Farrah Fawcett Recalls Iconic Swimsuit Poster in Newly Revealed Q&A: 'Wish I'd Held My Stomach In!'

The late Farrah Fawcett is seen speaking at length about her 40-year career in a long interview recorded in 2006 and released by SAG-AFTRA just this week.

In it, the notoriously private star of "Charlie Angels," one of the most iconic sex symbols of the 20th century who was later the recipient of praise for her dramatic chops in projects like "The Burning Bed," self-consciously discusses how she chose acting, her tumultuous "Charlie's Angels" days, and that poster!

As far as acting went, her attitude was, "What did I have to lose?" The blonde bombshell, who was 59 at the time of the interview, giggles about the fact that a Hollywood talent scout called her at college several years in a row until she relented.

She describes her early experiences as cringe-worthy, having to be told, "No, you have to face the camera," in a screen test for the 1970 mega-bomb "Myra Breckinridge."

For that film, she remembered being "so low on the totem pole" she didn't flinch when its stars — Mae West and Raquel Welch — each objected to Farrah's hair as being too similar to their own!

"This is a strange business!" she recalls thinking.

Initially wearing black-and-white, a no-no for Ms. West, Farrah was quickly put into a nightgown worn on-screen elsewhere by Julie Andrews.

Discussing "Charlie's Angels," Farrah reveals that her surprise departure from the no. 1 hit series in spring 1977 — after just one season — was a matter of knowing her worth. When producers refused to meet her demands, she walked. Interestingly, she asserts, "I didn't know it would be terrible to leave... I didn't break my contract — I never had one! There you go."

She also talks extensively about her unforgettable 1976 swimsuit poster. Shot by Bruce McBroom, the simple poster, drenched in Fawcett's natural beauty and charisma, sold a staggering 12 million copies.

"Still surprised," is how she characterizes her reaction to hysteria over the image 30 years after the fact. "Okay, it's nice... I wish I'd held my stomach in!"

Fawcett died of anal cancer on June 25, 2009, at 62. She is survived by her only child, son Redmond James Fawcett-O'Neal, with her partner Ryan O'Neal, who died in December of last year.

Watch the whole interview here.