Anjelica Huston with Joy Behar: Watch Me

addy and I were so horrified by some of these interviews we just say don't do it jack don't talk to the press he had to particularly you're going to have a joint so here we are isn't this fun already in New York City hey Ark setting just like I pictured it I first met Angelica during we were shooting a film called Manhattan murder mystery I had this big apart she had a big part and and I have to tell this one story before we go on so one of the scenes I had was just to stare at you that was my job and I was just had to stare at you and Woody Allen came up to me and he said I like what you're doing and that was the extent of the entire conversation I had with Woody Allen on that entire movie did you speak to his Mary a few words more than than he ever spoke to me actually after this incredibly seductive opening letter where he said you know you might want to come back and work for me again cuz I done crimes and misdemeanors anyway by the way you were great in that I love that movie I think it's my favorite of the Warner's movie thank you so much yeah I like Manhattan I think that's a great movie but anyway um so I was petrified he he'd written me this beautiful letter saying maybe I'd like to come back and work on Manhattan murder mystery cuz I'd get to kiss him and everything oh wow I was really excited that I got there he sort of shied away from me so I'm glad you talked to him I think maybe but I was in terror uh during that scene because I had all this dialogue and um who was Ron Rifkin you Diane Keaton Alan Alda and Woody and if you've ever been in the scene with Alan Alda Diane Keaton and Woody it's mostly um you know and so I I kept getting really panicked that I wasn't getting my cues because I had to solve this huge mystery at the table and look really intelligent it's just like um um and I have to jump in it was crazy well he like she was sort of talk as if you're really talking yeah you don't really do the lines that's why you missed the cues cuz you didn't hear the cue really yeah yeah yeah he spoke to Diane Keaton a lot a lot in the in the in the what he call it the thing with will you get your makeup done what is that right that's it bingo he would come in and talk to what Diane and ignite Mary want to talk to us too much and that was during the time when he was having this thing with soon-yi so every day on the New York Post was though the front page was all about him and soon-yi never mentioned it was if it never happened in fact he was in a much better mood we did notice that I did oh he was getting little action maybe that's why so let's talk about you now I love the book it was terrific book and you know I was saying also that when you read this book you feel like how what a boring life I have had because this woman has been with a talk to everybody has met everybody let's just go for quickly Walter Huston gia grant grandfather and John Huston the great director and actor daddy what was I mean just to come from that kind of family as heady you would think you would be as a snob and you're the most down-to-earth person that I think is in the industry Angela Thank You Joyce and tell me what's the worst thing about John Huston and the best thing about him um worst thing about him was that he was away for most of my young life and the best thing about him was when he came home and I was always so thrilled to see him and and so sad when he had to leave did he give you advice to be help you with your career or no not much I mean not until I was about 15 years old and I don't I'd wanted to be an actress for as long as I can remember from about 3 years old really and finally he made this wonderful gesture to give me a film a starring role in a movie called a walk with love and death and with an emphasis on the death a slow and painful one the movie wasn't very good I wasn't very good and we didn't get along too well it was a school search out at the time for Juliet in Romans f er Ali's Romeo and Juliet and I'd been called back a couple of times and I was really in the mood to go to Rome with Franco Zeffirelli played Juliet I didn't want to go to Austria with dad so um anyway but was he when he was with you would you say he was a controlling type of parent yes it was a director he was controlling yes he'd like me to do what he wanted me to do and he reacted quite badly when when I I displayed independence he liked me to be independent in the areas that he chose so for instance he liked me to ride hunt in fact sidesaddle and I'd like me to be daring and take the bull by the horns and so forth but he didn't like it at all when I resisted his you know his idea about my going to art school at l'école du Louvre and you know so far as I was concerned I'd had a horrible time going to the French lycée in London when I was a teenager and now he wanted me to go back to France to you know to study art and I resisted and he didn't like that are you good were you an artist will you do I had Talent yeah I've never trained formally as an artist but I like to draw mm-hmm it was interesting to me in the book that that you thrive on criticism in a way that's where the tell us about the first of all I just have to say there was a conversation you had with Tony Richardson that really popped out of the book for me where he said I quote poor little you he said to you how old were you at this point um about 28 28 he said so much talent and so little to show for it this is um Vanessa redgraves father correct no husband as my rather I'm sorry right she was poor little you so much challenge so little to show for it you're never going to do anything with your life now first of all what made him say such a hostile thing to you do you think Tony was a really good friend um you know what they say with friends like that no it was actually great advice because um I'd sort of been dabbling up until that point and what he was saying was you know you should put it on the line stop stop messing around you know get to get with get with it and he was right you can't go around saying oh I want to be an actress I want to be an actress and not go and study or be with other actors or you know learn about your craft and so it was good but but so that's where you got the title of the book right yes cuz you