WEBVTT - The Many Lives of Eric Roberts 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:05.280 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:11.479 Thing from iHeart Radio. With more than eight hundred film 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:14.960 and television credits to his name, Eric Roberts is one 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:19.040 of the most prolific actors in Hollywood and one of 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:24.800 the most misunderstood. Born into a family of actors and playwrights, Roberts. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.280 Grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.120 His parents co founded one of the city's first integrated 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:34.479 theater companies, the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop. From the 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:38.760 age of four, Roberts performed in repertory theater. His two 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.640 younger sisters were also child actors, one of whom would 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.360 go on to become one of the biggest movie stars 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:50.000 in the world, Julia Roberts. Eric Roberts left home at 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.680 eighteen to move to New York City. Just a few 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.640 years later, he was cast as the lead in Frank 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:00.960 Pearson's nineteen seventy eight film King of the Gypsy. The 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:05.360 performance earned Roberts his first Golden Globe nomination and made 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:06.880 him an international star. 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:09.640 He would go on to receive. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.280 Golden Globe nominations for his performances in Bob Fosse's Star 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:18.600 eighty and an Academy Award nomination for andre Konchulovski's Runaway Train. 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:23.480 In September twenty twenty four, Eric Roberts published his memoir 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.360 Runaway Train, or the Story of My Life so Far. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:29.679 I was curious what it was. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.919 Like growing up in a family where a theater wasn't 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.760 just a passion but a way of life. 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.600 I got out of school, Actually I didn't give ass 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.160 back to school, Ada the American Academy. I was in 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.480 New York by this time. I didn't get askedpect to 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.800 be a senior. So I went across town and auditioned 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:54.360 for the Actors Studio. Got in, and so just dropped 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.680 the American Academy out of my condescence, went straight to 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.840 the Actors Studio, got in, started working, started to having 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.560 fun there, and then got my first movie very quickly 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.520 and was very lucky. I became an international movie start 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.239 at twenty two years old. It was King of the Gypsies, Yeah, 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.160 with Susan Sarandom played my mom, jed Hurst played my dad, 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.920 Shelly Wyner's playing grandmother, Certain Hayden played my grandfather, and 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.320 Brooke Shields played my baby's sister and my god thirty 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.080 years later, I played Brooks husband in a movie. 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.080 Who directed King of the Gypsies. 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.280 Frank Pearson, the cool ass Frank Pierson. 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:31.239 B Frank Pearson who I love. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.480 Yeah, he wrote Doddy Afternoon. He won Oscars for Cat Blue, 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:35.480 all kinds of stuff. 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:37.920 So you go to the American Academy and my brother 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.440 Stephen wasn't invited back there, by the way, so he's 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:41.360 in good company with you. 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.520 But you go and that's your first movie? How old 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:44.800 were you? 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:46.919 I got the movie at twenty one and it came 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:48.079 out when I was twenty two. 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.080 That was your first movie? 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.280 Yeah, and you did You've done plays before. I grew 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.440 up in repertory theater. I did my first play at four. 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.880 I did my first TV series at eight. But I 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.120 was in reptuee theater my whole life. I did eight 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.360 to twelve plays every year in my life up until 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:05.000 I left home. 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.480 And the repertoire theater was owned and managed by. 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.200 Who by my dad and my mother. It's called the 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.440 Actors in the Writer's Workshop, and it was funded by 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.560 the Martin Luther King Foundation, And we patterned after Joe 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.400 Papp's theater in that we toured the underprivileged areas all 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:20.560 week and then on the weekends we had theater in 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.480 our central park which is called Piedmont Park, and we 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.000 had theater and we did two places on Saturday, two 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.720 places on Sunday. And that was my life for I 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:30.960 don't know, fifteen years. 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:32.440 So it's safe to say you grew up in a 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.240 show business family. This involved your other siblings as well. 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:36.560 Were they all in the REP company? 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.840 Well, I'm a lot older than they are. I'm eleven 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.360 years older than Julie. I'm nine years old than Lisa's 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.720 so I was already getting ready to leave home by 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.600 the time they were cognizant. I like change a lot 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:49.960 of diapers, but I didn't do a lot of plays 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:50.320 with them. 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.400 Really, yeah, did they eventually do any Were they involved 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:54.240 in that work at a whole now? 