Conversations with Martin Landau

so without further ado please give a warm welcome to mr. Martin Landau welcome oh thank you very much thank you for being here what a nice diverse virgin - yeah got a full house tonight um well let's let's beginning at the beginning right sure that's the way it goes here you were born and raised in Brooklyn Brooklyn yeah yeah Flatbush is funny name yeah yeah when I was 17 I got a job in the New York Daily News as a cartoonist illustrator I lied about my age it said it was 18 oh and I was still in high school and I do my homework on the train I would leave Brooklyn at 3 o'clock and arrive at the news building at 4:00 and work till midnight and then I go back to Brooklyn doing my homework I'd be a high school again at 8:00 in the morning what kind of cartoons would a legislature Emperor Billy Rose did a column called pitching horseshoes Monday Wednesday and Friday and I did cartoon that went along with it and then there was a cartoonist called Gus said sir to get a comic strip called the Gump's which is popular actually and I was an assistant and I did have all kinds of things that I was actually being groomed as a theatrical caricaturist because of hello who was doing that fella called Horace night was 170s and so I would occasionally do some caricatures of people in the theatre I started the theater as well so huh so did you uh have you ever shown those that collection of comics ah I came across some of them within recent times I know I don't show though my item you selected out I will no avail because I went to pride Institute and majored in fine arts too and I paint as well and I sort of dabble a little but no I you know I also take photographs that are kind of interesting even my family photographs over the years were you know I would shoot periodically and I don't do that no no mainly because I feel people make a living doing that who need to do that and I do what I do know nevertheless we'd like to see him sometimes there might be a market out there just the same so after when did you first get into acting what what brought you well what it was very strange I looked around me at the news building and I saw a lot of people who were thirty and forty years my senior doing what I was doing and I realized the kind of painting and drawing I liked doing I did at home and and I guess it was fomenting in me but one day I just got up and walked over to a fella called Bill white and said can I leave now I have to give you notice and he looked at me like he was a man who virtually had no neck [Music] and he was in a swivel chair and he would swivel yeah I and he said what you're talking about I said I want to go into the theater I think he thought I had a job as an usher yeah but I he said you can't just walk out I said what I have to do he said you have to give us two weeks notice fill out so he said okay at two weeks later I left a lot of people because it it must have seen impulsive but it was obviously brewing in me for a while and I then left and went away to summer stock I auditioned for the Picts Island Playhouse and became part of a resident company there we had a company of 40 people keep silent was an island about two miles outside of Portland Maine and it was billed as America's first summer theater where it was started at the turn of the century and we had we did a straight play of music on the street playing a musical all summer we did 12 shows in 13 weeks everything from streetcar named desire to Roberta to where's Charlie - all kinds of things and I found myself singing it dad sing it and after that summer I went back to New York and what you know start to study figure out better where did you first wind up studying where did you first go well I I was a fellow Google kind of Oh Curt Conway was was one of the baby babies of the grooc theater he and Martin written a number of other people and he was had been a one of the younger young directors at CBS during the early live television days and he was married to a young actress called Kim and Kurt actually broke in people like Marty rich and Bob Mulligan and Sidney lament and people like that and then Kurt signed a couple of petitions and couple of papers and found himself blacklisted just bingo and he had never been a communist but he one of the things he signed was a Willie McGee petition which is a young black fella who was accused wrongly accused of raping a white woman in the south and I know where these petitions have went around to try and get him a fair trial and a lot of the organizations that sponsored these petitions were rather radically left-wing organizations so if you signed the petition for the cause you were suddenly identified with the organization anyway he found himself blackness didn't and then Kimmel was virtually an unknown actress became she was in picnic and then uh so she became a Broadway star and he couldn't work and what became sort of a hell for Kurt was an odd blessing for me because he became a teacher and my first teacher of significance and a wonderful teacher and so I started working with with Curtin and with others and I auditioned for the Actors Studio tell us about that job well I did I was very fortunate I I did a scene I read a lot of scenes of this there was a play called middle of the night anon I'm a regular part in clash by night middle of the night is a play that I was in later clash by night was a play that Clifford Odette's had written for the group theatre and the group theater broke up and they decided to do it on the commercial theater so Lee Strasberg the first play done after the group theater disbanded the group theater had been in existence from 1931 to 1941 and suddenly Odette's had been was an accurate become a very important writer and and the group theater of course brought the stanislavski's system as we know it to the United States and certain kind of ensemble acting and plays like Golden Boy a rocket to the moon and he waiting for lefty and so on were plays it brought playwrights like Clifford Odets and Irwin Shaw and others Sidney Kingsley to America's consciousness well Lee Strasberg who was one of the three people who ran the group theater our Clara Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford created the group theater and out of that of course people like Sanford Meisner and Martin Crenn offski and a lot of teachers still a door of course and a lot of DJ Cobb we John Garfield friendship tell a lot of fairly well-known people emerged and he some became movie stars some work back and forth Theater Hollywood and so on well Lee Strasberg directed clash by night as a play in the commercial Broadway theatre with Lee Jacob Tallulah Bankhead and Joseph shilkret in the three major roles and it was again it was Clifford Odets his entree to the commercial theater when I say commercial of course you know the group theater plays were done commercially but they were under the umbrella of the group theatre and this was out there in the world at any rate everyone said you're not going to do a scene from clash by night bless you you're not going to do that are you like I said what are you talking about they said well you know Lee Strasberg directed it on Broadway and the final auditions at that time were you there were three judges if you pass some preliminary addition you did a file and excuse me Lee Strasberg Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford whether judges and you had to get three one votes the voting still exists in the same way one means yes two means who come back and free means no but come back here from now work but you had to get three one votes to get in and they said the old man Strasburg not that he was that old I went back now what we called on old man I mean I don't know why that's it some people are just born old I said I'll do there there's a sort of watch but as I look at it now he was a young fellow with apathy rate uh they say he'll never pass you no matter what you do whatever agree with you I mean he's you know I mean he'd be so close to that play he Clifford in you know and I started listening to people and I started doubting my my selection and then I woke up in the middle of night and said what how am i doing if I it's a five-minute scene with a beginning a middle and an end it's a guy who's a drifter waking up with hangover it's got all this stuff it's very passionate if I can't do this scene I don't deserve to be in the actors and I did it and I passed and that year many thousands of people auditioned and Steve McQueen and I were the only two accepted that year so and and Lee was very much kind of a Steve than he was to me I would say because I mean he beat the hell out of it it really did you know I used to say friends like that you don't need enemies but uh it was good for me because of it he was kind of Steve because he had been a little rough on Jimmy Dean and Jimmy stopped working at the studio so I think he said well maybe they're similar let it go easier on that the kid at anyway I got into the actress to be a boy that's