said watch what I actually might my wonderful book agent Bill Clegg gave me the title but but watch me was was that was the line that stood out to him so after that incident with Tony Richardson how long did it take you before you took it seriously well I agreed with him immediately because I just come out of a rather serious car crash in which I'd broken my nose several places and I needed reconstructive surgery and so forth so I was kind of in the mood to pull my bootstraps up and get with it um there's nothing like oh you know a car crash for a wake-up call exactly but that's not that you blow a lot of knocks it seemed to me for in the industry I mean though they told you you were too old for the industry before you even 40 you know and it seemed to so you didn't deserve that all cuz you and why why you why would they be I don't know you know I think there is of course that idea of nepotism being a negative one and it was as negative for me as it was for anyone else you know I didn't ask to be my father's daughter not that it was a horrible thing but um a certain amount is expected of you and it's also it's why I felt really sympathetic with Sophia Coppola when Francis put her in Godfather three know here's a perfectly beautiful girl unusual looking but made to feel really terrible because I don't know the critics got on top of her for some reason well she wasn't a classic beauty she didn't look like one Nonna writer who I believe that's who they wanted yeah why not had a smaller nose she was more classic Hollywood style yeah and so they turned on the poor girl it's vicious yeah it is and you know I think for the most part they like Barbie dolls they out there and if you're not a Barbie doll you have to earn your keep yeah but you are not a Barbie doll you're an exotic interesting looking woman attractive but not a Barbie doll so so how did it feel in Hollywood I mean I lived there for six months I was suicidal they don't not go for our tight no they don't really understand I don't understand us no I think work sort of strange animals women with noses well women to begin women in Hollywood are rare few and far between yeah but those of us who who have sort of survived there for this long and it is a bit of a survival situation um you know can you can find happiness there you can yeah if you like animals and open spaces and very dry weather but soon mingers is mentioned in your book and we saw the play with the Bette Midler when she did assume angers yeah she was quite a formidable character so she certainly wasn't Bette did a fantastic job she did yeah but she said they you say that Sue Mengers told the truth which is a valuable commodity in Hollywood invaluable and that's a yeah so so why can't they tell the truth what's their problem I guess it's just no it's that bad New York I'll tell you the truth Oh in a tinker's wink yeah in a blind second yeah there was a woman we I I went to see love letters today everybody I'm gonna be doing it in January that I'll show up but there was a woman there taking her seat and the usher said may I help you to your seat and said I know where I'm going that's New York that is New York that's never gone um so but just to get back to women in Hollywood it seems to me that besides Meryl Streep um Helen Mirren who's British she's not even in the category American actresses they're done by the time they're 40 cooked cooked cooked you know I mean the British actresses seem to go on and on my old Aven parts oh they become fine like old wines I mean elderly ones yeah but the man elderly wines elderberry that's right elderberry but yes well I mean but the men in this country I mean look at Clint Eastwood even your your ex-boyfriend Jack Nicholson we'll get to him in a minute he's a very interesting part of your book but he still works in Al Pacino and De Niro and Dustin up those go work until they're 90 ya know but girls know you tip the other side of 40 watch out now Rock what is your assessment of that why do you think that is is it because of chauvinism and sexism or oh it is okay I mean there's no other explanation other explanation but I keep trying to convince men that there's room for us well but the men who didn't yeah good luck I know I know we can change things yeah I think although for the last 30 years I remember going to a thing of one of those symposiums for Women in Film yeah that was a joke then it's like more of a joke now what women oh that must be fun well the men are controlling the the production end of it and the directorial end of it yeah and the writing and and the acting under bed - I saw you know a fine movie called Foxcatcher the other day in which Vanessa Redgrave I think had less than three lines yeah well she'll play any part because she's British that's her training she's brilliant just show up and be a waitress or be a nanny and she's fine that's you know their real working act she works right the British she'll do a small part in a little theatre it's phenomenal it seems that that if you really want to be an actor you should be British yeah it's true so all right let's get to some of your boyfriend's before we ah finally um because you say in the book that you've always been attracted to cowboys and rock stars artists and wild men men you can't depend on guys who have you waiting by the telephone not for the most part the kind and easy ones you can relax around now of course that did change with your husband Robert Graham who isn't sounded like a wonderful guy down-to-earth normal but before him your record was pretty bad rocky all right well I mean we could let's let's dispose of Ryan O'Neal right away okay all right because because he was violent towards you tell tell everybody what happened with him well Ryan Ryan had a temper and you know I don't want to sit here and categorize anyone as you know a woman-beater no let's be kind to women beaters nah no I think you know anyone anyone who lifts up any man who lives a hand against a woman as a coward it's time and simple and it's right any woman who hangs around is a fool and and and so you know can we move him you don't wait too long but I mean he really swatted you though yeah he's what he'd not he didn't just swap me head-butted me well something the British Colin Nutter you know how her somebody hits