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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Ask actor Stacy Keaches loyal fans why they love him,

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Speaker 1: and they'll point to a dozen different roles. He's played

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Speaker 1: Richard the Third, King, Lear Hamlet, Falstaff, and Willie Lohman

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Speaker 1: The Trouble Is banda people don't seem to take to me.

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Speaker 1: Keach has played captains and kings, pugilists and pub crawlers.

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Speaker 1: But before you typecast him as strictly drama, note Stacy

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Speaker 1: Keach's role as Sergeantstadanko in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke,

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Speaker 1: or as the president of Duff Beer in The Simpsons.

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Speaker 1: Take a hike, duff Man, You're a disgrace to the

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Speaker 1: Unitard And I know I'll never forget his cameo on

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Speaker 1: thirty Rock for its couchtown commercials. When did we get

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Speaker 1: so soft? You know what this country used to say?

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Speaker 1: It on logs, girders, poles, being comfortable. That's not what

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Speaker 1: America is all about. The Great thestcun Keach literally spit

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Speaker 1: into the camera for me. It was one of the

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Speaker 1: show's funniest bits. Ever. Keach is perhaps best known as

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Speaker 1: the irresistible, hotheaded, fedora wearing detective my camera, are you

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Speaker 1: for higher? My money is too dirty? Client unlesser performer

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Speaker 1: might have found himself with limited offers after what was

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Speaker 1: Keach's longest running job. Not so for the seventy one

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Speaker 1: year old actor. His key to career longevity is simple,

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Speaker 1: he says, quote, you need television and movies to make

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Speaker 1: a living, but you'll be taken more seriously if you

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Speaker 1: are stageworthy, stage worthy in Chicago and Washington, but especially

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Speaker 1: New York. New York audiences saw Keach most recently on

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Speaker 1: Broadway in John Robin Bates's play Other Desert Cities. Two

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Speaker 1: generations of a southern California family gather at Christmas and

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Speaker 1: find themselves reliving a painful family secret. Keach played the

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Speaker 1: conservative patriarch, and for him it was familiar territory. My

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Speaker 1: dad and my mom and dad were very conservative, and

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Speaker 1: every Easter, every Christmas we would take trips to Palm Springs,

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Speaker 1: the Shadow Mountain Country Club in Palm Desert, where they

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Speaker 1: had water slides, the very first water slub. We spent

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Speaker 1: a lot of time down there with a lot of

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Speaker 1: conservative people in our business, you know, Republican you know,

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Speaker 1: so that was that was an environment that I was

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Speaker 1: very familiar. What's it like for you now to work

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Speaker 1: with younger actors who are very much of today. Do

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Speaker 1: you find that the good ones operate the same way

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Speaker 1: or are they different? They're different, They're very different way. Well,

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Speaker 1: for example, we had Justin Kirk came in for Tom

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Speaker 1: Tommy Sadowski to play Trip the young you know, and

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Speaker 1: he's an actor that is you wow, you know, I

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Speaker 1: mean every moment is something different where I mean, there's

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Speaker 1: no consistency in terms. The only thing that was consistent

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Speaker 1: was inconsistency. You never knew what it was going to come,

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Speaker 1: you know. I kind of like that. I don't mind it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I mean, as a younger actor,

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Speaker 1: I probably would have gone nuts. I wouldn't have been

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Speaker 1: able to deal with that because you know pattern, Well

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Speaker 1: that's right, but I like I like that, I like

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Speaker 1: spot many and I like flexibility, and I think that

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Speaker 1: you know that as you've also learned how to handle it, well,

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Speaker 1: that's it. Keeach's philosophy about acting has changed over the years.

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Speaker 1: I think in my early days I started pretty much

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Speaker 1: as you know, from the outside and tried to get

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Speaker 1: a fix on what the character looked like, and then

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Speaker 1: perhaps what he sounded like after that, But mainly it's

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Speaker 1: looked I think you know that that was when I

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Speaker 1: you know, and I it wasn't the best way to start.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's better to start inside and

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Speaker 1: work out if you can't. And in later years I've

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Speaker 1: done that more and more. But I just finished a

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Speaker 1: picture with Alexander Payne called Nebraska, where he called me

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Speaker 1: and he said, you know you I was playing bad

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Speaker 1: guy in this, uh and he said, your teeth are

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Speaker 1: too good. So the whole character became centralized in terms

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Speaker 1: of you know, what I was in here. You know,

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Speaker 1: they they made these snarly teeth for me, and which

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Speaker 1: it was great, you know, and it sort of gave

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Speaker 1: me a feel and I would look at myself in

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Speaker 1: the mirror and make you know, facial expressions, and that

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Speaker 1: sort of gave me the feeling of where this guy

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Speaker 1: was coming from, you know. But it varies. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you're playing like I was just down in Washington,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna do false Staff again next year. And uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, he's just a big, fat, corpulent guy and

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Speaker 1: interesting me enough, even with all the physical manifestations of

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Speaker 1: that character. That character you got to go inside. I

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Speaker 1: mean that's you know. And when I was not enough

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Speaker 1: just to play the the look, No, not at all,

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Speaker 1: not at all. When I first did it was back

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Speaker 1: in Kaintive years ago. You did what Falstaff And what

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Speaker 1: did they a suit on you? Oh? Huge, just big.

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Speaker 1: You're very lean guy. I was, you know, and I

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Speaker 1: had to wear this big, fat suite the only Aldridge

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Speaker 1: designers leather costume for me. And what did they do

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Speaker 1: back then in terms of your face when you're lean?

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Speaker 1: Whiskers had a week of course and a bulbous knows

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Speaker 1: And I was shooting a picture in Great Barrington, Massachusetts,

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Speaker 1: into the Road with the James Earl Jones and Harris

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Speaker 1: Jule And I was shooting during the day and had

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Speaker 1: to go on stage in the park at night. So

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Speaker 1: I'd get in a car at five o'clock in the afternoon.

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Speaker 1: We'd drive down the tocnic and and I'd be making

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Speaker 1: up in the car in the front seat as we

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Speaker 1: You were shooting a movie with Harris Elan and James W.

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Speaker 1: Jones in the Berkshires and you would drive down to

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Speaker 1: Central Park to do eight shows. Well, to do with

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Speaker 1: the five shows out of the weekend. Well, I guess so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was they didn't do. But nevertheless, it was an experience.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, to be making up in the

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Speaker 1: car and looking you know, and Busters would come up

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Speaker 1: beside me maybe you know, looking at look at with

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Speaker 1: this crazy guy doing there. But it was an experience.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, I went and saw orson Wells two Chimes

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Speaker 1: at Midnight one he did in that film. I thought

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Speaker 1: it was a great performance. He personalized that guy so much.

