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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: My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to

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Speaker 1: hear their stories. What inspires their creations, what decisions change

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Speaker 1: their careers, what relationships influenced their work. This hour, we'll

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Speaker 1: talk with two actors, one with a legendary film career,

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Speaker 1: the other who helped redefine television. Earlier this year, I

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Speaker 1: spoke with actor and director Dustin Hoffman as part of

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Speaker 1: the Turner Classic Movie Film Festival in Hollywood. At the festival,

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Speaker 1: we screen some of the greatest films of all time

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Speaker 1: and then discussed them in front of an audience. We

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Speaker 1: decided to show this movie about Lenny Bruce at eleven

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Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. We're gonna show TUTSI at midnight.

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Speaker 1: We thought we mix it up a bit here at

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Speaker 1: the Customer. In two thousand fifteen, we selected Lenny, four,

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Speaker 1: film in which Hoffman portrays the groundbreaking but troubled commute

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Speaker 1: and social critic Lenny Bruce, who had died just eight

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Speaker 1: years prior of a drug overdose while battling ongoing obscenity charges. Lenny,

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Speaker 1: shot in black and white by director Bob Fossey was

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Speaker 1: nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for Fossey,

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Speaker 1: Best Actress for Valerie Paine, and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman.

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Speaker 1: We're all the same, schluck, and it just cracks me

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Speaker 1: up that we try so desperately to be unique when

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Speaker 1: we're all the same. Canies and Howard Kennedy Johnson me.

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Speaker 1: When you make films like this, I mean you've worked.

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Speaker 1: You've made so many great films and work with so

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Speaker 1: many great directors. Was Fossey some of them without a goal?

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Speaker 1: For you too? To work with Fossey? No, how was

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Speaker 1: it to work with Fossey? Tough? Tough? Uh? Bob was

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Speaker 1: originally a choreographer, and choreographer don't have dancers coming up

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Speaker 1: to them saying, what's my motivation? They dances, do what

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Speaker 1: they're told, you know. He tried to be in a

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Speaker 1: sense to collaborate, but it was tough for him and

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Speaker 1: it was tough for me. We had a tough time.

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Speaker 1: Did he like to do a lot of takes? Yes,

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Speaker 1: both of us did. The script. I thought it was problematic,

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Speaker 1: so I wasn't that anxious to do it. We went

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Speaker 1: into rehearsal with the principal actors with the wonderful Valerie

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Speaker 1: Paene extraordinary performance and with Valerie myself and you know,

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Speaker 1: Jan Minor and I think Stanley Beck were in New

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Speaker 1: York in the room and it's going rough the rehearsal,

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Speaker 1: and after five days we started Monday. After five days,

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Speaker 1: we're rehearsing routines, rehearsing scenes. And on Friday, Bob Fosse says,

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Speaker 1: we don't have a movie. We don't have a script.

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Speaker 1: See on Monday, rehearse two weeks or three weeks, and

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Speaker 1: we thought it was gonna be shelved. When Hallman came

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Speaker 1: back Monday and he says, I solved it, and he

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Speaker 1: interspersed it. He says, I'm going to intersperse it with

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Speaker 1: interviews because he scenes there's no connective tissue to them.

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Speaker 1: They don't connect. So Stanley Beck, who was wonderful and

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Speaker 1: at my manager, Valerie Pete, thank you. Uh uh. Stanley

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Speaker 1: and I were close friends since we were beginning actors. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And Valerie Preen and Jan Minor are going I think

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Speaker 1: that's all it is, isn't. Those three are going to

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Speaker 1: be interviewed throughout the movie, and He'll and I'll have

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Speaker 1: an easier time of shooting it. And when when you

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Speaker 1: make a film like this or any of the films

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Speaker 1: you've made, I should say, do you have any kind

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Speaker 1: of unique relationship or a specific relationship with the cinematographer?

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Speaker 1: Surtise This film was not manated for six Academy Awards

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Speaker 1: and in every one of the major categories you would

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Speaker 1: imagine Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay,

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Speaker 1: and cinematography for Surtees, who made his reputation shooting a

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Speaker 1: lot of Clint Eastwoods films for many, many years. Bob

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Speaker 1: Surtees was one of the great cinematographers Robert Surtees, he

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Speaker 1: was the cinematographer the graduate Bruce is a son. No,

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Speaker 1: we were going with the father and son tense when

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Speaker 1: you should have filmed. Do you have a specific relationship

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Speaker 1: with cinematographers when you make a film? Or no, No,

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Speaker 1: I don't uh. I don't want to know uh where

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Speaker 1: the cameras In terms of uh, I do ask about

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Speaker 1: lenses sometimes if I want my hands to do something,

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Speaker 1: and I say, where are you cutting? Where's your bottom frame?

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Speaker 1: Because if if it's here, also I'd have to have

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Speaker 1: my hands up here to have it in the shot.

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Speaker 1: Other than that, I don't really want to know. It's

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Speaker 1: interesting that you say that, Alec, because one of the

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Speaker 1: things I objected to with with Bob is that he

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Speaker 1: posed me, and when you see it, it's gorgeous. So

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Speaker 1: he was right. It was wrong. But you know, i'd

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Speaker 1: be up there, and I worked so hard on these routines. Uh,

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Speaker 1: I had never seen Lennie Bruce. Bob had never seen

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Speaker 1: Lennie Bruce. Mike Nichols, who I talked to before I

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Speaker 1: did it, because we'd done the graduate. He and Elaine

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Speaker 1: May were acting upstairs on Sunset Boulevard was it called

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Speaker 1: a duplex or something nightclub, and Lenny Bruce was downstairs

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Speaker 1: and in between their acts they would come downstairs and

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Speaker 1: watch Bruce. Because no comedian, they said, would do a

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Speaker 1: whole show improvising. You know, sometimes you do two minutes,

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Speaker 1: three minutes and the rest is yours is your stuff.

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Speaker 1: But Lenny would come out and not know what he

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Speaker 1: was going to say. I think the only two comedians

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Speaker 1: I know since Lenny that that do that one was

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Speaker 1: Robbed Mumbles, Robin Williams, and the other one was a

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Speaker 1: wonderful Billy Connolly, and neither of them many times would

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Speaker 1: just they would just go uh and that that takes

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Speaker 1: a lot. What was the question? Um the sorry, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about cinematographers and oh yeah, me and I worked hard.

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Speaker 1: I got the thirty three rpm s that Lenny had

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Speaker 1: made us what we called him that we didn't call

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Speaker 1: him finals and U I'd lay down on the floor

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Speaker 1: and I would play. I had three months. I had

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Speaker 1: about three months and I did every you know, I

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Speaker 1: wrote down longhand every single line he said in all

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Speaker 1: the records, and he even the ones he did over,

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Speaker 1: he would always deviate and I would write them down.

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Speaker 1: And then I would go to Bob Fossie and I'd say, geez,

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Speaker 1: I like what he did here because he used these sentences,

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Speaker 1: are used that And I was promised, and I think

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Speaker 1: that's what I got so upset about that I would

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Speaker 1: be able to shoot it. We were going to shoot it,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's what Bob wanted. We were going

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Speaker 1: to shoot it in different clubs in Florida and with

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Speaker 1: live audiences, and that's what I wanted. I want to

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Speaker 1: be able to really feel like I'm doing it with

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Speaker 1: the real audience. And He'll have whatever three or four

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Speaker 1: cameras at once. He agreed, and that's what we were

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Speaker 1: supposed to do. And then it's probably money wouldn't allow it.

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Speaker 1: So it was quite laborious sometimes to do these routines

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Speaker 1: over and over again. And he would tell the camera.

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Speaker 1: He would he'd be like, where you are and I'd

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Speaker 1: be on the stage. He'd said, okay, now look a

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Speaker 1: little bit this way, and I'll look up, now look down. Okay,

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Speaker 1: now do the routine from here to here. And you know,

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Speaker 1: it kind of broke my heart because I was trying

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Speaker 1: to be the guy. You know. The Foster was a great,

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Speaker 1: great artist, and uh, it's funny because I just saw

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Speaker 1: a him recently with that Alfred Hitchcock directed with Carrie Grant,

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Speaker 1: and uh carry Grant said he had never worked with

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Speaker 1: Hitchcock again after the first picture because they didn't get

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Speaker 1: along because Hitchcock didn't like to collaborate. But then they

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Speaker 1: made up and they made more movies. And that Lenny

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Speaker 1: Bruce was not someone you had been a fan of

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Speaker 1: or had a big awareness of before them where you

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Speaker 1: had no no, I just I was in New York.

