Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Ask actor Stacy Keaches loyal fans why they love him,
Speaker 1: and they'll point to a dozen different roles. He's played
Speaker 1: Richard the Third, King, Lear Hamlet, Falstaff, and Willie Lohman
Speaker 1: The Trouble Is banda people don't seem to take to me.
Speaker 1: Keach has played captains and kings, pugilists and pub crawlers.
Speaker 1: But before you typecast him as strictly drama, note Stacy
Speaker 1: Keach's role as Sergeantstadanko in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke,
Speaker 1: or as the president of Duff Beer in The Simpsons.
Speaker 1: Take a hike, duff Man, You're a disgrace to the
Speaker 1: Unitard And I know I'll never forget his cameo on
Speaker 1: thirty Rock for its couchtown commercials. When did we get
Speaker 1: so soft? You know what this country used to say?
Speaker 1: It on logs, girders, poles, being comfortable. That's not what
Speaker 1: America is all about. The Great thestcun Keach literally spit
Speaker 1: into the camera for me. It was one of the
Speaker 1: show's funniest bits. Ever. Keach is perhaps best known as
Speaker 1: the irresistible, hotheaded, fedora wearing detective my camera, are you
Speaker 1: for higher? My money is too dirty? Client unlesser performer
Speaker 1: might have found himself with limited offers after what was
Speaker 1: Keach's longest running job. Not so for the seventy one
Speaker 1: year old actor. His key to career longevity is simple,
Speaker 1: he says, quote, you need television and movies to make
Speaker 1: a living, but you'll be taken more seriously if you
Speaker 1: are stageworthy, stage worthy in Chicago and Washington, but especially
Speaker 1: New York. New York audiences saw Keach most recently on
Speaker 1: Broadway in John Robin Bates's play Other Desert Cities. Two
Speaker 1: generations of a southern California family gather at Christmas and
Speaker 1: find themselves reliving a painful family secret. Keach played the
Speaker 1: conservative patriarch, and for him it was familiar territory. My
Speaker 1: dad and my mom and dad were very conservative, and
Speaker 1: every Easter, every Christmas we would take trips to Palm Springs,
Speaker 1: the Shadow Mountain Country Club in Palm Desert, where they
Speaker 1: had water slides, the very first water slub. We spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time down there with a lot of
Speaker 1: conservative people in our business, you know, Republican you know,
Speaker 1: so that was that was an environment that I was
Speaker 1: very familiar. What's it like for you now to work
Speaker 1: with younger actors who are very much of today. Do
Speaker 1: you find that the good ones operate the same way
Speaker 1: or are they different? They're different, They're very different way. Well,
Speaker 1: for example, we had Justin Kirk came in for Tom
Speaker 1: Tommy Sadowski to play Trip the young you know, and
Speaker 1: he's an actor that is you wow, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean every moment is something different where I mean, there's
Speaker 1: no consistency in terms. The only thing that was consistent
Speaker 1: was inconsistency. You never knew what it was going to come,
Speaker 1: you know. I kind of like that. I don't mind it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I mean, as a younger actor,
Speaker 1: I probably would have gone nuts. I wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: able to deal with that because you know pattern, Well
Speaker 1: that's right, but I like I like that, I like
Speaker 1: spot many and I like flexibility, and I think that
Speaker 1: you know that as you've also learned how to handle it, well,
Speaker 1: that's it. Keeach's philosophy about acting has changed over the years.
Speaker 1: I think in my early days I started pretty much
Speaker 1: as you know, from the outside and tried to get
Speaker 1: a fix on what the character looked like, and then
Speaker 1: perhaps what he sounded like after that, But mainly it's
Speaker 1: looked I think you know that that was when I
Speaker 1: you know, and I it wasn't the best way to start.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's better to start inside and
Speaker 1: work out if you can't. And in later years I've
Speaker 1: done that more and more. But I just finished a
Speaker 1: picture with Alexander Payne called Nebraska, where he called me
Speaker 1: and he said, you know you I was playing bad
Speaker 1: guy in this, uh and he said, your teeth are
Speaker 1: too good. So the whole character became centralized in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, what I was in here. You know,
Speaker 1: they they made these snarly teeth for me, and which
Speaker 1: it was great, you know, and it sort of gave
Speaker 1: me a feel and I would look at myself in
Speaker 1: the mirror and make you know, facial expressions, and that
Speaker 1: sort of gave me the feeling of where this guy
Speaker 1: was coming from, you know. But it varies. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're playing like I was just down in Washington,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do false Staff again next year. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he's just a big, fat, corpulent guy and
Speaker 1: interesting me enough, even with all the physical manifestations of
Speaker 1: that character. That character you got to go inside. I
Speaker 1: mean that's you know. And when I was not enough
Speaker 1: just to play the the look, No, not at all,
Speaker 1: not at all. When I first did it was back
Speaker 1: in Kaintive years ago. You did what Falstaff And what
Speaker 1: did they a suit on you? Oh? Huge, just big.
Speaker 1: You're very lean guy. I was, you know, and I
Speaker 1: had to wear this big, fat suite the only Aldridge
Speaker 1: designers leather costume for me. And what did they do
Speaker 1: back then in terms of your face when you're lean?
Speaker 1: Whiskers had a week of course and a bulbous knows
Speaker 1: And I was shooting a picture in Great Barrington, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: into the Road with the James Earl Jones and Harris
Speaker 1: Jule And I was shooting during the day and had
Speaker 1: to go on stage in the park at night. So
Speaker 1: I'd get in a car at five o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: We'd drive down the tocnic and and I'd be making
Speaker 1: up in the car in the front seat as we
Speaker 1: You were shooting a movie with Harris Elan and James W.
Speaker 1: Jones in the Berkshires and you would drive down to
Speaker 1: Central Park to do eight shows. Well, to do with
Speaker 1: the five shows out of the weekend. Well, I guess so, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was they didn't do. But nevertheless, it was an experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, to be making up in the
Speaker 1: car and looking you know, and Busters would come up
Speaker 1: beside me maybe you know, looking at look at with
Speaker 1: this crazy guy doing there. But it was an experience.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I went and saw orson Wells two Chimes
Speaker 1: at Midnight one he did in that film. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a great performance. He personalized that guy so much.