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Speaker 1: It was like it wasn't he wasn't. He didn't put

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Speaker 1: any spin on it at all. He was just talking

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Speaker 1: right from his heart. I mean it was right, you know,

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Speaker 1: he was really centered on that guy. And I thought

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Speaker 1: to myself, that's the key. I mean, you've got to

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Speaker 1: find the equivalent of that for you when you when

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Speaker 1: you get in there and when you get inside the

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Speaker 1: fat suit, You're gonna have to find the personalization of that.

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Speaker 1: You know, what was it about way too young? When

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Speaker 1: I played him? I was gonna say, what was it

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Speaker 1: about you that back then, when you were this athletic,

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Speaker 1: lean leading man in the movie business, you want to

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Speaker 1: put a fat suit on it? Why were you running

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Speaker 1: into Why were you diving into a fat suit? Well,

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Speaker 1: because you know it one of great parts, because I

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Speaker 1: and that is one of the probably, I think of

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Speaker 1: all of Shakespeare's characters, I think it's probably one of

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Speaker 1: the You know that in Hamlin are probably the two greatest.

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Speaker 1: Better than Lead, I think. I mean, it's a it's

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Speaker 1: a greater part. It's more, it's there's much more going

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Speaker 1: on with fall Staff. And and you're gonna do it again.

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Speaker 1: So you did fal stuff the first time, Win sixty

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Speaker 1: eight in the park. Oh yeah, it makes me feel

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Speaker 1: very young forty five years later, forty five years later,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna play stuff and I won't have to wear

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Speaker 1: panting this No, I'm what are you doing it for?

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Speaker 1: Michael conn at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, d C. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna do both parts. We're gonna do part one

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Speaker 1: in part two. One of the great experiences of my

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Speaker 1: life was doing those plays together in the park. We

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Speaker 1: started at ten o'clock at night and we did we

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Speaker 1: did Part one and then Part two, and as the

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Speaker 1: dawn came up in the the end of the evening

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Speaker 1: was the early morning. It was just when Falstaff was

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Speaker 1: being deposed by until played by Sam Waterston. Yeah, what

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Speaker 1: what's the role that you've played U film or television

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Speaker 1: or stage? That was an extraordinarily difficult, if not even painful.

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Speaker 1: And I don't mean the the the events around the show.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, the producer was a bastard.

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Speaker 1: I mean the playing the part itself was extraordinary. Scottish play,

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Speaker 1: the Scottish playing. Where did you do that? I did

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Speaker 1: that in washing as well? Yeah? How long ago? That

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Speaker 1: was about twelve years ago. How old are you now? Seven?

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Speaker 1: I'll be seventy two in June. So you did it

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Speaker 1: when you were sixty years old? You play something like that? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I used to say that. You know, you work your

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Speaker 1: butt off playing that part. And the woman gets all

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Speaker 1: the glory, you know, and she takes all the thunder,

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Speaker 1: you know it. But it's a it's an amazing play.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's a very it's a beautifully written play,

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Speaker 1: and it's very poetic, and it's very got some wonderful

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Speaker 1: ideas in it. But the guy is not sympathetic. There's

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Speaker 1: just you know, you just have to give, you have

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Speaker 1: to give, You have to give up trying to make

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Speaker 1: people feel sorry. For you. That's a very good point

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Speaker 1: you make, because that's probably a flaw that I've had

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Speaker 1: in a lot of what I've done. We all just

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Speaker 1: tried to make him sympathetic. We all we want, you know,

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Speaker 1: we want. When I didn't, I think it works better

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Speaker 1: and other roles I played, when I just gave up

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Speaker 1: on that just yeah, you know, so that was a

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Speaker 1: tough role for you. What it was well because you know, again,

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Speaker 1: trying to make him sympathetic, wrong, bad choice, you know,

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Speaker 1: And I stole a bit from Olivier when you know,

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Speaker 1: when the ghost appears, he jumped on the banquet table

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Speaker 1: and he was, you know, he was he jumped on

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Speaker 1: top of the table with all that, And I thought,

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Speaker 1: well that's yeah, ms well and then yeah, so that's

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Speaker 1: it worked. That worked, and from that point on, you know,

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Speaker 1: once I sort of felt like I was, you know,

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Speaker 1: I was. The madness liberated me in a way, It

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Speaker 1: liberated Yeah, then it more on glued. You are the

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Speaker 1: choices complying at of you something like I'm vending machines

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Speaker 1: sometimes in that state, that's right. Yeah, you grew up

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Speaker 1: where I grew up in southern California, and your dad

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Speaker 1: was in the business. Dad was in the business. He

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Speaker 1: was an actor, director, producer. He did a show, a

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Speaker 1: radio show called Tales of the Texas Rangers with Joel McCrae,

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Speaker 1: and that when I was twelve years old. He used

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Speaker 1: to take me down to NBC studios and I would

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Speaker 1: watch these actors do their thing was a live radio

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Speaker 1: broadcast with all the folly and the sound effects and

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Speaker 1: the horses and you know, and that was magic for me.

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Speaker 1: And radio was how I sort of got it. Worked

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Speaker 1: in radio. Yeah, that was that was his thing. He

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Speaker 1: was also an actor. He played small parts. He remember

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Speaker 1: used to come home after doing a guest shot on

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Speaker 1: Tales on the Lone Ranger or who was the Dragonnett

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Speaker 1: Gets Smart was a show that he did. And was

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Speaker 1: your mom in the business. No, but she when she

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Speaker 1: was at Northwest and that's where she met my dad,

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Speaker 1: and they weren't Northwestern together, and she was an actress

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Speaker 1: at that time, but she never pursued it. What did

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Speaker 1: he say to you? What was his uh program with

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Speaker 1: you so to stick in terms of your career? Did

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Speaker 1: he want you to do this? Absolutely not. He said, no,

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Speaker 1: you know, acting is not something you should do. You

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Speaker 1: want to be you wanted me to be a lawyer,

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Speaker 1: and you want my brother to be a doctor. He said,

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Speaker 1: you know it's it's to this business. The two fraught

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Speaker 1: with want to do that? Did you think about, well,

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Speaker 1: you know what when I graduate, I started acting in

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Speaker 1: high school junior high school, was doing plays, and every

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Speaker 1: time I would get apart in a play, my dad

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Speaker 1: would get very excited. He would get very animated, and

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Speaker 1: he wanted to show me, Like, for example, I was

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Speaker 1: doing the stage Manager in our town in high school

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Speaker 1: and he would come in and he was his favorite play,

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Speaker 1: and he showed me. He said, not when you're when

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Speaker 1: you're describing that, He said, you describe that big butternut tree.