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.240 Oh yeah, yeah, but only in the children's place in 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.720 the afternoon. And my father wrote a play called Little 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.880 Lisa for my sister Lisa. It was all we knew, 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.520 all we did. And I left home very young. I 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:08.240 went to New York at eighteen. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.720 And when you did the film with Frank, when you 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:12.640 did the film with Pearson and that took off, what 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.120 did that do for you. Well, how did you feel 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.360 about that burgeoning film stardom? 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:19.320 Were you ready for it or you weren't. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.240 Well, you're never ready for that because you can never 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:24.080 really understand when it's going to be up to you're 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.080 in it. What happens, as you know, Alec, when you 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.120 get famous, you don't change, but everybody thinks you're going to, 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.400 or you're about to, or you might, and everybody acts 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.599 differently with you. You're not the one who changes, but 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.520 you're around you treats you differently, and it's so silly, 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:43.720 and you say to them, this is so silly. It's 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.960 not you, but they don't understand. You have to be 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.520 in it to understand it. It's the kind of thing 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.560 that if you talk about you sound like, well it's me. 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.160 It's so hard to be famous, and you sound like 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.920 a big asshole. So you can't do that. So yeah, 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.160 have to avoid that. But everybody does treat you differently. 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.800 It is not you who changed with the stardom. It 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.400 is the world around you, how it adheres to you, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:06.560 how it likes you, how it does that thing it 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:11.200 does to stars, And it's very silly and very overstated. 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.000 And what you just have to do is just ignore it. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:16.919 I made a couple of movies, mostly supporting roles in 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:18.919 films in the late eighties, and I always mentioned that 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.039 I did a play Prelude to a Kiss, off Broadway 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.640 with Mary Louise Parker, and we got a very very 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.560 love letter from Frank Rich back when that really mattered. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.560 And the point is is that I went through my 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.880 career and I relied on these instincts that I thought 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.360 were good instincts, and they were very decent instincts. And 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.320 then all of a sudden, when Prelude moved to Broadway 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.240 and I didn't go with the show, and Tim Hutton 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.320 did the show on Broadway and I went to go 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.000 to a movie to make a lot of money. That's 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.560 when I ignored my instincts. And everything went wrong from 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.760 there for me. The instincts that got me somewhere, I 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:55.039 started to abandon those because all of a sudden, you 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:55.960 have something to protect. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:58.640 No, but I would disagree with you, Alec. It didn't 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.600 go wrong from there. You've had a great career, You've 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.560 done some really awesome, awesome work. That's just a fact. 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.960 But when you do King of the Gypsies, does everything 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.080 start to get more precious, and everyone's telling you you 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:11.640 can't do that. 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.239 You got to do this, Oh yes, to lose. 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.479 Oh yeah, I was telling now. The reason I work 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.080 so much now is to make up really for lost time, 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.920 because back in those days, everything was so precious, supposedly 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:30.080 so precious, and stuff like Breaking Away, for instance, was 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.720 the first big movie that he had me turned down 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.400 because yes, Eric, it's going to be a hit. Yes 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:36.680 you're going to be a star, but you're going to 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.080 be an adolescent star, and they're gonna have to overcome that. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:40.640 We want you to be an adults. 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:42.279 Who's telling you this. 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.159 Bill Tresh. Bill Tresh my manager, So we'll have another 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.800 hurdle to get over. If we make you an adolescent star, 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.200 we have to make an adult store. So you must 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.720 turn down Breaking Away. I didn't want to, but I 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.279 did because he's smarter than me. I thought about the industry, 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:56.880 so he knows what to do and what not to do. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.080 So I do what he suggested. But I did that 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.560 with dozens and dozens of movies. So all it really 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.880 ended up being was I was not employed. I was 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.400 just waiting for some perfect piece or something. 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:11.080 So what's the next thing you did after King of 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:11.640 the Gypsies. 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.120 After King of the Gypsies, I went back to the 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.120 theater and I did a massive appeal with my low O'Shea. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.240 I did on Broadway. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.880 Yeah, but yeah, I went back to the theater and 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.679 oh yeah, I did Paul's Case for the American Short 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.120 Story Series. That's right. Everybody fought me over that. I 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:32.960 really wanted to do that piece, and Bill and everybody 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.840 else thought it was it was not worthy of me. 