Speaker 1: It was like it wasn't he wasn't. He didn't put
Speaker 1: any spin on it at all. He was just talking
Speaker 1: right from his heart. I mean it was right, you know,
Speaker 1: he was really centered on that guy. And I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, that's the key. I mean, you've got to
Speaker 1: find the equivalent of that for you when you when
Speaker 1: you get in there and when you get inside the
Speaker 1: fat suit, You're gonna have to find the personalization of that.
Speaker 1: You know, what was it about way too young? When
Speaker 1: I played him? I was gonna say, what was it
Speaker 1: about you that back then, when you were this athletic,
Speaker 1: lean leading man in the movie business, you want to
Speaker 1: put a fat suit on it? Why were you running
Speaker 1: into Why were you diving into a fat suit? Well,
Speaker 1: because you know it one of great parts, because I
Speaker 1: and that is one of the probably, I think of
Speaker 1: all of Shakespeare's characters, I think it's probably one of
Speaker 1: the You know that in Hamlin are probably the two greatest.
Speaker 1: Better than Lead, I think. I mean, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a greater part. It's more, it's there's much more going
Speaker 1: on with fall Staff. And and you're gonna do it again.
Speaker 1: So you did fal stuff the first time, Win sixty
Speaker 1: eight in the park. Oh yeah, it makes me feel
Speaker 1: very young forty five years later, forty five years later,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play stuff and I won't have to wear
Speaker 1: panting this No, I'm what are you doing it for?
Speaker 1: Michael conn at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, d C. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do both parts. We're gonna do part one
Speaker 1: in part two. One of the great experiences of my
Speaker 1: life was doing those plays together in the park. We
Speaker 1: started at ten o'clock at night and we did we
Speaker 1: did Part one and then Part two, and as the
Speaker 1: dawn came up in the the end of the evening
Speaker 1: was the early morning. It was just when Falstaff was
Speaker 1: being deposed by until played by Sam Waterston. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: what's the role that you've played U film or television
Speaker 1: or stage? That was an extraordinarily difficult, if not even painful.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean the the the events around the show.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, the producer was a bastard.
Speaker 1: I mean the playing the part itself was extraordinary. Scottish play,
Speaker 1: the Scottish playing. Where did you do that? I did
Speaker 1: that in washing as well? Yeah? How long ago? That
Speaker 1: was about twelve years ago. How old are you now? Seven?
Speaker 1: I'll be seventy two in June. So you did it
Speaker 1: when you were sixty years old? You play something like that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I used to say that. You know, you work your
Speaker 1: butt off playing that part. And the woman gets all
Speaker 1: the glory, you know, and she takes all the thunder,
Speaker 1: you know it. But it's a it's an amazing play.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a very it's a beautifully written play,
Speaker 1: and it's very poetic, and it's very got some wonderful
Speaker 1: ideas in it. But the guy is not sympathetic. There's
Speaker 1: just you know, you just have to give, you have
Speaker 1: to give, You have to give up trying to make
Speaker 1: people feel sorry. For you. That's a very good point
Speaker 1: you make, because that's probably a flaw that I've had
Speaker 1: in a lot of what I've done. We all just
Speaker 1: tried to make him sympathetic. We all we want, you know,
Speaker 1: we want. When I didn't, I think it works better
Speaker 1: and other roles I played, when I just gave up
Speaker 1: on that just yeah, you know, so that was a
Speaker 1: tough role for you. What it was well because you know, again,
Speaker 1: trying to make him sympathetic, wrong, bad choice, you know,
Speaker 1: And I stole a bit from Olivier when you know,
Speaker 1: when the ghost appears, he jumped on the banquet table
Speaker 1: and he was, you know, he was he jumped on
Speaker 1: top of the table with all that, And I thought,
Speaker 1: well that's yeah, ms well and then yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: it worked. That worked, and from that point on, you know,
Speaker 1: once I sort of felt like I was, you know,
Speaker 1: I was. The madness liberated me in a way, It
Speaker 1: liberated Yeah, then it more on glued. You are the
Speaker 1: choices complying at of you something like I'm vending machines
Speaker 1: sometimes in that state, that's right. Yeah, you grew up
Speaker 1: where I grew up in southern California, and your dad
Speaker 1: was in the business. Dad was in the business. He
Speaker 1: was an actor, director, producer. He did a show, a
Speaker 1: radio show called Tales of the Texas Rangers with Joel McCrae,
Speaker 1: and that when I was twelve years old. He used
Speaker 1: to take me down to NBC studios and I would
Speaker 1: watch these actors do their thing was a live radio
Speaker 1: broadcast with all the folly and the sound effects and
Speaker 1: the horses and you know, and that was magic for me.
Speaker 1: And radio was how I sort of got it. Worked
Speaker 1: in radio. Yeah, that was that was his thing. He
Speaker 1: was also an actor. He played small parts. He remember
Speaker 1: used to come home after doing a guest shot on
Speaker 1: Tales on the Lone Ranger or who was the Dragonnett
Speaker 1: Gets Smart was a show that he did. And was
Speaker 1: your mom in the business. No, but she when she
Speaker 1: was at Northwest and that's where she met my dad,
Speaker 1: and they weren't Northwestern together, and she was an actress
Speaker 1: at that time, but she never pursued it. What did
Speaker 1: he say to you? What was his uh program with
Speaker 1: you so to stick in terms of your career? Did
Speaker 1: he want you to do this? Absolutely not. He said, no,
Speaker 1: you know, acting is not something you should do. You
Speaker 1: want to be you wanted me to be a lawyer,
Speaker 1: and you want my brother to be a doctor. He said,
Speaker 1: you know it's it's to this business. The two fraught
Speaker 1: with want to do that? Did you think about, well,
Speaker 1: you know what when I graduate, I started acting in
Speaker 1: high school junior high school, was doing plays, and every
Speaker 1: time I would get apart in a play, my dad
Speaker 1: would get very excited. He would get very animated, and
Speaker 1: he wanted to show me, Like, for example, I was
Speaker 1: doing the stage Manager in our town in high school
Speaker 1: and he would come in and he was his favorite play,
Speaker 1: and he showed me. He said, not when you're when
Speaker 1: you're describing that, He said, you describe that big butternut tree.
