Glenn Close & Sam Elliott- Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

[Music] I'm so thrilled to be talking to you and I really mean that so what I would like to actually thank you so how did you how did you end up or what brought you to Stars born yeah I think a long road you know I think the 50-year road that brought me to it you know I mean I'd never met Bradley Cooper before um I was in the middle of a job we had reps telling us that we should get together and rally wanted to meet with me and we could never come together but I ended up going to his home and sat with him for a couple of hours and during that time he played the tape for me of which he'd been working with a voice coach whose name I've totally forgotten I'm sorry to say but he'd been working with him for a couple of months and he says this was probably gonna sound a little strange to you but I want you to hear something and he turned this thing on and it sounded very much like me working with his voice coach so he had committed to my voice Wow before I was set for the part which was kind of strange so he had always thought of you as we really just during that two hours talked about family we talked about our moms and I talked about his vision for the film and when we talked about the brother relationship and that's really what most of they're all hinged on yeah it was you know obesity I remember Bradley telling me in the driveway if you trust me you'll be glad you did it because we don't know it we neither one of us really knew what bobby's was gonna be certainly you know was an integral part in an important part but not a big part I remember Bradley specifically and we've talked a lot of about it in q and A's since then and if I would trust him that I'd be happy I did it and he was right it was the right thing to do the thing that I that I was very moved by it when I saw it was even the fact that you don't have that many scenes together you get a great sense of history between the two of those characters yeah and and I think it was born in that first encounter yeah the first day in the the fight that we had and I mean it was my first day of work of course you know yeah and it was a tough setup and it went long and the scene was longer and they were right there in close so but it was a lovely way to start and then there was a lot of history to it although there wasn't a lot of time somebody that there was this quote from I think stanislofsky or one of those guys about there are no small parts only small actors I'm never sure what that meant was he's talking about an actor stature I think a great actor can fill out a small part and make it important and resonant in the film which is something that you certainly know you really do thank you one of the images that stays with me is you're the last close up with of your eyes yeah it's very very very moving it's the same story told over and over forever all any artists can offer the world is how they see those 12 notes that's it but what did attracted to it the wife what a charged me to the wife was it was new territory for me I'd never played a character like that before and also I I was attracted by the questions that I had and I did I didn't know if I could answer or not and yeah so I went in kind of liking the the idea but I had to answer the big question that I had to answer for myself was why she didn't just leave and because I was so afraid that every woman who saw it would just say oh come on just leave him but it's much much more complex than that and in answering that question I really felt like I came to a place where I understood her and understood what she's angry about about herself not just about her husband because she's basically being complicit and getting what she wants you know until she can't deal with it anymore but it was it was fascinating it was it was challenging it was changing so I asked her you know I asked for a challenge and I got one but we had I brought Bjorn runga our director the thing that really was wonderful about it is he believed he trusts in close ups and he knew how to light them and he knew where to put the camera so as an actor you didn't have to worry about that you knew that whatever you were doing was getting on film and I don't know if in your experience but certainly in mine I've I've I've had terrible disappointments because I'm filmed because it's either an angle that was just for the light that and that was very freeing because he got it he and he knew and he had a wonderful DP or Francis who worked who they'd work together for a long time and so that was it was it was in that in that situation you could just you didn't have to worry about the camera just could trust it and that's huge you know worried about all the other stuff yeah the owners of this stuff you can control or try to so I thought it was a lie just when you said most women would have thought wonder she just leave him it's like I thought there was such reality and then back and forth and back and forth you wanted her to been together - but he understood - yeah but the last moment in the revelation and in that whole period where you really understand yeah the thing one of the hardest scenes for me I mean there were so things like I'm different about little sure though the one at the where he's dying and he says do you love me yeah and it was so upsetting to me that I stopped - do we have to have that line does he have to ask me that question as he's done time of course she does she's kind of but it's more about him and that's what breaks my heart about that character because he didn't ever think he was worthy of love yeah and and I don't think he because he felt that he wasn't didn't have her gift and and so at the very end he says do you love me is if I'm you know and I don't know if you really because I don't love myself I'm a disappointment to myself no way down underneath that was really that's what I loved about that story was it was grown up and it was realistic and it was complex I can't do it I can't take it I can't take the humiliation of holding your coat and arranging your pills and being shoved aside with all the other wives to talk about some goddamn shopping trip well you well you say to all the the gathering sycophants that your wife it wasn't right I just had a experience with a group of women you're braver than I am Gaga was there I was so she she I could tell she was right next to me I could tell she was really nervous and the orders all right new water yeah but how brave yeah how brave and what was it like I think when you come from then I may be wrong I've already had a great fascination for female singers for some reason and I think it's because I started singing in choral groups when I was a kid like 4 years old and the Congregational Church in Sacramento to be exact my mom took me there to sing in the cherub choir but I'm always through out always been involved