a long okay no that's that's exactly where we wanted to go long answer what was the curriculum like I mean when was cutter I mean it's not a school no I know that but I mean well I don't we did a lot of sense memory work we did a lot of emotional work I I was always trying thing something like I remember I adapted scenes from the brave bulls which I play the Torah Guerrero and I got I adapted an oh Henry short story called a port which a man a sailor goes on leave and Marseilles and picks up a prostitute and winds up with a terrible hangover in the morning with the score and finds out it's his sister you know with Truman I always chose things would be huge emotional moments because I felt that you know that the theater needed that kind of thing I mean and you know he's conversing with her having awakened and and had you know filthy place and and then he starts talking to her as he's dressing and and he finds out she comes from the same town and you know and then anything so that but I did things like that at the studio how often did you have classes there and there was a day well I mean it would couple times a week a couple of times a week yeah and did you hold down a job during that time stretch as well or you know what I did was I'd save money up from when I was you know at the news and then I was doing small parts of television you know it was a lie days and I would do small parts of danger and suspense and studio one and nothing and then I got of like omnibus was a live show and I did they did all kinds of interesting things on omnibus quarter artistic show and I played John the Baptist and Oscar Wilde salomé with Patricia Neal playing erroneously again playing Herod Sal Mineo playing and page to Herodias Eartha Kitt as Salome and John Styx was a director from the studio directed that so I get parts here there enough to kind of tide me over and then in the summer I go away to stock or go on tour with something so I managed to stay afloat barely just barely I mean I wasn't like that we're rolling in dough I don't know why wasn't rolling in part see there is you know but I wasn't it's funny because I would read for a lot of things and Johnny Cassavetes and Sydney and Mike Tolan and Paul Stevens oh guy I don't we see the same guys yet and the outer offices we're all reading and one of us would get it probably and we never know which ones and was III have we've all been through those experiences but AB you know it and then there were they open CBS casting calls too they have taken over some Broadway theaters use them for television theaters and once a week they we sort of have a cattle call and you go in I used to go in with some rainy because it was a great place to see your friends get out of the ring and and you call your ten ten at a time you get numbers and that you know you go up and if you were at all like for something you get a chance to read for an under five line part they refused to delineate it sometimes a better part than that but I never was very successful at that no with this for virtually all the shows that were on TV a lot of CBS's shows I decided to open it up for the actors they no there were the same people doing the parts every week practically yet John Peregrine John Newland and Maria Reaver and Mary sent calamity it was almost they were almost like a test pattern so so they kind of opened try to open it up it's not a lot of people were selected in that system and it was a big humiliating really you know tentative time standing up to yourself like you basal wiring squad I'm going to hire me or shoot me so how long did you stay at the Actors Studio is not perfect oh I know I know you're still involved but I mean I first go around we really never really left I never left matter came to dinner I don't know I actually run the West Coast Actors Studio with Mark Riedel and Sydney right Sydney's less active these days when Mark and I are still very active and I helped start the the West cozier because least us were hoping would never work out here and we did it without his blessing and then about a year and a half to two years after we began the West Coast studio he would spend six months here in six months in New York so he did give it credence and and it's still going and going quite well it's going well and yeah and anyone can audition for the octave studio I was just going to ask what's the audition process like no you pick a five-minute scene with a partner obviously choose something close to you that you identify with and connect to if you pass that you do a final audition if you pass that you're a life member you never have to pay a nickel it's a great deal and I you know I I don't know why more people don't audition it's a chance we just elected to run in New York studio three people you might know of a Al Pacino Harvey Keitel and Ellen Burstyn and and it's you know it's it's I I'm going to be moderating the sessions out here again in September for the first time in a long time because I haven't been able to Estelle Parsons has been moderating the sessions on on these ghosts along with leibrandt and it's one studio so I mean if you're here you can come here if you're there you go there and it's a great place to work it's a laboratory it's a place to keep yourself tooled up you know I mean I was living in England for a number of years doing a series there but when the actors there get out of Virata or drama school ooh they'll go into rep for a while usually and then but they never they never go back to the laboratories and the places and American actors do more much more readily and I think it's good that we do between jobs it's great to have a place like that where you can go and you know I mean I was doing things like King Lear when I was in my twenties not that I would play it but the challenge you know the chance to do stuff like that or it's just you know again and and I'm still active mainly it's like paying my dues it was very good to me it was an oasis for me I mean I didn't have a whole lot of money and it was a wonderful place to study and it's terrific that a place you know that the studio has been in existence since 1947 just think about it and a group of actors that have stayed together for that length of time is a miracle it's like sag I mean you know this is a this is great I mean this the acting community organizations that are run by actors about actors for actors there should be more of this sort of thing I [Applause] didn't realize that I mean you know I mean I came here in the 50s but prior to that I mean it was sad you know they worked a six hour day there were no time constraints I mean it was it was really terrible when when the Screen Actors Guild was started it was really a necessity because it was like slave labor and we've grown into a very strong powerful wonderful union anyway no more prosecutor and that's okay we needed that little commercial here in um what would you look back on and say was sort of the turning point for you when you're back in New York here at the Actors Studio you're getting bit parts here and there but then suddenly something happens well was there a breakthrough role for you something well that was I mean I did it there were a lot of things I mean I thought there was never one thing I mean I had early on I did I did I did pattern shifts Keys play middle of the night on Broadway it was his first play on Broadway he then went on to do you know wonderful movies too but he started on touching television and he wrote middle of the night as a craft theater with eg Marshall and Stephen Hill and he st. and then it went to Broadway and I replaced Lee Phillips who left the plate do Peyton Place the movie and Patti had seen me and wanted me in this room because he'd seen me do some work in Kurt's class and felt that I knew more about that character that he did he knew a guy in the army and he was the guy at any rate I I wound up in the play Josh Loman directing and Edward G Robinson the star Jenna Romans played my wife was her first play on Broadway and then we toured to California and I found myself here my ex-wife was in the play as well during the national tour Barbara and anyway Hitchcock saw the show on opening night next thing I knew I got a call even though the character was 180 degrees from the character I play the middle of the night I found myself in what by Northwest as who was also then with things had led to other things the role I played in the middle of the night was a macho kind of crass insensitive egocentric musician and Hitchcock cast me as a very economical quiet and I played him as a homosexual dangerous character very very economical I've never played anything like it since hmm never before so did you wonder what it was that Hitchcock saw in there that made him well I've told this story and i i i I wondered and I asked him yeah and I was having tea one day with peggy robertson Alfred Hitchcock and the kids and and we were in the portable dressing room and I said how did you see me in that play in Caspi in this room mr. Hitchcock and he