Elizabeth Perkins Reveals the Sweet Ritual She Shared With Elizabeth Taylor on Set
The actress shared how Elizabeth Taylor opened up during daily lunches on the set of 'The Flintstones'
Key Takeaways
- Elizabeth Taylor insisted on eating lunch with Elizabeth Perkins every day on set.
- Perkins said Taylor shared intimate stories about Richard Burton and Mike Todd.
- 'The Flintstones' became a treasured memory because of Taylor’s warmth and openness.
When Elizabeth Perkins stepped onto the set of the 1994 live-action film The Flintstones, she expected to play Wilma. What she didn’t expect was to spend her lunch breaks listening to Elizabeth Taylor share the intimate stories of one of Hollywood’s most legendary lives—stories shared over sandwiches in the studio commissary, like two friends catching up.
For Perkins, then in her early 30s, those quiet midday moments became something she’d treasure far longer than the film itself.
Watch Episode 14 right here! ‘What Matters with Elizabeth Perkins: Art, Authenticity & Self-Acceptance’
A standing lunch date with a screen legend
Taylor, who played Wilma’s mother Pearl Slaghoople in the Universal Pictures adaptation, made her intentions clear from the very first day on set. There would be no eating alone in trailers. There would be no hiding away from the bustle of the lot. There would be lunch—together—in The Commissary.
“Every day that she worked, we had lunch together and she insisted on going to The Commissary,” Perkins recalled. “They’re like, ‘Are you sure you don’t want lunch in your trailer? Miss Taylor.’ And she said ‘No, we’re going to The Commissary. Elizabeth will be joining me.'”
For anyone who knows Hollywood, the choice was remarkable. Stars of Taylor’s stature almost always take meals privately, away from crew members and studio staff. But Taylor wanted to be out among people—and she wanted her younger co-star right beside her.
“Just being able to walk into The Commissary with Elizabeth Taylor, I thought, ‘Wow, this is—I’m having a moment and I love it,'” Perkins said.
Stories from one of Hollywood’s most storied lives
What happened over those lunches was something Perkins could never have anticipated. By the time of The Flintstones, Taylor had lived a life that defined an era—multiple Oscar wins, eight marriages, decades of headline-making romances and a powerful humanitarian legacy built around her AIDS activism. She had also been famously married twice to Welsh actor Richard Burton, in one of the great love stories of 20th-century Hollywood.
And she was willing to talk about all of it.
“She was telling me about her whole life,” Perkins said. “She would tell me about Mike Todd and ‘Then when I was married to Richard,’ and my mouth was agape.”
Mike Todd, the showman and film producer Taylor married in 1957, died in a plane crash the following year—a heartbreak that shaped much of her public story in the decades that followed. Burton, whom Taylor married in 1964, divorced in 1974, remarried in 1975 and divorced again in 1976, was her great romantic counterpart, and their on-again, off-again love played out in newspapers and magazines around the world.
For Perkins, hearing these stories firsthand was the kind of experience most people can only imagine.
“I was in my early 30s and I was just absorbing all of it,” she said. “It was fantastic.”
A film that became something much more
The Flintstones, directed by Brian Levant, was a commercial success when it was released in May 1994, drawing on the beloved Hanna-Barbera animated series that originally aired from 1960 to 1966. The film featured John Goodman as Fred Flintstone, Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble and Rosie O’Donnell as Betty Rubble alongside Perkins as Wilma.
For Taylor, the role of Pearl Slaghoople was a rare comedic turn in what would be one of her final theatrical film appearances. For Perkins, it became a project she’d always remember—not for the Bedrock costumes or the prehistoric puns, but for the woman who sat across from her at lunch and opened up her remarkable life one story at a time.
“It was fantastic,” Perkins said—a simple summary of a once-in-a-lifetime gift.
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