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Speaker 1: I just never saw him. We couldn't have, uh, you know.

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Speaker 1: I mean before I was successful, we couldn't afford to

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Speaker 1: go to nightclubs, you know they it was expensive. And uh,

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Speaker 1: I love the jazz is what's so extorting? It was

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Speaker 1: next to jazz never dates. Jazz is the same now

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Speaker 1: as it was that. It's god, dude, the score. Oh

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Speaker 1: and uh and I had time no I and I

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Speaker 1: had never seen him. I had never seen I don't

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Speaker 1: think any comedian. I didn't go to nightclubs much. And

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Speaker 1: I went out to l A because they said. Someone

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Speaker 1: said to me, if you want to know Lenny Bruce, uh,

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Speaker 1: you gotta go see Sally mar his mother who was alive.

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Speaker 1: And I went. She was very friendly. Uh. She introduced

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Speaker 1: me to one of his best friends who used to

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Speaker 1: shoot up with and he in turn introduced me to

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Speaker 1: friends with Lenny. And I had a tape recorder, you know,

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Speaker 1: like a wallet, not a walan is like a pearl

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Speaker 1: tape recorder. And I taped everything. And she says, you

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Speaker 1: want to go to Vegas because they're all there, all

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Speaker 1: his friend Buddy hack It other people. And I said,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, yes, And I was taking all these notes.

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Speaker 1: It was the best time of research I've ever had.

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Speaker 1: They all said the same thing. Uh, except Buddy Hacket. Um. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They said, you know, you know Broadway, Danny Rose, I

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Speaker 1: think Willia Allen did you. And they used to get

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Speaker 1: together to commit Indians, Lenny and these guys when they

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Speaker 1: were you know certainly what it was, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: cantors or and they said they'd sit around, do what

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Speaker 1: they did and bro down, you know, tell jokes, and

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Speaker 1: I studly look around. And he was always very quiet.

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Speaker 1: And suddenly he's gone because he wasn't shy guy. And

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Speaker 1: he's gone, and they look around. I don't know where

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Speaker 1: he is. And then they find him in the kitchen

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Speaker 1: talking to the people that work in the kitchen to help.

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Speaker 1: He loved to just talk to the people and and

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Speaker 1: ask questions and find out stuff. I think he originally

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Speaker 1: this is the stuff I had heard. Uh. They kind

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Speaker 1: of say it in the movie. The musicians were more

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Speaker 1: important to him than the audience, because when you do

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Speaker 1: show after show after show, he if you noticed the musicians,

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Speaker 1: they're always sitting like that, you know, because they rash

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Speaker 1: of a fon Monroe and uh and Lenny. Uh. Then

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Speaker 1: he felt that if he could crack up the musicians,

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Speaker 1: then he was getting somewhere. I think he wanted to

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Speaker 1: be in Hollywood. We wanted to be an actor. Also,

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Speaker 1: I had heard you shot this movie where we shot

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Speaker 1: a lot of it in Florida. The nightclubs, the stage work. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: one nightclub. Basically, I think the scene and when we

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Speaker 1: were sitting next to each other, the scene up there

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Speaker 1: where I'm in my raincoat. And yes, when I came

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Speaker 1: back after my three months, I had all this stuff

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Speaker 1: to give Bob. You gotta put this in, You gotta

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Speaker 1: put that in. You gotta put that. And the one

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Speaker 1: thing that he kept was that scene. And the reason

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Speaker 1: he did is when I was memorizing it wasn't then.

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Speaker 1: You know, this is before the kind of media. You know,

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Speaker 1: you had cell phones and all the texting. Some guy

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Speaker 1: heard I was doing the movie and he had been

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Speaker 1: a student somewhere in Chicago, and he sent me found

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Speaker 1: out my business address in New York, and he sent

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Speaker 1: me a cassette and I played it word for word.

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Speaker 1: It's that scene. And I got piste off at Bob

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Speaker 1: because when he shot the master from upstairs, right in

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Speaker 1: the back, and when I saw it, I said, he

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Speaker 1: didn't cut in. You didn't cut in and he says, no,

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Speaker 1: So that's eight minutes, you know, being up there just

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Speaker 1: in one shot, one shot and again he was he

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Speaker 1: was right. Uh, it's nice of you to admit that. Actually,

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Speaker 1: it's very generous. I've met a lot of stuff forty

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Speaker 1: years later. But but do you think do you think

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Speaker 1: in your I mean, obviously you're someone who when you

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't believe anything I read. But I mean,

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Speaker 1: but but people really I try to minimize that in

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Speaker 1: my life and time. But but the but, but for you,

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Speaker 1: obviously you know very fastidious and very very lots of

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Speaker 1: questions and lots of seeking and so forth in the

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Speaker 1: work you were doing. And what do you think that

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Speaker 1: comes from? In terms of all the films you've made

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Speaker 1: from Graduate on into Cowboy and everything like that, where

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Speaker 1: you just seem so what's the word? I mean, you're

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Speaker 1: so Jewish? Is that it? I'll convert If that's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Is that simple, I'm gonna convert tomorrow. That's what's gonna

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Speaker 1: get me into your statusy it? But the but, but

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Speaker 1: but the thing is you you just seem like you

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Speaker 1: always have something to prove a lot of people got

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Speaker 1: where you got and they did what you did, and

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Speaker 1: you scored with these performances and the originality. But then

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Speaker 1: you keep going and you still feel like you have

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Speaker 1: Did you feel that way? You still have something to

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Speaker 1: prove again and again and again. What drove you? I

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Speaker 1: guess the same thing that still drives me. Kobe Bryant

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Speaker 1: was interviewed recently. It was before he, you know, had

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Speaker 1: a step out for the season, because he heard himself.

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Speaker 1: I saw the interview and I wrote it down. I

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Speaker 1: told my son Jake was basketball, same question. You know,

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Speaker 1: all these years of great basketball playing and he still

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Speaker 1: spend so much time practicing and playing whatever. Why And

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Speaker 1: he said, I guess for the challenge of every day.

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Speaker 1: It's beautiful, sons. I have only one slight personal connection

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Speaker 1: to Lenny Bruce and that and that was that Marvin

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Speaker 1: Worth was a dear friend. He died. Producer. He produced

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Speaker 1: this some he produced to Malcolm X with Spike. He

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Speaker 1: produced a lot good and he was Bruce's manager. Marvin

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Speaker 1: Worthy was from Brooklyn and his wife Joe, and they

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Speaker 1: were from Brooklyn. And he had the more the heaviest

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Speaker 1: New York accents I've never heard in my life. His

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Speaker 1: voice was down. We got a very heavy accent like this.

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Speaker 1: And he said to me, I'm gonna revive Letty on Broadway,

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Speaker 1: and I want you to do play Letty. I go,

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Speaker 1: what and he said, uh, he goes. I got a

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Speaker 1: thousand hours of tapes of Lenny. I got thought, Julian Barry,

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Speaker 1: We've got so much material and Lannis. He said, there's

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Speaker 1: so much stuff we can put in there. I don't

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Speaker 1: worry about that. It's all gonna work like a child.

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Speaker 1: And I go and he goes in the Dusty equals

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Speaker 1: to Dusty. Dusty's not the only one who could play

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Speaker 1: that part. By the way, you got the only person

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Speaker 1: who coul played up on him. I got huh, Sara.

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Speaker 1: And he goes and he goes, He goes, and I go,

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Speaker 1: but what about the other thing? He goes, one other thing? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: what about the other thing? Was one other thing? One

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Speaker 1: other thing? One of the thing. I go, I'm not Jewish.

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Speaker 1: He said, you're from Long Island, right, I said, yeah.

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Speaker 1: He goes, You're You're half way there. The rest of

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Speaker 1: them take care of its something like that. And he

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Speaker 1: would have been wonderful. But when you did this film,

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Speaker 1: how involved in your films? Warn you before then? Later

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Speaker 1: in the casting. Oh, I have to tell your gun

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Speaker 1: glad you're asked me. Another example of Fosse's genius, uh,

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Speaker 1: is that I met Honey Bruce. Uh and uh uh

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Speaker 1: which came first? I met? He cast Valerie Pain before

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Speaker 1: he met Honey Bruce, and then he met her, and

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Speaker 1: then I met her. We you know, not together. And

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Speaker 1: I couldn't believe Honey Bruce that Valerie was the reincarnation

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Speaker 1: of Honey Bruce. Literally, I mean it could have been

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Speaker 1: like mother and daughter. I was and I said, Bob,

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Speaker 1: you had to have met the Honey Bruce before you

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Speaker 1: cast Valeries as No, it was just this intuition. I

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Speaker 1: had nothing to do with any of the casting except

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Speaker 1: except Stanley. He was not enough to have Stanley in

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Speaker 1: it for my manager and all my films. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean the graduate. They've been trying for two years

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Speaker 1: to cast it, and Katherine Ross and myself were the

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Speaker 1: last two two screen test after two years. And I

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Speaker 1: heard that they were sitting in the screen room not

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Speaker 1: particularly excited about our screen test, and I said, well,

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Speaker 1: either we go with them or we don't do it.