you in the head yeah if there's and it was so shocking and and out of the blue and unexpected and certainly unwarranted mm-hmm that it's not that I really want to talk about it but it was a seminal moment in my life and ah and bottom line I don't think he should get away with it even now well that's why you're telling the story good good for you I mean he had a weird kind of relationship with Tatum also at the time that you knew him right yeah I think I don't think um Ryan had a good grasp of boundaries and I don't uh you know and I I don't think he really I I don't want to judge him but I didn't really um approve of how he was with Tatum uh-huh well she has many problems the girl over the years so yeah and and she's a very sweet girl a very very good friend but there must have been something that you liked about him when you started to see who's gorgeous yeah he is his clothes a lot to like it was killed he was an Adonis yeah different from Jack Nicholson really different type yan seemed to be crazy about me Oh Ryan initially yeah well that's always a lure Jack was always a little bit you know um come hither but but Ryan chase me uh-huh Jackie I chase jack you chase Jack I'll be I'll be honest wouldn't you well he's he's a very interesting guy how did you meet him exactly I met him at his birthday party at his house up on Mulholland Drive mm-hmm of course yeah and who was there I don't know he was there yeah so what notice I you know I saw him what was your first impression I thought oh he's lovely um he opened the door and he had a big smile and he was so handsome not very tall but very full-bodied are you much taller than he is I'm a bit taller not much in our stocking feet were maybe sort of the same height but um you know I like to wear very high heels at the time and he never objected to that I'd say that he was one of the most secure people in his own body that I've ever met yes um he was really loose uh and I think it's what makes him such a great actor I think he's like he wears a monkey suit he can do anything yeah he's very improvisational and secure yeah and you know what's interesting about him because he did have an interesting background as you discovered and he discovered when he was a an adult I believe you were in comm yeah right um which discovery well I'm talking about the fact that his sister oh no it was right after Chinatown after he was doing a movie called the fortune and I was in his trailer one afternoon he got a phone call and he put down the phone he looked very confused and told me that the person on the phone was a woman who claimed to be married to his father now in his recollection his father his father was a sort of older man who seemed to have a bit of an alcohol problem who would show up at at his mother's house maybe once or twice a year anyway this this woman told him that his sister was in fact his mother and the woman that he thought was his mother was in fact his grandmother um yeah and both women were deceased so there's no way he could now go to his to his his mother's his sister mother and say why why or how and his other sister ultimately sort of verified this story I think it must have been unbelievably confusing just even if even if it was a big dark Irish lace curtains eared secret you know how how it must have affected him subliminally or what was going on emotion you notice any sort of reaction that he had um he didn't want to get involved he just couldn't shut it out he shut it out said I'm too old to have a father now they're gonna find my new daddy how could it happen the fact that he was lied to like that I must have had an impact on him yeah and I think it was insecure about you know bringing in this new element like you know what do they want mm-hmm but I think it would probably take a bite out of your trust factor wouldn't it yeah well but he was untrustworthy that's the irony of it as far as it seemed to me well that's what he learned yeah and we all learn at our parents knees um don't we yeah I guess we do so so he was I would say Jack was a womanizer right would you call this a so but you know I I guess well I also say in the book that um you know for someone who is a womanizer that he was also quite discreet so afterwards when I read in Rolling Stone that he asked Vanessa Williams for hotel telephone number at at a party where we were together I was surprised cuz I didn't see these sort of transactions going down oh I probably didn't want to see these transactions going on yeah he would just he was discrete as you say yes or sneaky so but when you do detect that he was on the prowl like that or doing what he was doing way that Jack thing I don't think that you took it very well in the book you say that you had many years of hurt feelings and crying and upset right yeah yeah he is call me angelic of the Mon the Mon why because you wouldn't moan about well what did he expect you to do jump around and dance but you know maybe he wanted and you know me to move along before I did I don't know I think it I think it didn't have that much to do with me frankly joy mm-hmm I think it had more to do with his appetites then it had to do with hurting me or it's even being about me yeah and you know jack is that he has the charm offensive charm is a dangerous thing um in fact one of the most dangerous things because you can get what you want with charm but it's devious its devious but but then you continue with him with 16 years with him so 17 years 17 kind of on and off I I had a house of my own you know I moved out of his house into a house of my own but we went on seeing each other we went to public events together we we were close you know we had a very strong bond well you were a you know a fabulous couple I mean people always oh jack and Angelica are showing up at the party and I think it's in one of one of Woody Allen's movies right yes is it Paul Simon's son Yeah right I remember being really shocked as I never thought of myself as a sort of jacket Angelica but I guess we were but there were there things about him that I can see where you could fall for the guy first of all he was funny and smart smart and extremely talented and also you know would get very generous with you gave you a lot of gifts to god yeah what was that about just to it was generating