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Speaker 1: You've got to see that tree. And when you're when

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Speaker 1: you're working in the in the drug store and you're

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Speaker 1: getting ice cream out of the out of the ice

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Speaker 1: cream box, you've got to reach your hand weight down

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Speaker 1: and then put it. I mean, he was so animated.

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Speaker 1: He came specific, very specific, and very much alive. So

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Speaker 1: all of his b ass about not do this, You're

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Speaker 1: not going to do this. You're gonna be a lawyer,

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Speaker 1: you know what you think? Because he wasn't as successful

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Speaker 1: that as he wanted to be that. He wanted you

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Speaker 1: more to be a success, because that's very cold. That's

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Speaker 1: that's what I experienced with my dad. My dad mad

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Speaker 1: had no money. He was a school teacher. He was

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Speaker 1: constantly under the gun and about money. It was tormented him.

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Speaker 1: And I think when he looked at me, he was like,

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Speaker 1: it's less about what you want to be that it

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Speaker 1: is about being successful at something. I think that, Well,

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Speaker 1: our dad did he drive you in that direction? Absolutely?

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Speaker 1: So when you wound up, did he live long enough

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Speaker 1: to see you? What did he? Well, then that was

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Speaker 1: the good part. And then you're a genius. Yeah, well

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Speaker 1: then then it was a good thing because it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until I got to Berkeley and I was started. You know,

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Speaker 1: I was given an edict, You're not going to be

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Speaker 1: in any place first year as a freshman. You I

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Speaker 1: was studying political science and economics. I mean, that was it.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was going to I was going to

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Speaker 1: do the same thing, you know. And that was you know,

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Speaker 1: and and there, and they don't think you're worthy in

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Speaker 1: your first year. They want you to wait, that's right.

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Speaker 1: So at the end of the first year I got

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Speaker 1: to play finally, and I passed. I got through the

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Speaker 1: first year and he said, okay, if you want to

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Speaker 1: do a play, you can do a play. So I

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Speaker 1: did a play and and that was it. It was

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Speaker 1: a play called to Learn to Love was written by

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Speaker 1: one of the professors, and it was about these navy

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Speaker 1: guys and it was a big hit on campus. Professor

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Speaker 1: cast me the next semester as to Flores and the

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Speaker 1: Change League Jack Oby in play written by Thomas Middleton

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Speaker 1: Middleton and Raleigh. Great great piece, sort of a Richard

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Speaker 1: the Third type of character. And I had, you know,

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Speaker 1: success with that, and my my parents came and saw

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Speaker 1: me and they said, well, I guess you know, you

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Speaker 1: may have some talent, so maybe if this is what

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Speaker 1: you want to do, we'll support you. So they came,

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Speaker 1: you had some talents. At least they thought that you're

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Speaker 1: you're onto something. Yeah, And I loved it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: and I couldn't stand economics and put a little science man.

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Speaker 1: I was terristed at USC Berkeley, Berkeley up in Berkeley. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and you finished, she went all four years that. I

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Speaker 1: went for a degree in drama. I got a degree

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Speaker 1: in drama English. Yeah, and then what did you do

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Speaker 1: after that? And then I went, I went to Yale

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Speaker 1: Drama School for a year. What was the program that

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Speaker 1: was it? Was it longer than a year or you

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Speaker 1: finished the you know, it was a three year program.

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Speaker 1: I only stayed a year. I didn't like it at all. Well,

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Speaker 1: in those days, Constance Welsh was the acting teacher, and

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Speaker 1: she was pretty much very much old school. They didn't

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Speaker 1: know in those days whether they were training people for

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Speaker 1: the academic theater or for the professional theater, to be

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Speaker 1: teachers or to be professional and big distinction, big distinction.

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Speaker 1: And it was, you know, learning all these fonetic signs

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Speaker 1: and symbols, and I mean, this had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with what I was interested in. And I had just

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Speaker 1: I had done two summers at the Oregon Shakes Peare

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Speaker 1: Festival between my junior and senior year, in between my

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Speaker 1: senior year and my first year Yale, and play some

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Speaker 1: pretty good part Henry the Fifth and Rick Cut Show

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Speaker 1: and Barn and sort of I was getting my feet

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Speaker 1: wet with Shakespeare and these big wonderful Shakespeare a part

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Speaker 1: of your your childhood. And you give me, why are

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Speaker 1: you so? You're pretty much steeped in Shakespeare early stage

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Speaker 1: cere Why this is just your own passion. Oregon Shakespeare

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Speaker 1: Festival that was responsible for you that you went there

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Speaker 1: and you were at home. That's right, That's where it started.

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Speaker 1: That's where it started. And then when I came back east,

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Speaker 1: I was at Yale and I wasn't crazy about Yale

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Speaker 1: because no more phonetic symbols, right, no more for you know.

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Speaker 1: And Joe after that year where Joe found you, Joe,

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Speaker 1: Joe Papa and I'm well, thanks the Organ Shakespeare Festival.

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Speaker 1: You were ready, Yeah, I think so. Henry Hughes Saturday.

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Speaker 1: He was. He was a drama critic for the Saturday Review.

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Speaker 1: Wrote a nice review of me doing Henry the Fifth.

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Speaker 1: Joe had read that, And when I got to Yale

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Speaker 1: I called the New York Schase Profestival one day audition.

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Speaker 1: He said, come on down. So I went and I

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Speaker 1: met Joe pap and in this smoke field office and

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Speaker 1: here in Manhattan, I sat down and he said, okay,

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Speaker 1: what are you gonna do it for me? I said,

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Speaker 1: to do a little piece from Henry the Fifth upon

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Speaker 1: the and I started reading. I got three. I got

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Speaker 1: upon the King let us our lives and that's it.

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Speaker 1: Are you remember of equity? I said, no, we're going

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Speaker 1: to be You're gonna play Marcellus in my production of

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Speaker 1: Hamlet this summer. Julie Harris is going to be playing Ophelia.

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Speaker 1: Alfred Ryder is going to be playing Hamlet. We'll see

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Speaker 1: you this summer. That was it. I walked out there.

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Speaker 1: I was floating on it. I mean, that was it,

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Speaker 1: you know. And then summer of sixty three, sixty sixty four,

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Speaker 1: and that summer moved to New York. Yeah, And for

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Speaker 1: that summer I did, yeah, And then I went to

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Speaker 1: England after that on a Fulbright scholarship to the London

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Speaker 1: Academy Music and Dramatic Art to study for a year.

