Sean Connery - Close Up

what's going on behind my back nothing look no hands when I see him I feel very girly I feel very um I hate it he takes my breath away he's the most physically beautiful man to ever stand in front of a movie camera I mean he's such a specimen of maleness he can look at you in a way and the camera just stops what's your name in unit he grew up in a world shadowed by poverty in the turbulence of war it's right here but out of the back tenements of Edinburgh Scotland was to emerge one of the world's most recognisable talents as Sean Connery probably is the biggest star in the world it's just he's beyond famous and - another thing in Scotland into sort of semi canonization he's more famous than the Pope today at the height of his career Sean Connery is the veteran of nearly 70 films and countless stage and television dramas is rich and varied career has earned him a place of power few actors have ever achieved yet throughout his professional life Connery would be typecast sued harassed and revered but it always came down to the truth of his acting did you I'm heartily ashamed for gettin you killed instead of going home rich like you deserve to on account of me being so bleedin high and bloody Mikey can you forgive me there's a side to Sean Connery that I don't think a lot of us get to see he's a totally no [ __ ] kind of man it's like when the guy phones up and says you've been voted the sexiest man alive well I mean would he switch the reply to that hey he has a sparkle yes he has like Shia has enough to see Osman so to his wonderful I don't think he couldn't make the film he makes if he didn't have them to the Osman now in an exclusive visit with Sean Connery family and friends a rare portrait of the artist born in Edinburgh Scotland in August 1930 the son of poor working-class parents Sean Connery grew up at the height of the depression he was still a young boy when the family's dire financial straits forced him to get a job when I was nine I started to work and I used to walk to work in the dark my mother went to work at the same time and then I used to go straight from there at 6:00 in the morning and go straight to school in 1940 we were moved out of the schools into private houses which was wonderful and I never went back to school I just left and it's only later I how much I cannot regret it how much I had dodged a bullet in school but I got a horse and car and I deliver milk and cold potatoes and all that kind of stuff the end our Film Festival has its headquarters in this building they're opposite lyosha hall and Edinburgh and Big Sean to open it and someone said have you ever been in this building before and he said well I used to deliver the milk here he was the milkman you know with a horse and there and that's just anybody said it seriously it wasn't a joke and that's the side of him that I absolutely love he doesn't differentiate between the milkman and the star I never had that sense of being genuinely poor it was only later and I sort of got away and went to the Navy at 16 that I was really conscious of how different everything was in other places how much better it could be Connery spent three miserable years in the Navy before being discharged on medical grounds he developed ulcers he was back on the street with no job qualifications I was quite skinny a little wiry and I started doing bodybuilding and I went down to London for the Mr Universe contest representing Scotland in the Tolman's class he always says his calves are his weak point and I've studied them and my calves are really Jessie ones were his own beauties so the other guys must have had carefully starlings after placing second in the Mr Universe contest Connery was offered a spot on a professional soccer team but chose instead to pursue acting now in his early 20s his first real acting job was as a member of the male chorus in South Pacific ask me to do something handsprings and handstands and things and one had to look like an American which I suppose I could pass for Connery's role in South Pacific led in turn to early work in the theatre and eventually television I never felt comfortable in that sort of BBC situation because I was not one of the old boy network I didn't go to any of their public schools and I did not particularly appear English but I certainly could have played the hundreds of parts that never came my way Sean has learned through the years how to act in fact I always tease people and say if Sean Connery can learn how to act so can you in 1957 Alvin rake-off was preparing to direct the BBC's live production of Rod Serling's requiem for a heavyweight when he lost his lead star Saturday night I spoke to the lady who subsequently became my wife and then she said have you interviewed Sean Connery and I said Sean Connery oh that while Elaine - Sean and she said the ladies would like it and the rest is history the critics were unanimous in their praise of Sean Connery so was twentieth century-fox which offered him a long-term contract Connery made several films during the late 1950s but few advanced his career then in 1958 Lana Tana chose him as her co-star in the high-profile feature another time another place I liked her and honestly I must say the press made such a thing of the fact that she was 42 and I was 28 as Conroy's Korea heated up he embarked on his first trip to Hollywood Disney Studios had cast him in the fanciful love story Darby O'Gill and the little people he looked like an American you look like a star you know hearing muscles and a shut rolled tight over his muscles and we also in Scotland saw ourselves as little scrawny class regions you know a little headin but I guys shouldn't there's this big guy when he first started out his agent or somebody suggested that he get rid of his accent and you know so he had would have a wider range and he said forget about it you know he says I don't care he says this is the way I talk this is me my hat trick while