Old Hollywood icon Kim Novak, 93, reveals bizarre plan to turn her body into compost as she speaks candidly about death in new interview

Old Hollywood legend Kim Novak has revealed her unorthodox plan to have her body composted upon her death so that trees can be planted from it.

She enjoyed a dazzling decade as a movie star, most famously acting with Jimmy Stewart in the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo.

Among her other seminal roles was that of a small town girl besotted with William Holden's rugged drifter in the steamy William Inge adaptation Picnic.

However in the 1960s she withdrew from showbiz, and she has dedicated her life since then to such pursuits as painting and her love of animals.

Now 93 and living on a ranch in Oregon, she has shared her hopes for her friends to carry out her wishes and grow trees from her mortal remains.

'I now think of it as when I go, it’s okay, because I’m going to become part of that beautiful tree and I will keep growing,' the Bell, Book and Candle actress told People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

The Daily Mail has contacted a representative for Novak for comment. 

Novak's menagerie over the years has included not just traditional choices like dogs, birds and horses, but also a snake called Sincerely and a goat.

'Leaving Hollywood, I moved to an environment where I could have animals around me and learn who I really was,' the Chicago native reflected.

She argued that actors have a propensity to 'lose' themselves in their characters, so life away from the camera helped her discover her 'value' and her beliefs from animals who were not 'looking at how much money you make or where you live.'

The creatures she had amassed were instead 'looking for honesty,' she said. 'When they learned to trust me is when I learned to trust [myself] the most.' 

Her latest remarks come months after she issued a withering verdict on the planned movie Scandalous!, in which she would have been played by Sydney Sweeney.

Colman Domingo is slated to direct the film, which will center on Novak's interracial romance with Sammy Davis Jr, to be played by David Jonsson.

Novak insisted this year that she 'would never have approved' Sweeney's casting had it been suggested to her, in a profile for the Times of London. 

Sniffing that Sweeney 'sticks out so much above the waist,' she expressed concerns the movie would overemphasize the carnal aspect of her connection to Davis.

'There’s no way it wouldn’t be a sexual relationship because Sydney Sweeney looks sexy all the time. She was totally wrong to play me,' she insisted. 

Novak shot to stardom in 1955 with two movies, Picnic and the film noir The Man with the Golden Arm, directed by Otto Preminger and starring Frank Sinatra.

She became a reigning box office draw, reuniting with Sinatra in a love triangle with Rita Hayworth for an adaptation of the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey.

With Jimmy Stewart, she made not only Vertigo but also Bell, Book and Candle, a fantastical romantic comedy that served as the inspiration for Bewitched.

After a 14-month marriage to English actor Richard Johnson, Novak left Hollywood in 1966 for Big Sur, a picturesque seaside redoubt in Northern California.

In a documentary about her life called Kim Novak's Vertigo, she explained that her decision was prompted by the fact showbiz 'swallowed people whole,' among them her acquaintance Marilyn Monroe, who died four years before Novak left the stage.

One of Novak's brief returns to entertainment was a presenting gig at the 2014 Oscars that resulted in a deluge of mockery and plastic surgery speculation.

Novak fired back by denouncing the 'bullies' who criticized her appearance, while confessing that she had availed herself of 'fat injections.' 

After her retreat from the limelight, she made occasional films but mostly lived in the country with her second husband, horse veterinarian Robert Malloy.

The couple exchanged vows in 1976, installed themselves on their Oregon ranch in the 1990s and remained together until his death in 2020 at the age of 80.