said mocking you have a circus going on inside of you obviously if you would do that part of the city to do this little trinket that was his explanation good as any I suppose but basically I think he saw a lot of energy and I felt if I could contain it I would be a sense of danger and the character I felt was really very smart and ahead of everybody in terms of what was going on and very controlled and the reason I chose to play nice homosexual very slightly because I you know liking fifties you didn't write it wasn't written that way but I I figured I'd just be a henchman I'm not gay and everyone said you're going to again you know let's start listening to people because if you're going to play in high I said you think you know you you won't have a career I said what are you talking about I'm an actor anyway by the logic was it this guy was so desperate to get rid of Eva Marie Saint that I thought there was a terrific choice ah the only person I know that they don't like my choice was James Mason because it attested as purchase of his character but but but but but Hitchcock let me go Amina you know he's uh he liked it and he virtually didn't direct me so I just did what I did you know I he would whisper things to people and they never said anything to me at all you know and I'm you know coming from the theaters about me I felt so I wonder how we were shooting in the auction gallery and he had said something that Mason and said something to Cary Grant said some of you and walk past me so I watch it I certainly you want to tell me he said hot I only tell you if I don't like what you're doing okay that's good did you ever I mean in a situation like that here you are a fairly young actor and you're working around people that could be considered legends behind yourself intimidated and what did you do to welcome that or did you bhasayate I was so busy working not you doing more I yeah there was Cary Grant that was at Alfred Hitchcock there was James Mason Eva Marie Leo G Carroll quite a group yeah but they made me feel comfortable and i i i was very concentrated what I was doing as well you know I mean I was it's not a huge part but I wanted it to be very in tents and I was here with ya I didn't allow a lot of things to kind of intimidate me or ever get into I think you know once I I mentioned you know never being able to please Lee Strasberg action it was talk about a tough guy you know he was tough the day I stopped trying to please him I started to so it was about doing my work working with Strasburg made me tough in a certain way in terms of making choices and trusting them and going with it and having a bit of a cacao I used to use an expression from time to time and I remembered it and I liked it maybe there like he used to say something actors arrogance and it mean that you needed to be arrogant it means you had to have a certain kind of arrogance to be able to trust yourself and the throws of a situation where a lot of things are going on where you have to be able to hone in on what you're doing without being without dividing by two or three or four is called questioning or self continually making choices and then trusting that choice I learned a long time ago that if director doesn't like what you're doing he'll tell you and when they don't talk you're in good shape and I basically haven't been directed in maybe 20 years because I come in and stuff could direct it creates playground and lets you play and if you're you know that they often don't know what they want until they see it so one of my favorite Coppola stories what I was doing Tucker I remember there was a scene I had to do and we had shot the piece before it hadn't shot the piece after and I've been thinking about it mulling it over and I walked up to Francis I said kill I was thinking about this for instance I could there's a lot of ways I could go like a play this I remember you can play this 10 15 different ways you said great great pick the best one yeah and he walked away and I said yeah when am i bothering him with that for he's got a 51 Tucker's to worry about and and you know thousand extras and yes and one that Woody Allen doesn't talk about anything about your role I mean isn't directed you at all you know I mean your honor and he talked about other things talk about the circus talk about Connecticut but he won't talk about your character so you're really on your own but I I like that I mean you got a whole Pune phase to pick from I mean there are another two people I've ever met my life who alike so why would I even play a character like another character I play because that characters needs desires predilections with relation to that specific script and what that character has to fulfill in that script can't be like any other character per se so you know it's not character 12a I've done you know over 100 movies and probably over 500 television shows and I don't think I've ever repeated the character because that's what makes it fun why do I do this time how do I add to this piece and it's it's always I still like it is what I'm saying I really get a kick out of it because each time it's a new adventure I've always said you know over the years I've taught acting and all the time I was ever teaching I was always acting I've ever made my living as a teacher and I taught you know Jack Nicholson was my student for three years and Harry Dean Stanton and and Angelica Houston and Oliver Stone before I directed his first movie and Shirley Knight a lot of people over the years and if I wasn't doing what I was telling them to do I don't think they would have stuck around because I mean I by example would be out there all the time and I just felt that was important anyway my first group I worked with over about 16 people Robert Towne was an actor in that class before you started writing a Carol Eastman wrote five Easy Pieces and they were act she was an actress and she became a writer there was an interesting group that stayed together for three years luckily like nucleus people and I you know I basically used to say everyone's going to walk and talk your job is to create magic and I really I still believe that I really believed that I would create something says something that best tells that story and doesn't pull the audience out of that story you're part of that piece making the choices right I mean I keep hearing you say you make the choices and always have all kinds of your physical choices and emotional choices and regional choices and I like I like characters it frightened me when I read them when I don't know where to begin whoa I mean with Ed Wood I mean I literally didn't know where to begin but I I got a call from someone I didn't know Tim Burton who called me and I thought it was a friend of mine joking this hello this is Tim Burton I said yeah this is Thomas Jefferson's wait I was I was very very uh I went a little bit well because I mean it just seems illogical and because the next thing he said was uh there's a messenger on his way there's a script coming check out the part of Bela and get back to me and I said sure and he said this is my number of the studio and this is my home and I wrote them two numbers down and I okay Tim and then about half an hour later a messenger came with a script you know I almost said I don't think I'm right for Bella Abzug a but I didn't but I had no idea if you know it was what it was when I read a nice oh my god you know because I knew a little bit about it would and his films I'd seen plan 9 from outer space and and I Glen or Glenda and but I didn't really know that much about him and and I'd seen Lugosi films ever since I was a kid and then I called him the next morning at the at the studio and they said he wasn't there and I said well I'll call him at home and I realize it was Tim Burton and of course and then I called this number he gave me and he had he got on look he answered the phone and he said what do you think I said I think it's great it's amazing I mean uh I mean it to do this movie he said you're interested I said yeah I'm interested and he said whoa wanted to come to the studio he was at the Goldwyn studio which is a Warner Hollywood studio which is now called a lot on Formosa and I I went over and met him there and you know if you know him but it's like meeting Edward Scissorhands he's great you know but I mean it's like he's what do you think you know on the yeah you know sign goes so I said you know it's great I mean he said you know you're my first and only choice and I just want to screw he said yeah and you know Johnny Depp is going to play Ed Wood and Johnny and I were talking and uh and if you don't do it we're not doing the movie but no pressure but no I said I never met well I said well that's very flattering but I said oh no there's a hundred thousand actors and sag is I don't know anyone else who can do it I said what are you talking about I don't know if I can do it I said you've written a character who's a 74 year old Hungarian morphine addict alcoholic who has mood swings I said that