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Speaker 1: And it was that kind of a that they said

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Speaker 1: that in interviews. I think Larry Terman said that the

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Speaker 1: producer and uh Midnight Cowboy. Uh he uh he cast Uh,

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Speaker 1: he didn't cast John Voyd. He cast some someone else

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Speaker 1: and they wouldn't let him out of his contract. And

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Speaker 1: after that happened, I said, please see my friend John Voyd.

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Speaker 1: We weren't close friends that we've been off for all

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Speaker 1: and he says no. John Sessinger said he read for

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Speaker 1: it and he doesn't have that Texas accent. He was

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Speaker 1: from Yonkers. I said, yeah, but he's an actor. He

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Speaker 1: can get it, you know. And John immediately went down

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Speaker 1: to Texas forgot where with the tape recorder and spent

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Speaker 1: whatever time and came back and and read for it

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Speaker 1: and he got the part. But he was the second choice.

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Speaker 1: Kate Jackson was the first choice for Cramer versus Kramer.

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Speaker 1: She was in Charlie's Angels and they were saying, oh,

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Speaker 1: the film will pay back itself before we started shooting

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Speaker 1: because they were so popular. And then the studio wouldn't

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Speaker 1: let her out. So I kept telling them about this

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Speaker 1: Meryl Streep. I had heard about it, uh, and they

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Speaker 1: saw and they saw her. So there's been a few

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Speaker 1: I've suggested, I've I've never demanded or you know, I don't.

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Speaker 1: I don't think that works actually unless you're directing or producing. Well,

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Speaker 1: some people there, some people to have these approvals of

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Speaker 1: casting and they and they utilize that in whatever way.

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Speaker 1: And those are the people who they just don't get involved.

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Speaker 1: They just like they just let it that all take

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Speaker 1: care of itself, and that it doesn't really change what

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Speaker 1: they do. You know, de Valent Hackman and I knew

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Speaker 1: each other from the early days. They're much older and

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Speaker 1: and uh, we never worked together. And suddenly I'm doing

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Speaker 1: this thing a few years ago. We're shooting in New

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Speaker 1: Orleans a runaway jury and I have a I think

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Speaker 1: a supporting part, and Gene Hackman has a leading part.

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Speaker 1: And the director finds out that we knew each other.

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Speaker 1: We went to the past seeing the playhouse together to

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Speaker 1: kicked out after three months they're not having any talent

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Speaker 1: and uh, oh my god, you guys know each other

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Speaker 1: for all those time, dirty years. Yeah, we gotta do

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Speaker 1: a scene. So they wrote a scene. It's it's one

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Speaker 1: of the last scenes in the movie. Takes place in

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Speaker 1: a public bathroom. It's like an eight page dialogue scene.

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Speaker 1: And afterwards it was lasting they shot in the movie

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Speaker 1: it's over and Jean and I said, let's go out

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Speaker 1: and get drunk. And we go to an Italian restaurant

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans and we're getting drunk, and Hackman says,

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Speaker 1: were you scared? I said, I was so scared. Man,

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Speaker 1: I thought, I'm gonna I'm gonna forget my lines. He

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Speaker 1: said he felt exactly the same way. You know, because

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Speaker 1: you are what you are at the beginning, you don't

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Speaker 1: really change. We were unemployee actors for ten years, and

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Speaker 1: he said to me, and one of the great things

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Speaker 1: ever said, we were this close to each other. He says,

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Speaker 1: do you feel the same way I do after you

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Speaker 1: finish a movie? And he probably made a hundred twenty movies.

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Speaker 1: I said, what do you feel like You'll never work again?

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Speaker 1: Of course, every single time. But that's it. My conversation

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Speaker 1: with Dustin Hoffman continues after the break. You can hear

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Speaker 1: from other actors in the Here's the thing, archives like

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Speaker 1: Julianne Moore, who shares her special technique for getting ready

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Speaker 1: to play a scene. I'm very chatty. I'd like to

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Speaker 1: talk all the way up to action. I do, I do,

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Speaker 1: And if you can't talk to me. I'm really disappointed.

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Speaker 1: Then I get lonely, and I want to be lonely

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Speaker 1: when I'm working. I want to be with my buddy.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to me. You talk to me, friend,

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Speaker 1: Let's be buddies. Talk to you. What did you do

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Speaker 1: this morning? What do you have for dinner last night?

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Speaker 1: What are you doing later today? Are you cold? Do

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Speaker 1: you like that sweater? Did you like my sweater? What

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Speaker 1: are you doing? Action acting? I love it. That's my

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Speaker 1: favorite parts. You get this great connection with other human being,

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Speaker 1: and then the scene is like, comes alive. Take a

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Speaker 1: listen and here's the thing. Dot Org, this is Alec

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Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing. Dustin Hoffman

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Speaker 1: has been nominated for the OSCAR for Best Actor seven times.

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Speaker 1: He's won the award twice. Actors strive for depth and

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Speaker 1: range in their work. Dustin Hoffman makes this appear effortless.

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Speaker 1: There's obviously roles you played like Crame versus Cramer and

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Speaker 1: all the President's men, and you seem it's I don't

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Speaker 1: know what word to use. It seems closer to who

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Speaker 1: you are, your voice and your appearance, and you're the

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Speaker 1: psychologic stuff that you're paying playing a contemporary character. You're

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Speaker 1: not playing somebody with some disability or what have you.

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Speaker 1: It's not rain man or someone who's damaged and broken

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Speaker 1: like Cowboy and so forth like that. But you've done both.

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Speaker 1: There's a there's a theatricality of the roles and a

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Speaker 1: vividness to them, and you're not afraid to do that.

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Speaker 1: Where does that come from? From being in the theater? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I mean I where are you from? I told you

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Speaker 1: from long for a long island. So how first of all,

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Speaker 1: I wish we lived in the same city. How old

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Speaker 1: were you when you started studying act? And when they

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Speaker 1: sent you out? They sent you out for certain kinds

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Speaker 1: of parts, young leading man, the young guys who I

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Speaker 1: had a lot or whatever. I'm the short Jew and

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Speaker 1: uh still with some acne, and I come to New

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Speaker 1: York to study and they always said leading men, young

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Speaker 1: leading men, juvenile's character juveniles. That's what I was designed as.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't get an agent. And that's just code for Semitic,

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Speaker 1: you know, because in those days, the leading man was

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Speaker 1: white Anglo Saxon Protestant, and the ethnic person was character

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Speaker 1: juvenile or character Janews. It really was that way anyway.

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Speaker 1: So I went out a few times. I could, you know,

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Speaker 1: go to open auditions, because if you're not equity then

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Speaker 1: you can't go to a regular audition, and you can't

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Speaker 1: go to a regular audition until you get your equity card,

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Speaker 1: and you can't get an equity card until you get

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Speaker 1: a job, so you know, catch twenty two. So the

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Speaker 1: few times that I could go, it was the character

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Speaker 1: juvenile and by Hooker Crook. Uh Nichols casts Katherine Ross

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Speaker 1: and I in a graduate and I'd been just starting

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Speaker 1: to get somewhere off Broadway doing you know, my own

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Speaker 1: style of stuff. Hunchbacked German gay guy with a limp.

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Speaker 1: You know, the first thing that I got mentioned for

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Speaker 1: in the in the New York Times, and uh Nichols

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Speaker 1: had heard about it, and uh and I got to

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Speaker 1: you're not kidding. You played a hunchback German homosexual with

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Speaker 1: a limb. Ronald Ribbon. What was the production Harry Noon

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Speaker 1: and Night. And the other actor was what was his

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Speaker 1: Joel Joel Gray? Sorry Joel? Uh, yes, that was accurate.

403
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Speaker 1: So uh he brings me out to test me, and

404
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Speaker 1: I didn't want to test. I was doing for the

405
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Speaker 1: first time in my life doing well off Broadway. I

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Speaker 1: won an award and I thought, oh, I'll have a career.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'll do off Broadway. And you know this

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Speaker 1: as well as I do. Uh. You know, if God

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Speaker 1: has said, look alec uh, you'll never be in a movie,

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Speaker 1: you'll never get leading roles. If you're struggling for years,

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Speaker 1: you won't even be on Broadway. I will guarantee you

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Speaker 1: a good part off Broadway for the rest of your life.