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Speaker 1: Well why did you stop? And now you've got I mean,

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Speaker 1: I wonder if this is the beginning of a pattern

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Speaker 1: where you get the hot hand here and Joe Pap

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Speaker 1: wants you, and then you say, okay, hold on those

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Speaker 1: I gotta go over to London for a year. Well

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Speaker 1: that's it. And he was not happy about that, Joe,

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Speaker 1: And interestingly enough, he was also I didn't realize this

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Speaker 1: was just a coincidence. He was on the screening committee

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Speaker 1: for the full Bright Guys and when I came in,

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Speaker 1: he said, what are you here for? And I said,

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Speaker 1: I'm antitioning for you. And he said, don't do upon

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Speaker 1: the king again. I've seen it, you know, do something else.

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Speaker 1: And he was tough, and he was tough, and I

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Speaker 1: did not. I was not given Fullbright. I was chosen

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Speaker 1: as an alternate. I was really depressed lambda that summer.

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Speaker 1: I got a note from the Fullbright commission saying, the

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Speaker 1: guy who was supposed to go dropped out, So you're in.

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Speaker 1: So I made it by the skin of your said,

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Speaker 1: you know why, Lamba, were you going to change for

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Speaker 1: the musical theater? No? No classical theater? And you were

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Speaker 1: there for a year? Was every year? What did you

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Speaker 1: benefit from that? Well? First of all, the exposure to

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Speaker 1: the English theater in that year was unbelieved and comparable, unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: And I got to see I saw Olivier do not

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Speaker 1: only othello, I saw him do the master builder, saw

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Speaker 1: his production that he directed, of the of the of

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Speaker 1: the crew sabll It was. It was an amazing here.

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Speaker 1: Were you ever tempted to stay there? Did you feel

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Speaker 1: you belonged there? No Americans doing classical theater still has

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Speaker 1: looked on a little bit of skance by the English.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, just like we don't you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't want them to touch with Williams. I exactly,

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Speaker 1: it's the same deal, you know. So you finished there

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Speaker 1: and you came right home. I came back. Then I

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Speaker 1: came to Lincoln Center and I auditioned for Jules Irving

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Speaker 1: and Herbert Blah who were just coming from the Actor's

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Speaker 1: Workshop in San Francisco where when I had been, when

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Speaker 1: I had been as a student at Berken, I knew

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Speaker 1: all those actors and I'd got and see a lot

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Speaker 1: of their shows. And a lot of those actors were

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Speaker 1: also at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This huddle, Robert Phelan,

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Speaker 1: Dan Sullivan, it was now, of course one of our

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Speaker 1: best directors. Um this was the company. So I went

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Speaker 1: and I auditioned. They said, you're you know, come on in,

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Speaker 1: you're the you know you're in the company. So I

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Speaker 1: was married at the time. Why did you do that?

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Speaker 1: I know? That was that was But we moved to

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Speaker 1: New York and uh and I spent that first year

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Speaker 1: Danton's death, the country Wife, the condemned Avoutona by Jean

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Speaker 1: Paul Sartre and the Caucasian chalk circle, not which you

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Speaker 1: would call a banner, you know, commercial season and they

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Speaker 1: and they just gotten murdered. These guys, they just got

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Speaker 1: well because they came in thinking they were going to

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Speaker 1: change the New York Theater. Wrong. Who Who was your

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Speaker 1: first wife? Her name is Katherine Baker and she was

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Speaker 1: where did you meet her at the airport while you

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Speaker 1: were going from one location? Not white but anyway, but

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Speaker 1: she she was my college sweetheart. She was your college sweetheart.

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Speaker 1: And I'm gonna ask you this as we go down

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Speaker 1: the road here for each of your wife, what are

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Speaker 1: you talking about? What do you think she loved about you? Oh? God?

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Speaker 1: Did she love that life you were living? And she

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Speaker 1: loved your passion and your commitment to acting? I have

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Speaker 1: no idea. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I know, God,

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Speaker 1: But did you feel at that time that you had

390
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Speaker 1: an intensity about you as an actor that was very,

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Speaker 1: very attractive to other people? Did you feel that, you

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Speaker 1: don't know, I wasn't you were not? Were you saying

393
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Speaker 1: you weren't a ladies man? Well? I was, and I wasn't.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I you know, definitely, you know, I definitely

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Speaker 1: I love that. I love some that I was, and

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Speaker 1: I wasn't. What does that mean? Well, I love the lady.

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Speaker 1: I've always have. I loved ladies, you know. But but

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Speaker 1: there's a misogynistic element in my character that I think

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Speaker 1: I have to you know, do trust trust I? Yeah? No.

400
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Speaker 1: If I love somebody and you know I'm trusting, I'm

401
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Speaker 1: in the same school. It's hard me to trust people.

402
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,000
Speaker 1: It's hard hard. So these guys from San Francisco come

403
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Speaker 1: and they're going to change the New York Theater and

404
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 1: they kind of flopped them. What happens. And then I

405
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Speaker 1: went back to my roots at Yale, Nicholas Zacharopolis in Williamstown,

406
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Speaker 1: and he said, come on up to Williamstown and be

407
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Speaker 1: with me for the summer, you know, And that was it.

408
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Speaker 1: I mean, I love doing that. I went up there

409
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Speaker 1: and he had a great, great summer. And one of

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Speaker 1: my fellow students at Yale had this play that he

411
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Speaker 1: had a very good friend of his at Berkeley had written.

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Speaker 1: Barbara Carson was her name, and the play was called

413
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Speaker 1: mcbird and play about Lyndon Johnson as the Scottish guy,

414
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Speaker 1: and it was suggesting that he was responsible for the

415
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:24,879
Speaker 1: assassination of John F. Kennedy the play says that, Yeah,

416
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Speaker 1: that's what it was, and it was a great cast.

417
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:35,959
Speaker 1: Bill Devane played Bobby Kennedy, Um Paul Heck played JFK.

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Speaker 1: And it was it was wonderful we did at the

419
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Speaker 1: village gate. We thought we were gonna get shut down.

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Speaker 1: We thought the government was going to come in and

421
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Speaker 1: say we were seditious sixties six. Johnson's in the height

422
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Speaker 1: of his Absolutely, we're gonna shut get shut down. We

423
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:51,640
Speaker 1: thought it was the FBI is coming, the ashows are

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00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:55,879
Speaker 1: in the FBI. Nothing, nothing, It's a hit. It's a

425
00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:58,400
Speaker 1: big hit. Yeah, And that's what really got me going.