would be hard enough but he's got to be Bela Lugosi I said I said I mean this is you know this could be the worst thing that ever happened I grew up with guys you know above a big blue ball Frank Gorshin and all these providers I said he said we'll look I said I'm game as hell so we stitched makeup tests and all kinds of things and and then I I went away I was doing a movie called intersection up in Canada Western Canada and Vancouver and Tim kept sending me Lugosi movies and interviews that he did and all kinds of things and if you saw intersection you will know that I had a lot of time to look at these cassettes so I watched 35 Lugosi movies and a couple of them were would make the Ed Wood movies look like gone with a wait there was one called Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn gorilla you've got to really see this move Brooklyn gorillas yes it's about two guys who were working on the contract early 50s under contractor Universal who were like the road company Martin and Lewis one guys sang and the other guy who looked something like Jerry Lewis did and Aaron an island and everyone's running around in muumuus and on this island is a castle and in the castle is a mad scientist of course guess who and this fellow is injecting little monkeys with a serum the monkey overnight turns into a guy in an awful gorilla suit with a Brooklyn accent no I fortunately the two guys were from Brooklyn okay gorilla wasn't from Brooklyn we wouldn't have allowed it anyway within this context Lugosi is wonderful I got you I couldn't believe how seriously he took it and how he now you have to know he was very ill he was in you know morphine addiction I mean he was and yet he was working hard and I was so impressed watching this movie that I fell in love with the guy I would say the French to try to get Hungarian dialect tapes and a warranty so I bought Hungarian language tapes and began to work on where the tongue went so that I wanted it to be a perfect Hungarian accent now Hungarian is a lot language and we access not like any other language it's really hard to lose it if you the Gabor is have been here 50 years it sound like I just got off the boat it's that but they can't say W at all bow-bow then when they can't so and then I did something that only Peter medic who sung Garriott noticed even though I got great reviews and won a lot of awards I mean every award actually which was unheard of Peter medic called me and said Martin better go tell Garin and I said thank you he said you must be ugh I said no like this is Dylan why I said why his sentence was very good because you were not an actor trying to do an garyun accent you're a character trying not to which is what I did he didn't want the accent it sounds crazy but that's exactly what I did it's like again it's an old axiom of mine I mean when I talk about acting I often talk about you know I always say bad actors try to cry good actors try not to bad actors try to laugh good actors try not to bad actors play drunk good actors play sober how a character hides his feelings tells us who he is not how he shows his feelings no one shows their feelings people don't try to cry you fill up and then you do what that character does to hold it in and what spills out if it spills out tells us what's going on hmm I mean who tries to show what they're feeling people don't show at a terrible day today everyone know people hold on you know yeah you know you may tell a close friend something personal or revealing but you don't go around you know your watch people work well they move to even in a movie not movie theater when they're crying where it's somewhat safe you know it's like are they that he would see me cry it's it's it's not about show and tell it's about filling up and then defining how that characters would hold his stuff in and go about his life well trying to do an accent was not in keeping with that thinking getting the accident trying not to do it wasn't keeping with it anyway [Applause] I'm not finished no I know you just get a pearl there though everybody it really resonated I wonder if we could just for a second digress for a moment because we moved to a different point in your career but I didn't want to miss out talk about dissing go ahead I didn't want to miss out on Mission Impossible and what led you to that role and what that experience was like I mentioned a class that I had one of the people in that class was a young writer called Bruce Geller who want to learn about acting so he came into that class as a writer want to learn about acting and Bruce skeller created mission impossible and he cast he actually wrote a character called Rowling hand I recently was called Martin land hmm and cinnamon Carter was originally written for Barbara Bain my ex-wife and Barbara read and went through a process and Bruce unconsciously wanted her because he wanted a character who was virtually like a Marilyn Monroe and a Grace Kelly in the same embodiment someone who could be sexy and very ladylike and or both and the only member of the team who could get into the ladies room I did not want to do a television series I was busy doing other things but he wrote a character for me in the pilot come on the land initial in which I played a South America as a guest star really South American dictator then we kidnap him and I had person ate the South American dictator I played the character ultimately became rowling hand because you know I said Martin land that's ridiculous I mean so he made it Martin hand and I said early Martin so he made it Wallen hand and making the same number of type space industry forward processes have been a problem today could widen out at any rate so and I played like four or five characters on the pilot but I was only to do the pilot I didn't want to do a series I had turned down Star Trek but you know most people don't notice you were first Joey I was the first choice for the Spock character and I passed on that I thought it would kill me to play an emotionless character that's definitely really right I mean it was a wonderful idea but it would not not for me it wasn't at Bruce Keller's office and Gene Roddenberry's office were next to each other at designated so Lucy was our boss Lucille Ball when we were Desilu showed I mean paramount bought desi room during this period and Lucy wasn't a solo studio but she had nothing on the air but the Lucy show she was four walling other shows of Ben Casey was there and Hogan's Heroes but she didn't own any of them she wanted to get some properties so that year she put on Star Trek and Mission Impossible one us and we see one on CBS and I well when the pilot sold the network so we want Landau on the show too and I said whoa I said well I'm not going to sign a series deal I didn't do it then I'm not going to do it now so I agreed to guest star on whatever shows they wanted me on during the season but I had the option they didn't with two weeks notice I could leave the show at any time now that was a not a good move on their part because it created lots of problems downstream but I did the 28 out of the first 30 shows the first year as a guest star in fact we I originally doing that is now very conventional I didn't want to be in the main titles because because I wouldn't they believe so when the first year Stephen Hill the second year Peter Graves threw down my picture top it said special appearance by martin landau as well in hand the word special appearance by had never been used before as billing ever i originated it's still now it's special appearance by all the time but it it had never we were trying to figure out what language to use so that it could be slightly separate and yet not part of the main titles but part of the opening of the show so the very were special appearance by never been used before and we chose that and the first year i was a guest star on 28 out of 30 shifts and then the second year I sign to do the series and I was on the main titles but I had the option to continue at the end of the year or not and the third season again and so on so it was an interesting experience do you look back on it as a good experience good experiments you know absolutely we loved each other we had a great group were generous with each other we had a lot of fun it was unique a very unusual show in its time it was very filmic very cinematic I sort of played a one-man rep company and then I played I played you know Adolf Hitler mark Normand myself younger and blond older and 80 year old nineties all kinds of exercise Germans and Russians in fact uh well we weren't really Russian so we were from places like Slovakia but to nibble your appeal you know and I remember once a fellow from prompter came to visit us over a journalist who was living in New York and he came to visit our set and he said Herr mr. Lindo when a nice to meet you is my leading lady orchid very embarrassing for me I had a young son he's 12 years old and it's very embarrassing I said what's a para say my son ready he has no exit speaks like a Yankee