Giant Rock Hudson Interview

[Music] practice to start off before you do up at the glass now do you want me to put the glass glass now put the glass down okay that's very good thank you well done before you guys work together and I'm gonna ask you about when you first met and how it came about that were you familiar with George Stevens films well absolutely I had seen most of the films without being aware of which director directed the film's in other words as a kid back in Chicago who cares who directed it and who was the sound man and who was the cameraman etc etc etc as long as it started so and so and so and so I mean that's all I cared about oh yes it's Cary Grant or it's Katharine Hepburn or it's what-have-you so although I had heard his name I had heard of David Selznick I didn't as a young teenager as a middle-aged middled 15 16 year old I didn't pay too much attention to those people except that I was aware of their names after I became an actor then of course I course did know George's names as everybody else isn't even and cameramen and Solomon too but I saw most of the films being a big movie fan as a kid and when when the opportunity came for you to work with him what was your no well scrape me off for the ceiling I mean this thrill what sort of a lifetime for me um because he had made so many excellent perfect films I think that to work with him get a chance to work with him was really something for me plus the role itself was pretty good rolls I have and and also I and I don't remember whether this was before I'd met him or after I can't sort that out in my mind because it was only last week you see but I asked a lot of people who had worked with him what's it like to work with him and they all to one said just make yourself a piece of putty put yourself in his hands and he'll do it all and I thought to myself oh well yeah but I mean come on and actor prepares he's most kind of you know nobody's gonna do and so forth and so on and so I of course was prepared I don't mean by prepared not only Lord knowing lines but get an idea a general idea of what I wanted to do and it was all so easy with him and so effortless the script was so well written that I didn't really have to sit down and learn lines for example I've just ingested them and they just came out and the scenes just sort of flowed out we had lunch someplace and George had a way of looking at you and looking right through you and you'd better tell the truth that's it he'd look well of course I got trying to be casual about all this and failing constantly and I was practically saluting you know mr. Stevens is very nice too to meet you and of course after an hour per cell and a drink or two I hope hmm I was calling him George well now George what do you think about this and he'd look at me and I knew just by calling him George I had made a mistake except I didn't except I did just he kept me always on off balance never try but he he had to control as a director control is not a good word yet it is control and make me think it's my idea he would go to great pains to go all the way around over this way and that way to make me think it's my idea so that I would come up to him and say George I have a good idea for this scene he'd say what's that Rock and I'd tell him say yeah that's a good idea and it was his all along and he caught me every time every time but it was really true that that what everybody said put make yourself a piece of putty and put yourself in his hands and rely on him and that was partly I think how a way of his to make the great films that he and get the marvelous performances that he got out of people because they just simply let it out tell me how old you were when you did giant and a little bit about the thing of a young man playing the part that had to go well I was at sieved 1955 I was twenty-nine I think Sunday night yeah and I had to be in the movie I had to be a young in the young 20s 23 24 25 and then middle-aged I guess 45 to 50 and then older age I guess 65 to 70 a bar incidentally I don't know if I had told you this a couple of years ago I was in Chicago and giant was on being run on television late at night night he's come back from the theater and I don't like to watch films on television particularly those that I am involved with but I was curious and so I knew when I would be the 45 to 50 year old age what about what time I turned it in to look and I'd looked at myself and ran to the mirror and looked in the mirror and it was exactly the same including where the greys were most of the gray is to a tee it was exactly so now I know that wouldn't look like when I'm 70 no he loved yes he had great deep humor as I remember he never liked jokes particularly he loved to play gags on people he was a devil I never saw him a break up laughing he would be amused he would smile but his humor was for example this might take a little while to tell how about and tell it fast I copied his walk when I was playing the old part which was a kind of a portly walk we never discussed it and there was a scene where I had to walk from one room into the bedroom around a bed sit down and get on the phone angry mad so I had to walk fast well I didn't know how it this had fast so I thought I'd be clever I said George would you do me a favor would you walk around this bed sit down I want to see something he does sure and the first time it came and he came in like so I'm tippy-toe to turn around the van when he started me laughing now I have on a rubber face with appliances and you know the whole thing I said no come on I really always said I'm very sorry and the next time he came in and did a pole vault right over the bed and landed in the spot and got on the phone says I'm torn rock well of course I was laughing so hard now that all the makeup had cracked and broke it off and it's now 3:00 in the afternoon the makeup man became irate because it was a long make a three-hour makeup in the morning and he read in the riot act and George said you're absolutely right Frank Frank I'm very sorry that's a wrap I went through the afternoon because it would have taken three hours to even start all over again but I mean when he when he would do things like that he was funny even funny funny man but resolved very deep humor as I say he never liked any he was never done a surface man at all I asked at one time you know and every time I asked him a question it always came out stupid I said we were flying to Texas together and I said do you read much George making conversation and it gave me that look and he said yes Rob I read everything hmm oh I see well back out the window I went too much coming up sounds strange to hear