426
00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:01,280
Speaker 1: What did you think about the the contact? Because I'm

427
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,280
Speaker 1: a bit of an assassination a buffed myself, and this

428
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 1: is the fiftieth anniversary. This notf I know, and this

429
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:10,440
Speaker 1: year is the fiftieth anniversary Ben's assassination, which I still

430
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 1: don't think we know the truth about. What did you

431
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:14,680
Speaker 1: think about when you did the play? Was it well,

432
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:19,520
Speaker 1: I wasn't data, not really, you know, no, but but

433
00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,479
Speaker 1: the suggestion that he was somehow involved or knew what

434
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,600
Speaker 1: was going on, it was very palap He didn't mind

435
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,440
Speaker 1: that it happened. No, the audience believed it. I mean

436
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:30,520
Speaker 1: they actually when put it this way, they don't know

437
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:32,919
Speaker 1: if they believed it was true, but they certainly accepted

438
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,960
Speaker 1: the premise that it was worth dramat it was something

439
00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:39,199
Speaker 1: there and that that ran for How long it ran

440
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:41,199
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. I I stayed in it

441
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 1: for about nine months. And that's the longest run you've

442
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:49,359
Speaker 1: ever done as an actor on stage, um about nine months,

443
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:52,439
Speaker 1: but that was no other Desert Cities ran for about

444
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 1: almost a year. I think that's that's running for me.

445
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:05,399
Speaker 1: Stacy keaches runs are sometimes limited by his desire to

446
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,800
Speaker 1: be near his family. He and his wife, Malgosa, a

447
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,919
Speaker 1: native of Poland, lived in a suburb of Warsaw for

448
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 1: several years when their children were teenagers. Stacy says he

449
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: commuted from Warsaw to wherever there was work. When he

450
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,320
Speaker 1: was doing the TV show Prison Break, he was lucky

451
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:25,399
Speaker 1: there was a direct flight between Warsaw and Chicago coming up.

452
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:29,400
Speaker 1: Stacy Keach talks about working with director John Houston. I said, well,

453
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,080
Speaker 1: why why did you do How did you come up

454
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,199
Speaker 1: with this idea? And he said, the devil made me

455
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:37,919
Speaker 1: do it. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to

456
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 1: here's the thing. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening

457
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 1: to here's the thing. Many people don't understand how an

458
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:55,760
Speaker 1: actor can perform in the same play night after night

459
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 1: for months. The truth is it never gets boring. It's

460
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:01,879
Speaker 1: like skiing a black diamond run for me to go

461
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,240
Speaker 1: all the way down and not fall, and I fall

462
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: every night. Yeah, one show I did recently, a few

463
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 1: years back, I did give myself a diploma for having

464
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 1: a perfect show. I said every word as you because

465
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: you and I both know that when you get to

466
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: that level where you're at, you know when you don't

467
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,639
Speaker 1: say the words right. Oh yeah, if you know the

468
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,920
Speaker 1: play backwards and forwards, you know every queue, you might

469
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,640
Speaker 1: not say it that way. Here. So I came off

470
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 1: stage and I and I said to myself, I was

471
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: the stage managers were there and everybody on the prop

472
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 1: people and I came off stage and I said, well,

473
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:34,919
Speaker 1: there you have it. And I said, there it is

474
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: the perfect show. I said, every line as written the

475
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:40,639
Speaker 1: way I wanted to say it and with the feeling

476
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,240
Speaker 1: I wanted, And I just really really skied the run

477
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:45,600
Speaker 1: right to the bottom. That's happened to me once in

478
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,920
Speaker 1: my career, and every other time I missed a little.

479
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,280
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't. I wasn't connected to the speech. Well,

480
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 1: I know, I know exactly what you're saying. I when

481
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:57,640
Speaker 1: I the role, you've been the most connected to Well,

482
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 1: I did hample it three times try to get it right.

483
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 1: I never did. I never got that. Three different productions.

484
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,720
Speaker 1: What was the first one in Long Wharf Theater. Arvin

485
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:11,719
Speaker 1: Brown directed it one year. Let me see if I

486
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 1: can remember the it was. It had to be seventy.

487
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,680
Speaker 1: It had to be somewhere in the I think it

488
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:23,040
Speaker 1: was seventy seventy. Oh yeah, I was, yeah, I was actually,

489
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: well they say Hamlet's thirty, you know, so it was

490
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,480
Speaker 1: about it was about thirty when I did it. And

491
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: so you're up in new Haven. I was up in

492
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,640
Speaker 1: new Haven, and you know, the first time you play

493
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 1: that part. I was so intimidated by the fact of

494
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: all the other actors that played it, and you know,

495
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 1: it's intimidating. I mean, you know, and I and but

496
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: you're once I said you were Hamlets, that's right, becomes

497
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,400
Speaker 1: you're Hamlets. And most of the time I was concerned

498
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:50,959
Speaker 1: about getting the lions right and getting you know, just

499
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,480
Speaker 1: getting the moves right, just getting it, just putting it

500
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:55,720
Speaker 1: all together and figuring then trying to figure it out,

501
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 1: which is what I you know, I did. And then

502
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 1: the next year, I mean that that summer, Joe Pappy

503
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 1: kind of came and saw it and he said, come

504
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: into the park and we'll do it. A different production,

505
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,760
Speaker 1: totally different production, different director, which was very hard for

506
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 1: me to give up. Barton Brown and Jared Freeman, who

507
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 1: had worked without MiG bird Uh was asked to director,

508
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: were you happy with the new cast? What was a

509
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:22,240
Speaker 1: fantastic cast? I mean it was James Earl Jones. Well,

510
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: and it was yeah, and and and I got it.

511
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,320
Speaker 1: I got closer to it, I got closer to I felt,

512
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: you know, I never had the perfect show, but I

513
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: got closer to it. And then that was right after

514
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,320
Speaker 1: New Haven, right after and then two years later, Mark

515
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 1: Taper for him in Los Angeles, totally different production, Gordon

516
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 1: Davison directing, and Harris Shulen playing Claudius Um And I

517
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,440
Speaker 1: had one night where I got close, where I really

518
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,200
Speaker 1: got close, and then I don't know what happened. Something

519
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 1: I think it was in the very last scene. I

520
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: think the hardest thing about Hamlet is is you know,

521
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 1: is is after that amazing duel in the last act,

522
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:05,919
Speaker 1: but when he dies, you know, it is not to

523
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 1: be called breathing on stage. That's the hardest, one of

524
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: the hardest things to do, I think in that particular play.

525
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: I mean, anyway, but that was your final one. Yeah, yeah, No,

526
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: the perfect show is elusive. It's the fact that you found.

527
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:24,919
Speaker 1: I think one night I was doing death Trap. I

528
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: remember who'd you do with? Uh? You know the other

529
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:32,639
Speaker 1: the actors that I worked with, I can't remember their names.

