OLIVER REED - RUSSELL HARTY SHOW - 6 NOVEMBER 1978 - LONDON WEEKEND TELEVISION

gentleman with a different claim to fame in fact several different claims to fame his name is never out of the gossip columns for long whether it's for landing himself in hospital after getting stabbed in a sword fight or getting whiskey poured over his head by Shelly Winters or joining in a drinking contest as he did on his latest film with co-star Lee Marvin a couple of weeks ago he lost a bet and had to shave off all his hair ladies and gentlemen the Bold the bald Oliver Reed [Applause] that's a problem with saying people are Bal and then they walk on and they're very hairy the Press are always behind Russell the Press are always behind Oliver as well aren't they well they're a little bit behind this happened about two weeks ago but I'm quite a viral fellow and so it grew fairly quickly so have I heard does Hamlet says and do in part believe oh I remember I did a program a few years ago you I was looking at your book the other day and you used a long word I don't know what did what did he say I use a lot of long words don't use them I'm going to use short ones tonight but how did you how did you come to lose this what bet was it so uh I use the Expression Mass which is the female of mass we were talking about the massage massage and um and a friend of mine said that it was Mass Mass instead of mass and I said it was massuse and so he said I tell you what if you're wrong you shave off your hair and if I am wrong I'll shave off mine so I said fair enough he looked very confident I went straight up to the barbat had mine shaved off and and I came down bald as a badger and we were in the Caribbean at the time and the sun was very hot blisters grew and I thought I don't know how to um I don't know how to get a correction on this and so we the only person that we could ask because nobody could afford to stay in the hotel except a very rich Norwegian and so we person that's right the rich Norwegian and so we went up to the rich Norwegian we said excuse me you know the female version of mass is it masus or mass and he said mass and so that was it but I have subsequently been written to by several College professors that says that there are two readings of the situation but anyway that's and the barnet's back and you know it's as good as gold if it's not an impertinent question what were you doing discussing Masters right the next question is I in the Caribbean of all places I would have thought you'd have been hot enough as you swimming I was running up and down the beach I was I was on holiday there with um I came over there to watch the um Pakistani West Indian game cricket well now your latest film which if we may talk of and thereby dispose of I don't mean rudely but I mean placed neatly to one side it's called the Great Scout and cat house Thursday now who where what briefly what does that title mean because it is a bit of a mouthful it means uh that Lee Marvin plays the Great Scout um when he can see and um cat house Thursday is played by kin and uh she plays a little girl who um I use on Thursdays at the local brothel well we can we look at a little scene which I think takes place outside the local brothel uh let's have a look at the Great Scout and cat house C which may not seem any different from any day ordinary day in the life of Oliver Reed and it's cold and you're taking us out in the middle of the night without clothes on C yes I a private interrupting ours believe [Applause] it hey hey what you crazy IND there [Applause] [Music] way to a fate worse than death no but I've got um I've had several offers for um lighter commercials since then and we Del so soon amongst others I mean there you are very hairy in fact you hardly at the beginning of that clip you're barely recognizable as you yeah when you go away to make films um do you how do you en ensure the fact that you have a good time I mean you seem to have a good time on locations I don't know whe whether you do or whether you don't but how do you ensure that you have a good time um I mean as well as work do you know what I mean yes I do um I ensure that I know most of my lines before I start the film and I ensure that um that when in choosing the film that I do and in choosing the company of the people who are in the films I I think that you know there should be a mar Mar between between enjoying oneself and working hard I believe that they both marry into each other um and to work with Marvin Marvin was an actor along with George C Scott and Brando that I admired very much had never had the opportunity to work with before um and therefore it was an opportunity that I wasn't going to miss miss and I I played a half breed Indian it doesn't show itself here but I played prayed to a pis again played a half half breed Indian believe they'll believe they'll believe me in the local pub they will they will how but the fascinating thing about the names that you you so elegantly dropped there like Marvin and brown well you had to get that in of course you do and you did elegantly now how do but how do do you know whether they're going to get on with you or you with them has the director to take uh full responsibility for a true marriage in that kind of situation I don't know I was um some costumes were made um for me in this part by a costuming company in England and they got lost on on on the airplane and they had to be made down at um in in Los Angeles and on the drive back um on the way to the to the costumer the producer and the