pursuing Hollywood Connery also worked in the theater we were doing Arthur Miller and Rod Serling and Anna Karenina oh my god Stern this must get you my mouth on your cheek I can't stand even I want you you don't love me not the way I love you all you think about is your child honorees performance in Anna Karenina would propel him into one of the greatest opportunities of his life the producers of the celebrated spy thrillers by novelist Ian Fleming gave him an audition for the coveted role of James Bond the producers had to be saying to themselves we're never gonna find a guy who is as physically fit and sexually powerful and intelligent and tough enough and clever enough and sophisticated enough to bring the character to the screen tell me that I went through I would say 200 actors I liked the way he moved at the time he and Fleming wanted a Cary Grant and but at a million dollars to make the movie I would take care of Cary Grant and they would have no movie nuff Alibaug I need a thousand admire your courage mr. trench Soviet range I admire your luck Mr Bond James Bond from the very beginning from his first moments on screen looks like about to get me he was tremendously well liked by both men women this is one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen on screen this guy holds a close-up you just you can't take your eyes off him you know when you're in a room with Sean women go very wobbly and strange and they you know the glow and make little noises but man do two men go very weird when Sean walks into a room the voices go up a little make men's voices raise Allah who did this of the Doolittle yeah your liver it must have been 62 or something like that and we really wanted to go see like you know Bond film I remember which one it was and of course our parents didn't want to go and we were trying to figure out how to to get there Oh Mr Bond I was thinking why don't you collect me at my part lovely up here in the mountains the directions were easy to follow send if you have rats make sure I didn't get lost porn films were set the audience is loving but I proceeded to prove her wrong I thought it was always polite to knock us before shooting they're so amoral and there was so kind of lascivious and that was really what was wonderful about them I guess you couldn't do those things now but is the same where she's in his bed and he sits down he says you're one of the most beautiful girls have ever seen thank you but I think my mouse is too big no it's the right size for me that is thick these guys could say anything and do anything it's a pure kind of fantasy thing too and you really have to somebody like Ian flowing which is kind of difficult got his dad but there's a lot of the kind of schoolboy stuff in it too James Bond became an international sex symbol transforming Sean Connery into the most famous movie star in the world it was a phenomenon then st. Louis around the same times as the Beatles the difference was that they had four of them to be able to deal with it at the height of Bond mania 32 year-old Sean Connery married his first wife the actress Diane Cilento and they have a son Jason but the international success of James Bond and the constant hounding by the press had become a burden for Connery and his wife everywhere you go you can't be by yourself at all really because there's always someone coming out from behind a tree or and be guys from everywhere and I think that I mean I would I feel it myself I don't like being stared at all the time while they were on location in Japan Connery's producer pleaded with the press on behalf of his star he hasn't even had his lunch right now he had to go back up to his room because he didn't have the privacy of having a little lunch now he's an actor he's here to do a job he's not just a publicity uh I don't I mean you can't believe once it started to take over how difficult it was them to do anything or go anywhere even making a movie they were in the toilet with the cameras and stuff now I can't think of anything less interesting for anybody unless for something rather strange about them to want to see me in whatever state stage of being in the toilet bond James Bond double-oh-seven the Bond films glorified a license to kill and not infrequently a rough manner towards women this drew criticism of bond and Connery himself the women's movement of quite right to be against it because after all it's the easiest thing in the world for a man to overpower a woman it's only to beat her whatever I'm absolutely against it I am anti-violence without question what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this I'd say he loves women is it a bit too disfiguring when she guy's very hardened yeah yeah I've seen this man around women around men he has great respect for people in general I wouldn't be here if I believed otherwise I don't think people really ever stop to think what how great the entrapment is of a certain kind of thing that way in which you just get review if a review saying he's just James Bond that's all I'll ever be endless pressure to stay in your box I knew that I wanted to do many different things as an actor and I had done many different things but I'm certainly not going to take a PR a rap and say look I want to put out now I've now decided to be a serious actor of now decided I'm going to do parts about this and parts about that you do it how do you do I'm Alfred Hitchcock and I would like to tell you about my latest motion picture mommy this is mom coming down the stairs ironically it was the very famous bond that helped Connery to take his initial steps away from that persona but he did so on his own terms when Hitchcock offered him the lead role in Marnie Connery insisted on first reading the script something unheard of when the master director offered you apart this gave him an opportunity to be a totally different character and one that was completely different from the James Bond people the colors stop