband tells you about women he comes to know sexually?
He tells me, yes, as a matter of sharing the interest, and I do the same. The main thing between a couple is to be completely honest, and if they love each other enough, you’re happy if the other one is happy.
These films you made in Sweden, were they features or shorts?
Ninety minutes, and they would be shown in art houses or in regular film theaters as a fore-film. And I did a lot of amateur stage work.
Because your primary Interest is in serious acting?
Yes, I would like to be proud of what I am doing in acting, I don’t want to become a star or have recognition like that, but if someone sees me in a film, I would like to have done a good job. I did the skin flicks here because it is acting and it is pretty difficult at times, especially most of the time when you have to do things with people you wouldn’t want to be on a desert island with, so it isn’t an easy job.
Did you make any other films in Europe, after Sweden?
No, just some theater work in Switzerland and then I came here to Hollywood.
And how did you break into films here?
I did pretty-girl modelling first for all the major magazines and in all the double-folds and covers, and so the agency started to get calls from people who wanted to use me in films. These were skinflicks, but usually films which had a story and had a reason for the sex, but they did have nudity so they would call them sexploitation pictures. Some of them were pretty good and made good money.
I wanted to work as an interpreter straight away because I knew’ all these languages, but when I went to the Berlitz School they said, “Show us your green card and we get you to work.” The next job was getting a green card, but while I was doing that people would always approach me on the street about modeling. I thought, ‘If that’s what they enjoy and are willing to pay me, why not?’ Nudity had nothing to do with sex.
When I started to develop at 11 I had to strap myself in, because it wasn’t seemly to have breasts, and we all wore uniforms. By age 15 I was a 40 DD.
I got teased a lot about my breasts, you know, like, “When is the time to milk the cow?” And stuff like that. I started to wear bras that were much too small and then I would shove a little on the side and shove a little underneath, so that it looked like I had smaller breasts. The nuns made it clear that it’s highly unattractive [to have big breasts], and that maybe one day when I was old enough I would come to the decision to cut some of it off to make it more appealing, in those days you didn’t know of breast implants; all you thought of was making them smaller, not bigger. I’m the only one in the family with breasts and my sisters thought it was a big burden to have.
When I started dating then I realized how appealing breasts are to men and then I stopped being afraid and stopped hiding them. Early on I developed a kind of a hunchback walk because I wanted to cover them up, so when I had my first boyfriend I learned to walk straight because I knew he would enjoy them and other people would enjoy them.
measurements
44-26-35 in (112-66-89 cm)
Height: 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight: 134 lb (61 kg)
In these sex films your big breasts would be especially attractive?
Not necessarily, although Americans are attracted to big busts, more so than Europeans, because Europeans say, “So what?” and they look on the legs or whatever.
They are not breast-oriented?
Not especially at all. Breasts are breasts and the European men don’t bother with whether they are big or medium or small — they are more interested in legs and nice figures altogether and the face—the face is more important than anything else, and also what’s behind the face.
And how do you find American men respond?
It’s hard to point to national trails. Your kind of man is your kind of man wherever he comes from. He can be Italian, or German or American — it’s just the right man, and nationality has nothing to do with it, really.
That’s for an individual, but I’m asking about viewing a sex object — to know you is one thing, but to see you on the screen impersonally, then you become somewhat of a sex object —to what do the men of the audience seem to be attracted to?
Here they seem to be attracted to big breasts and sexy faces, and maybe not so much the legs.
Then wouldn’t you have special assets for the American film?
Probably yes, but I don’t know if it has been helpful, aside from giving me work. As I said, I like to do real acting, so it can be detrimental to a certain extent, because I’m immediately looked at as having big breasts—which I am proud of and it’s nice to have big breasts— but I’d like to do some acting and I really work at it, and once I can do some good acting, the breasts won’t matter, I’m sure. If an actress is good enough, breasts or no breasts, she’ll get recognition for what she’s doing.
Have you been in audiences where films in which you appear nude are shown?
No, I’m always invited to screenings of the skinflicks but I’ve never gone.
Then you don’t know the shock wave that passes through the men when they see you?
No.
Well, I can tell you that this happens! Doesn’t anything special happen on the set because of this?