like beautiful things that Jack also had great taste and he liked to buy jewelry for women I mean me specifically at that point hmm and he liked to go to Sotheby's and go through those catalogs and pick out beautiful pictures and he gave me some drawings and he gave me a TA pulao he Key's like yeah he has a very eclectic taste and yes he's he is generous yeah that wasn't you know really what made me stick around I stuck around because I loved him mm-hm and do you think that him I still love him right now do you think that he loved you yeah I do I think he sort of forgot a bit that he loved me but yes if I never felt that he didn't love me I certainly wouldn't have stuck around for as long as I did he had a lot of nicknames I called you would he call you Tut's turds fabula big fabs beak at one point mine I remember her an aspen I'd be skiing down the mountain because he was impossible to ski with he'd always go to the I'd always go to the wrong ski lifts and we miss each other on the mountain and stuff and I'd be skiing down and there'd be this call from up above on some chairlift mine mine mine like I owned you like he owned you yeah yeah and then that became Meinl one point like rhymed with vinyl I don't know but he had a lot of him did a lot of nicknames for everybody came for your father no no no my dad was John how was their relationship with each other wonderful yeah they should have married there was a couple did you'll ever go on any of your father's you know were you with you there when he did the African Queen or anything like I was born when he was making me out oh that's right do it too young I was I was yeah that's right I don't have the time finger right but did you go on and set with him a lot I did yeah not a lot a lot and and the ones that I wished I'd gone out like I wished I'd gone on misfits and seen Marilyn Monroe yeah Clark Gable working instead of Freud and in Austria very grim is that where you went yeah the movie A List it was Montgomery Clift Montgomery Clift beautiful yeah I remember even thinking he was beautiful and I was about six or seven yeah I'm thinking he was just lovely well he was he had a tragic accident yeah another car crash and up in the hills of Hollywood it's treacherous there I'm telling you now do you tell a lot about Jack in the book you go into a lot of detail you talk about all these other women that he had while he was with you and everything has he read the book yeah what does he say about the book well I didn't really get a chance to cross-examine him but um because we were at a party but he said it's good and then you know we started to talk a little bit about it but then dinner was called we wandered off so I haven't had a chance to really you know hash it over with him but I don't know that I want to hash it over with him but I sent it to him before publication just in case there was something he really hated and he was fine that I would have taken out probably he was fine yeah well that's that's the reason you liked him too right because he's like whatever actly put it in there that's right so all my warts who cares he likes that yeah and we're fascinated by him I have to say I am and others because he never gives an interview because he refuses to give an interview everyone has been interviewed and even Warren Beatty who's also another recluse type but Jack never does he reason why he never gives an interview do you think um to maintain the star quality well he used to consider of like giving magazine interviews I remember he had a very famous Playboy interview that came out actually before I met him uh but that was a famous interview because he talked about all kinds of stuff premature ejaculation I mean get Jack going and and so actually he probably thought the word in Jack elation was named after him that's maybe right um but anyway um yeah he I think oh yes so I remember what I was going to say Annie Marshall was his his she worked for him at the time his assistant he used to call her my staff and she'd call him my boss and he'd say my staff but anyway Annie and I were so horrified by some of these interviews we just say don't do it jack don't talk to the press he had to particularly you know have a joint then he so um so just to finish up with Jack then how do you mean we talked about him quite a bit tonight but you did break up with love eventually a venture what what what prompted it um well a young woman became pregnant and it wasn't you yeah and um so you were seeing him when this happened well yeah I mean I yeah mm-hmm so prior to that although there were many separations I at this point had a career I you know I I had other interests myself probably at this point you know we'd been through the Ryan thing so incrementally we were growing apart anyway so he came and dad again we had another child from her previous yeah relationship actually several because he had a child with susan anspach oh yeah when he did king of Marvin garnets right which none of us knew about until much later on and he included but then he had a way having children would pop up but my dad did that to be like oh honey you have a little brother okay it would be some toddler they're very sweet but are you in touch with any of these siblings I adore my brother Danny he's a best I bless the day but you know at the time it was a bit of a shock uh-huh so so so not to get Freudian on you but to me I see parallels here hello really I don't want to push it Wow but no no go ahead I yeah I mean tell us well you I'm sure you've been in therapy have you not not much not it's so blatant isn't it I know why would you need to pay a psychotic they're only gonna tell you they're only gonna tell you yeah daddy dearest so kinda thought yeah but he was emotionally distraught when you broke up with him I read uh I don't know he said I wasn't he said he was emotionally annihilated when you broke off with him well as I say he loved me you know I just don't think he really expected that it would maybe end our relationship oh really did he really no he said he said very clearly and the great thing about Jack is I like when he was defending himself he'd always go into the double negatives I was like I don't want nothing to change but just like that double dislikes uh-huh so okay so um let's talk a little bit