530
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: This is terrible, terrible. Darren I remembered his name is

531
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 1: the first name was Darren. They weren't people. Oh yeah,

532
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: But I mean I love that play, do you know?

533
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 1: I mean I I saw Brian Bedford doing at the

534
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 1: Kennedy Center when I was in college. Bifflefone wanted to

535
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: do Death Traps. Great, it's a great summer stock play.

536
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:56,160
Speaker 1: So I love Shaffer. Yeah, yeah, I did. It was yeah,

537
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 1: it was It wasn't. It wasn't Tony SHAFFERD was Ira

538
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,640
Speaker 1: leven Right. I did a Tony SHAPPERD play with Sluice.

539
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:07,199
Speaker 1: The only Yeah, that's very similar. Who did you do

540
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 1: that with Maxwell cough good for years? He's a buddy

541
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 1: of mine. Yeah, you mean we're going to be Juliet Mills,

542
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,639
Speaker 1: we'll be together tomorrow night. We became very dear friends

543
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:20,920
Speaker 1: on SLUS and I love him. Yeah. And Juliet is

544
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 1: the godmother of my daughter Carolina. How many kids do

545
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 1: you have too? And you have two girls? Boy and

546
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:29,199
Speaker 1: g So your son is how old? Twenty four? And

547
00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: he's a student at n y U studying corporate communications

548
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: and international business. His mom his wife number? What four?

549
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 1: Your current wife? Yeah? So you're current children by any children?

550
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: You did it? You had him that? Oh my god,

551
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 1: you got the marriage right and then had the family.

552
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: That's right, all you clever best? So three marriages? What

553
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: were the longest of the other three? Two years? So

554
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 1: the longest? Yeah? Two years? Yeah, that is that's right,

555
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: long to the other three. OK, let's let's really round

556
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 1: it off your it was two and a half years.

557
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 1: You think you're tough to be married to? I? Do

558
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: you do? I know? I am because do you think

559
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: it's your work? Though? Do you think your dedication to this?

560
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: I had a woman say to me once, a very

561
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: famous woman that her husband was a famous actor and

562
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: he did a television series. This is many years ago.

563
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: And she said to me he'd go to work and

564
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: he was a father on the show, as she said,

565
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 1: and he gave everything he had on cameras he said.

566
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 1: He came home, he had nothing for his own children.

567
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 1: He came home, locked himself in his room, had a

568
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: drink in his hand, had the TV on. He just

569
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 1: he was just like we said, he was just emptied out.

570
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: I said, what changed when you met wife and m before? Well,

571
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 1: I only mentioned these things, not not to be uh,

572
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: you know, prying. I'm just saying, for a man of passion,

573
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 1: when you get it right, what was the difference? What happened?

574
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:57,440
Speaker 1: What changed? Somebody who understood me, I think really understood

575
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: gave you your space, gave me my space. You be

576
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: who you are absolutely, which is a nut job really

577
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: and that's critical and yeah but I mean face well no,

578
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 1: but yeah, but you and I are. You know, we

579
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 1: our lives are very active. I mean we we we

580
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time doing things that are not

581
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 1: family related necessary. You know, what's something you think you

582
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 1: missed other than parents who other than maybe more time

583
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 1: with your family, other than making having the opportunity at

584
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: least to make a better goal of it with your

585
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 1: previous wives, because I'm divorced as well, all that kind

586
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: of stuff. What's something you think that you would love

587
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: to have done with your life that you missed because

588
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 1: of this world? Because I have an answer for myself,

589
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: But what's your I would have been more of an adventurer,

590
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 1: more of an explorer, more of an outdoors kind of guy.

591
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: I would have, you know, taken expedition doing yes, yes, yes,

592
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree. I didn't do it. Mine was education.

593
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: I would have gone back to school. And so now

594
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: I sit back and I go I was like whenever

595
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: I speak at schools, I say to people because I'm

596
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 1: teaching that, and then my this this spring, I say,

597
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 1: how many people here are graduating? Uh now? And you know,

598
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 1: maybe like a quarter of them raise their hands. In

599
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: this lecture I gave to about a hundred kids, and

600
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 1: I said, how many of you? So the rest of

601
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:16,960
Speaker 1: you are how many of your juniors? So another quarter

602
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: of the race. So the rest of them, half the

603
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: kids were sophomores and freshmen in the acting program. I said,

604
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: do yourself a favor. I said, this is the only

605
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: time of your life you can read, and really you're

606
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 1: you're here to read, I said, take take lit courses,

607
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 1: take history courses, read, read, read, because you're gonna miss it.

608
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 1: I miss it. I'm teaching acting this year. Where I

609
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: teach you? I teach a George Mason University via Skype. Wow,

610
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:45,160
Speaker 1: how does that go? I teach? Well, it's wonderful because

611
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: I'm teaching kids how to audition, basically, both using material

612
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:55,240
Speaker 1: from the theater and from television and movie scripts. The

613
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 1: cameras right there. They have to get up in front

614
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: of a camera, just like they're doing an audition. So

615
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,560
Speaker 1: they do a scene for me. I give him a critique.

616
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: They go back and they work on it for a week.

617
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:05,280
Speaker 1: They come back in the show it to me again.

618
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: I can and I can teach this course from Poland,

619
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles, from New York. Have you taught acting before? Yes?

620
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 1: Where when I went back to Yale as a actor performer, well,

621
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 1: an actor teacher? Um, so many years ago? When when

622
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 1: right after mcbird, I mean when Brucetine first came into Yale,

623
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:27,840
Speaker 1: I taught. I taught to Yale for a year while

624
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 1: I was a member of the company, and I thought,

625
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: master classes here and there. Do you like teaching? I

626
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: love it? You do? I do? And I and I

627
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: my kids. One of the things that they read, they

628
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 1: have to read. They have to read four four plays

629
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: and write a report. They had quizzes on, you know,

630
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 1: not just the things that they read in terms of

631
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: literature or dramaturgy. And I've discovered an acting book that

632
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: I just think it's fantastic called The Actors Target, The

633
00:32:56,560 --> 00:33:01,000
Speaker 1: Actor and the Target by Declan Donovan. It's a He's

634
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: an English guy. It's a fabulous books well because it

635
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 1: sort of reinterprets the whole notion of action NG and

636
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:13,520
Speaker 1: it takes Stanislovsky's ideas. He has his own set of terms,

637
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 1: his own terminology, which is refreshing in a way because

638
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 1: it's not the same old stuff that we've been hearing

639
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 1: for years and years. But I think reading is critical.

640
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 1: And I know when I first got there, I was

641
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 1: told by the university you don't have to you know,

642
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 1: you don't have to assign things for them to read.