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.320 But I did it because I wanted to. And then 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.000 I got the nicest review in the New York Times. 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:43.920 It had a little picture of me on the back 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.840 page and it said the perfect Paul Eric Roberts, King 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.600 of the Gypsies was no Fluke. That's my proudest interview 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:52.280 I ever got. 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:53.480 What was the next movie? 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.400 The next movie would have been A Raggedy Man with 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.960 Sissy Spacey and Jack Fisk, her husband was the director. 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.400 That was a glorious piece as Sissy got to play 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.800 a single working mother back in the forties. And I'm 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.760 a sailor who blows through town and leaves her with 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.040 a kiss and makes her friends with her sons, and 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.320 it's just a wonderful wonderful story, and that's when I 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.000 met Sam Shephard for the first time. He and I 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.160 ended up making four movies together, but that was our 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.440 first time and we made fast friends. Sam was a 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.000 cool guy to work with and I'm miss him. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:28.120 How far awayway from Pope. 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:33.160 Pope was my fifth or sixth film. Yeah, I said. 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:37.600 There was Raggedy Man, then some TV stuff in Star eighty, 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:39.160 and then Pope. 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:40.600 Star eighty was before Pope. 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.319 Oh yeah, I was twenty five when I did Star eighty. 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.839 I tell people that in order to play a role 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.480 like that of her husband of Paul, if you said 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.480 to me, give me the twenty five top performances by 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:58.079 a male actor of the last seventy five years inhabiting 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:00.920 a really serious dramatic role, you're on that list. 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:01.440 Wow. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:07.160 Thanks, I mean that performance in that movie, no apologies, 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:13.640 no pulling your punches. You play him as determined and 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.080 is self seeking and is driven, not reading the room 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.600 very well, not a lot of self awareness. But those 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.560 scenes when you're there at the mansion and all that stuff, 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.559 you're dying for this guy. You're dying, You're looking at him, 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:28.880 You're looking at the TV, going, oh, Paul don't do that. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.320 If you don't do that, maybe this will work. And 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.080 you just see Hugh playing this character who believes he 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.600 has everything. Who wouldn't want me, who wouldn't want to 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.959 be in business with me, who wouldn't want to fuck me? 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.760 Everybody wants to be me or be with me, But 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.160 you play it not in a loud but in the 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.560 most nuanced way. That is one of the greatest performances 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:52.880 I've ever seen in my life. 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:54.760 Oh wow, brother, thank you so much. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:54.960 Phil. 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.000 Let me tell you why it is. It's not me. 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.640 I am the instrument. I am the vessel. But it 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:06.199 was all Bob Bossy. He wrote an incredible screenplay. And 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.080 then we shot all the stuff up in Vancouver and 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.440 we come down to La We shot in Maccoova for 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.040 a month. We're down in La now. We had two 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.520 days off in between. I'm living at Paul Jabora's house, 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.280 which which is a great, big mansion. Anyway, in the 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:24.000 middle of the night, suddeny, somebody's banging on my door. 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.679 Paul's Jabara has some weird living he does, so I 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.360 think it could be anything at the door, so I 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.319 grab a hammer. His construction the house, there are tools out. 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.240 I grab a hammer and I go answer the door. 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.640 What the fuck? And is Bob Bozzy. He's got a 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.960 little portable typewriter and he says, how you doing. I said, 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.559 I'm sleeping. He said, well, we have to work. I said, okay, 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.640 come on in. He comes in. He says, I type 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.600 you dance. I said okay, And that's his expression for 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:51.400 he types improv. I type you dance. So it's a 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.720 mill of the fucking night. Okay, I guess we do that. 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:55.720 And so he started doing that to me. He would 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.559 come over every day after work and he type I dance, 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.760 and he would work and he would rewrite. And I 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.640 also got from him the most personal note from a 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.120 director I ever got. I'm doing a scene one day 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.720 with my guitar and I mess up the song and 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.360 I said cut. Well, you don't say cut on a 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.400 Fossy said le's you're a fosse. And he goes, what 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.520 are you doing? I said, I fucked up. He goes, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.080 God damn it, Come here and he walks across that 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.160 big sound change of zoa trub, you know, the big one. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.319 He walks across it. He goes, come here, and I'm 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:26.079 in my underwear, and I got the crew behind me 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:27.840 and I got a guitar and I walk over there. 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.240 What he's look at me? I said, I'm looking at you. 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.640 Look at me. I'm looking at you, dude. He goes, Okay, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.920 you're playing me if I weren't successful, do you understand? 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:43.240 And I did, and I really did, so I started 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.040 imitating even how he walked on the way back to 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.400 the set at that moment, I basically played him in 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:50.760 that movie, even though it was somebody else. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.320 Now Mary Elle, I would imagine with Fosse Fossey, some 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.320 of the women in his projects suffer a great deal. 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.320 Did she have a tough time on that film? Did 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:01.880 he direct her heavily as well? 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:04.920 Let me tell you one quick story that won't hurt 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.040 her feelings. I'm crazy about her, by the way, as 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.000 a person and an actor. But here's the deal. So 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.960 we're like shooting maybe two three days, and we're in 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.400 Vancouver and he says, to get your voice out of 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.600 your face, I want it coming from your chest. You're 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.080 telling and he started and he kind of imitated her, 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.920 kind of made fun of her, and she started crying. Okay, well, 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:27.440 you know when a woman cries on his set the 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:28.959 makeup runs, I got to get up and go, so 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.160 she got some good So it helds up like two hours. 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.839 And he says to me, quote, she can't take it, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:35.959 I hope you can. And that was all that was 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:36.840 ever said about it. 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:38.480 That was all that was ever said. 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.760 But yeah, he was a passionate lunatic and when he 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.040 was onto something, he wanted you write with him, and 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:45.840 if you warnt, he would drag you by the hair. 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.600 It's no abused and abused word. But he was a genius. 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.880 And once you work with a real genius two things 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.040 that you're not one and that they're hard to find. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:58.920 And man, he was the most special thing in my 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.560 life ever had that I didn't expect. 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.080 Now, there weren't many movies I've ever done. We're all 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.079 watch a movie and I'll go, my god, who is that? 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:07.280 You know? 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.240 I tried to become someone else dispositionally and attitudinally and 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.400 everything and emotionally. When you saw Star eighty, did you 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:16.440 freak out? Because you'll sit here there and go, oh 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.160 my god, who is that guy? Who is that guy? 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.640 It's the same feeling when you watch a project that 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.439 you hit. It's like hitting a Ball perfectly. It's like, yeah, 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:28.120 that's it. 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:32.240 Wow, Now when you do that movie. I was always 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.360 explaining to people who don't work in this business. I said, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:35.880 you have got to pick up where you left off. 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:38.600 If I don't see an actor for five years and 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:40.760 I run into them at a film festival, we're hugging 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:41.920 like I saw you last week. 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:44.040 I said, it's very parapatetic. 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.200 We're all on the go, we're all moving around. But 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.400 if I had a good experience with you, when I 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:50.640 see you, I keep in touch with some people, and 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.040 a lot of them move see I don't. Did you 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:53.480 stay in touch with him at all? Or was it 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:55.280 out of sight, out of mind for him? 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:59.040 Well, he was discussing he wanted me in his next movie, 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.959 and it was maybe going to be about the Kennedy 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.280 guy got shot in the face up in Harlem. He 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.640 had talked to me about it and he was working 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.199 on it. And so I waited about eight months after 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.200 he died, and I called Gwen and I said, Gwen, 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.080 he was working on a piece ball Blame. Talked to 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.320 me about it. Can I see it? And she said, 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.080 let's just let it be. I was heartbroken. That's that, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:22.680 and so I thought, if you. 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.440 Were age appropriate, he would have put you in every movie. 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:27.160 You could have done all that jazz, but you were 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:28.920 too young. I love all that jazz. 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:29.280 Love. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.440 Oh it's a great movie. 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:32.000 I know. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.400 Cabaret is great. Yeah. 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:36.240 I love all Bob stuff. Yeah, I know. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.880 Yeah, he made perfect movies. Yeah. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:41.720 So then when you do Pope, the director is who 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:43.240 We had two directors. