WEBVTT - Kevin Kline Takes a Bow, Several Times 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:05.080 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:10.240 Today's program was recorded live at the Two River Theater 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:16.680 in Red Bank, New Jersey. People always ask me, especially 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.400 at my age, I get a lot of age related comments. Now. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.960 They always asked me who would you like to work with? 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.880 It you didn't get to work with? And I always say, oh, 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:33.640 you know, William Holden and Barbara Stanwick and uh Carrie 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.839 Grant and uh, you know, people like that and and 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.840 people who are of my own generation, give or take. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.360 I don't really, I mean I admire some of them, 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:44.919 and I don't They've done a lot of them who 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.680 I think I'd crawl over broken glass to work with, 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.000 you know. But there are a few. There are a 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.560 couple of people who their career and the work they've 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.240 done and the way they've lived their lives in addition 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:03.240 to the to their careers has always been so um 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.800 just inspiring is the word. You know. There's there's not 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.640 many of them, you know, and uh, and one of 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.600 them is the gentleman I'm gonna introduce, so someone I've 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.959 admired my entire life. When I first came to New 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.760 York to go to school in nineteen seventy nine. Soon thereafter, 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.600 you know there's the Paul Davis posters of this guy 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.520 playing Hamlet in New York. This was that you were 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.120 told was you know you wanted to be this guy. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:29.000 You know he was like one of four or five 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.000 people this is you wanted to have a career like 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:53.040 so please welcome Kevin Klein. M What was it that 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:54.840 was in the an interview? I read that you said 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:57.320 there was the guy from Juilliards and we taught you 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:59.600 the guy that taught you this the fencing, he taught 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:01.320 you how do you is a walking stick? And they 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.760 told you when elizabethan bow? And what's the other kind 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.080 of bow? He taught you, jackolbe any kind of about 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:13.480 We learned to bow in every single period, restoration, restation, restoration, bow, 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.640 give pick one that's your favorite. Let me see restoration. 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.080 I'd have to go back to my notebook. Let's have 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:32.480 you appause again, and I remember this bow. This was 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.760 like I don't remember the period, but I thought it 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.160 must have been very silly. My favorite. Someone told me 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.000 that Olivier had a bow where he'd come in and 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.480 he'd taken the house right and then he come over 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:46.800 and taken the house left, and then he had what 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:53.120 he called the crush of humility, the crush of humility, 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.800 um in your voice, training and so forth at school 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.560 and beyond what is the St. Louis accident that you've 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.040 got rid of? How do people and saying there was 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.120 talk oh uh, you know I I thought I didn't 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.600 have an accent. I thought, well St. Louis is very 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.640 neutral it And but what they do with Juliard is 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.200 when you get there the day you arrive, as they 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.320 tape you saying a bunch of sentences and then at 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:17.920 the end of the first year and they play it 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.560 back to you and you do and you start screaming 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:26.720 in horror at how regional you sound. And Edith Skinner, 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.959 who was who wrote the book, which is the the 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.600 textbook used by every everyone that I know, every every 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.720 drama school. And one of the one of the students 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:39.880 said Edith, when I went home at Christmas, all my 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.320 friends said I sound affected and phony, and she said, 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:52.960 change your friends. Now. When you grew up, your dad, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.440 I mean all the bio was there and there and 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.280 they enter webs everywhere. Um that your dad owned a 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.160 music store and he was an opera singer. He's a 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.600 trained singer. And you describe your mother as being a 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:09.200 very theatrical character quote unquote. Was she an actress? Never? 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.840 Never know? She was very colorful, she was very dramatic 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:21.800 of Irish descent. And yeah, and you were went to 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.440 Indiana from music. Yeah. I went there to study music 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.400 two years, and then I realized the degree of mediocrity 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:30.520 I had achieved. What you were more like your mother 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.680 than your father. You're more actor than a musician. No, no, 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.800 I was a terrible actor. But I thought, this is hopeless. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.640 I could see my whole future before me, and it 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:45.800 was utterly mediocre musically. Musically, I said, you'll be a band. Oh. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.520 In high school, I was playing rock and roll, which 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:49.680 is part of the problem. When I went to study 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:53.520 serious music, I had spent too much time, uh playing 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:58.839 sock hops and bar Mitzvah's Um so yeah, rock and 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:03.880 roll was my was my demise. But um no, I 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.839 just I could see that I wasn't. I started too late, 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.760 and I didn't have the discipline. And I thought, well, 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.000 what's did someone tell you you were talented as an actor? 