Liz Taylor speaks from beyond the grave in 'Lost Tapes' documentary

One of Hollywood's most fascinating movie stars narrates her own remarkable life story in HBO's "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes."

It's not artificial intelligence recreating the unmistakably clear voice of British-born superstar Elizabeth Taylor. Instead, the documentary directed by Nanette Burstein relies primarily on 40 hours of "lost" interviews conducted with the 32-year-old actress throughout 1964 − a year that marked the end of Taylor's scandalous fourth marriage to Eddie Fisher and the beginning of her furious fifth marriage to Richard Burton.

Combined with rare home movies and photographs from the Elizabeth Taylor Estate, "Lost Tapes" is a spellbinding look at the movie star during the height of her fame (Taylor died 47 years later, at age 79 in 2011).

"She was just in a different moment," says Burstein. "I felt good about using these tapes because the estate wanted her story to be told from beyond the grave. At the time, Elizabeth Taylor was being overly judged, and that fear factor does not exist anymore."

Here's what to know about "The Lost Tapes" (HBO, 8 p.m. EDT/PDT Saturday, and streaming on Max ).

Why were the Elizabeth Taylor tapes lost and found?

The 40 hours of interviews were recorded by Life magazine writer Richard Meryman, who also conducted Marilyn Monroe's last interview. Meryman was ghost-writing a Taylor biography and the research tapes "were never supposed to be heard by the public," says Burstein. "They sat in his attic for decades." Meryman died in 2015 , and years later, his widow unearthed the tape trove.

There were plentiful cocktails served during the Taylor interviews, as discussed on the tapes.

"Morning interviews or late-night interviews, it didn't matter. There was always alcohol flowing," says Burstein. "There's a little of that discussion in the documentary, but there was so much more of it on the tapes."

Yet Taylor is in total control of the interviews, often telling Meryman he couldn't use the story she had just told for the book − stories now revealed in "The Lost Tapes."

Burstein, too, insisted on filmmaking control. The actress' four grown children "learned a lot about their mother just hearing her inner life" when they saw the finished movie.

Elizabeth Taylor attracted Beatlemania-like crowds − and ever-present paparazzi

"The Lost Tapes" shows startling 1952 footage of Taylor marrying her second husband, Michael Wilding, in London, with police holding back screaming fans.

"It's early on, well before any scandals, when she's not even at the height of her fame," says Burstein. "But it looks like The Beatles just turned up. That was shocking to me."

The paparazzi would later swarm, making Taylor's life miserable.

"Photographers dressed up as priests would come to the door. Photographers would get inside the house dressed up as workmen or plumbers," Taylor says in the tapes. "Paparazzi would climb over the wall, and we'd turn the hose on them."

'I never loved him,' Liz Taylor says of fourth husband Eddie Fisher

Singer and actor Eddie Fisher was best friends with Taylor's third husband, producer Mike Todd, whom she married in 1957 (Fisher's then-wife, Debbie Reynolds, was Taylor's matron of honor). Taylor was devastated when Todd died a year later in a plane crash. "It was the defining tragedy of her life," says Burstein. "She was really in love."

Fisher went from comforting Taylor to marrying the still-grieving star in 1959, three hours after finalizing his divorce with a blindsided Reynolds. Enduring an unrelenting public scandal for the relationship, Taylor says in the tapes that she never loved Fisher.

"I liked him. I felt sorry for him. And I liked talking with him about Mike," says Taylor, taking a swipe at Reynolds for allegedly fanning the sympathetic media coverage. "She put on such an act ... like the whole thing came as a big shock."

Taylor was stung by the public outcry, saying Fisher and Reynolds had a broken marriage.

"The public didn't know of (the couple's) personal unhappiness Mike and I had known about. As far as (the public) were concerned, I broke up a perfectly happy marriage," says Taylor. "There was hostility in people's faces and letters."

Li Taylor met a 'hungover' Richard Burton, thought their love would last forever

On the "Cleopatra" set, Taylor got acquainted with her party-loving Mark Antony co-star Burton.

"I've never seen a gentleman so hungover in my whole life," Taylor says in the tapes. "He was terribly nervous and sweet and shaky. And that just endeared me so to him. My heart went out to him."

Taylor left Fisher for Burton. The star says she and Burton were "bonded together with bands of steel" and that it was obvious that marriage "would still be here 50 years from now."

"At the moment, she's so confident they will be together forever," says Burstein. "That's obviously not how it played out."

The legendary couple divorced in 1974, before marrying again in 1975, which lasted less than a year.

Elizabeth Taylor felt she would have won a 1960 Oscar 'if I'd been a good girl'

Taylor believed the tabloid scandal around Fisher cost her a best actress Oscar in 1960 for "Suddenly, Last Summer."

She had finally reached a place where the industry considered her "an actress and not a movie star," Taylor says. "That was terribly important to me. If I'd been a good girl, I probably would have won."

Taylor would go on to win two Oscars in her career: best actress in 1961 for "BUtterfield 8" and in 1967 for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Liz Taylor speaks from beyond the grave in 'Lost Tapes' documentary