Teri Garr on how she got the part in "Young Frankenstein" (1974)

I have always been a fan of Teri Garr and this below goes some way to explain how and why . . . 

"I did the movie 'The Conversation' (1974) with Gene Hackman, (another favourite film) like one scene. It was a completely straight scene. Then I got 'Young Frankenstein’ (another favourite) after that and, yeah, that was my big break. And I went and auditioned at, like, a cattle call, 500 girls there. I think Farrah Fawcett was one of them. Everyone was auditioning for the part of the fiancee, and Mel Brooks kept saying, 'I want Madeline Kahn, but she doesn't want to do it.' She'd just done Mel's movie 'Blazing Saddles’ (1974) (yeah you got it! another fave!). And then finally one day, it was like my third call back, and he said, 'Unfortunately, Madeline is going to do the part of the fiancee, but if you can come back tomorrow with a German accent, I'll let you audition for the lab assistant.' I said, 'OK. Tomorrow? I have until tomorrow to get a German accent.' So I had to just jump in and do it, which I did, and it was great. It was really a great experience."

Garr has said that she based her accent on Cher's wig maker, with whom she worked on "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour."

"I like Cher. I still see her once in a while. I see her. I don't recognise her, but I see her."

One afternoon while shooting, Anne Bancroft (Mel Brooks' wife) visited the set and told Garr that she and Mel had seen "The Conversation" the night before, and Garr replied, "Oh, yeah, that turned out to be a pretty good movie." 

Bancroft responded, "Honey, THIS is a movie. 'The Conversation' is a film."