Speaker 1: You've got to see that tree. And when you're when
Speaker 1: you're working in the in the drug store and you're
Speaker 1: getting ice cream out of the out of the ice
Speaker 1: cream box, you've got to reach your hand weight down
Speaker 1: and then put it. I mean, he was so animated.
Speaker 1: He came specific, very specific, and very much alive. So
Speaker 1: all of his b ass about not do this, You're
Speaker 1: not going to do this. You're gonna be a lawyer,
Speaker 1: you know what you think? Because he wasn't as successful
Speaker 1: that as he wanted to be that. He wanted you
Speaker 1: more to be a success, because that's very cold. That's
Speaker 1: that's what I experienced with my dad. My dad mad
Speaker 1: had no money. He was a school teacher. He was
Speaker 1: constantly under the gun and about money. It was tormented him.
Speaker 1: And I think when he looked at me, he was like,
Speaker 1: it's less about what you want to be that it
Speaker 1: is about being successful at something. I think that, Well,
Speaker 1: our dad did he drive you in that direction? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: So when you wound up, did he live long enough
Speaker 1: to see you? What did he? Well, then that was
Speaker 1: the good part. And then you're a genius. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: then then it was a good thing because it wasn't
Speaker 1: until I got to Berkeley and I was started. You know,
Speaker 1: I was given an edict, You're not going to be
Speaker 1: in any place first year as a freshman. You I
Speaker 1: was studying political science and economics. I mean, that was it.
Speaker 1: You know, I was going to I was going to
Speaker 1: do the same thing, you know. And that was you know,
Speaker 1: and and there, and they don't think you're worthy in
Speaker 1: your first year. They want you to wait, that's right.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the first year I got
Speaker 1: to play finally, and I passed. I got through the
Speaker 1: first year and he said, okay, if you want to
Speaker 1: do a play, you can do a play. So I
Speaker 1: did a play and and that was it. It was
Speaker 1: a play called to Learn to Love was written by
Speaker 1: one of the professors, and it was about these navy
Speaker 1: guys and it was a big hit on campus. Professor
Speaker 1: cast me the next semester as to Flores and the
Speaker 1: Change League Jack Oby in play written by Thomas Middleton
Speaker 1: Middleton and Raleigh. Great great piece, sort of a Richard
Speaker 1: the Third type of character. And I had, you know,
Speaker 1: success with that, and my my parents came and saw
Speaker 1: me and they said, well, I guess you know, you
Speaker 1: may have some talent, so maybe if this is what
Speaker 1: you want to do, we'll support you. So they came,
Speaker 1: you had some talents. At least they thought that you're
Speaker 1: you're onto something. Yeah, And I loved it. I mean,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't stand economics and put a little science man.
Speaker 1: I was terristed at USC Berkeley, Berkeley up in Berkeley. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you finished, she went all four years that. I
Speaker 1: went for a degree in drama. I got a degree
Speaker 1: in drama English. Yeah, and then what did you do
Speaker 1: after that? And then I went, I went to Yale
Speaker 1: Drama School for a year. What was the program that
Speaker 1: was it? Was it longer than a year or you
Speaker 1: finished the you know, it was a three year program.
Speaker 1: I only stayed a year. I didn't like it at all. Well,
Speaker 1: in those days, Constance Welsh was the acting teacher, and
Speaker 1: she was pretty much very much old school. They didn't
Speaker 1: know in those days whether they were training people for
Speaker 1: the academic theater or for the professional theater, to be
Speaker 1: teachers or to be professional and big distinction, big distinction.
Speaker 1: And it was, you know, learning all these fonetic signs
Speaker 1: and symbols, and I mean, this had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with what I was interested in. And I had just
Speaker 1: I had done two summers at the Oregon Shakes Peare
Speaker 1: Festival between my junior and senior year, in between my
Speaker 1: senior year and my first year Yale, and play some
Speaker 1: pretty good part Henry the Fifth and Rick Cut Show
Speaker 1: and Barn and sort of I was getting my feet
Speaker 1: wet with Shakespeare and these big wonderful Shakespeare a part
Speaker 1: of your your childhood. And you give me, why are
Speaker 1: you so? You're pretty much steeped in Shakespeare early stage
Speaker 1: cere Why this is just your own passion. Oregon Shakespeare
Speaker 1: Festival that was responsible for you that you went there
Speaker 1: and you were at home. That's right, That's where it started.
Speaker 1: That's where it started. And then when I came back east,
Speaker 1: I was at Yale and I wasn't crazy about Yale
Speaker 1: because no more phonetic symbols, right, no more for you know.
Speaker 1: And Joe after that year where Joe found you, Joe,
Speaker 1: Joe Papa and I'm well, thanks the Organ Shakespeare Festival.
Speaker 1: You were ready, Yeah, I think so. Henry Hughes Saturday.
Speaker 1: He was. He was a drama critic for the Saturday Review.
Speaker 1: Wrote a nice review of me doing Henry the Fifth.
Speaker 1: Joe had read that, And when I got to Yale
Speaker 1: I called the New York Schase Profestival one day audition.
Speaker 1: He said, come on down. So I went and I
Speaker 1: met Joe pap and in this smoke field office and
Speaker 1: here in Manhattan, I sat down and he said, okay,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do it for me? I said,
Speaker 1: to do a little piece from Henry the Fifth upon
Speaker 1: the and I started reading. I got three. I got
Speaker 1: upon the King let us our lives and that's it.
Speaker 1: Are you remember of equity? I said, no, we're going
Speaker 1: to be You're gonna play Marcellus in my production of
Speaker 1: Hamlet this summer. Julie Harris is going to be playing Ophelia.
Speaker 1: Alfred Ryder is going to be playing Hamlet. We'll see
Speaker 1: you this summer. That was it. I walked out there.