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Speaker 1: You'd sign, you would, you know? Uh? And so would

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Speaker 1: a hackman who moved furniture and down, you know, six

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Speaker 1: flights and do val who worked midnight to eight in

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Speaker 1: the post office. And I was doing waiter jobs and

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Speaker 1: a little acting teaching if I could. And it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's never changed as actors. Here you know the pain

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Speaker 1: of that. Um and uh. Here he is now taking

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Speaker 1: me out into l A and testing and can we

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Speaker 1: do anything about his nose? I remember, And I mean,

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Speaker 1: well the guy is he said, you don't and he

423
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. I mean, he's the hottest director from

424
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:07,239
Speaker 1: Neil Simon Broadway and also Virginia Wolf. He did. Uh,

425
00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 1: there was no hotter director at that moment. In time

426
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 1: he was Spielberg and he said, what do you mean

427
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: you don't want to do this part? I said, I

428
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: read the book of Mr Nichols. Was on the phone. He'said,

429
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 1: Alam in New York doing a play. I said, Benjamin

430
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:25,359
Speaker 1: Braddock in the book. He's five ft eleven, blonde hair.

431
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: I says, it's Redford. I said, you don't want me

432
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,200
Speaker 1: and he said no. He says, I I would like

433
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:34,479
Speaker 1: to test you. He said, you mean he's not Jewish.

434
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:38,680
Speaker 1: I said, right, it's Benjamin Braddock. And he said something

435
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 1: I've never forgotten. He says, well, maybe he's Jewish. Inside

436
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:49,680
Speaker 1: years later he's from Berlin, Mike. He came here in

437
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:53,400
Speaker 1: the early thirties, and uh, he had his own pain

438
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,080
Speaker 1: because he didn't have a lot of hair. He had

439
00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:02,159
Speaker 1: scarlet fever. And uh he not too long ago, just

440
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: a few years ago. I read in the paper that

441
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: he never understood why he cast me, and then he

442
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,800
Speaker 1: finally did through the analysis or something, and he said,

443
00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: because I was like an alter ego of him. He

444
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: felt like he was me in uh, you know, on

445
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 1: the periphery, you know, out of it, and he was

446
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,639
Speaker 1: casting himself the funny looking guy. Do you know that

447
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:31,919
Speaker 1: that movie was shot and I went back to New

448
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 1: York to collect unemployment. It was a lot, because you know,

449
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: it's fifty bucks a week is getting the mostly to

450
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 1: get and they're cutting the movie again. I read this

451
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: in the newspapers and Lawrence Turman, I think it was

452
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: a New York carrents a producer. They're showing it all

453
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 1: over the bel Air circuit, every Hills Belair, Brentwood on

454
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 1: a movie theaters they have in the homes and over

455
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: in a over again Urman said before it opened, and

456
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: over and over again. People in the industry would come

457
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 1: up to Larry, Why brilliant film you almost had if

458
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: you hadn't a miscast the lead. And that was the perception.

459
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,639
Speaker 1: It's interesting because speaking of that casting thing, he and

460
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 1: I have had a little There was a whiff of this,

461
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,920
Speaker 1: of this, of my appreciation of his career, and you

462
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: wind him mind. I remember this. I doubt you remember this.

463
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 1: But I go to the old Westwood Marquis Hotel because

464
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 1: I get called to go an audition for the movie

465
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 1: Hero and Stephen Friers is the director, and the phone rings,

466
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: and this is back when I was making films in

467
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 1: the nineties and everything, and I'm lighting one off the

468
00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: other and I'm gonna meet this guy and I'm gonna

469
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: I'm in my car. I'm like, God, masically gonna go

470
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:54,800
Speaker 1: to the Westwood Marquis, and they just lay out the

471
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: facts are like, you know, snap out of it. You're

472
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: gonna go to the Westwood Marquis. You're gonna be Steen

473
00:28:58,280 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: Friars and you're gonna have a meeting with Dustin hop

474
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I love this guy. I want to

475
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,200
Speaker 1: be this movie where this guy and all of a sudden,

476
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: like twenty minutes goes by and Stephen Fiers. If you

477
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 1: know the movie Hero, where someone commits this actor, there's

478
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: a case of mistake in identity, and Andy Garcia played

479
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 1: the other role, so there has to be this case

480
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 1: of mistaken identity between the two actors. Stephen fears literally

481
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,280
Speaker 1: twenty minutes in. I mean, my dream is just taking flight,

482
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,800
Speaker 1: my wings. I'm flying over the west Wood Blocky Hotel.

483
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make my first movie with Dustin Effin Hoffman,

484
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: and Stephen Fiers looks at me and goes, you know,

485
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: I just realized that you don't look anything like Dustin

486
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: at all, and it was like there, I'm flying. Also

487
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 1: he shoots my balloon, my crash onto Westwood Boulevard. I'm

488
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: dead on the highway there. I'll never figure to talk about. Yeah,

489
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not. Our dreams are dreams, how they

490
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 1: how they escape us. But I'm called the Emma right

491
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 1: right right. But the when you do, when you show

492
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: up and you work with Lessinger and you do Cowboy,

493
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: do you you come up with all that and you

494
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: show him did he help you? Did you Cowboy? Very briefly,

495
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: he didn't want It's very similar to Freers and you.

496
00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: He did not want to see me because he had

497
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 1: seen a graduate and that's the only thing he'd ever

498
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 1: seen me in. And he was an artist. He give

499
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: a ship that I was in a big hit and

500
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 1: suddenly an instant star. He wanted the right person, and

501
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 1: he refused to see me. And I heard about this,

502
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: and I had read the book. I thought the script

503
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 1: was okay. It was Waldo Salt. He actually came in

504
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,160
Speaker 1: a room with John Votnit when we did it, and

505
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 1: he had a wall inside tape recorder. We improvised everything.

506
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: Everything was Lessener was great at that and he would

507
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: go home, Uh, wald as well and write the improvisations

508
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:53,960
Speaker 1: into the scenes that he had already written. Anyway, he

509
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 1: wouldn't see me, and I said, please, you know, I

510
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 1: gotta see him. He's got to see me. And he agreed.

511
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 1: I know we're running out of time, so I go quick.

512
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: Uh forty second Street. What are they called those things

513
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 1: where you you go when you put the quarter in?

514
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: I can't remember the automat, thank you, And I said,

515
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 1: the automat. I'm gonna direct the movie of him playing

516
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: a car. You all heard it, go ahead? And I

517
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: used to go there and we all did you know,

518
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:31,200
Speaker 1: to three in the morning whatever, uh, and get coffee

519
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 1: or whatever. And it was all kind of trance people there.

520
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: And I said, I'll meet him in the automat, and

521
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: I want to do it about one or two in

522
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 1: the morning, because you know, and I'll dress accordingly, which

523
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: is what I did. It kind of like I wore

524
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: in that scene that rain Cole and I didn't shave

525
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: a few days and I greased my hair. I was

526
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 1: auditioning and I came in and I just said, met

527
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: him there, sat there and he looked at me, and

528
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 1: he looked at you know, sparsely crowded, you know, people

529
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: around he says. Oh, he says, yes, I think you'll

530
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: do quite well. So the voice and all of it,

531
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 1: you just throw that out there. You come up with that.

532
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 1: Oh well, yeah, you keep trying. You mean, my friend

533
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 1: Will Daniel, My friend Will Daniel, you're too comes. Where

534
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: do you find this? You get desperate? Um, but I didn't.

535
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't. That's my father. I wasn't desperate enough. No,

536
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 1: And uh, we were rehearsing and then uh, Lesson has

537
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: to shoot some exteriors before we start shooting, uh, principal

538
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: photography because he's got winter and he needed winter. So

539
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: John Voight and I go and he says, you don't

540
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 1: have to talk. I says, I don't have a character.

541
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 1: I don't have a voice. I said, I can't. I

542
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 1: barely have a walk. No, we've had the camera cross

543
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 1: the street. You guys just gotta walk. We're not starting

544
00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: for a month, but we just need the weather, you know,

545
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: the smoke coming up. Whatever was right? Okay? So John

546
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: and I were walking. John Voight and I knew each

547
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: other for years. I was the assistant director, which is

548
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,080
Speaker 1: like you know, sharpening pencils in the off Broadway when

549
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 1: he was in From the Bridge with Bob du Valle.