his voice yeah what this may be just to ask that it does if you've been hearing him talk what you had to characterize and what kind of a man was he solid marble a heavy weight thorough exhaust every avenue was giant hard work no no I don't want to say it was easy and yet it was easy he made it easy how about on him was you recall whether it was tough on him or whether it was tough on him he would never let anybody know it but ok I'll tell you I I loved him I followed him around like a puppy I would worship that man and so I saw perhaps a little more than but maybe other people did even on the set or in the cast but he had a couple of ulcer attacks and I guess there were some beauts tried never to let anybody know respired a lot kept himself all bundled up in the heat of West Texas in the summer I never understood that when Jimmy Dean died we got word we were all in the projection room watching dailies somebody came blubbering in say Jimmy just got killed and George left and I followed him and we walked down through the South stages through Warner Brothers lot and I lost him I couldn't find him I don't know where he went why where he was going except to guess that he just wanted to be by himself for a while or for how long it was their own I give up left foot back everybody had left the projection gone home I went home the next day he was not a particularly kind man he and Elizabeth had a few words together she was upset and he was being I thought at the time cruel he wasn't he was trying to get her to stop thinking about it therefore he was trying to crack the whip to go and don't indulge yourself and don't think about it and go for it and so it didn't work it's not with Elizabeth he had a I remember he was like a father to you or I mean you guys were really help yeah Jimmy was a little well I don't think so of course George in his dealing with everybody in the cast and in his direction never was a it was very private about it he would take Jimmy aside to go for a long walks to discuss a scene or he would take me over and to discuss something to talk about the general my general frame of mind because he made sure that my mind was was Bick Benedict and as long as he was sure that my mind was there was right um he let me go that's why I'll never understand that one line that he gave me because he never gave me much a direction in terms of you know when you pick up the glass put it over there before you say the word go whatever the direction was but it was early on in shooting and we were shooting a barbecue secret us out in West Texas and the scene was where I was introducing my new wife Elizabeth Taylor to my friends the Texas ranchers and I was going on about bah-bah-bah mrs. so-and-so and Santa thank you ma'am I need a looked at me he said Rach I've got a long way to go just an awful long way to go and walked away and I still have no idea what he meant I see I don't know if you met a shooting schedule or and I don't know and I was too embarrassed to say I don't know what you're talking about George what are you making tough in that it we shot it for a week a fight I mean I used to come home at night of my arms like this thing I gotta fall off any minute you know why do you think you shot so many well George as you know shot an awful lot of film a lot of angles I think that I mean several people have said he shot so much film for so many angles because he didn't know what he wanted I never thought that I always thought that if he's going to be a sculptor he'd better have enough clay was wish to make the bust you know what was his office like I mean you talked abut but he talked to Susan about you go but they're creating an atmosphere Texas your fellows step up on the wall well build wooden boards yes is full of Texas full of Texas Oliver pictures of rodeos and photographs of Texans from different styles of clothes and anything you can mention that had to do with the Southwest really not system us at Texas but the arid Southwest was all over every bulletin boards all over the office split in half going up one side and down the other just to get this wonderful feeling of what he was trying to put on tongue he asked you that when you're gonna have to fight as an old man to bridge of some business where you asked him how to how do you fight as an old man yes I did say you know how how does an old man fight I've never seen an old man fight he doesn't last couldn't last very long especially with the younger man especially with a younger man as big as that man was if I remember right he was about six six or six seven big guy well we cheated a bit and made it a nice long good movie fight but I said what about movement what about throwing a punch and all of that and if I remember right I think he said well throwing a punch I don't think an old man is any different than a young man an old man will think the punch out a little bit more a little bit more deliberate young man might be a little faster but if it connects it's going to be the same but he did give me for all of the old age a skin divers weighted belt 50 pounds I think a way so that I had trouble in movement being in particular by getting out of a chariot it really worked to get out of the chair and or sitting down to fall in like a like an elderly person does so I didn't have to play that it was there which was that was a good thing that I had this Union suit on full of cotton which was nice and cool boy was it hot marker for 63 I remember the one that the shot came on the screen the whole audience went oh just were heartbroken when the angel Obregon comes back and of course it was a pivot in the film wasn't it because that led your character who'd been resisting the dam what did you do biggest big yeah well I went to I went to both Elizabeth and I'm Leslie and I went to the funeral to play the lone star flag of Texas give it to his grandfather old polo yeah I remember we were there that day now remember mm-hmm I remember that we shot in a little village I believe called Valentine Texas and several the people were used his atmosphere or extras that would have your local people all elderly people and we went through the service of the funeral and they all sobbed another very well died I don't know you know why they were sobbing probably reminded them of perhaps him a child or a grandchild or perhaps a similar situation but they all also have all of them well you were young when you made that did you have any sense that you think of what he's what George stood for or was that not no no I didn't I only felt that it was I only felt that it was dramatically correct had a hell of a bull on the scene and the hell of a third act ending