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.920 When I started doing plays in the theater department, all 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:17.920 my musician friends would say, I saw you in the play. 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.039 You should that's really good. You should do more of that. 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.400 And when I would play the piano for my theater friends, 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.919 they say, you really good. You should really stick with that. 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:32.200 So I actually had to decide myself. And and they're 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.360 from very humble beginnings, you know. I started doing small 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.240 parts and worked my way up. Uh in the theater. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.599 What was theater and film in your childhood? Meaning were you, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.000 you know, writing poetry and you were very sophisticated when 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.520 you were young, or were you watching mcchale's Navy like 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:52.360 the rest of us on TV? The latter I'd say, yeah, No, 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.760 I wasn't. I went to movies. I did not go 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.360 to the theater much until I was in it. Huh. 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:02.279 Really in college a lot of theater, but um, it 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:07.080 was movies. I always wanted to I remember, not always, 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.480 but maybe towards the end of my high school thinking, yeah, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:12.360 I'd like to do that. That looks Did you really 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:17.760 think that he wanted to do because you know, this 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.360 was in the sixties when being cool was everything. You know, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.320 he had to be like Paul Newman in hud He 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.400 had to be cool and heartless, and and I had 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:34.440 massed heartless, heartless? Did you see hud I saw, yeah, heartless? 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.880 Roll down the windowhood? Where was it melt? Melvin Douglas? 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:43.359 Melvin Douglass? But he was an idol. But anyway, I 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.440 was so cool, and I thought I could never be 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:50.960 an actor because I I feel nothing. I remember my 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:55.360 first acting class at at at Juilliard. I mean, I 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.720 had taken some acting classes in college. But I remember you. 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.000 Did you ever do those emotional re holes? Of course? 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.480 And I want you to recreate a time when you 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:10.520 were really, really angry, and I said, I've never been angry. 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.680 I've never been angry. That's the first year. You're gonna 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:21.280 have to give me a minute here the fact angry? Now? Now? 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.280 Did you? But but how did you go? I mean 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.200 because obviously people as to this day think of Juilliard 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.160 is this great temple of arts education. And when you 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.720 how do you go from Indiana and you're not sure 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.080 you're an actor? How the hell did you get into Juilliard? 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.760 I asked myself the same question, because a career a 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.440 huge accident. Is it like it's pretty much? But no, 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.360 it is. I think I think chance comes into it 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.480 quite a bit and being at the right place at 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.120 the right time, because I joined Juilliard in the third 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.640 year of the four year program. That year they decided, 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.280 we need so we have thrown so many students out 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.480 and so many have left in desperation. Did we now 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.200 have like twelve actors left out of the original thirty five. 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.720 We need to fill out the class. So they brought 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:16.000 in David Ogden Styres and me and Mary Joan Negro 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.920 to fill it in. And they brought me in because 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:22.600 they and they told me that we need a leading 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.840 man because we have all these character actors. And then 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.240 they gave me character parts really because that was the 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.080 whole the part of the training was to be the 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.800 complete actor and to play character roles. And were you 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:38.800 frightened when you were there? Did it scare you at all? 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:45.760 Was it intimidating? Yes? And yes and no. I I 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:47.719 had sort of. I've done it for two years. Well 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.440 I did while I was in music school. That was 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.000 part of the problem. But I did it heavily my 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.400 last two years of college and was actually part of 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:58.679 a group that we formed our own company off campus 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:04.000 and had our own theater and it's night and day. 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.400 I was always I was doing a play in the 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.920 main stage at the University Theater and also working at 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:14.560 the in this little coffeehouse theater, doing satirical political reviews 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.440 every week and improv. And we had a playwright and 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:23.920 we started doing his plays. Um and so I had confidence. 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.240 I didn't didn't really deserve it. You didn't come from nowhere. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.400 I mean when you got to Juliard, you've done some theater. Yeah, 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.280 and so and so were you in Juilliard? What do 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.720 you I mean, this is a kind of a you know, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.400 a lazy question, but what what did you take away 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.160 from that? What are your memories of what it did 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.599 for you? What did it do for you? Well, it 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.200 certainly polished me. I mean you asked me what my St. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.560 Louis accident was. St. Louis has a kind of lateral. 