Charlie & Paulette in MODERN TIMES (1936)

According to Paulette, she learned everything about acting from Chaplin. He would tell her, “Baby, don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Because when you make a mistake, they love you." She always said the best movie she ever made was Modern Times. Here Paulette remembers her first day on the set:

I was about to start the picture of Modern Times. I’d been a showgirl and a model and all those things were wrong with me. The way of walking and everything. And I walk in and I’m wearing a Valentina—you know the Russian dressmaker. A plain little dress but so expensive! It cost five hundred dollars then! You know, a day dress. And I had my hair done to be beautiful and eyelashes on and came walking in—the Goddard Walk. I’ve lost it, thank God. I had to….I’ll tell you what he did that absolutely cured me—you see, working with Charlie was the greatest school for acting that anyone could ever, ever have. I mean, he knew it all. But anyway, this day that I walked in he said, “That isn’t it, baby."And he took a bucket of water and threw it on me and that’s how I got my hairstyle in Modern Times. It broke my heart. And I cried and cried and cried. And he said, “Cry, damn it, cry! Camera!” And he called Rolley [sic] Totheroh over, who loved me so much—you could tell by the camera. He’d bring it like a kiss, a caress. And he was just a plain cameraman but such a dear man. And Charlie’d say, “Rolley, get the camera in here! CRY! God damn it, get down on your knees and look up at me!” And tears were running and it was the best shot I ever had! And that’s how my hairstyle came. It was never set after that. (Gilbert, Opposite Attraction ) 

"Paulette was dressed in rags. She almost wept when I put smudges on her face to make her look dirty. 'These smudges are beauty spots,' I insisted. It is easy to dress an actress attractively in fashionable clothes, but to dress a flower-girl and have her look attractive, as in City Lights, was difficult. The girl’s costume in The Gold Rush was not such a problem. But Paulette’s outfit in Modern Times required as much thought and finesse as a Dior creation." (Chaplin, My Autobiography)