very American he says to me hey pop how come all the bad guys talk like you yeah [Laughter] what are you working on now what's what's coming well I'm doing a movie I have a kind of interesting week not why a picture with Harrison Ford and and Josh Hartnett that Ron Shelton is directing and having written New York not New York Los Angeles cop movie it's in fact it's called the untitled Ron Shelton Los Angeles couple that's what it's called it's also known as working on two cops that's not the title yet so and I'm playing a character that's based on Robert Evans it's not wrong I'm not going to do right he's got his own movie out right if he does and which is very good you know the kid stays in a picture I saw Bob recently a yellow it saddens me survivors right yeah I get a take some pictures anyway well let's go to some questions from the member states all right let's see here where's Zack rollin December's not now my question was and actually covered earlier but if you gets found on it at what point in your life other than the day that you walk stood up and walked over to the the chair and ass in general what you needed to do to leave your regular job what point did you realize from working a day job itself to wanting to be an actor I think it was a metamorphosis of a certain kind the day job you're talking about was also something I wanted to do in that what I was before I could read my parents would go out on a Saturday night and come back with a bunch of newspapers New York had seven newspapers eight newspapers at the time and they come back and there was the Daily News ahead of funny in a comic section a Daily Mirror that had a comic section a journal American that had a comic section I will prove you had a comic section and they leave them the comic sections and a chair next to my bed and in the morning I'd wake up and there were these colored comic sections the Daily News had Dick Tracy on the cover at Smitty on the back cover the journal had bring him father the Murrah had Mickey Mouse and I couldn't read but I looked at these pictures and there were worlds it was crazy cat by George Harriman and before I could read I was intrigued with the world of a fantasy world of comics so that was my first love the next love was when I was six or seven years old I went to the movies and I went to the theater at living in New York I saw the white horse in an operetta at this sucker theater which was a sister theater to the Radio City Music Hall anyway what I'm basically saying is the two things I chose to do with things that were drained in my brain somehow and in my heart somehow so that pursuing that will to create it's almost the same thing it's creating a world with pen and ink and color and creating a world with your own physical instrument your body and mind emotion and voice so they're just steps and something that I wanted to do from the time I was little so I can't call that quite a day job if you know what I'm saying it was more of a something drove me to do it I don't know what and to become an actor I don't know what made me do either of those things there was something an impetus that was completely I was some life force within me that just made me do it I had no choice right thank you for your question Danny a royal did somebody wait for this how you doing [Laughter] you mentioned his named earlier and my question was about James Dean I know you must have some very pleasant fond memories about him or some stories you maybe don't want to tell anybody but maybe you can share with us back time to New York acting class maybe sings together well yeah we him a lot actually I directed a number of things he did audition scenes other things then he would pass judgment on things I did even when I was doing however he'd come back being out of town I was doing a play called goats song with his girlfriend Barbara Glen we played the Alfred Lunt and Fontanne roles in a revival of a France raffle play that had been done in 1926 by the theatre guild and this is the first time it had been done in New York since it was 1953 and Edward G Robinson was a member of the theater guild played five held a Jew in the original production and Jimmy came and the director gave us notes and then we went out afterwards and Jimmy gave us notes more notes and the director gave us you know we were young actors talked about acting a lot talked about dreams a lot it was complicated kid but so was I I mean this idea of his you know wanting to die premature death was his absolutely on a lot of things that are said about him in retrospect I mean you know a number of writers had base books on the fact that he was quote unquote homosexual well their homosexual II wanted to be homosexual he wasn't he wasn't gay he may have experimented a little bit here and there but he was a gay I know the women in his life and but anyway you could say anything you want about someone after they're gone I could get a death wish he didn't have a death wish he wanted to live he wasn't going that fast on you know he was one of the very few Porsche spiders in the country through about four or five of them in the entire country no one was used to seeing a car that was that low where the Sun was it was a silver car he wasn't seen he was only doing about 65 or 70 miles an hour we do that on freeways all the time it was an open road and there was a guy who made a turn that because he didn't see the car at any rate Jimmu done about 20 some television shows a couple of plays and three motion pictures he died at the age of 24 a lot of people say he was immature I don't know a lot of people who were very mature were having done you know everything happened very quickly was it ready for everything probably not no one is what things are piled on you that quickly and in a very short period of time and he did a lot of work and was growing as an actor at anyway I could go on and on and on but it was a loss a huge loss of my life he was a very close friend of mine and and it's it's peculiar in fact I wrote a piece in TV Guide about the fact that IQ no I mean he's frozen in time places like I go to Prague or I go to anywhere even it's like was Assad in Morocco or there's a t-shirt shop souvenir shop and often it'll be a life-size cutout of chilly wearing the rebel red jacket with a cigarette you know and it's like I've gotten used to it you know it was peculiar at first because it was like I mean you know places I'd never been to places it should be new and strange and suddenly there's Jimmy in the window [Music] it's become you know I knew Marilyn as well and I knew you know me so I mean it's it's same there are certain icons that keep popping up on t-shirts Thank You Christie showing Christie there's I was wondering being that you're talented actor and all what if there was a point like a really low point in your acting career where you felt very discouraged and and probably questioned yourself if you were doing the right thing well another question was someone always doing the right thing but I questioned like I said you know I guess I've described my career as a rollercoaster ride there are ups or downs or times and things were good I've had several different kinds of careers I had a career at the theater to some degree and then I had a theatre career in television and then I had a actually I first came here the first I did movie said I did television and people didn't hire me for movies anymore there were times when I yeah you know I when I did space 1999 I was basically in London for four years mainly we went there as a family Barbara and I'm working again after Mission Impossible together we worked in a television series for sir low grade and then became warden in grade and we lived in England for the better part of four years mainly because that's where the work was and we wanted to try and keep our family together if Barbara at that time was doing one show and I was doing another where we were this way we were all together and it was also I think a good experience for our kids to get him up I would say out of the Beverly Hills school system and into a different world the American School in London had all kinds of different kids from everywhere in the United States you know got guys who worked at the Embassy guys who were in the oil business bankers is a at and they virtually got a chance to spend time with people from Dubuque and and Kansas City and it's crazy to say this but you know we actually went to England so our kids could experience American kids from other places and it I thought was a good thing then when of course you come back after this and there's a out of sight I don't mind you know elevator to begin with when I did went over there to do the show was after Mission Impossible and not a lot of feature people were breaking the doors down but television you know there was a pilot like we did for Steve Spielberg called savage it was the last thing Steve ever directed on television Levinson and Lake who produced Columbo produced it and Barbara and I did it together in which I