second act in it do you remember asking him and if you remember this could start with the word comedies about asking him I mean work the word comedies and that you beginning of your answer you asking what's why he didn't yes I suggest that you have made so many brilliant brilliant comedies romantic comedies what have you action comedies why don't you do some more and they gave you that look well right they're just too much trouble and walks away I never he didn't permit me to say what do you mean by that nothing gone that was the end of that discussion he talked a little bit about his knowing the material his and perhaps another point the sense of the real on the set that and then the picture that things had to be real props clothes flowers Constitution stuff by that little bit mm-hmm no I can't actually uh yes everything all of flowers and the wedding scenes thousands of flowers were all there was a whole florist shop over in the side of the soundstage remember to get fresh flowers in front when they started to wilt or get to it you'd bring in fresh flowers let me ask you another question waiting saying when you come back to Mercer ginyan how you know how that emotion I mean that was a I remember to me when I saw the picture I remembered it really in the script was so unexpected when I sensed that thing of you coming in behind there are two things about that scene first of all there was a long shot the scene was a Elizabeth's the younger sister gets married to Rod Taylor and Elizabeth is the maid of honor and we had just had a fight in Texas and she went back with the kids and then I'm too lonely so I come back to get my wife and kids and that's a situation when I walk in the door it's a wedding and so everybody gets caught it caught up in the wedding and the wedding march etc which is very easily cooking you're getting to get caught up in at forward with what why but I remember I had to be in the back of the crowd and to watch what was happening and then see go into another room as darling so I could sneak around in the corner and watch the wedding from the dining room which is a hidden and so for the so on and George said you're not tall enough can you walk on your tiptoes I said yes well walked with my tiptoes and I wasn't told her ended up they build a ramp about eight feet high behind all these people about a 30-foot walk on this ramp I mean I'm six feet four and I'm not tall enough and I had to walk on this ramp behind these people through but the other thing is if you want me to tell about Elizabeth myself I didn't know each other then that was the very beginning of shooting because we had this one house for set for two scene sequences before we won our location so it was at the very beginning very beginning of the film and the night before Elizabeth very nicely had asked my my then my future wife and I to come over to her she and Michael wildest house for dinner I would evening getting acquainted and it's going to be a long time together and so forth so it was very nice very polite of her to do so and we did and we had a wonderful time and it was a very liquid evening and several martinis later suddenly realized it's 3:00 in the morning and we have to get up and go to work and shoot this wedding scene well Elizabeth had to get up I guess at 5:00 5:30 girls don't have it as lucky as guys do I'd get up around 6:30 I shoot something but we both were so dreadfully hungover and we had to shoot this scene this highly emotional scene and not a word to each other but just look at each other just Moony faced and if we shot the scene and deceivers and the hairdresser's and the Wardrobe girls and everybody were over there crying and carrying on the truth is we were just so hungover that we couldn't do anything but just look and and that was it and they thought well that's beautiful acting beautiful acting dreadful a dark day in my life list that come to wrap things up did you ever see the people have observed that for all these qualities that were appealing you ever see Jorge very hard he could even let me just could he be hard and what would you choose your own words to describe that well as I as as I as I did tell you it was hard with Elizabeth I went into the next day after Jimmy died and he was hired a couple of times with Jimmy I didn't hear too much of it because he took they took him away but by his attitude and his the stone enos with Jimmy and the way Jimmy was reacting I knew something had happened where he the two of them had added a bit I know they did I could see them five hundred yards away going like this yes but for a long time well we never heard never heard it that was never never discussed in front of anybody else and what about the mood and the set there does that conjure up anything there's a cycle sense um there was a yes a definite feeling when you walked on the soundstage in particular not so much location a bet George was there to work we all were there to work so the set was quiet so the people could concentrate people could think and usually when you walk on the set of guys are removing the equipments over there talking and carrying on it was all done in a very quiet manner a minimum of dialogue a discussion yes put the light there and scrim there and so forth and so on but not general hubbub that's usually here and I remember the one set was on a big soundstage and all the dressing rooms were way at one end and those of us who were not in the scene we're in our various dressing rooms or any of the dressing rooms and talking and carrying on and they'd hard quiet the assistant director came around said quiet folks were gonna roll the camera well we were quiet but we were quite a ways away from the set so he'd be talking and I happened to look out the window and they had rolled a scene and there's George walking by to make sure that we all shut up and boy did we climb up all of us and he went back to the set now we were quiet I mean I've never had assistant directly to yell quiet has he always felt that you get an actor just in the right mood for scene and then some guy says quiet well he'd I don't remember that so much but I do remember the music he had a little thing a little box by the side of his chair and a man over there playing the two types of mood music and cutting upon the scene he would turn up that volume he'd roll the camera they'd say camera rolling any chance of fire and just let that music play for a while set the mood turn the volume down and say action and we just do it one take print

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Id: 2kACNLADaWs

Length: 32min 37sec (1957 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 22 2019