Speaker 1: I was floating on it. I mean, that was it,
Speaker 1: you know. And then summer of sixty three, sixty sixty four,
Speaker 1: and that summer moved to New York. Yeah, And for
Speaker 1: that summer I did, yeah, And then I went to
Speaker 1: England after that on a Fulbright scholarship to the London
Speaker 1: Academy Music and Dramatic Art to study for a year.
Speaker 1: Well why did you stop? And now you've got I mean,
Speaker 1: I wonder if this is the beginning of a pattern
Speaker 1: where you get the hot hand here and Joe Pap
Speaker 1: wants you, and then you say, okay, hold on those
Speaker 1: I gotta go over to London for a year. Well
Speaker 1: that's it. And he was not happy about that, Joe,
Speaker 1: And interestingly enough, he was also I didn't realize this
Speaker 1: was just a coincidence. He was on the screening committee
Speaker 1: for the full Bright Guys and when I came in,
Speaker 1: he said, what are you here for? And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm antitioning for you. And he said, don't do upon
Speaker 1: the king again. I've seen it, you know, do something else.
Speaker 1: And he was tough, and he was tough, and I
Speaker 1: did not. I was not given Fullbright. I was chosen
Speaker 1: as an alternate. I was really depressed lambda that summer.
Speaker 1: I got a note from the Fullbright commission saying, the
Speaker 1: guy who was supposed to go dropped out, So you're in.
Speaker 1: So I made it by the skin of your said,
Speaker 1: you know why, Lamba, were you going to change for
Speaker 1: the musical theater? No? No classical theater? And you were
Speaker 1: there for a year? Was every year? What did you
Speaker 1: benefit from that? Well? First of all, the exposure to
Speaker 1: the English theater in that year was unbelieved and comparable, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: And I got to see I saw Olivier do not
Speaker 1: only othello, I saw him do the master builder, saw
Speaker 1: his production that he directed, of the of the of
Speaker 1: the crew sabll It was. It was an amazing here.
Speaker 1: Were you ever tempted to stay there? Did you feel
Speaker 1: you belonged there? No Americans doing classical theater still has
Speaker 1: looked on a little bit of skance by the English.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, just like we don't you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want them to touch with Williams. I exactly,
Speaker 1: it's the same deal, you know. So you finished there
Speaker 1: and you came right home. I came back. Then I
Speaker 1: came to Lincoln Center and I auditioned for Jules Irving
Speaker 1: and Herbert Blah who were just coming from the Actor's
Speaker 1: Workshop in San Francisco where when I had been, when
Speaker 1: I had been as a student at Berken, I knew
Speaker 1: all those actors and I'd got and see a lot
Speaker 1: of their shows. And a lot of those actors were
Speaker 1: also at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This huddle, Robert Phelan,
Speaker 1: Dan Sullivan, it was now, of course one of our
Speaker 1: best directors. Um this was the company. So I went
Speaker 1: and I auditioned. They said, you're you know, come on in,
Speaker 1: you're the you know you're in the company. So I
Speaker 1: was married at the time. Why did you do that?
Speaker 1: I know? That was that was But we moved to
Speaker 1: New York and uh and I spent that first year
Speaker 1: Danton's death, the country Wife, the condemned Avoutona by Jean
Speaker 1: Paul Sartre and the Caucasian chalk circle, not which you
Speaker 1: would call a banner, you know, commercial season and they
Speaker 1: and they just gotten murdered. These guys, they just got
Speaker 1: well because they came in thinking they were going to
Speaker 1: change the New York Theater. Wrong. Who Who was your
Speaker 1: first wife? Her name is Katherine Baker and she was
Speaker 1: where did you meet her at the airport while you
Speaker 1: were going from one location? Not white but anyway, but
Speaker 1: she she was my college sweetheart. She was your college sweetheart.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna ask you this as we go down
Speaker 1: the road here for each of your wife, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? What do you think she loved about you? Oh? God?
Speaker 1: Did she love that life you were living? And she
Speaker 1: loved your passion and your commitment to acting? I have
Speaker 1: no idea. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I know, God,
Speaker 1: But did you feel at that time that you had
Speaker 1: an intensity about you as an actor that was very,
Speaker 1: very attractive to other people? Did you feel that, you
Speaker 1: don't know, I wasn't you were not? Were you saying
Speaker 1: you weren't a ladies man? Well? I was, and I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, I you know, definitely, you know, I definitely
Speaker 1: I love that. I love some that I was, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't. What does that mean? Well, I love the lady.
Speaker 1: I've always have. I loved ladies, you know. But but
Speaker 1: there's a misogynistic element in my character that I think
Speaker 1: I have to you know, do trust trust I? Yeah? No.
Speaker 1: If I love somebody and you know I'm trusting, I'm
Speaker 1: in the same school. It's hard me to trust people.
Speaker 1: It's hard hard. So these guys from San Francisco come
Speaker 1: and they're going to change the New York Theater and
Speaker 1: they kind of flopped them. What happens. And then I
Speaker 1: went back to my roots at Yale, Nicholas Zacharopolis in Williamstown,
Speaker 1: and he said, come on up to Williamstown and be
Speaker 1: with me for the summer, you know, And that was it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love doing that. I went up there
Speaker 1: and he had a great, great summer. And one of
Speaker 1: my fellow students at Yale had this play that he
Speaker 1: had a very good friend of his at Berkeley had written.
Speaker 1: Barbara Carson was her name, and the play was called
Speaker 1: mcbird and play about Lyndon Johnson as the Scottish guy,
Speaker 1: and it was suggesting that he was responsible for the
Speaker 1: assassination of John F. Kennedy the play says that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it was, and it was a great cast.
Speaker 1: Bill Devane played Bobby Kennedy, Um Paul Heck played JFK.
Speaker 1: And it was it was wonderful we did at the
Speaker 1: village gate. We thought we were gonna get shut down.
Speaker 1: We thought the government was going to come in and
Speaker 1: say we were seditious sixties six. Johnson's in the height
Speaker 1: of his Absolutely, we're gonna shut get shut down. We
Speaker 1: thought it was the FBI is coming, the ashows are
Speaker 1: in the FBI. Nothing, nothing, It's a hit. It's a
Speaker 1: big hit. Yeah, And that's what really got me going.
