GO TO SPOTIFY

QUOTES:

I got on stage for the first time when I was 8 years old. I was brilliant. Then I got on stage again four years later, when I was 12—brilliant again. By the time I was 13, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion in everybody else’s mind—teachers, parents—that acting was going to be my thing. I hadn’t made a conscious decision, “I’m going to be an actor.” I don’t think you do. That’s just what you do.

I went to the movies all the time. I pretty much lived in the movies whenever I had spare time. From 13 on, during that period when we were briefly fighting World War II, I decided by age 15 that I wanted to be a jet pilot. I had a lot of trouble in school. Then I went into the Air Force because I really did want to fly. It was also the quickest ticket out of Mississippi to elsewhere in the world. I learned very quickly that it wasn’t going to happen—I was not going to be a jet pilot, and I was not cut out for the military. You don’t question authority in the military.

In December 1980, I did my last TV movie. I say last TV movie because in 1981, the phone didn’t ring. In 1982, the phone didn’t ring. So, by the summer of 1982, I decided, “Okay, your 15 minutes are up. You better start thinking of something else.” I wasn’t paying any rent. What else could I do? What do I want to do? Drive a cab? I like driving. Maybe I’d get a chauffeur’s license and be more upscale. I picked a day to go to the Taxi and Limousine Commission to try to get my license. The day before I was going to go, I got a call from my agent. Paul Newman was casting Moss to Seal. I went to see Paul Newman. I auditioned, read for a part, and he said that part was already cast. “Dang, wish I’d seen you earlier.” I said, “Fine, okay, no worries.” Paul was going to be producer, director, and star, and I said, “Well, you’ve got a big job ahead of you, and I’m very glad you let me come in.” I left. At the elevator, he came running down the hall and said, “Wait, come back, come back.” He said, “I have another part you might like to do. This guy’s name is Szymanowski.” So I got a little role—a factory superintendent, one day of shooting—but getting the job is like having money in your pocket. If you’ve got it, you can get it. Strangely enough, by October, I had a TV job, an off-Broadway show, I was directing a play, and in January, I was going to do this movie called Harry & Sons. Go figure. I didn’t have to drive a cab after all.

How do you prepare for those roles? With each role, I read the script. That’s all you’ve got to do—just read the script.

When Madiba announced Long Walk to Freedom, a reporter at a press conference asked, “If your book becomes a movie, who would you want to play you?” He said, “I am The Anointed One,” as it were. From then on, the producer who had the rights to it arranged a meeting with me and Madiba in Joburg. I met him. I told him how honored I was by the endorsement and said, “If I’m going to play you, I have to have access.” He said, “Fine.” I said, “I mean real access. I have to be able to hold your hand.” He said, “We can do that.” So we did. Over the years, we would meet in different places—Monaco, Washington, New York, even Memphis, Tennessee. Each time I was called to his side, I sat with him, walked with him, talked with him, and always watched and listened. That went on for years. By the time we got around to doing Invictus, I thought I had just about everything nailed—except the sound.

I’m not what they call a method actor. I just read the script and stumble through it. A teacher once said—what was his name? Herbert Berghof—that I fall in the category of an intuitive actor. I’m just into it and do it. I just made that up.

There's no way to ever tell what's going to be successful because you have to wait until an audience says it's successful. You just go and do your best and enjoy yourself. When I read the script for Shawshank Redemption, nobody said what role to play. I called my agent and said, "What role? I'll do anything in here. Any role they want me to do, I'll do."

Because nobody could say Shawshank Redemption. It didn’t get word of mouth. I don’t care how much you promote a film; if you don’t have word of mouth, you may promote it, but people have to go and say, “Listen, I saw this really terrific film.” It was called “Shank… Sam… Jim…”. I got on the elevator in LA one day, and someone said, “Oh, I just saw you in The Hudsucker Reduction.” That was the reason it was not a box-office success—no word of mouth at all.

I defy anyone to say, "Okay, I’m going to play the role of God," and then change themselves into something other than themselves.

I don’t mind the term African-American. I don’t want to be called African-American. Why is that? I’m not African.

I don’t think there was an issue of race in Hollywood. Somewhere back in the ’70s, the decision was made by almost all that we had to start open casting. Now, if you look on television, you pretty much see the range of people of different cultures. That’s not the right word because we all belong to the same culture. But you see everybody. Hollywood learned in the ’70s—here’s reality. Ossie Davis directed a movie called Cotton Comes to Harlem. It made hundreds of millions of dollars. Hollywood is colorblind—it only sees green. If it makes money, it’s a good thing. Therefore, the walls came tumbling down. That started the whole blaxploitation period.

Well, wait a minute: Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Julia Roberts, Renée Zellweger, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman. I don’t think there’s an unfair portrayal of women in Hollywood.

Hollywood sees it as its one duty to stay in business, whatever that takes. They don’t get on a social high horse and run through the bushes. They make movies to make money to make movies. That’s the bottom line.

You worked with Clint Eastwood, a director you’ve worked with regularly in the past. Do you have a favorite director to work with? That one makes sense. Why is that? I like him. I like his sensibilities. I like the way he runs his set. I like the fact that he’s really quick. If he does two takes, he’s a little angry about it. He doesn’t tell actors what to do. He doesn’t even direct actors—he directs the movie. You come on set, and he tells you where the camera’s going to be. We’ll rehearse it, and that’s it. We go and shoot it. He never says “action,” and he never says “cut.” When everything’s ready to go, he says, “Anytime,” so you start whenever you want to. When he thinks he’s got enough on film, he says, “That ought to do it,” or something like that. Everybody I know who has worked with him feels the same way about him.

I feel very secure in my personhood. I’ve always felt secure in my ability, but you don’t know if anybody else sees your ability right off. I’ve had directors tell me to do stuff on screen that I knew was wrong. You try to tell them it’s not right, but rather than create a schism, you say, “Okay, I’ll do one for you and one for me.” If they do badly and see it on the big screen, they’ll come back and tell you, “You’re right.”

Unfortunately, those who say, “Well, I’m going to be a star,” are aiming for something way out there in the ether. I want to be a working actor. If you can pull that off, act. Work. Someone once asked me, “What would you do if you didn’t make it as an actor?” I said, “I have no idea. I would act somewhere. Maybe I’d be driving a cab. Maybe I’d be working in somebody’s yard. Whatever I’m doing, I’m going to belong to somebody’s little theater group. I will act because I’ll die if I don’t.” Writers write. Painters paint. Actors act.

I think of acting the same way. I don’t think of it as an art form, but I do think of it as a profession. You do it because you have to do it. If you spend twenty years waiting tables at night, if you’re a writer, you’re writing. It’s the same thing with any discipline. Painters paint. I don’t care what else they have to do to put food on the table or pay the rent—they paint. I think it’s the same all the way around.

Discipline and humility—mostly discipline. Stage calls for a lot more discipline than movies. You have to learn an entire play, and then you’ve got to say every word every night. Lord help you if you forget. If I have forgotten, that’s why I say, “Lord help you,” because nobody else can.

Zrzeczenie się Praw Własności i Klauzula Użycia Edukacyjnego

Prezentowane na tej platformie treści, w tym m.in. transkrybowane cytaty, nie są naszą własnością. Wszelkie prawa i własność do opublikowanych treści należą do oficjalnych autorów i twórców odpowiednich kanałów YouTube i Spotify, z których pochodzą te treści. Materiał ten jest udostępniany wyłącznie w celach edukacyjnych. Nie rościmy sobie żadnych praw własności ani autorstwa tych treści i uznajemy, że pozostają one własnością intelektualną ich odpowiednich właścicieli.