I find the people I work with mostly pleasant, and I don’t give it much importance. Either I like people and my heart warms toward them and I’m friends with them, or they’re not exactly my cup of tea and I try to stay away from them.
When they are not your cup of tea on the set, are there remarks from them?
When there are remarks, cynical or anything, I just don’t react. Like they might say. “Is it all real?” or “Can I ask you a personal question—what are your measurements?” Stupid things like that, I ignore. But most people are nice, and to people in these films it’s nothing new and they’re very honest and straightforward, and I respect people for being honest and saying what they mean.
“I can do some good acting, the breasts won’t matter, I’m sure.”
In these films you have done lesbian scenes?
Yes.
How does that affect you?
No way whatsoever, I don’t take anything personal in the films and I don’t have any feeling for what I do, except that you can call it acting. There are so many other things you have to watch out for in film acting like the lights and the direction you are getting, so it’s impossible to be personal That’s why I would never do any hardcore movies for any money in the world, because that isn’t acting anymore, but pure pornography, and for me making love is very personal. Again, I don’t blame the people who do it if they have a different view about it—live and let live, fair enough. But it’s not acting because they are doing it.
Then the sexual contact in the simulation doesn’t bother you?
No, not at all, and there’s nothing sexual—in fact, it’s very hard to try to act sexy, because you don’t feel that way.
Then you really have to act?
You bet, and most of the time the person you are working with you could never feel sexy with even if you wouldn’t be under a camera. It’s very rare anyway that I find someone that I feel attracted to, so I’ve never found it in making a film. You’re just cast together and, far from choosing the person, you’ve never seen each other before. Occasionally you find someone who is warm and friendly and it makes work a little easier. Still you’re not sexually attracted to each other while you do it. You just get to know each other and it’s less stiff.
Do you feel you will break, through now into better films?
Yes, and I would say it’s from the skinflick experience and going to acting school, I think of films I did right at the beginning and I remember how bad I was, and I know exactly if I would do them again how much better I would be. I’ve done a few films I’m proud of because I really worked well in them, but I’m still learning and the school I’m going to is tremendous — it’s by Jack Waltzer. from New York, and he‘s a fantastic teacher. We have ten people in a workshop and we do scenes; readings, exercises. If I hadn’t already done those skin pictures. it would have taken me a lot longer to advance in the workshop. Also, I don l think there is anything wrong with the skinflicks — if it gives pleasure to a man, why not? If I would see a James Bond film, which has quite a bit of sex in it, and the sex would go just a little bit further, it would still be very tasteful but it would be a gas. Tasteful because it would still leave something for the imagination, which is why there are not many tastefully made skinflicks. They should use more imagination because nudity just isn’t sexy.
Is there a tendency for these films to drop to the lowest level to deliver the bodies and get the money back?
There is this tendency, and they always think the more sex they have in it, the more likely they are to sell the films. However, if they would just make a good script instead of just a nudie script and have sex, but have a good reason why it is happening, and have it sexy so the imagination is still open, they would sell.
To the same film houses?
Yes, and they would have a better name, I don’t know what the hard-core film is to others, but I found it boring. If somebody gets pleasure out of it, fair enough, but I personally would never go to see one. I saw a couple of hard-core things at a friend’s place and the others were ready to go on all evening, but I had enough. The people who do the act in them almost look like they are looking at their watch and saying. “Let’s get it over with”— not much enthusiasm there, it’s all mechanical. Maybe there are some with couples who like each other— that would be a difference.
You see, in Europe, and especially in Scandinavia, we have those hard-core films all the time and we don’t make a big fuss about it. They’re there and they are very good for men who are lonely and who haven’t had a girl for a while and they enjoy it, and I think there is nothing wrong with it. But why make so much fuss about it— it’s not worth it. I’m sure if you would have legalized it here, people wouldn’t be so eager to see them any more.
Russ was Germanic, and Germans like value for money, so when he realized that I was a good bookkeeper and a good cook and good housekeeper he got me to do all these things, I cooked for the crew. I did the make-up. I did the budget. I would make the calls. I was the continuity girl I just did anything, and I enjoyed it.