in choral groups and always was fascinated about the female singers rather than the men rather than the boys that said I think is it because of their the quality of their voices it is it's a different thing this is a different thing maybe I just liked women better than men period you know I don't know but it's it's just what comes out of a woman singing to me is much more interesting than a man mm-hmm no nothing against you guys I think on some level that being such a huge star worldwide in the music trade that she just had to be how could you go and sing in front of those big audiences all over the world do what she does and as a musician and as a singer and as a performer and not be comfortable in front of that thing I could see how that could happen do you because the camera looks into your soul yeah she has a close-up yeah and in a concert unless there it's pretty big they don't get it closer yeah I mean sometimes now the concerts they can losing it on you but so much for the theory no no when she was but what was it like on the set with her how was incredible yeah you know we went to the table read mm-hmm a bigger table read than had but double the size triple the size if any ever head of the studios at the table read oh that's a little intimidating there was music played and some people bursting out in song meaning gaga I knew her only from afar as I know you only from afar and I've loved you from afar and I've loved her from afar and to see that she was just this kind of regular girl on some level as Stephanie yeah you know never regular by any means probably today but did you call her Stephanie yeah did she ask you to or just that so settled on it yeah that's cool she was Stephanie and it she's a sure stunning to work with yeah there was a moment where we all were at the Greek Theatre I wasn't there for many of the live venues that we did over there at the Greek Theatre and it was all little you know we never did a monster sort of her fan base that follows are so religiously they they were the extras in the crowd and as you know sitting around all day is not a great thing for extras yeah at times and there was a moment late at night we'd been there a long time everybody was kind of Restless we shot through the day and they'd been in the Sun all day and that was kind of turning cold and she just came out of nowhere and sat down to piano started singing and just rocked the place everybody is just pretty much stopped the crew stopped everybody was just you know magical nothing fee to and I know for a fact because I've sat again for Q&A as with both of them that it was that trust issue for her she trusted Bradley implicitly like I did and what Bradley want to get to the truth yeah right you have to trust somebody in order to get to the truth whether it's making films or building a relationship if the Trust isn't there then yeah it complicates it anyway I think we had a better band name we might have made it or maybe it could we look like a father-and-son the thing that's crazy about what what we do in our profession is that we can get on to the set for the first day of a of a movie and you have to trust when you think about it I mean you have to trust you have to trust that it's okay to look into somebody's eyes that they can take that you know and that that and and you can give it back it really is is is is I think it's hard for people to realize that and how fragile you can feel at times and how naked you can feel at times and when you have that it seems like it sounds like that's what Bradley built on his set incredible then you you have a certain I think that he did with everybody it was like he was the muse to everyone no crew and cast Wow everybody just you know I mean he'd put this thing together it was you know it came to him via Eastwood at one time and he felt he was too young to play this over the hill rock star but she was I would trust him at that and then a couple of years later and you know he saw Stephanie somewhere it's I'm a cancer event she was she sang love bein rose and he just thought he said he saw this don't give it a shot it all just fell into place was just tell me so do you think he'll go on to be oh I think he just got yeah I think he's been on that road for a long time from when he was doing television when he first got into the business and then the films and I know they spent lots of time talking to directors and lots of time in the editing room and I don't think he is interested far beyond being an actor Bradley is brilliant you know I mean he's clearly brilliant guy and he's a brilliant filmmaker at the same time got a sweet man he's a nice nice man he's a gentleman he's a good boy no I want to know where he started I mean I know where he started in film I believe with GARP yes but when did you start acting 1974 I graduated from college I had done two national auditions and from that got hired as an understudy and to play small parts in a three play series that the Phoenix Theatre was doing on Broadway in 1974 and the old Helen Hayes theater well so I went that fall to New York and did you dinner in school yes I did I went to William and Mary they had a great theatre department at the time was with a triumvirate of wonderful professors in the head of the of the theater department Howard scammin really understood my seriousness and he was great he came up to me once and he said just remember it's like my senior year and I did a lot of theater and stuff he said just remember you're a big fish in a really little pond so my first thought when I got to New York is oh now I'm a little fish and a really big pond but it really set me up I mean oh yeah sure yeah got to do all kinds of things and the theater I mean for me it was that was my home and I started there for six years before I did my first movie yeah Rahil George Roy hill I feel like you should have been in what you were did you did you ever were you whenever of a movie that George I auditioned for him one time for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid oh my god ended up being that it's fly-on-the-wall I was literally I was a contract player at Fox now where they shot the film Wow addition for a part I didn't get the part kind of Donnelly roads got the part you remember it's maybe he's passed away now remember him well well you've outlived him the last man I did up there Georgian interesting my wife Fitz they were on that film he wasn't necessarily what why did she hit you well we he wasn't he didn't coddle you know like that about it if you needed that game I remember I went up to him and said I hear it's really hard some for some people to make this transition from theater to stage I mean he said yeah yeah did he took good air care of me III thought that my first film it would be either the back of my head or on somebody else's face as I was talking I had no concept yeah I don't want to be thought of as the