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.040 We had one director who got fired and we had 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.640 Sjo Rosenberg, who ended up really directing the film. But 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:49.720 at first it was this. I got that script in 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.280 January of that year. We're not shooting until September. I 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:55.200 got a script in January. Back of the old days 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:59.720 when you get warnings. I got this script in in January, 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.520 and I got the book in the script from Cotching Kirkwood, 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.520 and it said pick apart Paulie or Charlie. So I 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.080 read the book, I read the script, I read the 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.480 book again, and I decide, I'm going to pick Paulie, 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:13.160 but I'm going to play him differently. So I have 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.920 to ask because it's not on the page. So I 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.479 call Cotching Kirkwood and say, hey, guys, I picked Paulie 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.240 and they said why, I said, because he's a fun 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.400 ass part, and I want to play him, but I 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.880 want to be allowed to play him as he is 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.000 done on the page. I've talked to you guys, I go, okay, 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.320 But we wanted you to pick Charlie, and we thought 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.200 you would because he's the leading man. He's cool, he 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.200 gets dressed up, he's got the babe blah blah. We 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.640 thought you'd picking. I said, no, he's a good part, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.640 but I like Paulie because he's better. If I can 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.600 be allowed to play him like this. He's written as 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.320 a tough, dumb thug that's been done ten billion times 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.520 by ten billion actors, even though I've done it eighty 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.160 five times. Can I do something else? I want to 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.080 play a mama's boy who wants to be this guy 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.520 but is not this guy looks up to Charlie because 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.240 he sees Charlie as this guy. I want to be that. 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.520 And they said, whatever you do, Eric, you do it 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.800 because we're hiring you because it's you, So whatever you do, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:19.080 we're behind you. I said, okay. So that was January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August. 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.760 I'm dieting. I dropped thirty pounds. And I purmed my hair. 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.560 I learned my script from back to front. I'm ready 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.360 to go. I shot, ready to go, and we have 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.200 five days of rehearsal and we start to shoot. We're 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.640 all staying at the Mayflower Hotel in Manhattan. I'm living 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.800 in Westport, Connecticut at the time. Next shor to Chris Walking. 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.200 After the third day of rehearsal, the director asked me 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.200 to stay after to talk to him. Okay, I do, 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:46.440 what's up, dude, Why are you so skinny? I said, well, 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.480 that's the sky. I want to be a walking Spas attack. 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.400 He goes, why'd you perm your hair? I said, same thing, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.160 walking spas attack. And then he gets angry. What the 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:55.760 fuck is a. 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:56.880 Walking spas attack? 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.920 It's going well, I said, John Belushi, only skin He goes, no, No, 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:02.840 that's not this guy. This guy's a tough thug. This 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.240 guy is tough and stupid. Blah blah blah. I said, no, 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:06.919 that's how he's written. That's not what I'm playing. And 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.120 I told the producers and I thought they would tell you, 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.639 but yeah, they gave me the go ahead to not 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:14.280 play what's on the page. He said, well, I don't 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.080 agree with them. I don't agree with you, and I'd 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:20.239 like you to resign. I said, well, I'm not doing that, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:22.160 But I say to him, let me think about it, 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:23.000 and I. 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:24.480 Go up to Goodness. 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.480 I go up to Mickey's room, knock on the door 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.400 and say, Mickey, the boss just asked me to quit. 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.560 He said what. So we called the producers and they 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.920 fired that director and they brought in Shoer Rosenberg, who 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:38.920 directed a great movie. 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:40.240 You're One and knowly with Mickey. 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:42.919 Micky and I have worked together now, I don't know 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.119 four times, five times. Our other big thing was he 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:51.280 plays a speed dealer and I play his boss who 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.399 sells him the speed. Now, when they offer me that part, 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.680 that's also another character change, they call me, we're gonna 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:58.760 hook you up with Mickey Rourke. 0:17:58.880 --> 0:17:59.120 Cool. 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:01.400 I love Mickey. Great. What's the part bill? They send 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.479 me the script. I love the script. But he's a 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.840 tough guy and he has his body exposed, and he 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.920 has all these girls and he sells Mickey speed and 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.560 he's all cool and all this stuff and all cliche. 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.320 Watched yeah, and I said, you know what, that's been 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.000 done a lot too. Can I plan the opposite? Can 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:22.320 I play a screaming queen with boys, and they said, yes, oh, 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:23.920 it was called spun Spu. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:25.479