Geena Davis’s memoir proves she is the celebrity you’d most like to hang out with

Modelling underwear for Victoria’s Secret meant Davis was totally relaxed when she was required to wear only lingerie on the set of her first movie: Tootsie. That film’s star, Dustin Hoffman, became her first mentor. He encouraged her to get involved in the editing process and take up space. He also taught her what to say if co-stars hit on her: “Oh, I would love to – you’re very very attractive – but I don’t want to ruin the sexual tension between us.”

It was the line she’d use on Jack Nicholson, who invited her to his house, along with a whole group of models from her agency. “He sent a limo,” she says, “and when we arrived we watched him swim laps in his pool for a while; then he made us tuna sandwiches with a glass of milk, like we were 15 years old.” Later he’d call her up and ask: “Soooo Geeeeena… whenzit gonna happen?” She used the Hoffman defence; Nicholson was unimpressed.

Davis is likeably discreet when it comes to her real romances. She’s generous about her first two husbands, restauranteur Richard Emmolo (1981-1984), a sweetheart who ironed her clothes, and Jeff Goldblum (1987-1991), whom she met on the set of Transylvania 6-5000. They considered installing bumper cars to get around their house and decorated one bathroom like a wedding venue, while hanging 50 cuckoo clocks in another.

She describes more pain in her third marriage (to director Renny Harlin, 1993-1998), and says very little about her long-term relationship with the doctor Reza Jaharry, father of her three children, which ended in 2017. She does say she found it hard to be herself in relationships, playing the roles of “girlfriend” or “wife” instead.

Davis was still with Goldblum when she auditioned for Quick Change with Bill Murray. She alleges that – despite multiple protests from her – Murray insisted that she lay on a bed while he massaged her with a strange device called the “Thumper”. Later, she writes, he screamed at her on set. (Bill Murray was unavailable for comment.)

She’s telling this story, she says, “not to reveal that Bill Murray has a very dark side, that’s hardly news”, but to ask why she put up with it. She revisits an old TV interview: “Watch how Bill flirts with me and paws me and even pulls down a strap of my dress; take note of Hall’s grotesque enjoyment of all this while you’re at it. For that matter, notice how I giggle and go along with it.” Davis takes total responsibility for her part in propping up the patriarchy.