550
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 1: He was brilliant and he was up and coming star,

551
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 1: and uh, and you know we were competitive. Actors are

552
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 1: always competitive. And uh, you know, if you're walking down

553
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: the street, you got a script, you have a reading,

554
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,840
Speaker 1: or you did the read, you see another actor coming up,

555
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 1: You've always put it behind your back, you know. Said

556
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 1: but no, it's just something, you know, because you don't

557
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 1: want the competition. Uh. Anyway, so we're across the street

558
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,479
Speaker 1: walking and says after this, I said, yeah, but I'm

559
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 1: supposed to cough. Were at that point in the movie

560
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: where you know he's got You're gonna find out the

561
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 1: S T B or whatever. He says, yes, says this, says, already,

562
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: you do some coughing and do something not going, but

563
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 1: you don't have to talk. Okay, I'm rehearsing out of panic,

564
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 1: you know, trying on these limps or whatever. And uh,

565
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: I said, it shouldn't be shooting. We got a month ago.

566
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 1: I haven't found him yet. And suddenly we're walking and

567
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,280
Speaker 1: we paused, and I'm trying a cough and I threw

568
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 1: up literally on John Voyd's Cowboy boots and afterwards sus

569
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 1: and just I think we've got it. You did, and

570
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:23,840
Speaker 1: John because he's an actor and you know we're competitive.

571
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:28,360
Speaker 1: He Passenger told me later he went up to pless

572
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,719
Speaker 1: and Journey said, John, let me just ask you something.

573
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:35,640
Speaker 1: Is he going to do that all throughout the Jesus

574
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 1: because I'm not even in the scene. If he does, well,

575
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: let me just say this because obviously, I mean, I

576
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:43,480
Speaker 1: got another forty five questions I could ask, but they

577
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:45,800
Speaker 1: do have a schedule here for the festival. But I

578
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: do want to say. I mean, as as as sadly

579
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,319
Speaker 1: as this sounds on behalf of everybody here, I want

580
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:56,479
Speaker 1: to say thank you to you because I mean, I really,

581
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:58,960
Speaker 1: from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of

582
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,120
Speaker 1: my heart, you are one of the greatest movie actors

583
00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 1: that has ever lived. And this happen really actress ever,

584
00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 1: I mean, there's somebody great ful. Please help me in

585
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 1: a thanky Dustin everyone. Dustin Hoffman has accrued a lifetime

586
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:23,560
Speaker 1: of knowledge about acting and the entertainment industry, and despite

587
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 1: turning seventy eight this summer, he's now embracing a very

588
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:30,200
Speaker 1: new way to share it. He's teaching an acting class

589
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 1: online The description reads, quote Dustin teaches you everything he

590
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,799
Speaker 1: wishes someone had taught him unquote. You can sign up

591
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 1: at master class dot com. Coming up actress Edie Falco

592
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 1: Sweeney Todd was one of the first things I saw

593
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,399
Speaker 1: where I thought, oh, I got it what. I don't

594
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,040
Speaker 1: know how, but I got it. Oh my god. That

595
00:35:52,239 --> 00:36:00,320
Speaker 1: one show, This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening

596
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: to hear is the thing. Edie Falco played Carmelo soprano

597
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:08,160
Speaker 1: on the groundbreaking HBO show about an Italian American mob

598
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:12,240
Speaker 1: family from New Jersey. Falco now has two kids herself,

599
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:14,880
Speaker 1: but when she was playing Carmela, she was a single

600
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 1: woman living in New York. In this clip, we hear

601
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: Falco with the late great James Gandolfini, who played her

602
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 1: husband Tony. You know what I don't understand, Tony. What

603
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:39,840
Speaker 1: does she have that I don't have. I did not

604
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: carry on an affair with the cousin, and I will

605
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:46,719
Speaker 1: take a damn polygray effect. I want you to leave

606
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 1: this house, Tony, please, I want you to leave me alone.

607
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:57,240
Speaker 1: TV Guide named The Sopranos the best television show in history.

608
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 1: It's safe to say the role of Carmela made her

609
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: but Edie Falco didn't sense that. At the start, I

610
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 1: didn't have any sense of the gravity of what we

611
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:07,840
Speaker 1: were doing, and might might have just been because I

612
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: was dumb. I didn't realize, what, you know, the the

613
00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 1: larger themes at play there. But I just enjoyed it.

614
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:17,359
Speaker 1: And it was still a novel TV working on something

615
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,880
Speaker 1: that was good, that people enjoyed, that seemed to be

616
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 1: well received. Yeah, that was the excitement of being on

617
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,560
Speaker 1: something good. Was still very new, and I wonder when

618
00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 1: you did the show, was it fun and pleasant? Was

619
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: it really tough? Was it work? Now? It was fun

620
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: and pleasant because it was There was a lighthearted atmosphere.

621
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:36,879
Speaker 1: The writing was funny. There was a lot of really

622
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:38,239
Speaker 1: funny stuff, and it was a lot of these sort

623
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 1: of goomba guys. It just felt like family to me

624
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 1: and very easy to be with. Did you participate in

625
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,359
Speaker 1: the writing of the did you just turn that all over?

626
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:49,160
Speaker 1: You never got involved, not at all. I was not

627
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 1: at all interested. I had so much trust in certainly

628
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 1: David Chase, but in all the staff that he carefully chosen,

629
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 1: hand picked. I felt like they knew what they were doing.

630
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: They had much better overview of what the story was

631
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:04,799
Speaker 1: about as opposed to what would Carmela do want here?

632
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,440
Speaker 1: You know, I just thought it was a huge relief

633
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: to know that I could just let them do their

634
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:10,400
Speaker 1: thing and I would do what I was hired to do.

635
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 1: I felt completely comfortable with that. Did they put things

636
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:15,759
Speaker 1: about you and the characters? They got me, Tina Fey

637
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:17,640
Speaker 1: When I did thirty Rock with someone who the moment

638
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 1: you told a story, it was an embarrassing It was

639
00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: in the show. Absolutely. Jim said that all the times,

640
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:26,279
Speaker 1: like I can't talk to anybody about anything, It's gonna

641
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 1: be in the next episode. But I didn't notice it

642
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 1: so much from my life. There was nothing going on

643
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: in my life that was all that interesting, So I

644
00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:34,600
Speaker 1: didn't see a lot of it in the scripts. But

645
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:37,959
Speaker 1: I know they, like I guess, every show, to some extent,

646
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: they start writing for the actors that have been hired, like, um,

647
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 1: I eat his character right A tour that who played

648
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: his sister was supposed to be a very different thing.

649
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be more like the mom sort

650
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:52,080
Speaker 1: of cold and calculating and unkind. And because I ate

651
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 1: a Tour was doing it, it's sort of morphed into

652
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 1: this whole other like Parvody, that phase that she went

653
00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:58,720
Speaker 1: through where she was sort of like an earth child.

654
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:02,080
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I'm sure they were writing based on

655
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 1: what they perceived me to be, but I was. I

656
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: was not entirely cognizant of myth. Think they hired you

657
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,920
Speaker 1: for that part because you said I read an interview

658
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 1: where you talked about how you win, and you just

659
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,799
Speaker 1: relaxed and said, Hey, if this happens, it happens, which

660
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 1: we all go through when you sometimes sit there and go,

661
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:20,440
Speaker 1: I can't stress about another interview, that's right. What do

662
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 1: you think they hired you for? I couldn't begin to

663
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:26,560
Speaker 1: tell you. I think I think probably because of that,

664
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:30,960
Speaker 1: because I was completely non stressed. It was a script

665
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: that had been bouncing around for a while, but I

666
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,240
Speaker 1: was doing odds at the time, and I was working

667
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 1: a lot, and I kind of was all caught up

668
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 1: in that. And it came along and it called Sopranos,

669
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 1: and I thought it's about singers or something, and it's

670
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 1: a you know, Italian American American woman wife, and I

671
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: thought that I never get cast as that I know

672
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 1: who's going to get cast I figured it's you know,

673
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:54,759
Speaker 1: Annabella Shore or Marissa Tomay or some of these women

674
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: who had played parts that sort of felt similar to that.

675
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,120
Speaker 1: There's no better place to be and when you walk

676
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 1: into an audition then knowing you're not going to get

677
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 1: it and not caring, so, uh, you know, I really

678
00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:07,720
Speaker 1: just sort of enjoyed myself and thought, it's just another

679
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:09,920
Speaker 1: audition and if you're in a good head, you can

680
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,279
Speaker 1: never not learn something from an audition. So I just

681
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: went in and had fun. And you inadvertently you present

682
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:18,359
Speaker 1: your best self when you're doing that, and I guess,

683
00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was relaxed and I enjoyed myself,

684
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:22,680
Speaker 1: so I guess that's what they So I don't know.