played a character not unlike a Mike Wallace an investigative reporter who was television doing television and before we get the pilot which was an NBC pilot for universal I even called Julianne Goodman who was then a head of NBC News and said do you have a problem with me playing an investigative reporter on your network because we're going to go after you know things like the FDA and the Senate you know was going to be an intelligent show about things that mattered it was television doing television and it hadn't done that yet and of course we did a pilot it's the end I had to fight to get Steve's real work to direct it which he did he was 22 years old he had just done dual and and because it was a talking show we felt that it needed a very cinematic hand and this young fellow called Spielberg was willing to break rules and said Sheinberg there was a head of television at Universal so he's going to go over budget I said well comedies in policy you have what six or seven and I only care about this one and we really want Steve to do it and he said anyway I walked out of the office and said no Steven and Martin Barbara and he chased us down to the elevators and said you got him and that's how we got Steve to direct it and there was the last thing right after that he did Sugarland Express and then of course jaws whatever became of that guy I don't at any rate that series was shot down by the NBC news department ultimately right because it was in that particular pilot movie of the week barry sullivan played a Supreme Court justice appointee who was married and who this young girl whether question whether he had an affair with her she happens to fall out of a window and die and this wealthy man played by grandpa Walton will will he here pass something on him and not unlike the hunts of Texas at the time the question was would this multi-millionaire have a hold on a Supreme Court justice and use it to benefit himself now there's power loves some things that were going on in in our country at the time at any rate the series did not get on the air for numbers of reasons I went from being the best pilot NBC and Universal had to being shown at midnight on a Monday night or something anyway that's show business so when you found yourself discouraged I mean what kinds of things pulled you through did you then focus on other interests in your life how do you take the pressure off wanting to regain some you have to believe in yourself and never I mean if it's very easy to waver it's very easy to one of the things that it's not terrific to do is to feel sorry for yourself I always say I never use self-pity at a character because audiences don't care about a character feel sorry for herself audiences like characters and a fighter and I've learned from the characters I played the characters I've been nominated for by and large your characters who fight the character and Tucker winds up being a bigger person and he started out by enlarging his life the character in crimes and misdemeanors is not a lighter person but he does get through a terrible time and Lugosi was poet of doom in a way who never never acknowledged it he refused to see the failure in his life and I believe that's an important element for everyone to have never think of yourself as a loser never think of yourself as a failure take that feeling and turn it into something positive I think it's within our means to do that it's very easy to become depressed it's a tough tough world out there but I always say it I've suggest to my students and I'll say it to you I said it early I said create magic when you get a chance to read they don't know what they want don't try to please them please you kick ass brings something large of yourself into that room bring your energy into that room make choices had trust them and go and it's if they don't hire you it's their loss not yours and that's the actors are against I'm talking about yes you have to back it up and periodically I mean audition for the studio doesn't matter how old you are go to workshops and classes when you start feeling down get out there and act a little bit don't sit in your room and feel sorry for yourself get out there and kick ass somewhere make yourself feel good again but the other people acknowledge hey you pretty damn good you got to hear that you don't hear it when you're alone in your room I designed like I'm doing cabaret [Music] all right thank you Kevin McMahon McNamara Evan this is actually pretty similar to the question we had just passed more specific after you've been in a picture that or any project that does poorly critically or box office how do you how do you bounce backs and that how do you get the next job without being ruined you know what I mean sit down yes okay okay I last year I did a movie called the majestic we had a great time doing it there's a chance for Jim Carrey and player-character like a James Stewart character I had fun we had high hopes for the movie had 12 people saw it six of them of nasty critics everywhere it's a disappointment Jim was disappointed I was disappointed Frank Darabont bagged our last two pictures before that or the Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile two fairly successful movies pretty damn good movies we were beaten up we came out the same week that a beautiful mine came out Lord of the Rings came out Ali thanks no one thought no one went beautifully spend a long time working on it you have a great time where have your high hopes for it it don't allow it to do any more than save too bad be a new job got to wake up through something else that's that it'll catch up with itself now people are beginning to see it on DVDs and not especially on airplanes they're trapped I tell you I have more people come up to me and say hey I mean I flew back from there I saw that picture that you did last year well that's economy our majestic they had to see it so anyway the point is that you were very good in that movie expect like a best kept secret in the world it I was happy with what I did in the movie I was happy with the movie and there are disappointments along the way but it's it's just what it is and you go on you do a play in town you want it to be accepted the playwright gets it the director gets it you get it okay that doesn't mean you stop doing it you can't please everybody and you never will [Music] expectation is not a good thing to expect something is to be thus become disappointed to hope to anticipate but not to expect if you steadily anytime you expect something you're in trouble I promise you you can't expect anything thank you Artur Ribeiro I grew up in Portugal where I educated watched space 1999 and only slowly I get to know your career by a new special analogy because only later on I saw in an Alfred Hitchcock movies and then so and it is a fabless amazing career and my question is when did you have most fun was it like back in 56 is it still today does it I'm still having I'm still having fun answer it was it was there different back you know when you know when you were working with John Cassavetes and a lot of rules were being broken and a lot of new things were happening does it feel that today you don't have you know they're no more original ideas or wow that's always original ideas like say there were just so many plot lines and so on but in 1985 when I was in sembra and settle ball and in Lisbon right soozee working in Portugal with Raul Ruiz was a Chilean director living in Paris but filming a lot in Portugal I was having a great time then I was having a great time when I was out of work in the 50s when I started to work in the 60s when I was out of work in the seventies when I started in the seventies when I was working in the 80s when I wasn't working so much in the 80s when I was working in the 90s yeah it's all great and and all of it gives me more and more colors to put on my palette the more pain I always felt actors one of the things that one should really embrace is paid actors suffer a great deal of pain people suffer great deal to pay but actors most people run away from their pain they do who wants to go there it's painful actors should really acknowledge and embrace their pain that's what good performances are made out of the character Death of a Salesman loaded with pain put stuff on top of it but when that stuff starts to chip away that's what makes a great Willy Loman that's what makes a great Blanche that what that's what makes a great mother in Glass Menagerie you're a tailor pain is one of the things that an actor should pay a lot of attention to the great parts are loaded with it it doesn't mean you imbue yourself and wallow in it it means you recognize it and do what courageous people do a characters do is to fight it deny it have it King Lear I mean my god if you look at the great roles and how many of you don't go there because who wants to oh I don't know we couple not going to go what I'm saying is all of your life experience as you get older the more of it you can put into your work the better off you are