long-suffering wife you understand that don't you I have to thank you everyone thinks their life if I don't I'll come off like some narcissistic bastard but you are catherine was ignored with the cinematographer I'm gonna tell this story about why he gave her fits why catherine was going with the DP on Butch Cassidy yeah George didn't like I've been together for a long time they had this sequence in which there was like six cameras set up and Conrad but Catherine one of them to operate it and George saw her on this camera or knew that she had been on the camera and he banned her from the set it is too bad and forgive me for when I was doing GARP I was rehearsing that speech where she's talking about how she conceived GARP mm-hmm and I was working on it working on it and I just couldn't get it the rhythms were kind of off in the war you know the unexpected word in the wrong place and I finally went up to George it was a steve test that you had written it and I said can I can I talk to Steve about the speech because I'm having a hard time and maybe he could make a couple of changes and this kind of strange look went over George's face I said yeah yeah you go to Steve talked to Steve about it and I went up to Tessa SH and I said you know I can can you help me a little bit with this you know can we go through it and I'm having a hard time and and Steve looked at me he said that's the ones the one speech that George wrote Oh Robin Wow Robin and GARP he and a Kris River at their wildest they had where they had become so famous Robin had been you know in Mork he was Mork and then he had done one movie had done pop I wrote with all minuting yeah and George got him and I was it was we rehearsed that movie like a play we went up to Columbia Liguori yep with tape on the floor and we had to know our lines and I remember how generous it was actually because a lot of directors don't don't care this much if you he really worked with Robin about the little ticks and things that he had gotten in the habit of doing from playing garb and he'd Benny and he'd be working on a speech he said no accurate he did it do it again oh there it is do it again and and it was such a generous and George told me of a habit to mannerisms that I have that still I would do and not be aware of if it wasn't for him I'm picking them up went you know in my first movie and and and it was wonderful the way he was with Robin he was incredibly patient and generous and Robin he worked hard and he had that great gift of making people laugh when they needed to root you know he never never was a fan the first scene I ever did on film was a tracking shot me and with some groceries and Robin and we passed by Swoosie Kurtz as the prostitute and then we go back and I had I was miked I had never had I I was terror was right up here and then over there were all his fans screaming for him so in the night and I think in the East Village in New York and we started off and I said I can't believe I have to walk and talk and stop in a mark and start again and talk some more and you know it just was it seemed impossible to me and it would rather Robin was so wonderful he I think he sensed my fear but also you know you want to talk louder because he used that you're used to rejecting this day you know yeah so it was an amazing way to begin that he said if I sometimes wonder if I was really saying something since you're like say you know that you really are a lovely man and I you know and it's like the slow shake of the head and then also he said I could do a slow blink sometime that was it yeah but I and I'm aware he broke you of it he did made me aware of it yeah can't say that I so what are you doing do you think of him every time yes I do yeah I thought it was because you've seen people I've seen people I've worked and I've heard this manners I was going like this through his hair and I guess nobody ever told him you know you do that in every part I know and maybe you choose to but maybe you don't want to that's you know and how what was your first film did you did you have you ever done theater oh my god as a student I didn't in high school you know I did musical comedies when I was in grade school and middle school what musical comedy Guys and Dolls that kind of stuff you know so you had it in your realize the drama was always did death takes a holiday when I was a senior in high school how did you get into it I just I went to too many films when I was a kid I had no illusions that I was going to be an actor like a great actor the African actor I wanted to do films I went to a place in Sacramento called the Sequoia theater every Saturday and what's the man what was a film that you remember be having a big God I can remember a couple of Gary Cooper films you know sergeant York seeing that over as a child and you know made me weep every time I saw you know The Creature from the Black Lagoon was very powerful to me in some way some oddball way gonna figure out how that guy could do that how did I swim around in underwater all that time No entertain me did you like Jimmy Stewart yeah I love Jimmy jr. I got to work with Stewart one time yeah right at the end of his career on a show called Hawkins for the defense he was playing a defense attorney the television series the old MGM Studios Sony Studios now how old was he then he was in his eighties I believe I never knew he did a TV series yeah I wasn't in it I was played I was a prosecuting attorney mm-hmm it was like a guest star mm-hmm and I don't think it went very long well it's tiring it was tired in that it was wonderful and then learned you know from him everyone I was very fortunate to work with someone you know we work with Liam Holden you know and then there was a bunch of cowboy guys that I work with Ben Johnson and Smitty Pickens and all those guys and write it there into the time for all those people and just always felt blessed by it so you've done a lot of westerns yeah I kind of got boxed into that there was a time where I thought was I ever gonna be thought of something else other than the cowboy I have a very very big soft place in my heart for westerns because I grew up being Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick lucky my sister Tina was Hopalong but I was lucky and we watched Hopalong Cassidy I loved him because I thought how cool it he's the good guy in a black shirt and a black hat then somebody told me that's black-and-white television and actually he said Nate but I love I mean so deeply American yeah I give my eyeteeth to Buena Western you farewell and up John Road I would love to [Music] you

Channel: Variety

Views: 128,004

Rating: 4.9358072 out of 5

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, Glenn Close, Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born, The Wife

Id: 8vI29HpacXE

Length: 29min 4sec (1744 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 22 2018