Speaker 1: What did you think about the the contact? Because I'm
Speaker 1: a bit of an assassination a buffed myself, and this
Speaker 1: is the fiftieth anniversary. This notf I know, and this
Speaker 1: year is the fiftieth anniversary Ben's assassination, which I still
Speaker 1: don't think we know the truth about. What did you
Speaker 1: think about when you did the play? Was it well,
Speaker 1: I wasn't data, not really, you know, no, but but
Speaker 1: the suggestion that he was somehow involved or knew what
Speaker 1: was going on, it was very palap He didn't mind
Speaker 1: that it happened. No, the audience believed it. I mean
Speaker 1: they actually when put it this way, they don't know
Speaker 1: if they believed it was true, but they certainly accepted
Speaker 1: the premise that it was worth dramat it was something
Speaker 1: there and that that ran for How long it ran
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. I I stayed in it
Speaker 1: for about nine months. And that's the longest run you've
Speaker 1: ever done as an actor on stage, um about nine months,
Speaker 1: but that was no other Desert Cities ran for about
Speaker 1: almost a year. I think that's that's running for me.
Speaker 1: Stacy keaches runs are sometimes limited by his desire to
Speaker 1: be near his family. He and his wife, Malgosa, a
Speaker 1: native of Poland, lived in a suburb of Warsaw for
Speaker 1: several years when their children were teenagers. Stacy says he
Speaker 1: commuted from Warsaw to wherever there was work. When he
Speaker 1: was doing the TV show Prison Break, he was lucky
Speaker 1: there was a direct flight between Warsaw and Chicago coming up.
Speaker 1: Stacy Keach talks about working with director John Houston. I said, well,
Speaker 1: why why did you do How did you come up
Speaker 1: with this idea? And he said, the devil made me
Speaker 1: do it. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Speaker 1: here's the thing. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
Speaker 1: to here's the thing. Many people don't understand how an
Speaker 1: actor can perform in the same play night after night
Speaker 1: for months. The truth is it never gets boring. It's
Speaker 1: like skiing a black diamond run for me to go
Speaker 1: all the way down and not fall, and I fall
Speaker 1: every night. Yeah, one show I did recently, a few
Speaker 1: years back, I did give myself a diploma for having
Speaker 1: a perfect show. I said every word as you because
Speaker 1: you and I both know that when you get to
Speaker 1: that level where you're at, you know when you don't
Speaker 1: say the words right. Oh yeah, if you know the
Speaker 1: play backwards and forwards, you know every queue, you might
Speaker 1: not say it that way. Here. So I came off
Speaker 1: stage and I and I said to myself, I was
Speaker 1: the stage managers were there and everybody on the prop
Speaker 1: people and I came off stage and I said, well,
Speaker 1: there you have it. And I said, there it is
Speaker 1: the perfect show. I said, every line as written the
Speaker 1: way I wanted to say it and with the feeling
Speaker 1: I wanted, And I just really really skied the run
Speaker 1: right to the bottom. That's happened to me once in
Speaker 1: my career, and every other time I missed a little.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't. I wasn't connected to the speech. Well,
Speaker 1: I know, I know exactly what you're saying. I when
Speaker 1: I the role, you've been the most connected to Well,
Speaker 1: I did hample it three times try to get it right.
Speaker 1: I never did. I never got that. Three different productions.
Speaker 1: What was the first one in Long Wharf Theater. Arvin
Speaker 1: Brown directed it one year. Let me see if I
Speaker 1: can remember the it was. It had to be seventy.
Speaker 1: It had to be somewhere in the I think it
Speaker 1: was seventy seventy. Oh yeah, I was, yeah, I was actually,
Speaker 1: well they say Hamlet's thirty, you know, so it was
Speaker 1: about it was about thirty when I did it. And
Speaker 1: so you're up in new Haven. I was up in
Speaker 1: new Haven, and you know, the first time you play
Speaker 1: that part. I was so intimidated by the fact of
Speaker 1: all the other actors that played it, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's intimidating. I mean, you know, and I and but
Speaker 1: you're once I said you were Hamlets, that's right, becomes
Speaker 1: you're Hamlets. And most of the time I was concerned
Speaker 1: about getting the lions right and getting you know, just
Speaker 1: getting the moves right, just getting it, just putting it
Speaker 1: all together and figuring then trying to figure it out,
Speaker 1: which is what I you know, I did. And then
Speaker 1: the next year, I mean that that summer, Joe Pappy
Speaker 1: kind of came and saw it and he said, come
Speaker 1: into the park and we'll do it. A different production,
Speaker 1: totally different production, different director, which was very hard for
Speaker 1: me to give up. Barton Brown and Jared Freeman, who
Speaker 1: had worked without MiG bird Uh was asked to director,
Speaker 1: were you happy with the new cast? What was a
Speaker 1: fantastic cast? I mean it was James Earl Jones. Well,
Speaker 1: and it was yeah, and and and I got it.
Speaker 1: I got closer to it, I got closer to I felt,
Speaker 1: you know, I never had the perfect show, but I
Speaker 1: got closer to it. And then that was right after
Speaker 1: New Haven, right after and then two years later, Mark
Speaker 1: Taper for him in Los Angeles, totally different production, Gordon
Speaker 1: Davison directing, and Harris Shulen playing Claudius Um And I
Speaker 1: had one night where I got close, where I really
Speaker 1: got close, and then I don't know what happened. Something
Speaker 1: I think it was in the very last scene. I
Speaker 1: think the hardest thing about Hamlet is is you know,
Speaker 1: is is after that amazing duel in the last act,
Speaker 1: but when he dies, you know, it is not to
Speaker 1: be called breathing on stage. That's the hardest, one of
Speaker 1: the hardest things to do, I think in that particular play.
Speaker 1: I mean, anyway, but that was your final one. Yeah, yeah, No,
Speaker 1: the perfect show is elusive. It's the fact that you found.
Speaker 1: I think one night I was doing death Trap. I
Speaker 1: remember who'd you do with? Uh? You know the other
Speaker 1: the actors that I worked with, I can't remember their names.