by the same token you can also say you know I'm only going to paint with black and white this time this doesn't need all of that I don't have to do that I cut economical and simplicity will serve this character well I only need a few colors I don't need the whole rainbow as to be able to make that choice comes with a age as well this character doesn't need to be that complicated I don't have to have all of those layers of stuff I only need a couple this is a this is going to be a lot of fun but what I'm saying is the reason I still like it is because it's still an adventure and it always should be it's if I have a write a book it's going to be called acting can be fun and it's great to worry it when you first get it and so how am I going to do hey boy God oh and then you find your way and then make choices and trust those choices and go with it and trust your instrument it is an instrument most of the training that I did and most of the training I taught was about getting the instrument to be in instruments I believe an actor should be able to pick up any P any piece of material and act it the way a good musician picks up a piece of music and plays it the way a dancer hears music and dances and one of the things that I used to train actors with and about was getting the voice the body and the emotions together because a lot of actors have splits the voice leads the body follows the body needs a voice follows you look good splits in a well-trained instrument impulse everything happens at what's been now haha all happens and and that's not a lot of actors have that going for them I'm always amazed at opera singers I mean God what they have to do they have to learn a libretto they have to learn to sing over an orchestra act and hip notes that are gargantuan in a foreign language it's like my god is that hard only certain people can do it well and dancers I got they defy gravity they had to wake up early in the morning go to the bars stretch at work and hurt turnout ow they kill themselves discipline discipline defy gravity leap off stage into a wall there's a hard and a short life actors if they took their work as seriously as those two other people I just mentioned be better off it's not about walking and talking soap operas are why of a simplistic it's because the good guys play good guys or bad guys play bad guys good guys never really know they're good guys because they have a lot of bad things I've done and bad guys never think they're bad guys because they think they're good guys Hitler you know Hitler no more mr. nice guy what I'm saying is it fleshing out a human being is is bringing as many elements into that character that will define it and tell that story is is what your job is as an actor and it's great job it's a great job and it's hard to get that job and it's very competitive and there's so many people out there and there are a lot of lousy actors who are working because a lot of the casting directors are lousy casting directors and don't know good actors when they see it and that's what you're up against I know it but that shouldn't stop you and it shouldn't depress you a very small percentage of a large union are working every week very few some work continually and out of that other pool of thousands and thousands a handful of you on any given week will get a decent job you have to kick ass to get the job I get to kick ass when you get the job and yeah hopefully hope it gets together and shows you off in some way that will help you get the next job and it's hard you got to be nuts to want to do it but you got to want to do it and you got a look you got to love it because it's great Thank You Christy a Bart my question is basically you've been lucky enough or talented enough to work in all the different mediums the performance in all the theatres on the stage in TV and movies is there anyone that your favorite or do you have pros and cons on each of them that you would share with us no thing all they're all different and yet they all insist on pretty much the same stuff truth theater which is where I started is you know you've heard it before but there's an excitement you know there's a is that almost kinesthetic you feel an audience you feel them breathing you sense them they respond it's a there's something miraculous about being on a stage and a good play and I've described this before because when something is going on up there you have a thousand strangers in the theater everyone's experienced the same thing at the same moment this factor this fear this now it's you've got a thousand strangers in a dark room all virtually experience the same thing at the same moment what something right is going on up there back and forth try and get ten people your best friends in your living room and get them to agree on anything very hard I mean you have great both emotional and cerebral and all kinds of differences if you're sitting and talking to ten people I'm going to get get them getting them all to agree it's not an easy thing on on lots of levels the magic of the theater is that when that happens the old yogi you know you can hear a cough drop but it's quiet and that's magical and you can feel that voice bouncing off and through all those bodies and okay the theater gives you that fill does it in a different way you have to begin to realize when you do film that the camera is that and yet it's only one person you have to be comfortable and completely relaxed in a situation that's very strange but very very intimate that camera because of its proximity can read your thoughts and feelings it recognizes the truth which means there's a level of truth that's needed to create a powerful and good performance and you have to do with several times in a row sometimes ten times in a row from different angles big emotional see where you have to start and a place and end in another place with all kinds of stuff going on go back to that place dry off the tears and take the trip again newly I used to say that acting is if I tell you a joke it's good and you laugh that's great now I tell you the joke again if you can laugh and take that trip again you don't need training you don't need anything that's what acting is hearing the same joke again and again and touching your visibility and hearing it as as if not two things happen that for what that one is the result you know you have to laugh the joke isn't funny anymore how do you make it funny again how do you take that trip that obligation you know the punchline and you know you have to laugh both of those are killers how do you do it where you bingo again justice if you the director says I want you to explode emotionally I want the tears to come flying out of your eyes like Jess wow you did you want me to do that huh huh five times in the master five times in the two shot five times in the over-the-shoulder where you won't even see the tears at five times in the close-up and then we'll do a couple of chokers man okay [Laughter] Larry Strauss mr. Landau yes not only that I see majestic my question is about majestic they met you at a bank a few months ago and mentioned it there you were very kind and talking what you must have said something nice you and even imbued your character there with such dignity I'm wondering if you went a specific place to get yourself to believe Oh to want us to believe that Jim Carrey was in fact your son when we do damn well he was it that's right it was imperative that my character believe it so that you could there is a problem with the script and I was somewhat aware of it if the picture had started with the accident a lot of you haven't seen it but I'll speak specifically the audience would have learned along with Jim Carrey that he wasn't my son as the picture was released the audience is way ahead of everybody in other words the audience is waiting for the other shoe to drop for an hour I was very aware of the importance of this character Harry believing it so much so that the entire town would believe it but that the audience would actually go along with me knowing full well that he isn't now that's a Herculean job it's impossible actually because you are as an audience saying uh-oh Harry is going to be disappointed and yet I felt like the character needed to have such otherwise the picture would have you would have forget about it Tommy literally forget about it the fact that it could hold you at all is the fact that there was such a need for this character emotionally to believe that Jim Carrey or Luke was his son one of the flaws in the picture unfortunately is that the audience is way ahead probably would have been more interesting if and again if the audience didn't know who he was and would find out excuse me along with Harry and the towns folks and and the wonderful girlfriend but you should see the movie because it it's interesting on the level and I'm talking about it might have been received somewhat differently had it not started the way it did but it made my job harder in a way and yet I wanted you to connect emotionally with