about Roman Polanski is another interesting story in your book because you were you tell us what happened that day that you were at his house and this thirteen year old girl appeared well I I was actually at Jack's house and I was packing up packing up some things cuz this was all around the same time as my as my breakup with with Jack over the Ryan O'Neal situation and the night before Jack was away he was in Aspen I think and I'd gotten a call from Roman who we saw a lot because Jack did Chinatown with him and Roman was kind of part of the group and um yes if I want to go see a movie and I said sure and we decided we go see Lena Bert Mueller's seven beauties and we went to the theater and we met in Beverly Hills I drove down we had like soup at natan house and saw the movie and then he dropped me off in the parking lot and I watched the taillights of his car drive on up Rodeo Drive and I thought I wonder if it's true that everything and Roman touches turns bad yeah well it turns tragic yeah yeah and the next night I was up at Jack's house on Mulholland Drive packing up my bags and saying and I saw flashlights under the window and it was peculiar because Jack had just put up a big gate a big fence because a lot of weird stuff happened on Mulholland Drive as per your fears um anyway who's the guys down there and um my dog was barking and um I went to the top of the stairs and looked through a window and I saw about six guys big men and Roman and um was knocking at the door and I opened the door because I saw Roman there and he said I'm sorry you know this is just a kind of this is nothing I hope you don't mind but this is I think these gentlemen asked to come by something like that okay and I didn't sort of register at that point that they were cops but suddenly they were all over the house and anyway they found cocaine in my purse I was arrested taken down - taken down - I think Santa Monica in in one squad car and Roman in the other and um and that was that was that did you have a mug shot no no mm-hmm but it turned out you know that that this was a result of my having seen him the day before or no when I when I gone to the house that's right sorry I've missed out a whole part of this yeah I can tell you really badly um the day before when I was packing up I'd come back to the house and seeing some cameras there and I didn't know who was there but I sort of vaguely recognized blue jeans jacket that that Roman had been wearing the night before at the movies so I figured he was there who's doing photography or whatever I went I made a phone call and then he came around from the back of the house with with a girl tall girl she asked the sex of the dog and they left that was that how old was the girl I don't have no idea how old she was she was in fact I think very young yeah well that you know that's the whole thing with him but here's the other thing about all of that and I don't want to make excuses for anything art for anyone along these lines and you know there were various accusations and so forth and I don't want to get into the accusations because I really don't know what winner um but men in those days were going out with really young girls those days a lot of yeah well more you mean young you're talking about like adolescent girls I'm talking about very young very young men in those days were doing that yeah much more than now and it wasn't particularly frowned on really really at the fifty year old man with a 13 year old girl was not frowned on I you know I know 13 I don't know but men were going out with younger women yeah well he he went on the lam the day before they were about to arrest him I believe right yeah and he went to was well what happened was he he got a kind of leave from from the judge and he he had some time some time off like there was going to be a period of time between that moment in his sentencing and the judge let him let him go and I think he was photographed at a film festival somewhere with a bunch of young girls and that's when the judge said he has come back yeah he has to you know what was he like when when Jack was shooting Chinatown how what was happening there his genius i think is very mercurial um very intelligent very fast very good kind of kind of impatient um but brilliant and i liked him a lot yeah i'll still do yeah well but his family made a tragic mistake during the holocaust years correct they went to poland from france instead of so that was a big mistake oh my god wound up in concentration yeah any mother-daughter concentration right and then of course the tragic story of Sharon Tate he he is a total tragic figure this guy but let's see if there's anything more fun to talk about yeah um tell us about I'm just curious about you now I just want to know like first of all what was the highlight of your life would you say if you had to put it into timescale what's the highlight tonight no she's very charming no I liked what was it was it going out with Jack was it being in prison on ER was it was it being uh getting the Oscar was pretty great yeah okay yeah that was a highlight okay and what would you say was the nadir well the worst thing that ever happened to me was my mother's death anyway very young of course that that had a tremendous impact on you I'm sure that's a terrible thing to happen to a child and um do you have regrets about your life at all no I don't really I mean I if I remember why I did things there things that you know you can wish you didn't do but I remember pretty much doing what I wanted to do yeah and there's a lot to be said for that even though you have to kind of accept the responsibility later but it's nice to have that freedom and and I've enjoyed my freedoms a lot yeah and and the other question I wanted to ask you about about your husband Robert because he sounded like such an incredibly interesting wonderful guy um so you going with all these bad boys and then suddenly you have this turnaround with this guy what was that what triggered that or what was it I don't know cuz i think probably bob was capable of being a bad boy just like other bad boy in a different way that i like to throw knives and at you had to watch oh just kind of in restaurants but um he you know he wasn't all st. um he he was um I think you know he had an artist