Speaker 1: This is terrible, terrible. Darren I remembered his name is
Speaker 1: the first name was Darren. They weren't people. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: But I mean I love that play, do you know?
Speaker 1: I mean I I saw Brian Bedford doing at the
Speaker 1: Kennedy Center when I was in college. Bifflefone wanted to
Speaker 1: do Death Traps. Great, it's a great summer stock play.
Speaker 1: So I love Shaffer. Yeah, yeah, I did. It was yeah,
Speaker 1: it was It wasn't. It wasn't Tony SHAFFERD was Ira
Speaker 1: leven Right. I did a Tony SHAPPERD play with Sluice.
Speaker 1: The only Yeah, that's very similar. Who did you do
Speaker 1: that with Maxwell cough good for years? He's a buddy
Speaker 1: of mine. Yeah, you mean we're going to be Juliet Mills,
Speaker 1: we'll be together tomorrow night. We became very dear friends
Speaker 1: on SLUS and I love him. Yeah. And Juliet is
Speaker 1: the godmother of my daughter Carolina. How many kids do
Speaker 1: you have too? And you have two girls? Boy and
Speaker 1: g So your son is how old? Twenty four? And
Speaker 1: he's a student at n y U studying corporate communications
Speaker 1: and international business. His mom his wife number? What four?
Speaker 1: Your current wife? Yeah? So you're current children by any children?
Speaker 1: You did it? You had him that? Oh my god,
Speaker 1: you got the marriage right and then had the family.
Speaker 1: That's right, all you clever best? So three marriages? What
Speaker 1: were the longest of the other three? Two years? So
Speaker 1: the longest? Yeah? Two years? Yeah, that is that's right,
Speaker 1: long to the other three. OK, let's let's really round
Speaker 1: it off your it was two and a half years.
Speaker 1: You think you're tough to be married to? I? Do
Speaker 1: you do? I know? I am because do you think
Speaker 1: it's your work? Though? Do you think your dedication to this?
Speaker 1: I had a woman say to me once, a very
Speaker 1: famous woman that her husband was a famous actor and
Speaker 1: he did a television series. This is many years ago.
Speaker 1: And she said to me he'd go to work and
Speaker 1: he was a father on the show, as she said,
Speaker 1: and he gave everything he had on cameras he said.
Speaker 1: He came home, he had nothing for his own children.
Speaker 1: He came home, locked himself in his room, had a
Speaker 1: drink in his hand, had the TV on. He just
Speaker 1: he was just like we said, he was just emptied out.
Speaker 1: I said, what changed when you met wife and m before? Well,
Speaker 1: I only mentioned these things, not not to be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, prying. I'm just saying, for a man of passion,
Speaker 1: when you get it right, what was the difference? What happened?
Speaker 1: What changed? Somebody who understood me, I think really understood
Speaker 1: gave you your space, gave me my space. You be
Speaker 1: who you are absolutely, which is a nut job really
Speaker 1: and that's critical and yeah but I mean face well no,
Speaker 1: but yeah, but you and I are. You know, we
Speaker 1: our lives are very active. I mean we we we
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time doing things that are not
Speaker 1: family related necessary. You know, what's something you think you
Speaker 1: missed other than parents who other than maybe more time
Speaker 1: with your family, other than making having the opportunity at
Speaker 1: least to make a better goal of it with your
Speaker 1: previous wives, because I'm divorced as well, all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. What's something you think that you would love
Speaker 1: to have done with your life that you missed because
Speaker 1: of this world? Because I have an answer for myself,
Speaker 1: But what's your I would have been more of an adventurer,
Speaker 1: more of an explorer, more of an outdoors kind of guy.
Speaker 1: I would have, you know, taken expedition doing yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree. I didn't do it. Mine was education.
Speaker 1: I would have gone back to school. And so now
Speaker 1: I sit back and I go I was like whenever
Speaker 1: I speak at schools, I say to people because I'm
Speaker 1: teaching that, and then my this this spring, I say,
Speaker 1: how many people here are graduating? Uh now? And you know,
Speaker 1: maybe like a quarter of them raise their hands. In
Speaker 1: this lecture I gave to about a hundred kids, and
Speaker 1: I said, how many of you? So the rest of
Speaker 1: you are how many of your juniors? So another quarter
Speaker 1: of the race. So the rest of them, half the
Speaker 1: kids were sophomores and freshmen in the acting program. I said,
Speaker 1: do yourself a favor. I said, this is the only
Speaker 1: time of your life you can read, and really you're
Speaker 1: you're here to read, I said, take take lit courses,
Speaker 1: take history courses, read, read, read, because you're gonna miss it.
Speaker 1: I miss it. I'm teaching acting this year. Where I
Speaker 1: teach you? I teach a George Mason University via Skype. Wow,
Speaker 1: how does that go? I teach? Well, it's wonderful because
Speaker 1: I'm teaching kids how to audition, basically, both using material
Speaker 1: from the theater and from television and movie scripts. The
Speaker 1: cameras right there. They have to get up in front
Speaker 1: of a camera, just like they're doing an audition. So
Speaker 1: they do a scene for me. I give him a critique.
Speaker 1: They go back and they work on it for a week.
Speaker 1: They come back in the show it to me again.
Speaker 1: I can and I can teach this course from Poland,
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles, from New York. Have you taught acting before? Yes?
Speaker 1: Where when I went back to Yale as a actor performer, well,
Speaker 1: an actor teacher? Um, so many years ago? When when
Speaker 1: right after mcbird, I mean when Brucetine first came into Yale,
Speaker 1: I taught. I taught to Yale for a year while
Speaker 1: I was a member of the company, and I thought,
Speaker 1: master classes here and there. Do you like teaching? I
Speaker 1: love it? You do? I do? And I and I
Speaker 1: my kids. One of the things that they read, they
Speaker 1: have to read. They have to read four four plays
Speaker 1: and write a report. They had quizzes on, you know,
Speaker 1: not just the things that they read in terms of
Speaker 1: literature or dramaturgy. And I've discovered an acting book that
Speaker 1: I just think it's fantastic called The Actors Target, The
Speaker 1: Actor and the Target by Declan Donovan. It's a He's
Speaker 1: an English guy. It's a fabulous books well because it
Speaker 1: sort of reinterprets the whole notion of action NG and
Speaker 1: it takes Stanislovsky's ideas. He has his own set of terms,
Speaker 1: his own terminology, which is refreshing in a way because
Speaker 1: it's not the same old stuff that we've been hearing
Speaker 1: for years and years. But I think reading is critical.