643
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 1: You can just have them read the material that they're

644
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: working on in terms of the scenes that they're presenting.

645
00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 1: And I said, no, no, no, I we're in. In

646
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 1: the course of my career, were into a lot of

647
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 1: guys who are illiterate, and it's not good. I think

648
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:46,480
Speaker 1: the more you know in terms of the more references, Yeah,

649
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 1: it's like a scale. There's only so many notes, you

650
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: know when you play them in different combinations. Maybe what

651
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,120
Speaker 1: what musical instrument do you play? You never played one?

652
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: Which your musical? I wish I could sing, but I

653
00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:00,080
Speaker 1: can't sing to save my life. You can't know. I

654
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:01,840
Speaker 1: you know, I taught you know again, I have a

655
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: pretty good year and I'm musical. I do play and

656
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 1: the piano. Yeah, yeah, but I I grew up that way. Yeah, okay, yeah,

657
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 1: I grew up. Yeah. And who was responsible for that?

658
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,279
Speaker 1: Your mom or your dad? My mom? Basically primarily, yeah,

659
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 1: you're gonna practice or you're not going to take the

660
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 1: car out. You know that, you know, one of those

661
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 1: things friends threats, And we tried to do that with

662
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,360
Speaker 1: our kids. Didn't work, and the screaming and yelling, and

663
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:26,279
Speaker 1: we gave in, and I'm sorry I did. I think

664
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:29,160
Speaker 1: you know that's where we are now. We don't want

665
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 1: to do the heavy lifting. I know our parents were

666
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 1: willing to be unpopular. Our parents were what I call

667
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 1: the Captain Bligh School. Yeah that's good. I've got a

668
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:38,279
Speaker 1: job to do here. Yeah, I gotta get this bread

669
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 1: fruit back to England. And I don't care whether you

670
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:42,840
Speaker 1: like it or not. Now our parents are all like,

671
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 1: oh please, don't you give me that way? Are you

672
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 1: mad at me? That's right? We just kids asses all day.

673
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 1: I know it's terrible at the end of the world. Actually, well,

674
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 1: I hope not so you. So you were saying about teaching, though,

675
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: that do you do. What I found is that when

676
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: I teach, I don't say this, but I think it's

677
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:03,880
Speaker 1: it may or may not be implied when I'm doing this,

678
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: is that I can't make you a good actor. You know,

679
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: I can make you a better actor maybe than when

680
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 1: you came in. If you have some ability, I can

681
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 1: begin to point the way toward you what you might develop.

682
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,319
Speaker 1: But um, but you either got or you don't. I

683
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 1: really believe that I do too, and a lot of

684
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 1: people don't. I didn't want to hear that. Well, I know,

685
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: and in a degree granting academic program, you'll see that

686
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:25,960
Speaker 1: a lot of people have the grades to go to

687
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 1: the fine institution and they're not necessarily the best actors.

688
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 1: And I'll say to them, the people I've worked with,

689
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:34,839
Speaker 1: I'll say, well, why don't we tear out a couple

690
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 1: of seats here on the side of Elijah, and let's

691
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 1: have you give me a class of twenty people or

692
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:42,839
Speaker 1: two dozen people. Let's have three or four kids who,

693
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: with their cumb and their academic credentials, were okay, they

694
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,279
Speaker 1: were good. They weren't complete bust. But you brought them

695
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: in here not just for their benefit, but for the

696
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 1: benefit of the other kids in the class, who can

697
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,839
Speaker 1: see what good acting is in that in that kind

698
00:35:56,840 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 1: of embryonic phase, I find teaching a thing it's tough.

699
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: For that reason, it is tough. And you you really

700
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 1: nailed what I was. I've got twenty kids, and maybe

701
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: have those twenty kids four. You know, that's what I's

702
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 1: It's about the number I get. And Keach is indeed

703
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:17,240
Speaker 1: a good judge of talent. Henry Winkler was a student

704
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: of his when he taught at Yale, and Keith said

705
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 1: it was clear he would do something special. That was

706
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 1: over forty five years ago. This is a man with

707
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 1: stories and he's finally put them down on paper. Stacy

708
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 1: Keach has a memoir coming out this fall. All in All,

709
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: an Actor's life on and off stage, will be published

710
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: by Globe Peaquat Press. It's an ordeal. I mean to

711
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 1: write a memoir and you're gonna be doing this one

712
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 1: of these days. Why did you do it? Well, I'm

713
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:45,640
Speaker 1: at that age, you know, I feel like, you know,

714
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 1: I better get it down now or the truth, you know,

715
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,319
Speaker 1: as I saw, Yeah, yeah, get it down now. And

716
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 1: because you know, you know, you know, times to running

717
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:56,200
Speaker 1: out due, and so I wanted to And I have

718
00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 1: a lot of stories to tell, and I worked with

719
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,920
Speaker 1: a lot of great people, include John Houston, and and

720
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:04,600
Speaker 1: talk about Houston. What was it like? Oh god, well,

721
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:06,719
Speaker 1: the first I remember the first time I met him,

722
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,279
Speaker 1: he came to visit me on the set of doc

723
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 1: We were shooting Western in Spain with Faye Dunaway in

724
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:17,920
Speaker 1: Harris Juland and we were in this script Fat City

725
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,320
Speaker 1: written and was a very popular book written by Leonard

726
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:25,360
Speaker 1: Gardner about boxing, and and he came to see me

727
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,040
Speaker 1: personally on the set. I mean to have John Houston

728
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 1: visit me on the set of the movie. I mean,

729
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 1: it was you know, and he was very gracious and

730
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: he just stays high. I've got a part for you,

731
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:38,520
Speaker 1: and I think you want to take a look at this.

732
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:42,399
Speaker 1: And he treated me as if I was his son

733
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 1: right from the word go. I mean, and I just

734
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 1: he was so warm welcomed you. Yeah, it's rare the business.

735
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. But he and and he had no pretenses

736
00:37:56,239 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 1: about I mean, he was larger than life. He he

737
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,839
Speaker 1: and he didn't he didn't make any apologies for that.

738
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:07,799
Speaker 1: I mean, and and and he was extraordinary, extraordinary human being.