soul he had a very beautiful soul yeah well I mean it seemed to me and I could be wrong that you and you did not feel safe with drive with Jack or with Ryan really emotionally safe no but with this guy you did yeah so that was quite a difference he was trustworthy yeah that's right which was unusual for ya right now people have questions for you somebody asks a good question is there an actor you would never want to work with again never want to work with again yeah there was an actor but I never will have to he shall remain you don't want to she'll remain nameless Oh we'll give us a hand we'll guess you won't be able to cuz he wasn't really famous but but it was it was the last time I was on stage which is many many years ago and he's kissing me too fervently in a scene night after night you know and I asked him not to him then I asked the stage manager that to ask him not he kept on doing it Tong's disgusting your father came up with a voice for Prizzi's honor I hadn't cuz you have that wonderful mayrose you know you know we want to do it on the Oriental that whole thing is so you know iconic really that whole scene oh so sorry what how did that come about tell us that the accent yeah the whole thing yeah well we were we'd all come to the actors had come to New York and I was going to do this film with dad and Jack had agreed to be in it and John Foreman his producer was producing it and we we all went into rehearsal and did this reading around a big big table and dad kind of sat and listened to the reading with a pained expression on his face and got up and left right afterwards what's wrong and um he just wasn't happy and um on set there was an actress called Julie Bava so a great character actress and um some days later dad called Jack and I up and we're staying at the Carlyle we came in who's wearing a cloak and he put his arms around us and he took us to the window and said look at that few kids and we looked out over Central Park and he said ah it's beautiful he said I found the voice of the movie we're like really he pressed a button and it was Julie Bavaro he said I want you all 2010 accent ha ha you have to understand it was before moonstruck yes before The Sopranos so it was really kind of innovative move to have us all speak the lingo that's true so then you know I went to church a lot in Brooklyn and Jack hung up hung out at the gaming parlors and we had a great time Jack was somebody Jersey he must have heard that oh yeah he loved it yeah and he put this piece of thumb kind of cotton and it's upper lip so you heard this was that your impression of your father cuz I know you do an impression of him of my dad your dad do you oh my god I know the voice huh um this person yeah yeah you don't do it this person says that um wants to know who your positive female role models well my mother my mother how old were you when she passed away I was 16 when she died um but I have to say she was my biggest my biggest role model and you know the the most important woman in my life um other than that role models female role models sue me Joan of Arc see zoom anger yeah not too many maybe uh mostly what mountain men in your life it sounds like jealous but yet in the book you have a lot of girlfriends I have a driver girlfriends I love girls yeah oh this person I agree with this I thought you were wonderful in smash oh that series that you are doing um thank you tell us about that that was your first TV I've I'm wrong correct it was my first miniseries yes um I mean not mini it was my first series uh-huh I'd done some good miniseries but you know I don't know that thing of every week week after week a same character hmm yeah yeah yeah and especially after the first year because I thought the first year was really good and Theresa Trebek was our writers showrunner after they let Theresa go I think the show suffered I'll be honest uh-huh and um and why would they let her go she was so good I don't know I think it was I think it was a mistake for maybe not maybe they didn't want the show to go on I'm not sure but I thought it was a fatal mistake do like I really liked her her writing and I liked her personally yeah do you like working in television if you could do let's say a shorter miniseries you know on up maybe is shorter it's not I like to have a sort of finite isn't it done but I yes yes I'm old fashioned or something I like to know I'm working up to this point then I have a little breather and now I don't know and and these really intense to the hours are really intense and you know mornings getting up at 4:30 in the morning here in January to go over to Brooklyn is there a Syria watch this this wonderful series playing all the time great HBO I admired those actors so much I mean julianna margulies yeah she has to do yeah she's very good that here have a year The Good Wife God she must be rich no the people who are really rich in television are the ones who get the created by credit those are the ones Jerry Seinfeld Larry David people like that but by the time they make all that money they're old well some of them are old to being tired yeah but I mean this series on HBO and Showtime those short live the Brits yeah the BRICS oh they do it so well Stan I know would you did it that the dead that was sort of uh semi British yeah I like those productions yeah I like working in England it's civilized and directing do you like directing I love to direct mm-hmm very much did you ever say gee I should have always been a director like my father and I said so you know do you ever want I like to do it a lot I haven't had the best luck as a director in that um my first film bastard out of Carolina I made for Ted Turner uh-huh who then didn't want to put it on his network and so it was very difficult for a short time why not even like avoid that well maybe not and also it was it was a very tough book by a woman called Dorothy Allison about her experiences as a young girl growing up with a highly abusive stepfather and it was pretty graphic but there was no way to tell the tale without showing what was going on so when when the when Ted Turner's company asked me to take out a rape and a mullah station scene the only two in the movie I heard like well there's no sense what the movies about what are we talking about so anyway I