director of the film were driving me and they said um Oliver would like to tell you that Lee Marvin has a reputation of being a little bit um you know and so we ask you if you would be so kind as not to um with him because otherwise it's going to be and I said oh certainly and um so I met I met Marvin at Los Angeles airport who was unconscious on a bench at 5:00 in the morning and the secretary came of the film this is a long story the secretary of the film company came along and she said can I have your bags Mr Marvin I had kitted myself out to impress the Americans that I was an Englishman and I got a lot of doggy Haywood suits and I was going down there and I had about five cases and Marvin came out with a satchel and the secretary said one piece of baggage Mr Marvin and he said it's only one film sweetheart we then sat on the plane all all the way down to Durango and neither of us drank at all and we were drinking coffee and I was sitting there looking like a bank manager and he was sitting there looking like a refugee we eventually arrived in Durango which some people would name as one of the orifices of the earth and U we looked at each other for 10 minutes he said a large vodka and I said a large vodka and that was the beginning of our relationship and besides having a fantastic time with him um it was also a great experience working with him this a fairly straight interview we got to see yes a cigarette yeah I think I have will you wait when I yes I do have one you you want just one are you nervous that you should require a cigarette Yeah you mentioned pubs briefly uh in about a minute or two ago do you um do you still cleave to the ambition that you once expressed to to own a pub finally to end off in one I believe I I I learned to act through through pubs uh I came out of I learned to act in the Army as well I came out of the army and nobody would employ me and I used to take my phot photographs around which for the audience are 10 by8 photographs and I used to go around and nobody would employ me and I'd put them in at the agent offices and uh and then I thought well this is hopeless because I can't carry photographs around London all my life so I'm going to get a pub If Ever I get the money and now I have begun you know to earn some money I think that I've got to be honest to myself in one day buy a pub because let's face it I know a lot of good publicans that make very good actors it may not be the same made though I mean if if it's if people sort of get into their Jags and say let's all go and see Oliver Reed's pob that may not cause it to be the home of natural philosophers which you I think quite admire I mean no I won't be there I won't be there no but it will still have some some of your cudos attached to it I won't be there that would be the surprise and in my local pub I always hide up the chimney and um and especially when it's it's burning and because I know where the hams used to be and I and I hide up the chimney for 25 minutes and I got to do this and then I hear the door open and shut and I know some strangers have come into the pub because you know I know the regulars and they always come falling in right and I hear as I'm fa the Christmas I'm fa the Christmas and I've been stuck up here since New Year's Eve look and then I jump down the chimney Into the Fire Fall onto the floor everybody gets covered in in in soot yes and they demand for their money their money back because their their beer is full of water and another large H appears in the in the yeah and that's and that's why really I I think that pubs are places of entertainment and I believe in the way that our society is beginning to structure itself at at the present moment probably people still go to the pub to be entertained whether it's by a singer or whether it's by the the old folks telling stories I believe very much in the cudos as a word I don't of of the pub is an entertaining or is an entertainment center of our society would you allow women into your Pub I mean are they no no I'd have separate bars for men and the women would be allowed in the other bars what what what is the feud if you're allowed to talk about it that existed between you and raakel Welsh there was no Feud at all in actual fact I got in a in a punch up in Romania defending rakel Welsh from what um from um some people who assumed that they could dance with her when she didn't want to dance with them I mean the Press like to write stories about me simply because they think it's you know it's politically um it's poit they're politically inclined to do so because it makes good copy if I if I argue with rer well you don't mind that anymore do you I mean are you I mean Sur you're through all that kind of but yeah but the funny thing is the funny thing is Russell we went down there and they had what they call a junket where a whole load of press people come down and I refused to see them I just went and hid because I was doing a complicated sword fight and I didn't want to talk to people I was trying to remember my moves I should make as a as as a swordsman um but they got onto rackel and they they tried to incite a kind of violence between us in actual fact um there is absolutely none at all and Reco well sh I get on very well of course you do actors are often considered to be dumb people who don't think a lot and who occasionally look beautiful and and don't mouth or voice opinions uh the country you would not claim to be in a very happy State I mean do you have opinions of how you would right as or wrong as or do