739
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 1: He loved to gamble, loved to gamble, and we wonder

740
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 1: what that was about. Well, it's very interesting because we

741
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,799
Speaker 1: and I loved to gamble too, you know. And I mean,

742
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 1: what's your game? Well, with him, it was backgammon. We

743
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: would played backgammon between scenes on the hundred bucks a game. No, no,

744
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 1: no doctor dollar point. Yeah. He just so he disliked

745
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 1: it for the for the for the fun. Yeah. But

746
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: he wasn't a gamble trying to make money, no, not

747
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,759
Speaker 1: and not with me, no, you know, but but we

748
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,640
Speaker 1: I would remember we went to we went to the

749
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:43,839
Speaker 1: cann Film Best for years, you know, a year later

750
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 1: and also we were in London together and he would

751
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,759
Speaker 1: you know, he let's go to the casino. He love

752
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: you know, he a little gaming yet a little gaming

753
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 1: very good. Yeah, and and he loved it. I think

754
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:57,399
Speaker 1: I don't know what is it about a gamble. It's

755
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,040
Speaker 1: the dust asky thing, I mean, the challenge of I

756
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:02,439
Speaker 1: mean they say that people gamble to lose. They don't

757
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 1: really gamble to win or at least, you know, to

758
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 1: experience what it's like to feel what you know, how

759
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 1: how to compensate for the feeling of loss. You know,

760
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:14,960
Speaker 1: I think there's something to that. I mean, that was

761
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 1: you know anyway, I love that was the alliance and

762
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 1: went told me the people gambled to find that if

763
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: God favors them or not. They want to know, does

764
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:26,799
Speaker 1: God favor me today? Well, you know, if I win,

765
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,800
Speaker 1: and that's that's my sign that God favored me. I

766
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,399
Speaker 1: like that because I still I get on I get

767
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:36,480
Speaker 1: on my iPhone and I'll you and I there's a

768
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:41,400
Speaker 1: game called be Jeweled. It's a little bit like Angry Birds, right,

769
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:43,359
Speaker 1: and I feel like if I can get it right,

770
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 1: then God looking Yeah, I think there's Yeah. I love it.

771
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:50,200
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it was Alec in the movie

772
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 1: with you, So what was he like as a director,

773
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,120
Speaker 1: was he insightful for you? Did he help? Absolutely? It

774
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:56,279
Speaker 1: was oh yeah, well he's an actor first, of course,

775
00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:58,880
Speaker 1: you know, and he you know, but he and he

776
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:03,200
Speaker 1: always wanted to of you your space. He never I mean,

777
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:07,359
Speaker 1: he said, there's only two directions days, a little more

778
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:10,959
Speaker 1: or a little less. That was it. He never told

779
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 1: me that, you don't try to I mean, well, yes

780
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 1: he did once in a while, but I mean, but

781
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:17,840
Speaker 1: he would let us block the scenes. He would. He

782
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 1: would Susan Terrell and I got lover. We would. He

783
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:23,239
Speaker 1: would say, go in there and you you stage the

784
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 1: scene the way you feel like it should be staged

785
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:27,800
Speaker 1: in a domestic seat at a kitchen or something like that.

786
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:30,439
Speaker 1: And we were going there and we would stage the scene,

787
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:32,279
Speaker 1: we work out the moves. A lot of trust to

788
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 1: having his act tremendous, tremendous, you know, but he was right,

789
00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:38,400
Speaker 1: you come in and look at it, and then we

790
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 1: moved things around a little bit and make a tweak here,

791
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,439
Speaker 1: tweak there. And Conrad Hall it was the cameraman would

792
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 1: come in and work when I got left him and uh,

793
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:50,120
Speaker 1: and that's the way he worked. And then the thing

794
00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:56,719
Speaker 1: that really fascinated me about Houston was at the very

795
00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: end of the movie, I'll know, for the jet Bridges

796
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: and I were sitting in this kid in this um

797
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:03,880
Speaker 1: cafe and it's the very last scene in the movie.

798
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:08,280
Speaker 1: And in the background there were these people sitting at tables,

799
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 1: smoke rising, and they were they were gambling and they

800
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:13,719
Speaker 1: were playing cards that they were talking to each other.

801
00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 1: And he said, all right, I want everybody in the

802
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 1: background to just freeze. Just don't do anything. Freeze And

803
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 1: you could see the smoke rising up, so you knew

804
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 1: it was not freeze frame that was done technically by

805
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: the editors. It was something that he directed. And I said, John,

806
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 1: why did you do that? And he said, because you

807
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:36,440
Speaker 1: when you said when Billy Tully looks over there and

808
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 1: sees nothing, He said, I just want there to be

809
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:44,439
Speaker 1: the feeling that God is intervening here in some way.

810
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 1: I said, well, why why did you do that? How

811
00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:49,080
Speaker 1: did you come up with this idea? And he said,

812
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:56,840
Speaker 1: the devil made me do it. Okay, I mean I

813
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,880
Speaker 1: was just you know, off the wall kind of you know, coming,

814
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:03,759
Speaker 1: but he was he really was his health then was

815
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 1: he pretty loocid? Then he wasn't really very sick. Then no,

816
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:08,479
Speaker 1: he wasn't. He was pretty together, but he's you changed

817
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,800
Speaker 1: smoke money Crystal number ones. Yeah, I mean there was

818
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:13,560
Speaker 1: always a box of cigars under his head and the

819
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:15,279
Speaker 1: black Gama said, in the other hand, I don't know

820
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 1: wherever John Houston is. I want him to know that

821
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,880
Speaker 1: when the time comes for me and Stacy will be

822
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 1: more than ready for backgammon and cigars with him. Let

823
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:28,880
Speaker 1: me just say as we finished here that you know,

824
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 1: I wrote the forward to your book because you occupy

825
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:35,759
Speaker 1: a very unique place. You know, what stands out to

826
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: me is that you're so comfortable on stage and that

827
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 1: transmit there is a telepathic signal you kind of send

828
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 1: to the audience. I wrote the story. I said, you know,

829
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,759
Speaker 1: you enthraw people, and you and you inspire people whatever,

830
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:49,319
Speaker 1: but you welcome them at the same time, because when

831
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,560
Speaker 1: someone's on stage and they're uncomfortable, you feel it. And

832
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:56,720
Speaker 1: you are someone who your commitment. Forget about your talent,

833
00:42:56,760 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 1: because you are a immeasurably talented man. But the companion

834
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:05,080
Speaker 1: with that is is how committed you are. When you

835
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 1: go and do something, you give it everything you have

836
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:10,440
Speaker 1: and you are a great inspiration to me. When I

837
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:12,360
Speaker 1: saw you do other desert cities. I sent there like

838
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:13,759
Speaker 1: I looked at my friend and go, look at that

839
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 1: son of a bitch. Look how fucking fantastic he looks

840
00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:20,160
Speaker 1: up that no place elseed rather and you had the

841
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:24,000
Speaker 1: audience right here. Thank you. You're a treasure. Thanks for

842
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:26,399
Speaker 1: doing this with me. I loved it. Thank you. Man.

843
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:30,160
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.