685
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: And when you got the job, was that something that

686
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,960
Speaker 1: was just floored you? Are you ecstatic about getting the job? Well,

687
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:31,520
Speaker 1: remember so you just just a pilot you get cast

688
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 1: for you know, So at that point it was whatever.

689
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: It was two weeks of work, and it was a

690
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,799
Speaker 1: sum of money I had never seen before, which now

691
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,439
Speaker 1: seems not all that shocking, but back in the day

692
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 1: it meant I could pay off my student loan and

693
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:45,760
Speaker 1: so I was able to with that one check completely

694
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 1: pay off my student loan. It was huge. It was

695
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:51,080
Speaker 1: a huge occurrence. But again two weeks of work and

696
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: then onto the next panic thing, you know, about what

697
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,400
Speaker 1: what to do next. So soon after the pilot was shot,

698
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:58,480
Speaker 1: I think it was a year you told, so you

699
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:01,400
Speaker 1: waited a year to be told this was going to

700
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:03,960
Speaker 1: move forward. And David Chase called me and said, I

701
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:05,719
Speaker 1: just won't let you know this has been picked up.

702
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: This is after we shot the pilot. And he said, well,

703
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:09,320
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna watch this thing, but I'm proud of what

704
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,840
Speaker 1: we made or whatever. And David was also apparently he

705
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 1: put his head in his hand and said, oh no

706
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 1: when he found out it was picked up, because I

707
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 1: don't think he had intended to have to tell more

708
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:21,799
Speaker 1: about these people. I think he was trying to get

709
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,239
Speaker 1: a movie made and this was almost like a spec

710
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 1: script or something, you know. I don't think he had

711
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 1: anticipated this going on like this, So he was had

712
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:32,719
Speaker 1: his head in his hands. Jimmy's like, what am I doing?

713
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I can pay my student alone. And

714
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:36,360
Speaker 1: you know, here at his four thousand years later, and

715
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:39,440
Speaker 1: uh just goes to show you you wake up every day.

716
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:41,319
Speaker 1: I have no idea what anything is going to turn into?

717
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 1: So well, two things that come to mind for me.

718
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 1: One and I probably told you this before and when

719
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 1: I would run into you, But one was I never

720
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:52,359
Speaker 1: watched TV. I just didn't have time. And I hit

721
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:56,319
Speaker 1: this period toward the last probably four seasons, definitely maybe five.

722
00:41:56,840 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 1: I don't want to say obsession, but my fondness for

723
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:03,000
Speaker 1: you and your character. Remember I watched him go, oh

724
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 1: my god, I've got to be married to that kind

725
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:10,680
Speaker 1: of woman through thick and thin and smart choices, and

726
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,360
Speaker 1: she's a good partner. Did you sense that when you

727
00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:16,280
Speaker 1: were doing it? I loved it for that reason because

728
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 1: it was everything that I was not, you know, I

729
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:21,759
Speaker 1: mean it was you know, I was a single woman

730
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:23,920
Speaker 1: living in New York, didn't have kids, and here I

731
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:28,000
Speaker 1: was ensconced in this life that I saw my grandparents live,

732
00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:32,320
Speaker 1: you know, married with kids, deeply entrenched in a community

733
00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,680
Speaker 1: of people. Family gatherings were huge, you know, everything that

734
00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 1: and even with Jim feeling like I was attached to

735
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:41,759
Speaker 1: a big man who would take care of stuff. It

736
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:47,960
Speaker 1: was a tremendously um invigorating place to inhabit while I

737
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:51,400
Speaker 1: was working. It was completely diametrically opposed to what I

738
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,839
Speaker 1: lived when I left the set, And for that reason,

739
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 1: I absolutely what did you live when you left the set?

740
00:42:56,800 --> 00:42:59,800
Speaker 1: The life of a single actress in Manhattan? You know,

741
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,120
Speaker 1: I had a relatively small apartment, I had my dog,

742
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: I had my dates. But it was not you know

743
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 1: at all what a lot other women my age, let's say,

744
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:09,360
Speaker 1: in the Midwest are certainly in my family back a

745
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:14,320
Speaker 1: number of generations. Primary and I was your boyfriend. It

746
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: was when you dated other guys on the side. Was

747
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:21,239
Speaker 1: it was? And I was thrilled for it, thrilled for it.

748
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: I loved it. How old were you when you first

749
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 1: had a sense that you wanted to do that for

750
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,320
Speaker 1: a living? Seriously, do it for a living? Well, I

751
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:30,040
Speaker 1: didn't know that I could ever do it for a living.

752
00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:31,800
Speaker 1: I think until I was able to do it for

753
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:33,279
Speaker 1: a living, I thought I would just do it as

754
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:35,840
Speaker 1: after my waitressing gig. You know, the idea that I

755
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,239
Speaker 1: could support myself with it was sort of preposterous. Um.

756
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:42,400
Speaker 1: But my mom was an actress. She did stuff at

757
00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:45,920
Speaker 1: arena players in Farmingdale and broad Hollow Theater and Huntington's

758
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:47,960
Speaker 1: all around Long Island. But she had a job, and

759
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:49,799
Speaker 1: she would do her plays in the weekends and at night,

760
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,720
Speaker 1: and I sort of thought of your job many different jobs.

761
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:55,759
Speaker 1: But she was a she was a DJ W g L,

762
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:58,880
Speaker 1: I was a station on Long Island. She was a copywriter,

763
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:00,880
Speaker 1: and she did a million different things. She decided she

764
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,480
Speaker 1: wanted a job and she would get it, but then

765
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:05,319
Speaker 1: at night she'd do her plays. And I thought, that's

766
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 1: what you do when you want to be an actor.

767
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:11,399
Speaker 1: I've got an older brother, younger brother, and a younger sister.

768
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:13,840
Speaker 1: It's four four of us all, and were any of

769
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,239
Speaker 1: them also interested in the theater, not at all, even

770
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:18,719
Speaker 1: though your mother was an actress and your father was

771
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 1: a patriot artist and be with musician for when he

772
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 1: was younger, but then he went on to do sculpture

773
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:27,520
Speaker 1: and painting. And your parents got divorced from your how old.

774
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:31,560
Speaker 1: I have no idea, because they got divorced and then

775
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 1: they remarried each other two other times, so it's a

776
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:36,800
Speaker 1: very complicated childhood with that. They remarried each other and

777
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:38,680
Speaker 1: then dovorris and remarried divorce And I don't even know

778
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 1: if because because I want to make a movie at us,

779
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,279
Speaker 1: I want to play this. They got divorced. When they

780
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:45,080
Speaker 1: would get divorced, how long were they apart before they

781
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:47,640
Speaker 1: were united? A matter of months, No longer it was

782
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: for the first time, it was a number of years.

783
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:51,160
Speaker 1: And you know, they kind of the kids were pitted

784
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:53,040
Speaker 1: against each other and the right against And then we

785
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:54,800
Speaker 1: found out the parents were sort of hanging out with

786
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:57,719
Speaker 1: each other again. It was, you know, horrifying for the

787
00:44:57,800 --> 00:44:59,719
Speaker 1: kids that they would something get together again. Then they

788
00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 1: would have a ceremony, we would witness there. What it was,

789
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,319
Speaker 1: I don't know led to some psychological issues and I'm

790
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:07,360
Speaker 1: working on as we speak, but we get to that.

791
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 1: And none of your siblings had the bug, not at all, not,

792
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 1: I mean did the opposite. And so did this become

793
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: formal for you only when you go to Purchase or

794
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 1: had you done plays before you went to school? Community

795
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:23,239
Speaker 1: theater plays nothing too and school plays, you know, but

796
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: nothing very serious. Um. And then I went to Purchase

797
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:31,279
Speaker 1: first as a liberal arts person, and uh, I saw

798
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:34,160
Speaker 1: my some actor friends had gone into Purchase in the program,

799
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:36,279
Speaker 1: and I thought that wanted to be there, and that

800
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:39,200
Speaker 1: program had grown, Yes, and now it's become this very

801
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:42,400
Speaker 1: estimable program on the East coast, big time. So I

802
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:44,800
Speaker 1: auditioned and went the next year as an acting student.

803
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,879
Speaker 1: And did you graduate? Did you finish? I did? I did?

804
00:45:48,239 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 1: And then when you finished, what did you do? Well?