Speaker 1: And I know when I first got there, I was
Speaker 1: told by the university you don't have to you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to assign things for them to read.
Speaker 1: You can just have them read the material that they're
Speaker 1: working on in terms of the scenes that they're presenting.
Speaker 1: And I said, no, no, no, I we're in. In
Speaker 1: the course of my career, were into a lot of
Speaker 1: guys who are illiterate, and it's not good. I think
Speaker 1: the more you know in terms of the more references, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a scale. There's only so many notes, you
Speaker 1: know when you play them in different combinations. Maybe what
Speaker 1: what musical instrument do you play? You never played one?
Speaker 1: Which your musical? I wish I could sing, but I
Speaker 1: can't sing to save my life. You can't know. I
Speaker 1: you know, I taught you know again, I have a
Speaker 1: pretty good year and I'm musical. I do play and
Speaker 1: the piano. Yeah, yeah, but I I grew up that way. Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I grew up. Yeah. And who was responsible for that?
Speaker 1: Your mom or your dad? My mom? Basically primarily, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna practice or you're not going to take the
Speaker 1: car out. You know that, you know, one of those
Speaker 1: things friends threats, And we tried to do that with
Speaker 1: our kids. Didn't work, and the screaming and yelling, and
Speaker 1: we gave in, and I'm sorry I did. I think
Speaker 1: you know that's where we are now. We don't want
Speaker 1: to do the heavy lifting. I know our parents were
Speaker 1: willing to be unpopular. Our parents were what I call
Speaker 1: the Captain Bligh School. Yeah that's good. I've got a
Speaker 1: job to do here. Yeah, I gotta get this bread
Speaker 1: fruit back to England. And I don't care whether you
Speaker 1: like it or not. Now our parents are all like,
Speaker 1: oh please, don't you give me that way? Are you
Speaker 1: mad at me? That's right? We just kids asses all day.
Speaker 1: I know it's terrible at the end of the world. Actually, well,
Speaker 1: I hope not so you. So you were saying about teaching, though,
Speaker 1: that do you do. What I found is that when
Speaker 1: I teach, I don't say this, but I think it's
Speaker 1: it may or may not be implied when I'm doing this,
Speaker 1: is that I can't make you a good actor. You know,
Speaker 1: I can make you a better actor maybe than when
Speaker 1: you came in. If you have some ability, I can
Speaker 1: begin to point the way toward you what you might develop.
Speaker 1: But um, but you either got or you don't. I
Speaker 1: really believe that I do too, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't. I didn't want to hear that. Well, I know,
Speaker 1: and in a degree granting academic program, you'll see that
Speaker 1: a lot of people have the grades to go to
Speaker 1: the fine institution and they're not necessarily the best actors.
Speaker 1: And I'll say to them, the people I've worked with,
Speaker 1: I'll say, well, why don't we tear out a couple
Speaker 1: of seats here on the side of Elijah, and let's
Speaker 1: have you give me a class of twenty people or
Speaker 1: two dozen people. Let's have three or four kids who,
Speaker 1: with their cumb and their academic credentials, were okay, they
Speaker 1: were good. They weren't complete bust. But you brought them
Speaker 1: in here not just for their benefit, but for the
Speaker 1: benefit of the other kids in the class, who can
Speaker 1: see what good acting is in that in that kind
Speaker 1: of embryonic phase, I find teaching a thing it's tough.
Speaker 1: For that reason, it is tough. And you you really
Speaker 1: nailed what I was. I've got twenty kids, and maybe
Speaker 1: have those twenty kids four. You know, that's what I's
Speaker 1: It's about the number I get. And Keach is indeed
Speaker 1: a good judge of talent. Henry Winkler was a student
Speaker 1: of his when he taught at Yale, and Keith said
Speaker 1: it was clear he would do something special. That was
Speaker 1: over forty five years ago. This is a man with
Speaker 1: stories and he's finally put them down on paper. Stacy
Speaker 1: Keach has a memoir coming out this fall. All in All,
Speaker 1: an Actor's life on and off stage, will be published
Speaker 1: by Globe Peaquat Press. It's an ordeal. I mean to
Speaker 1: write a memoir and you're gonna be doing this one
Speaker 1: of these days. Why did you do it? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: at that age, you know, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: I better get it down now or the truth, you know,
Speaker 1: as I saw, Yeah, yeah, get it down now. And
Speaker 1: because you know, you know, you know, times to running
Speaker 1: out due, and so I wanted to And I have
Speaker 1: a lot of stories to tell, and I worked with
Speaker 1: a lot of great people, include John Houston, and and
Speaker 1: talk about Houston. What was it like? Oh god, well,
Speaker 1: the first I remember the first time I met him,
Speaker 1: he came to visit me on the set of doc
Speaker 1: We were shooting Western in Spain with Faye Dunaway in
Speaker 1: Harris Juland and we were in this script Fat City
Speaker 1: written and was a very popular book written by Leonard
Speaker 1: Gardner about boxing, and and he came to see me
Speaker 1: personally on the set. I mean to have John Houston
Speaker 1: visit me on the set of the movie. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was you know, and he was very gracious and
Speaker 1: he just stays high. I've got a part for you,
Speaker 1: and I think you want to take a look at this.
Speaker 1: And he treated me as if I was his son
Speaker 1: right from the word go. I mean, and I just
Speaker 1: he was so warm welcomed you. Yeah, it's rare the business.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. But he and and he had no pretenses
Speaker 1: about I mean, he was larger than life. He he
Speaker 1: and he didn't he didn't make any apologies for that.
Speaker 1: I mean, and and and he was extraordinary, extraordinary human being.