Then i became associate producer Russ paid me rock bottom money and when I’d say, ‘How come I’m getting so little money?’ he’d say. I got you in my will? He wanted me to become the trustee for his films, Russ just always assumed that I would be there to take care of things, but finally I had to say, ‘Look, Russ, I have a very good job now and I’m making good money and I’m traveling a lot. I can’t do that.’ And he says, ‘In that case I II take you out of my will.’ And I say. ‘That’s very good. Give it to someone else that needs it.’ He got mad when you disagreed with him.
“Uschi Digard is one of the most aggressive sex partners anyone could hope to find.”
Russ Meyer
When Meyer’s mother eroded into invalidism, Digard bicycled over to the elderly woman’s residence to bathe and care for her. “Everything was real about Uschi,” continues Meyer. “She actually wanted to be screwing, even when only her facial features — not her ‘nether regions’ — were visible in a shot. Uschi Digard is one of the most aggressive sex partners anyone could hope to find. Her whole life was devoted to screwing. Marvelous. We need more women like that.” Femme Fatales, Vol. 6, No. 10/11. April 1998.
I modeled and made films from 1967 through to the late ’80s. And even after that I still did select type of things.
I think very fondly of my modeling career and of the people I worked with. I haven’t had one bad experience and the money I made, l invested well, and it set me up.
Nude modeling is a good career if a woman enjoys it, if she’s a little bit of an exhibitionist.
What would you like to folk about on sex or your life—to get off your chest, so to speak?
I hinting of my doing interviews for casting, I know that many girls say they have bad experiences, or in the skin films themselves, but people treat me as I want them to and I’ve never had any trouble. I always find everyone very courteous, and if I go to an interview it’s very professional.
Have you had any propositions during a casting interview?
I’ve had propositions, but nicely done, and I would also refuse them nicely.
How is a proposition nicely done?
Like after I’d gotten the job, people would say to me that they find me very attractive and they’d like to get to know me better, and how about going out for a cocktail or dinner, and I would say however l would feel. But films is my business and my private life is my own, and I would not like to combine both, So I would decline very nicely and say that I’m flattered by the offer, and I really never had any trouble.
Haven’t there been any more direct propositions than this?
I have had people saying to me, “There are three girls out for the job and the three of you are equally talented and pretty—now, the one who is also going to be friendly with me is going to get the job.” And I would say, “I’m afraid I’m the wrong girl.” Then I’d get an answer like. “If you want to keep your Victorian attitude, you’ll never get ahead in films,” And I’d say, “Oh, well, that’s just too bad, thank you, and good-bye.” But that happens very rarely.
But apparently they chose the friendly girl of the three?
It happens, but never to me. I think there is a lot of gossip about it that is completely untrue. Most of the casting directors are interested in getting the job over with and getting the cast together, especially if they have already done a few films, I think it must become very boring to cast girls for skinflicks.
And so with photographers, it must be just a job for them, because many girls are not exactly a joy to be around with for a whole day, and it’s really work. The girl are tired and just waiting for the day to be over and get the money. They’re not interested in the photographer and it’s just a job. It’s work to hold a good position all day long, for five or six hours — it’s hard work. You have to stay in an angle that’s most uncomfortable, your back hurts, and everything hurts, and you’re waiting for focussing — you get tired so it’s not all that easy as one might think.
You’ve been able to make a living from the skin films as such?
I could have very easily, but I turned down a lot of work because I thought it was not tasteful enough, I have some money because I have been working before as an interpreter—I speak eight languages and I can teach. And so I save a little and I’m doing all right — I can pay the rent. Especially now I choose what films I want to take to get better and better parts. It helps not to be desperate to get a job, and also you’re much more likely to get a job if you don’t really need it that badly. You go into an interview with the attitude, “If I get it, good — if not, so what?” And if you do a reading, you’re not panic stricken, and you do it as cool and natural as you can
And it helps to be ready for those good parts coming!
Source: Interview published in Knight Vol. 09 No. 04, 1972, and autobiographical excerpts from The Big Book of Breasts, edited by Dian Hanson, 2006, pp. 224-231.
The Forbidden Book of Beauty 