805
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:54,040
Speaker 1: Remember the league auditions? That whole thing. So we had

806
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:56,719
Speaker 1: the league auditions, and from those auditions, I got a

807
00:45:56,800 --> 00:45:59,279
Speaker 1: part in a movie where I had to be on

808
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:01,800
Speaker 1: set the day after I graduated, and I thought, you know,

809
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 1: what's everybody talking about? This is so easy. I just

810
00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:07,919
Speaker 1: kind of glided my way into this career. I didn't

811
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:10,239
Speaker 1: do anything for five plus years after that, but did

812
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:12,719
Speaker 1: a movie called Sweet Lorraine that was done up in

813
00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:17,320
Speaker 1: The Cat's Skills with the guy's name was Steve Gohmer,

814
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:22,040
Speaker 1: the director. How did that go? It was? Well, it

815
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:23,799
Speaker 1: was I couldn't believe it was on a movie set,

816
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:25,520
Speaker 1: you know. It was a huge thing, and I just

817
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:29,600
Speaker 1: graduated from school and it was crazily exciting. You know

818
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 1: what the heck were we like eight weeks up in

819
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:33,600
Speaker 1: the Cats Skills I think it was, and kind of

820
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:35,359
Speaker 1: fell in love with all the boys in the show.

821
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 1: You know, it was being a sleep away camp. And

822
00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 1: I remember when my agents said, I hope you're sitting down.

823
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,480
Speaker 1: You booked that movie? And you're gonna get paid more

824
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:46,560
Speaker 1: money than you have ever seen in your life. They're

825
00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:49,279
Speaker 1: going to pay you two thousand dollars a week, which

826
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:51,880
Speaker 1: was more money than I had ever seen. And waitressing

827
00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:55,520
Speaker 1: not yet, I uh no, except on Long Island, I

828
00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:00,200
Speaker 1: hadn't really happened. So it was after the movie the waitressing. Yes,

829
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 1: in to try to keep up weekends the Rainbow Room.

830
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:10,719
Speaker 1: I was ane, thinking it would be consistent. Yes, but

831
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 1: now what was the job for you that ended that? Like?

832
00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:15,520
Speaker 1: When did you get a job and then you never

833
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: went back again? You only made a living as an actress.

834
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:20,640
Speaker 1: I was waitressing at a place called Canyon Road on

835
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 1: seventy seven, and first it was the last waitressing job

836
00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:26,120
Speaker 1: I had. I worked in with Paul Scholzy, my friend

837
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:28,240
Speaker 1: who has actually been on a bunch of my shows

838
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:32,400
Speaker 1: with me, my great actor friend, and he was bartending,

839
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:34,600
Speaker 1: and I went off to do a thing called Cost

840
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 1: of Living, a low budget independent thing, and I left

841
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 1: and I was about to come back to the restaurant job,

842
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:44,360
Speaker 1: and I just had one of those sort of grace

843
00:47:44,640 --> 00:47:47,719
Speaker 1: moments where I thought, no, I'm not going to come back.

844
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:49,560
Speaker 1: I don't know how this is going to work. But

845
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:51,759
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna waitress anymore. I really was one. It

846
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:55,319
Speaker 1: was a total leap of faith. I just I'm going

847
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,799
Speaker 1: to live in a washing machine box, which see nicked

848
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:00,720
Speaker 1: out the box preferable to taking another order at that restaurant.

849
00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,120
Speaker 1: So I couldn't do it anymore. So yeah, and at

850
00:48:03,160 --> 00:48:05,960
Speaker 1: that I don't know. I guess um oz happened shortly

851
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:08,680
Speaker 1: after maybe. So what was the experience like working with

852
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:13,879
Speaker 1: fontana Um? You know Tom right? I I love him.

853
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:16,399
Speaker 1: He was one of those angel guys, you know. Because

854
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 1: I had done a movie called Laws of Gravity and

855
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 1: it got some attention and played the sort of sundance

856
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:26,400
Speaker 1: and the the festival circuit. Tom saw it and decided

857
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:28,440
Speaker 1: he wanted to use me for stuff, and so he

858
00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:32,640
Speaker 1: put me in um series called Firehouse about e MT

859
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: workers and fire people or whatever. Then he cast me

860
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:39,959
Speaker 1: in homicide, or maybe it was the other way around.

861
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:41,719
Speaker 1: He just we kept putting me and stuff when I

862
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:44,239
Speaker 1: wasn't really working much. And then he said, I'm doing

863
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:47,800
Speaker 1: the series about a prison. I have two parts. You

864
00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:51,200
Speaker 1: can play the nun or you can play the correction officer.

865
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:52,719
Speaker 1: Which part you want to play? So I'll be the

866
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:55,600
Speaker 1: correction officer and that was you know, and he just

867
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 1: decided he was going to take care of me, and

868
00:48:57,600 --> 00:48:59,800
Speaker 1: he did, and he did for many years, and just

869
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: you were in his troop. I was in his troop. Yeah,

870
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 1: and I was just digital of oz. Gosh, you know,

871
00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 1: I have no idea actually, come to think of it,

872
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:12,000
Speaker 1: more than a couple. Yeah. It was just so crazy

873
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 1: grateful for the work. And I remember it was before

874
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:16,440
Speaker 1: cell phones. Remember Terry Kinney was on the show with me,

875
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:18,080
Speaker 1: and he was the first person I ever knew who

876
00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 1: had his own phone. I just thought he was the coolest,

877
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:24,680
Speaker 1: coolest thing going. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. It was fun,

878
00:49:24,719 --> 00:49:26,200
Speaker 1: It was really really fun. And it was great to

879
00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: have a steady gig. And then after that, what did

880
00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:31,120
Speaker 1: you do? How long between that and the Sopranos? Not

881
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:34,040
Speaker 1: long I was doing you know, I was doing uh

882
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 1: that that was during Sopranos. I think that was during

883
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:40,680
Speaker 1: two seasons of Sopranos. But I was doing ODZ and

884
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:43,920
Speaker 1: then I was doing Sideman play that I did for

885
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:45,680
Speaker 1: a very long time. And I was doing Odds at

886
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:47,960
Speaker 1: night and Sideman during the day, and then Sopranos came

887
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:49,319
Speaker 1: in and so I was doing there was a period

888
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,239
Speaker 1: of time where I was doing sort of all three

889
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:53,080
Speaker 1: of them, and I thought because they were so great

890
00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 1: and I couldn't say no to anything. But I was

891
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:59,239
Speaker 1: very unhappy because I was exhausted and sick most of

892
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:01,239
Speaker 1: the time, screen me my voice out and it was

893
00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:05,359
Speaker 1: an embarrassment of riches. But I might have done better

894
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:06,880
Speaker 1: to say no to one of them. But be that

895
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 1: as it may, it was at a time when I

896
00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:14,839
Speaker 1: couldn't imagine not doing any of those jobs. Hello, Well,

897
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:16,320
Speaker 1: I'm I'm trying to think of how to say this.

898
00:50:17,600 --> 00:50:19,200
Speaker 1: I'm going to write a book. I'm writing a memoir

899
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:21,640
Speaker 1: that's coming out in a year. And in the book,

900
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:25,640
Speaker 1: I've got some interesting things I talked about, and one

901
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:30,280
Speaker 1: of which was I celebrated my thirtieth anniversary in February

902
00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:32,719
Speaker 1: this year. I went up to Los Angeles, which is

903
00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:35,480
Speaker 1: was the scene of the crime from that, right, Can

904
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:37,359
Speaker 1: we talk about that? How are you on the record

905
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:40,000
Speaker 1: about that? I was wondering what that, how that affected

906
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:44,000
Speaker 1: your career? Well, I got sober twenty three years ago

907
00:50:44,239 --> 00:50:45,880
Speaker 1: and there was really not much of anything going on

908
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:48,240
Speaker 1: at the time, and I'm grateful for that also because

909
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 1: you know, the access people have to your life nowadays. Um,

910
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 1: I'm just glad that none of that was going on.