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:56.840 You know, those are fantastic pants you're wearing, man um 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:03.040 now with those are fantastic pants. Those official the trousers 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.280 and other pants. You learn not only how to pronounce 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.920 the words correctly, but what are the correct It was 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:16.360 a brilliant trousers, It's wonderful, but they but the verse, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.560 how to how to parse verse and break a breakdown 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:25.640 of Shakespeare scene before it breaks you down, and and 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.199 a lot of movement. I was very very very tight. 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.240 I was an athlete in high school. UM, and I could, 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.720 you know, catch balls and things like that, but I 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.240 couldn't when I was acting. I was very stiff all 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.200 through college. And I was said, you know, I said, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:42.600 I don't know what to do with my hands. You 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.480 know all that you know? Um and Juilliard suddenly they said, 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.280 we're now come first thing in the morning with leotard 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:54.840 and tights. Oh no, no, I I don't do leotards 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.520 and tights. I don't know what sort of modern dances, 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.600 kind of movement with an a Socolo who was a 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:07.199 student of Martha Graham's brilliant UM choreographer. And I'm an 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:13.840 amazing teacher. UM. And so anyway, the short answer is, Um, 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:19.120 I learned to loosen up physically and disinhibited, become more 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:25.880 disinhibited physically. And now people people say, you really move 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:32.880 your hands a lot like a European actor. Um. But anyway, 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.440 that's beside the point. But but but but it loosened me up, 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.840 and it polished my speech, and it made me appreciate Um, 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.880 Shakespeare much more. And listen any great conservatory, whether it's 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:49.880 music or drama or dance. It gives you a protected 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.760 place to practice your craft. And protected. When I say protected, 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.280 I mean it's never more competitive. Once you get out 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.559 as it was then and get up in front of 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.000 the class to do a scene is much scarier than 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:09.840 an opening night on Broadway. Uh, but um, it is 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.800 protected and you get to you learn by doing it. 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.120 Is for how many people here clap if you're studying 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:20.440 acting now or you had studied acting to the few 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.400 people when you were there? Did you? Uh? Was it 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.360 very production oriented? Did you do shows? Is? When I 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.920 went to n y U for the Little for the 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:30.600 brief time I was there, like a year and a half, 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:32.040 it was the opposite. They were like, you know, you 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.960 are nothing and you don't get the show to the 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:40.080 Foy and you are nothing, lay on the floor and 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:45.800 just breathe for three years, practice breathing. You know, not 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.959 very production But was it? Juilliard is exactly the same. 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:54.319 But I missed those first two years they missed the 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.000 lion on the floor here by by no by going 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:01.120 into the third year, it became really production oriented. Costumes, 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:06.520 makeup sets, Yeah, the whole plate. You were assigned a 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.079 role and you did it. I missed those days. Um 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:14.720 but um yeah, before then you did something in a 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.320 studio with maybe a prop, but it was just about acting, 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.240 pure acting. And I missed all that. And when you 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.120 got out of there, what was the gap between that 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.599 and doing the soap opera? You left Juilliard and you 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.560 were on the soap opera? How long? Three or four years? Oh? God, no, no, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:30.840 no no. I was in the I was in the 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.320 acting company for four years, which was a company. I 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.760 was in the first graduating class of Julliard. John Houseman said, 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.600 I just can't bear the idea, with all this training 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.320 that we've given you, that you're gonna go off all 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:42.959 of you are going to go out and do soap 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:54.560 operas or sitcoms or movies, credit card commercial credit card commercials, podcasts, 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.640 so whatever. Um so, I'm going to form you into 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.880 a company. And he formed us into the actor We 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.040 were handed equity cars and put on a bus and 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.160 we went and did the four plays that we had 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:11.319 done in rep in our senior year and towards the country. 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.880 I did that for four years, during which John Houseman 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.440 won an oscar for the paper Chase and then started 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:24.280 doing sitcoms and commercials and all the things he forbad 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.040 us to do. So anyway, and so I got out 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.520 of the I forced myself out of the acting company 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:33.920 that I've got to face reality and learn how to 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.520 really wait tables, you know, and do what actors do, 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:43.920 and pay my dues tables I never did. UM. It 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.720 was such a rare and wonderful gift to have here. 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:50.040 What what it used to be in the days of 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.760 Olivier and Gilgood and those guys. You'd finished drama school 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.120 and you'd go off to a rep company to Birmingham 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.880 or wherever, and you would learn, you would do rep. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.040 You would do a lot of plays. And that's what 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:08.000 we did. UM and I did four years of UH play. 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:09.880 We do a little season in New York and spend 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.920 the rest of the year touring and UH. There's just 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.600 no experience like it. You just really learn stuff, whether 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.400 you whether you like it or not. But I finally 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:25.080 had to leave that sort of take on the responsibility 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:31.920 of a proper career outside the acting company. So UM, 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.880 I did nothing for nine months. I was starving. UM. 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:44.160 I was doing awful Broadway UM and they would pay 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:49.760 me subway fair. You know this, they pay for my subway. Um, 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:51.920 but in those days, you would invite an agent to 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:59.160 come and see you in your showcase production. That that's 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.040 why I would showcase. Then damn Street, I can't evenmber. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:03.560 I don't think the street had a name where I was, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:09.320 but I did. I did a bunch of I got 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.600 a job standing by for Raoul Julia and Free Penny Opera, 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.520 which was fantastic because I got I got to I 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.200 had to watch the watch it every night. It was 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.440 a wonderful production, directed by Richard Foreman, and I loved 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:25.960 Raoul anyway. He never got sick, I never went on. 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:38.080 But um, my point is that I also, having sworn 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.200 never do a commercial or a soap opera, I got 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.680 a part in a soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, Search 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.280 for Tomorrow, and you played? I played, Would you read? 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:56.640 And I owned a modeling agency for only the most 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:02.080 ulterior of motives, surrounded by beautiful and they needed your guidance, 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.560 so I took them under my wing, as it were 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.000 Haines's character. But I remember saying the first I say, please, 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.080 can we come up with another name? Because I have 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.480 to say my name, and to say, would you read 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.560 it's going to come out ready wood or woodwind, flatulent 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.480 or what what do you read? It's just as hideous name. No, 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.520 that's your name. Okay. So I did that for one 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:31.920 year and it was great because I worked out once 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.600 a week and I could continue doing my off of 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.640 Broadways and standing by for Raoule and that kind of thing. 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:43.679 And then I got a part in a musical and 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.560 the rest is History, and the rest is history, which 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.760 a hecked m well yeah, and a bunch of people. 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.280 It was a musical based on a play that you 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.400 did magnificently. I closed the Iron Door on I Closed 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.159 the Iron Door and John Barramore did played this character 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.600 on film with Carol Lombard. It was called twentieth Century, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:11.440 A brilliant film, Thank you and um. This was a 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.560 musical version that help Prince directed. Comden and Green wrote 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.360 the book and lyrics like Coleman wrote the music, and 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.800 Madeline con and John Column I did a little little 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:25.639 nothing in the play that the Oscar and uh and 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.560 Lily Garland. Lily Garland, Uh, they are in the musical 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.600 more featured than her young Lotharia and in the musical, 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.720 it's different. In the musical, your part is a big 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.119 the part you played the young boyfriend, and that was 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:40.119 a huge part of the music. No, it wasn't. It 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:46.679 wasn't it became a huge part. Do tell well it 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.800 was a nothing part that I a friend of mine 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.680 who turned down. My agent told me to turn it down. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.600 I turned it down. But when I was delivering the 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:58.680 script back, Joanna Merlin, who was helped Princess was wonderful 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:02.000 actress and a brilliant casting director, said, oh, are you 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:03.520 sure you don't want to do this, because it's you know, 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.719 it would be a great You'd be part of the family, 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.040 and the part could grow in rehearsals. You know, you 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:13.480 never know. Well, okay, I'll try it, and uh And 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:15.679 I did it and the part did grow, and thanks 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.879 to Madeline Cohn, who another action went He said, um, 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.840 the guy who's doing all the stick and bouncing off 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:24.919 the walls and doing all this stuff that's not written, 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.760 could you fire him please? She didn't. In fact, she said, 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.439 let's develop this, and we developed all this stuff and 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:33.520 then we took the show out of town on thes like. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.399 Coleman wrote a song for me to do a duet. 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.840 It grew and grew and grew, and I won a 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:51.919 Tony award. Um, no, no, And it was who was 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.320 Oscar and that John call Um? Come on, come on, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.000 come on, come brilliant? Yeah, And you did that for 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.879 how long? One year? One year? And right for the 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.919 I won the Tony. I left. I said, are you crazy? 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:04.760 You just want to Tony? How can you leave? I said, well, 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.080 is this a great part of this wonderful Michael Weller 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.160 play they're doing down at the Arena stage in Washington waiting. 