The Long Take

hollywood’s
secret weapons

Susan Traylor recalls her parents’ Method-style acting school and the scene of 1970s Malibu Colony

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By Christopher Bollen
July 5, 2023

It’s hard to think of a more golden California childhood than the one belonging to actor Susan Traylor, whose family home was situated on the Pacific Ocean in the famously free-spirited enclave of Malibu Colony. The daughter of celebrated screen and stage actors William Traylor and Peggy Feury, she grew up in the 1960s and ’70s alongside a self-selecting coterie of actors, screenwriters, directors and other Hollywood luminaries who preferred laid-back coastal living to the manicured mansions of Beverly Hills. Traylor’s parents, who had trained at the Actors Studio in New York, were something of a secret weapon in Hollywood: Their school in Los Angeles, the Loft Studio, honed a new style of Method acting that revolutionized the craft and helped define a fresh generation of students including Nicolas Cage, Sean Penn, Ellen Burstyn, Anjelica Huston and Michelle Pfeiffer. Traylor and her sister, Stephanie Feury, were the beneficiaries of their parents’ immense talents, with both going on to forge their own successful careers in film and television. Traylor has appeared in such diverse films as Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It, Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, Michael Mann’s Heat and Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg.

Galerie recently sat down with Traylor to recall the halcyon era in Malibu, where her “normal” childhood included mixing with Hollywood royalty and sleepovers with her best friend Quintana at the Joan Didion–John Gregory Dunne residence.

Audio Transcript

hollywood’s secret weapons

hollywood’s
secret weapons

Hollywood's Secret Weapons

By Christopher Bollen

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