was depressed for a few days till I got a call from shield Jack cub the Cannes Film Festival and he he offered to show the movie there in a section called a soft alga and so the movie went to come and had a lovely reception and then I was I was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for the movie had a really nice ending for me but Ted Turner never sold it foreign so ultimately it showed on on Jerry off C's Showtime mm-hmm so it was good it was good it saw the light of day because there was a moment where it looked dubious and then my other movie that I made in Ireland a movie called Agnes Brown ah thank you originally called mammy which was actually a much better title but what was it called the mammy the mammy yeah but they thought that had done negative connotation yeah whereas in fact it's what you know Irish kids call their mothers mammy and um well you lived in Ireland for I did and I and I very much liked um that movie cuz it was kind of a fairy tale it was about a mother of seven children who's in love with Tom Jones it was really sweet anyway I had a hard time with it because then October films for whom I I made the movie sold to USA and it just got lost but they still see it in Ireland I know how to say yeah is there any is it a role that you missed that you would you were sorry that you didn't get Maria Callas I always wanted to call RIA Callas uh-huh um but it didn't happen yeah I was talking to Arianna Huffington you know now the Huffington Post then a screenwriter or trying to write a screenplay for for Maria Callas and she asked me to do it you know would I participate and I said great and she said who do you think should direct it and I said well you know Visconti's dead he would have been ideal but in his absence what about Franco Zeffirelli she thought that was a great idea and she got in touch with him and he came out and stated her place in Santa Barbara and her mother cooked for him and then he left went back to Italy or went to Paris and shot the movie with Fannie Aldo oh so that was I've never seen again ever my romance with Franco Weaver I've never even heard of this film with fanny our Don yeah it happened is it well done no you should have done that but is there any other any other parts where there in all probably but you know I can't really think of them no you never you never wanted to but just this is the only character that you only want to fire Ben's quite passive as it turns out my career like oh that's great when it shows up I'm I'm prone to do things people want want me for um I should perhaps have been more proactive in my life about seeking out characters to play and stuff but I it's really hard for women to to get things going it's just it can't believe that it's still the same spiral and I had a I don't know whether any of you have read the the books of the great novelist Don Powell who wrote so brilliantly about New York well I tried so hard to get these because they be great they'd be a fantastic American series like America's Downton Abbey or America's Gosford Park but no they don't want to do it and they're kind of female-driven so well everything there's also special effects now it's so yelling I know he's still tedious especially the the best things are on television right it's true uh-huh because they're about people and I don't know I'm one of those people who's interested in people uh-huh this worm says you work in an industry that is known for being very cutthroat and competitive we know that what lessons have you learned along the way that you would pass along to your younger so I think um you know don't forget your humor it's not the end of the not the end of the world no things are never always gonna go your way so remember to laugh and try not to take things too seriously would you if you had a daughter would you want her to be an actress I want her to do what she wanted to do mm-hmm you know I I think acting is actually a great profession but it's hard because so much of it is spent waiting to be wanted and that's that's a hard position to be in you know if you're yeah if you're an energetic person who yeah who likes to you know live in the life and I think that's probably why actors have an easier time of it in New York because they actually get to go on stage and they get to go see the theater and even if you're not you know cast in some important movie you're still active in in your you know in your work well you're not treated like a loser if you have a small part to play here stars in Hollywood I mean it's if you're not the big star there then your background yeah and that whole syndrome of dropping you from the party list if you're not hot it's just it's obscene it's really obscene but I mean for many years they were not taking you seriously as an actor I mean that must have been terrible for you to be in the middle of Hollywood with your father and Jack and the whole Megillah the homeless book I should say intact it feel like you know gee they're not paying attention to me they're not taking me seriously though that had to be tough time for you yes at what that was tough but you know I had my vindication I had my moment you did and that must have felt good what at night you won that Oscar huh sure did tell me back come on roar look so you walked up there and you thought them all did you uh it was it was a good feeling I have to say it was um it was a little bit lonely because we've gotten we were nominated for about seven awards and I was the only one that got one so there was a slight rueful sense and yet and yet it was great um but I remember kind of being slightly slightly embarrassed in the backseat of the cars we left the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and my cheeks hurt kind of dancing but you know sometimes success comes in a singular way yeah I mean that was wonderful most of my night I have to tell you my favorite movie of yours is crimes and misdemeanors because first of all it's my favorite Woody Allen movie I think I've seen it 20 times and it's always riveting did you find it I really like it I think it's really smart as that movie yeah nobody else to my mind can mix comedy and tragedy the way he did in that film nobody can do that it's true Fellini couldn't do it really Bergman certainly he's mister tragedian