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.719 You're leaving New York to go to and to go 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:19.520 to Loose Ends. It was a play called Loose Ends. Um, 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.000 and I love the play and Alan Schneider directed it, 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:24.040 and then it moved to Broadway and I did it 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.720 for nine months. But um, I was told I was 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.720 crazy to do that. But does that become a guiding 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:31.760 principle for you that you want to go do what 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:33.679 you want to do that excites you, and you know, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.480 after you win the Tony, it's like we're done. Yeah. Either, 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.480 I'd say it's a combination of doing what I want 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:48.439 and being talked into things, Um, I don't want it, 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.360 but then making the most of them. Have you ever 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.240 been talked to I can pour and talk at the 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:59.960 same time. Have you ever been talked into things? Many things? Yeah, 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:04.560 something you were talked into well where people would say, oh, no, 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:06.760 you've got to do that, You've got to it's only 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:15.400 four weeks. And like Pirates Appenzance, I had done. I've 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:19.560 done this very physical comedy in on the twentieth Century, 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.840 and then I went off into this serious Michael Weller 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:26.800 played for a year and then oh that was offered 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.760 this silly Gilbert and Sullivan. I wasn't a huge Gilbert 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.760 and Soul and Sullivan fan. And I was riding through 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.119 the park on my girlfriend then girlfriend's bicycle and it 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.040 was a beautiful day and four weeks in the park. 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:45.160 What you know, how bad can it be? Um? And 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.480 um I was. So I was riding my bike to 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:51.359 my agents in order to turn it down. Um. The 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:55.159 party had originally been offered to Raoul Julia and Raoul 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.959 had to leave to go to Francis Coppola's Zootrope. Come. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:01.840 But he had a rep company and when you've had that, 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.919 we first started the Zoo Trope and he had this 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:10.080 literally repertory company. So Raoul had to bow out, so 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.200 suddenly the part was open and anyway, I said, okay, 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:14.920 I'll do it four weeks with the hell and then 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:16.520 it moved to Broadway for a year, and then we 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:20.560 made a movie of it and did you win another Tony? 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:30.040 Oh yeah. But it was a combination of it being 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.280 a beautiful day and my agents ayn't come on, it's 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.840 four weeks, Well why not? It won't won't kill you. 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:39.520 At the beginning of a relationship with Joe, yes, well, 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:41.760 I admit him because I carried his spear one summer 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:46.560 before I ever started Juilliard. Um, it came came up 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:50.919 early before September and got a job carrying a spear 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:57.400 and other items and actors carried Charles Derning once with 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:03.960 seven other guys. M on a beer anyway, several beers. 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:09.080 Any case, Um, long story short, it's too late for that. Um, 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:15.280 never mind what Joe Joe? Yeah, I met him, but 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:17.520 I and then I met him. I met him when 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:19.560 I was standing by for Rold Julia. I met him, 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:21.760 but then when I did Pirates, then I met him 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:23.159 and he kept saying nice to meet you, and I 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:24.679 was like, you know, I didn't want to tell him 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:26.200 that I had met it. Sure, but yeah, that's when 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:28.399 I started. That was when he really met you and 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:34.760 really I know you. Yeah, Oh, Joe Pap Joe Pap 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.000 and describe what he was like when he first worked 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:46.600 with him. Well, uh, I love Joe. I missed him 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:49.720 every day. He became a mentor and a kind of 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:59.960 strict but loving father guide mentor um, and I'm very 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.480 He came to the dress rehearsal and Wilfred Leach, the durgor, said, 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:06.280 now Joe is probably gonna give you all notes. Be 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:11.679 sure to ignore them. And uh, and Joe said to 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:14.800 me after the brother he said, you know, uh, the pirates, 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:17.760 these are all gentlemen, their peers of the realm, you know, 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:21.840 so it's all. They're very sophisticate, there's not They're not goofballs, 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:25.840 you know. I went, That's that's all I'm doing is 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:30.400 goofball you know. Um, that's all I got. So I went. 0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:33.359 I went to the director and to Grazilla Danielle de Carrever. 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:37.200 I said, Joe says that the should be gentlemanly and dignified. 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:39.600 They said, I told you not to listen to Joe 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:47.200 because Joe he was right, um, but we had sort 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:50.040 of gone another direction. Joe was Joe was great. The 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:54.760 one thing that sometimes the notes you had to take. 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:59.360 But but you know, any actor who's had enough experience 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:02.360 knows to take any note from your director, from your 0:25:02.359 --> 0:25:05.920 best friend, from your wife, from your fellow actor, take 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:09.320 it all with a grain of salt. I remember John 0:25:09.359 --> 0:25:11.800 Travolta called when they announced we're gonna make a movie 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:15.399 of Pirates. Depend sense John Travolta apparently I heard called 0:25:15.520 --> 0:25:17.440