911
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:58,960
Speaker 1: Nobody was interested back when I was a mess um,

912
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:02,120
Speaker 1: so I was able to get kind of squared with

913
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:05,239
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff before. Yeah, before anything big

914
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 1: was happening in my life. I was very, very grateful

915
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:10,200
Speaker 1: for the timing of all that. When you walk into

916
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:11,480
Speaker 1: a room in a a there's not a lot of

917
00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:14,279
Speaker 1: people who have twenty five years. Yeah that people make

918
00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 1: it that far. Yeah, they might be when they do

919
00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 1: the hand raising thing. I'm in a room the other

920
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:21,120
Speaker 1: day in l A where there was three people and

921
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:23,160
Speaker 1: there might have been like six or eight of them

922
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:28,600
Speaker 1: that had over twenty years. Yeah, right, where the times right,

923
00:51:28,960 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 1: there's still a part of your left. I go on

924
00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:33,719
Speaker 1: my anniversary, which was the last week, and just to

925
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:38,759
Speaker 1: announce it, and now I'm I'm a Buddhist, which is

926
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:41,160
Speaker 1: where what I what I do now? Yeah, I spend

927
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,440
Speaker 1: a great deal time at the Buddhist Center in New York,

928
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:46,359
Speaker 1: were has given my life a tremendous amount of when

929
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:50,239
Speaker 1: when in because you're not the first person I know

930
00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 1: who has supplanted sobriety interest and twelve steps sobriety with

931
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:57,520
Speaker 1: Buddhism or Buddhists of crossovers. I see a lot of

932
00:51:57,560 --> 00:52:01,080
Speaker 1: people that I know from both places. So I see, yeah, uh,

933
00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 1: Like twenty something years ago, I inadvertently ran into a

934
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:06,800
Speaker 1: meditation class and it was this teacher, and then I

935
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:09,000
Speaker 1: kind of wandered away, and then I kind of went

936
00:52:09,080 --> 00:52:10,960
Speaker 1: back and it was the same teacher. I thought I

937
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:13,080
Speaker 1: was going to some other thing. This happened a number

938
00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:16,040
Speaker 1: of times, and then a good five or six years

939
00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 1: ago I went back again, and here's the same darn

940
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:21,640
Speaker 1: teacher in a different place. And I've been going consistently

941
00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:24,239
Speaker 1: for I don't know, four or five years as much

942
00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:27,080
Speaker 1: as I can. It feeds me in a huge way.

943
00:52:27,239 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 1: So what do you get out of it? Well, it's

944
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:32,160
Speaker 1: not just sort of mumbo jumbo spiritual kind of it's

945
00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: also it's like a science of the mind really that

946
00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:40,000
Speaker 1: was established years ago. And so they've got they've got

947
00:52:40,239 --> 00:52:43,480
Speaker 1: history on their side. And I see the people who

948
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:45,759
Speaker 1: spend a good deal of time there, and the teacher there.

949
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:47,600
Speaker 1: They have what I want, you know, the stick with

950
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:50,719
Speaker 1: the winners thing that I love a But you know,

951
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 1: there there are a lot of cuckoos in there, and

952
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:55,319
Speaker 1: you know, and I love them because I understand them.

953
00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:57,200
Speaker 1: But to be in a place where there somebody who

954
00:52:57,239 --> 00:52:59,759
Speaker 1: really has something that I want, it's very meaningful to me,

955
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:02,160
Speaker 1: but comes harder and harder to find that that's huge

956
00:53:02,560 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 1: And and and for you, what I'm wondering, what did

957
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:06,920
Speaker 1: it give you? What did it help you deal with?

958
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:10,360
Speaker 1: Or manager? Well, single parenting is not for this faint

959
00:53:10,400 --> 00:53:13,560
Speaker 1: of heart. Uh, shall I say? You know, you live

960
00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:16,400
Speaker 1: for forty years where you're the center of your universe.

961
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:17,759
Speaker 1: You know, when you want to get a massage, you

962
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:21,160
Speaker 1: go get one, and as you know that, kids enter

963
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:23,799
Speaker 1: the picture, and it just turns your whole life. I mean,

964
00:53:24,080 --> 00:53:26,719
Speaker 1: there's nothing recognizable about it. And it was really a

965
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:30,719
Speaker 1: crash course in in uh, not being the center of

966
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:34,040
Speaker 1: my universe anymore so, And I didn't always handle it great.

967
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:36,600
Speaker 1: Spent a fair amount of time just not being okay

968
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:39,360
Speaker 1: with the fact that I couldn't control my environment. So

969
00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:43,920
Speaker 1: a lot of it is about remaining calm, about being patient,

970
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:48,920
Speaker 1: about remembering what's important about patients is I think the

971
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:50,840
Speaker 1: biggest part of it. I am. I have I have

972
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:54,800
Speaker 1: a short temper that people may not believe, but you know,

973
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 1: in in my human environment. Yeah, it's not pretty. So

974
00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:01,920
Speaker 1: it has helped me in measure believe with that, Describe

975
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 1: your son, cute blonde. He's uh, spectacularly amazing kid and

976
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 1: he's been through a lot, and uh he has some

977
00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:18,279
Speaker 1: learning stuff and uh also a d D a d

978
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:22,239
Speaker 1: h D and all those acronyms, um, which you know,

979
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:24,920
Speaker 1: single parenting under the best of circumstances is difficult. But

980
00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:26,760
Speaker 1: when you have a kid who's bouncing off the walls

981
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 1: and then a kid who's not who's getting beat up

982
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:31,600
Speaker 1: by the kid who's bounced off the wall, it's complicated

983
00:54:31,680 --> 00:54:40,719
Speaker 1: and it's difficult. Yeah, she's the sort of the survivor, yes, yes, so,

984
00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:42,560
Speaker 1: but you know she's a tough kid. She can take

985
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 1: care of herself. Let's play sword fights. Yeah no, no,

986
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:48,200
Speaker 1: you're the sword and he's constantly beaten the crap out

987
00:54:48,200 --> 00:54:51,880
Speaker 1: ever and she's learned to kind of make the make

988
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:53,400
Speaker 1: the best of it. But the fact that she has

989
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,680
Speaker 1: to what is a drag so um. But you know,

990
00:54:56,760 --> 00:54:59,279
Speaker 1: we all had our stuff growing up in the middle

991
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,040
Speaker 1: child and everybody we all have some order in which

992
00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:04,279
Speaker 1: we were born and the difficulties we had and being

993
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:06,040
Speaker 1: the first one or the last one or whatever, and

994
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:10,000
Speaker 1: my kids challenges are not that unusual. But you know,

995
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:12,879
Speaker 1: I say that my daughter, my older daughter, I said

996
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:15,840
Speaker 1: to her recently. I said to her, you know, to me,

997
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:18,719
Speaker 1: a god or the presence of some kind of force

998
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:21,440
Speaker 1: like that in your life manifests itself in the instincts

999
00:55:21,520 --> 00:55:25,719
Speaker 1: that you have. And I said to her, the minute

1000
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:27,960
Speaker 1: you get into trouble in this life, in my experience,

1001
00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:31,319
Speaker 1: is when you stopped listening to your instincts. That's all

1002
00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:33,439
Speaker 1: we can do is try to get them to listen

1003
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 1: to that voice in them because in the end, they're

1004
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:37,680
Speaker 1: gonna do what they're gonna do. We can't make them

1005
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:40,879
Speaker 1: do what we want to do. Is painful, it's shocking too.

1006
00:55:41,239 --> 00:55:42,920
Speaker 1: I mean, especially in this industry. We have so many

1007
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,719
Speaker 1: people running around, you know, telling you how great you are,

1008
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:47,879
Speaker 1: and you know, making sure that every your every need

1009
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: is taken care of, and then you go home and

1010
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:53,560
Speaker 1: your kids just couldn't care less what you're asking they do.

1011
00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 1: But I think they think everybody's parents have some kind

1012
00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:58,960
Speaker 1: of life like this. I don't know, they exceedingly unimpressed,

1013
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:00,960
Speaker 1: but you know, just to hang up the damn coat,

1014
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:03,080
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? It just couldn't possibly care

1015
00:56:03,200 --> 00:56:05,360
Speaker 1: less the way I want, the how's the look? And

1016
00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:07,360
Speaker 1: you know, all that stuff that used to be so

1017
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:11,240
Speaker 1: important that I'm learning slowly to let go of. There's

1018
00:56:11,239 --> 00:56:14,600
Speaker 1: a human nous to Eadie Falco's characters, no matter how

1019
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:19,560
Speaker 1: tough their exterior appears. Her women are vulnerable, fallible, and

1020
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:27,440
Speaker 1: we can't get enough of them. You were listening to

1021
00:56:27,600 --> 00:56:31,320
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing, produced by Emily Botine and Kathy Russo

1022
00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:36,840
Speaker 1: with Melanie Hoops, ed Herbstman, Zach mcnee's, Dan O'Donnell, Christ Ripple,

1023
00:56:37,239 --> 00:56:41,520
Speaker 1: Joel Werner, and Mallory Schwartz. This is Alec Baldwin, and

1024
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,239
Speaker 1: you were listening to Here's the Thing,