you think we ought to be slithering as we are or do you are are you supremely indifferent to Our Fate as human beings no as a country I have very uh do you have opinions about it of course I have opinions I have very hard opinions I don't believe I always say um you know we're we're basically an island country we're pirates for the structure of our society to change whereby their opinions determine that we are no longer Pirates we should no longer have a pride in individuality um the fact that we should no longer um go out and fight and it really is come on we've got no opportunity now have we in the old days it used to be pirate ships and it used to be daggers and swords and then we' go off and do it Society will not warrant anymore that they are going to allow um England to do that they are no longer going to allow any country hold on why would we want why would we want to go out and be Pirates and baners I think that deep down I think deep down we lament the fact that we are no longer allowed to do it I'm not saying that we should perpetrate um the old attitude of pirates I think what we lament is the fact that the Pirates used to come back sometimes and we used to dance in the pubs and we used to go back and we used to laugh I understand I understand um I understand that that's that's inevitable that things that that that that change but but but but in the course but in the course of for instance the the British Cinema industry I I find it I find it difficult to be able to understand that most of our bucko boys and most of our talent and most of our good captains and most of our good Sailors and most of our good Gunners have now gone abroad in order to find their Bounty because there's a difference between Bounty and Privateer I believe that our country is beginning to uh uh forget the fact that we have captains and kings and I I am sorrowful I would like now some of the talent that has left England in terms of musicians and writers and economists and scientists and doctors to come back and be afforded the opportunity of coming back for their for their due rewards I don't believe that they can get their rewards by being taxed out of existence I believe that Michael Kane and I are about the two top actors I mean I'm not saying that we're the better actors but the luckier actors at the time that that are still remaining I'm not sure how long we're going to be able to be allowed to remain in this country with the tax system such as as it is at the moment are you happy are you happy enough to support a welfare state of course I am of course I am I have supported a welfare state throughout my life all I am saying is that I do not wish to be driven out of this country I cannot determine that if things get harder and harder that I am going to be able to afford to either run my home or to keep myself in this country in a manner that I think befits me and I'm supposed to be larger than life if you want me to become am I allowed to finish if you want me to become like you know Mr Jones other actor fine fine I will become him I will be unhappy in that state and being unhappy in that state I'm allowed to make objection and I'm allowed to say that if it continues then I of all the people who love my country so dearly and I'm bound uh I'm bound to take the course of other people who are persecuted by the tax system and leave that is not what I want I believe that a national film organization Society I believe there should be a minister of films whereby I mean Leland asking for a great deal of money in order to support Leland cars I believe that it therefore be purposeful that a great deal of money is expended through the taxpayer into a national film company whereby half the profets go back into the coffers again and a a national film company and I am perfectly prepared to work for half my rate and I know that a lot of musicians because I go to uh Los Angeles quite quite a deal and I I see some of the refugees and if given the top whack of 50% and that's what they pay before they start being allowed an opportunity to digress or or to show their talents everybody would come back why don't you Channel some of this energy that you're putting into this big political speech and get out on onto a platform and Shout about it I'm on the Russell hary show that's quite a good platform to me I mean it I mean it if I seem like a fool sometimes that's in order the in order that I I am an I'm an Entertainer but as an entity within the structure of the film unit I am an actor and I happen to know that um 10 years ago we were in the blue and everything was great and now our talent sadly is leaving because the Americans have had to withdraw their money and a lot of the big American Producers and a lot of the people who were involved in the structuring of films were forced to leave the country because they were chased out because they had to pay British tax and British tax is too much much too much at the moment in order that a film company can survive because we have to go into competition with the American market and with the Italian and the Japanese Market well can I just say to you that I I I I've kept quiet for five minutes and I'm impressed by the torrent of of uh and the volume of what you've had to say and it's it's a refreshing change to see the other side of the bombastic pushy Mighty Oliver Reed thank you for refreshing us all in that way Oliver Reed

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Length: 18min 25sec (1105 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2024