Iconic actress on her life: ‘I’m feeling it’s close to the end’

Hollywood icon Kim Novak is 92 years old, and in a new documentary — Kim Novak’s Vertigo — she makes a heartbreaking admission about what that means.

“It’s not easy getting old,” Novak said. “I’m feeling it’s close to the end.

“I’ve been feeling the need to free something.”

The Chicago native began her acting career in 1954 and quickly rose to fame. Parade noted that Novak was known across her career for working with legendary names such as Jimmy Stewart and Frank Sinatra, and appeared in major films such as “Vertigo” and “The Man With the Golden Arm.”

But at the height or her fame, the outlet noted, Novak moved away from the city to Oregon and became an artist in 1966.

“I had to leave to survive,” she told People Magazine in a 2021 interview. “I lost a sense of who I truly was and what I stood for.”

Novak continued acting, though, and had movies roles through 1991.

“My teachers were the animals, not just dogs and cats, but other animals, horses and llamas, whom you have to meet halfway, because they’re not ready to accept humans,” she said. “I had to learn to win them over. They understand a person who’s genuine so I had to become more real and that made me rely on my inner self — and that also encourage me to paint. Everything seemed to flow from that.”

According to Parade, Novak said the new documentary is something she viewed as a way to “wrap up” her life.

“Like you would in a confessional, I expressed the things that mattered and meant something in my life,” she said.