Speaker 1: He loved to gamble, loved to gamble, and we wonder
Speaker 1: what that was about. Well, it's very interesting because we
Speaker 1: and I loved to gamble too, you know. And I mean,
Speaker 1: what's your game? Well, with him, it was backgammon. We
Speaker 1: would played backgammon between scenes on the hundred bucks a game. No, no,
Speaker 1: no doctor dollar point. Yeah. He just so he disliked
Speaker 1: it for the for the for the fun. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: he wasn't a gamble trying to make money, no, not
Speaker 1: and not with me, no, you know, but but we
Speaker 1: I would remember we went to we went to the
Speaker 1: cann Film Best for years, you know, a year later
Speaker 1: and also we were in London together and he would
Speaker 1: you know, he let's go to the casino. He love
Speaker 1: you know, he a little gaming yet a little gaming
Speaker 1: very good. Yeah, and and he loved it. I think
Speaker 1: I don't know what is it about a gamble. It's
Speaker 1: the dust asky thing, I mean, the challenge of I
Speaker 1: mean they say that people gamble to lose. They don't
Speaker 1: really gamble to win or at least, you know, to
Speaker 1: experience what it's like to feel what you know, how
Speaker 1: how to compensate for the feeling of loss. You know,
Speaker 1: I think there's something to that. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: you know anyway, I love that was the alliance and
Speaker 1: went told me the people gambled to find that if
Speaker 1: God favors them or not. They want to know, does
Speaker 1: God favor me today? Well, you know, if I win,
Speaker 1: and that's that's my sign that God favored me. I
Speaker 1: like that because I still I get on I get
Speaker 1: on my iPhone and I'll you and I there's a
Speaker 1: game called be Jeweled. It's a little bit like Angry Birds, right,
Speaker 1: and I feel like if I can get it right,
Speaker 1: then God looking Yeah, I think there's Yeah. I love it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it was Alec in the movie
Speaker 1: with you, So what was he like as a director,
Speaker 1: was he insightful for you? Did he help? Absolutely? It
Speaker 1: was oh yeah, well he's an actor first, of course,
Speaker 1: you know, and he you know, but he and he
Speaker 1: always wanted to of you your space. He never I mean,
Speaker 1: he said, there's only two directions days, a little more
Speaker 1: or a little less. That was it. He never told
Speaker 1: me that, you don't try to I mean, well, yes
Speaker 1: he did once in a while, but I mean, but
Speaker 1: he would let us block the scenes. He would. He
Speaker 1: would Susan Terrell and I got lover. We would. He
Speaker 1: would say, go in there and you you stage the
Speaker 1: scene the way you feel like it should be staged
Speaker 1: in a domestic seat at a kitchen or something like that.
Speaker 1: And we were going there and we would stage the scene,
Speaker 1: we work out the moves. A lot of trust to
Speaker 1: having his act tremendous, tremendous, you know, but he was right,
Speaker 1: you come in and look at it, and then we
Speaker 1: moved things around a little bit and make a tweak here,
Speaker 1: tweak there. And Conrad Hall it was the cameraman would
Speaker 1: come in and work when I got left him and uh,
Speaker 1: and that's the way he worked. And then the thing
Speaker 1: that really fascinated me about Houston was at the very
Speaker 1: end of the movie, I'll know, for the jet Bridges
Speaker 1: and I were sitting in this kid in this um
Speaker 1: cafe and it's the very last scene in the movie.
Speaker 1: And in the background there were these people sitting at tables,
Speaker 1: smoke rising, and they were they were gambling and they
Speaker 1: were playing cards that they were talking to each other.
Speaker 1: And he said, all right, I want everybody in the
Speaker 1: background to just freeze. Just don't do anything. Freeze And
Speaker 1: you could see the smoke rising up, so you knew
Speaker 1: it was not freeze frame that was done technically by
Speaker 1: the editors. It was something that he directed. And I said, John,
Speaker 1: why did you do that? And he said, because you
Speaker 1: when you said when Billy Tully looks over there and
Speaker 1: sees nothing, He said, I just want there to be
Speaker 1: the feeling that God is intervening here in some way.
Speaker 1: I said, well, why why did you do that? How
Speaker 1: did you come up with this idea? And he said,
Speaker 1: the devil made me do it. Okay, I mean I
Speaker 1: was just you know, off the wall kind of you know, coming,
Speaker 1: but he was he really was his health then was
Speaker 1: he pretty loocid? Then he wasn't really very sick. Then no,
Speaker 1: he wasn't. He was pretty together, but he's you changed
Speaker 1: smoke money Crystal number ones. Yeah, I mean there was
Speaker 1: always a box of cigars under his head and the
Speaker 1: black Gama said, in the other hand, I don't know
Speaker 1: wherever John Houston is. I want him to know that
Speaker 1: when the time comes for me and Stacy will be
Speaker 1: more than ready for backgammon and cigars with him. Let
Speaker 1: me just say as we finished here that you know,
Speaker 1: I wrote the forward to your book because you occupy
Speaker 1: a very unique place. You know, what stands out to
Speaker 1: me is that you're so comfortable on stage and that
Speaker 1: transmit there is a telepathic signal you kind of send
Speaker 1: to the audience. I wrote the story. I said, you know,
Speaker 1: you enthraw people, and you and you inspire people whatever,
Speaker 1: but you welcome them at the same time, because when
Speaker 1: someone's on stage and they're uncomfortable, you feel it. And
Speaker 1: you are someone who your commitment. Forget about your talent,
Speaker 1: because you are a immeasurably talented man. But the companion
Speaker 1: with that is is how committed you are. When you
Speaker 1: go and do something, you give it everything you have
Speaker 1: and you are a great inspiration to me. When I
Speaker 1: saw you do other desert cities. I sent there like
Speaker 1: I looked at my friend and go, look at that
Speaker 1: son of a bitch. Look how fucking fantastic he looks
Speaker 1: up that no place elseed rather and you had the
Speaker 1: audience right here. Thank you. You're a treasure. Thanks for
Speaker 1: doing this with me. I loved it. Thank you. Man.
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.