this guy we could war because of his need to believe in his the return of a sanam died it's basically what the picture hangs on in a certain sense and I was very aware of that responsibility but I I can't embrace that responsibility and I did the dignity you talk about I mean I I mean I again looking at it objectively I think you know it's there's a Capra ask aspect to this movie and it smacks of a lot of films that were made in the 40s 50s usually in the during that period the major studios had used wonderful character actors that were in the contract many of whom would have played that guy with James Stewart and when I read the script I saw that and I said this is this is an amalgam of all of those great old character guys and it's again I'm a Brooklyn Jewish guy and I was very aware that this guy has to be a Midwestern or wherever wasp character he has to be Jim Carrey's dad I could never beat you carries that life actually and yet Jim kept saying you remind me so much of my father and Jill and I I mean I had he felt like my son I don't have a son I have two daughters but I connected in a lot of ways with Jim and we had fun doing it we had a good time at end there is a dignity to the this character and there is a huge desire and belief that's above it's what makes the entire town believe and ultimately Jim Carrey his character to believe so it's really like a battering ram of a certain kind and yet it has to be done with dignity I can't sit in it either way but it was an interesting challenge actually and not an easy one the trick is always to make something look seamless but I think I was aware of problems and yet I understood was it to ative li what was needed from the get-go thank you Steve panelist mr. Landau um I started to ask your Wie career if you could tell one thing to a lesser experienced actors pitfalls they fell into things they did they shouldn't have done things that through your experience you really should have do if you could say one or two things what would you tell them what are you seeing is the biggest pitfall the most common one I guess is my question that you've seen over the years and lesser experienced actors on a sad I'm a big believer taking one step at a time in life work staying in the moment and life's at work you know believing your own publicity for your own reviews deadly thinking you know it's important that you continue to think yourself as a journeyman actor as a working actor never get past that no matter how it's very easy for young kids who are going to suddenly bingo they get a series bingo it hits bingo they're on the cover of every magazine and not easy a lot of stuff is coming their way very fast and iPhones noticed over the over the years temperament never comes out of security temper tantrums never come out of security come out of insecurity people who are maybe afraid of that day's work and suddenly throw all kinds of stuff this way in that way because they're not ready for that and but they're in a place expectation I go back to that word again you know each day you have work to do and don't get ahead of yourself deal with it find a way to do it it's not about being comfortable either it's about licking it you know a lot of times you see actors actors will come on and they'll rewrite something because they had a problem with it I'm not a big believer in that and I've worked on some awfully written television scripts and I mean but I I think it's a challenge for me to say the words as written and make it work a real challenge when I was working with woody in crimes and misdemeanors I never changed a word ever I never added a bhoot of moon and what he kept saying that was a hot seat and I'd say yeah he said you could seem to have a problem with it well I said you know it's not cuz I write in a very literary way you know it's not real talk I said I know he said but it's like water off of a duck for you I said not really I had to work my ass off to it it you know he said it's not doesn't you know I write it's not real talk I said I know he said but you didn't change anything I said why would I it's good writing he said I didn't ask you to change anything I said why would you well sometimes he says you know when a scene isn't working I tell you know how how would you say it or what if he's you know but and about the third or fourth time he said that to me and I said to him I said you know why would I rewrite a Woody Allen script I said if this was 1,600 and I was at the Globe Theatre I'd say and Willie was out there would say hey Bill bill Shakespeare you know this to be or not to be speech I think it sucks would you mind if I play around with a little bit whatever makes me comfortable thanks thanks should I or shouldn't I [Applause] anyway it's not about being comfortable it's not about being comfortable it's about finding a way to do it that's the best way to do it not the easiest way of the most comfortable way to do it and the willingness to fall on your face you know if you try to be bad it's hard to be bad if you take chances and really believe in that link it's hard to be bad if you try to be good it's easy to be bad be surprised you know I mean actors arrogance a certain kind of audacity and Trust trust me okay if you don't think you were good acting don't do it that's you know that's sort of honesty with yourself so you know I really don't think I'm really that good well hey it's hard enough if you think you're great no I mean that so be honest and if you think you're talented and maybe not working well at the moment take a class I'm not a big believer in coal reading classes I'm not a big believer in casting directors holding coal reading classes I don't believe in that a whole lot I don't believe in instant you know Bandini believe it and really developing your instrument and learning your craft and being able to get there fast I mean I'm a method actor I'd you know I'm a product of the Lee Strasberg zine but I don't need more than fifteen to twenty seconds to get anywhere it's all about the exercise of this and that or all designed not to bother people with the fact that I'm a method actor no no one needs to know that I am a system activist anasazi never use or method it's badly translated I'm a system actors stanislavski's system and it will of no I mean you know you want this you want that okay give me a second okay let's go get there get there and all of the training is about you know if I wasn't a constant piano player and I was playing well let's say Bach because of the intricacy and I was having trouble with a section I would and I said every time I started getting to that section I would say whoops well here goes I would work my ass off on that section so that I didn't have that problem anymore that's what scales are for that's what this are for that's what that's for it's not that's when people say sense-memory exercise or effective memory exercise these kind of exercises physical exercise animal exercise all of that is designed to get you your instrument to become quick facile available willing to respond and that's what it's about it's not about mystery it's about things that allow your senses again you know I mean things we see hear touch taste and smell are the things that without that we'd be of lava protoplasm and there's nobody on the other end of the telephone yeah hello yeah excuse me when no kidding excuse me yeah but I can't do it right now no I'm I'm actually I promise I will yeah in about an hour about an hour yeah I can't talk right now I'm actually there's a lot of people here and I yeah like I promise I will yes I'll explain later okay fine I'm so sorry that's what acting is about this nothing is real the realities don't exist you're at an air conditioned stage or theater and Tennessee Williams tells us 125 degrees in New Orleans now that's not hot let's get on with it no that's like that's sensuality that that heat the sweat dripping down arms and bodies and stuff exactly it's a sensuality / sexuality that heat is a character in the play you can't do Williams without it it permeates everything it ain't hot but you have to believe it is I'm function as if it is and behave in the way that it is or else you can't do two part you can't do two part [Applause] this has been such an interesting evening because not only do we to learn more about you and your career but we got a real sense of the pragmatic principles and fundamentals of of acting that we don't often get to hear in these evenings and sometimes it just becomes a recitation of someone's career and we got to see tonight and use such a commitment and such an artist and the artists approach and such a teacher and it was great to have you here this evening I hope you'll come back and see us again I'm so [Applause] you [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 11,523

Rating: 4.9225807 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Martin Landau, Conversations, Todd Amorde

Id: aqqWbmo1acg

Length: 118min 54sec (7134 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2017