but woody could do both yeah you would participate in Alan Alda my great friend Alan Alda was hilarious in that fell bent ass wonderful yeah I agree and Marty Landau he was great too yeah and I really liked it because it took Woody to cast me as a you know flight attendant I don't know anyone else any other director on the face of the earth and cast me as a flight attendant maniacal maybe well did you um did you have how did you work on that part because you were obsessed with Landau obsessed so how did you why did you work on it well it just sort of looked to my own character a bit um I worked on it I just worked on knowing my lines because I knew I knew it would ease proclivity for falling one scene with what with a get one camera you know doing one one take yeah and I knew he wasn't prone to cut away so I knew I knew this much that I had to know the scene up and down and as it turned out we were in a very small apartment first scene I had with with Marty Landau I'm screaming at him taking pills I'm drinking I'm carrying on and and woody did take after taking it started to feel really long like we were on about the eleventh or twelfth take and I thought what's it what am I doing wrong I think he just wanted to wear us down hmm get us to you know crazier and crazier and yeah I think that's what that's what we saw in the scene he doesn't really direct you know in any direct way hmm it's it seemed I never said anything that's nothing who does isn't that unnerving to have a director who doesn't speak to you a little bit but I think it creates a certain tension and that's what he was looking for that's I don't know maybe he was trying to wear marty down maybe he was trying to get me to a different place but he didn't tell us what to do mm-hm and sometimes if a director doesn't tell you you know you you feel very insecure um you're doing the wrong thing yes that's why we nice ed I like what you're doing that was like his that was a big compliment which I didn't even get yeah because I said what what am i doing I'm staring at Angelica oh I know but when you director you like that or you more you know to the point I guess I it depends on whom I'm directing who was your favorite director to work with yeah ah well it's actually it's difficult because I have a few um I loved working with Stephen Frears cuz he really knows you know he's BBC trained and he really knows what he wants he's he's just a pro throughout him that was which movie was that The Grifters The Grifters oh yeah and I don't you say adorable and then um I also really liked working with Nick rogue who um you know he's the director of don't look now and he's he's really something um here at Donald Sutherland movie yeah and you literally cuz oh yeah that's a great I did the witches with him uh-huh was that fun that was fun to do huh it was fun I mean it was horrible the prosthetics were horrible the green smoke was a nightmare but working with Nick you know who just ooh he loves it so much and he's so some inspirational and he just pushes you further and further um I don't know he gave me ideas and I love I love directors who who sort of something goes off and all of a sudden you say huh can I do this Nick that was Nick have you ever feel like a conspirator have you ever seen any of the movies about Alfred Hitchcock as a director what a what a sadistic least he could be oh my god I know horrifying yeah I'm not magic marking but is there anybody who Dead or Alive that you wish that you could have went like Sidney lament I always think would have been great to work without he would have been great to work and I mentioned Bergman and Fellini or anything like that Bergman Watseka go I mean talk about a woman's director um uh-huh yeah Visconti Visconti uh-huh I would have loved the damned right damned damned is a scary I felt Venice yeah the leopard the leopard wonderful movies beautiful yeah yeah I loved his movies so what's next for you um well love letters here in January now what what made you decide to do that I mean he's basically you I went who's your co-star on that Martin Sheen Martin Sheen oh and are you really gonna be reading or you know the script I don't know the scoop yet do you have to know it cuz it is your no I don't have to have it you have it in your in your lap I mean hopefully you can get off the script but it's really nice to know that it's there uh-huh um but I saw a candy Bergen and out Alan Alda today and she's she's really good she's pretty much off her script yeah yeah is he fun he's always funny he's crowned it's always funny they're both great uh-huh I highly recommend it it's it's just beautifully written simple I was sobbing and and then and then why anything else in the works yeah I have a movie called Master Cleanse by a director called Bobby Miller masterclass that was the plan Alice I'll cleanse Master Cleanse very different master this is a subversive little movie just to give you a sort of taste of Bobby Miller its director his first movie was a short that he presented at Sundance about a tub that gets pregnant a bathtub that gets pregnant so Master Cleanse is it kind of is it at least free trade Leon the same idea a but ever in a more human variety of a tub that gets pregnant no just it kind of that would be a facet of his interests Master Cleanse I'm not going to give away it's too good a premise okay so that's that's what's on the agenda right now yeah and after you leave us after you leave you're gonna go back to LA where do you live now I'm gonna go to Philadelphia tomorrow and then Chicago for a few days on the book tour then back to LA for a few more days and that's where I'm living now is there another bastard that you could write not yet I've got a little bit first yeah okay well I'd like to thank you we haven't everybody joy I learned at a very young age if you say bad lines of dialogue you look like a bad actor it's that if the lines aren't smart you looked up cuz you can be single because you know nobody showed up yeah that's how I am okay

Channel: 92Y Plus

Views: 103,840

Rating: 4.7942858 out of 5

Keywords: 92Y, 92nd Street Y, Anjelica Huston (Musical Artist), Joy Behar (TV Personality), Film (Media Genre)

Id: b3UntQFFkNY

Length: 64min 53sec (3893 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 19 2014