the colors what colors Marnie's trouble goes deeper than that this was a such a departure because it was a real study of two people which is a wonderful wonderful vehicle for any actor to be able to have a role as in-depth as the roles that Shaun and I played in morning between bounces James Bond Connery managed to explore new roles in several very different films he was growing as an actor and expanding the range of his portrayals wasn't conscious that it was an awareness that I would have to keep getting my feet wet in the directions that my interesting would take me to be able to get some kind of counterbalance to the situation with the bond there's a general cliche that if you know how to do light comedy well which is what the Bond films are all you have to do is be charming Oh forgive me why do you always wear that thing I have a slight inferiority complex what was it oh I didn't feel any of it was just charm whatever that means that the current that that kind of performance comes out of real acting talent the hill directed by Sidney Lumet who would later direct Sean Connery in four other films gained for the actor serious critical praise Connery played an officer unjustly court-martialed yeah you are my feet that was the charge feeling too bad order I know drunk in charge of a cigarette lighter who you crazy but did prop up dead man and expectant if yours or doctor's right you're right I think he is one of the most complex men I've ever known he was using himself he was really using his own innards it wasn't character that kind of a rebel that kind of a totally balanced man in the sense of this is just this is unjust a very clear line that that that character draws in terms of his behavior other people's behavior and Sean is like that I'm not sure what Sydney means in terms of the complexities um I always attempt to make everything as simple as possible whatever it is whatever the Contras whatever the storytelling is we begin here it's October 1965 the receivers that on at Fairfield shipyards Connery never lost sight of his working-class roots at the height of Bond stardom he chose to write and direct a documentary on social issues in Scotland by focusing on labor conditions at a troubled shipyard I had seen him I was a welder in a shipyard and he was making a documentary and we used to gaze the Scottish icon would come and go but I never had the temerity to say hello or anything Connery's commitment to help his native Scotland didn't stop with the documentary but has been a lifelong passion and his concern for improving the lives of the Scottish people is very personal oh we never had this much fun when I was learning a trade one of the few things I really believe in is education I maybe because I had been sort of neglected in my own past I think probably in 1971 Connery agreed to reprise the role of James Bond and diamonds are forever in order to donate his entire 1.2 million dollar fee his newly established Scottish International Education trust for over 20 years the Trust has been supporting education the arts and young athletes with grants totaling over 80,000 pounds each year the idea is that anybody who is any kind of talent whatsoever in Scotland can apply and they will be of some assistance if they merited male female age is no concern part of Connery's deal in making what he thought would be his last Bond film diamonds are forever allowed him to produce his own pictures the first of these the offense was far removed from the Hollywood mainstream but stated he was playing a man who has an over identity with a child molester so finds himself so tied to him emotionally that he has to kill him and he's killing a part of himself when he's doing that and Shaun of course was totally aware of all of that he's uh he doesn't intellectualize things but boy oh boy he knows all the nooks and crannies and has delved into all the corners with a character that was the first of the pictures Tantallon films I said oh and I got Sidney to direct it I produced it with my company we shot the film in four weeks including a week of rehearsals the offense was indeed a daring role for Connery who played a working-class detective convinced of the guilt of an alleged child molester as played by Ian Bannon I think Shaun would be furious at me for saying he's also a real artist I think there's a lot that he wants to get out and say he would use the excuse that I want to get away from the bond kind of parts but boy did he get away from the bond kind of hearts is it the same for you is your mind full things all the time thoughts pictures smooth white legs thai breasts blood - you're hurting me your God is sound the offense came out in 1973 and despite good reviews did poorly at the box office the studio that had released it was more focused on the promotion of Connery as Bond Connery's professional troubles could not have come at a worse time the same year he made the offense his marriage to Diane Cilento ended in divorce and his father died when I met him adjust very very quickly what to do wanted to protect him it really needs to be protected Shawn and Micheline Rock Brune first met at a golf tournament in Michelin's native Morocco they soon fell in love and in 1975 they married and began raising a family together the passion of their relationship seemed to express itself in Shawn's professional life for he was now to embark on some of the greatest roles of his acting career charge of all Connery's films in the 1970s none perhaps was as popular as the man who would be king here's a bigger one what Danny you only have to fill out buckets and walk out of it to be millionaires John Huston directed Connery and his close friend Michael Caine in an epic tale of two British Army sergeants who became free spirits in the search for ancient treasure bridge life was intended that Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart play the parts that Sean Connery and Michael Caine are doing man there's a 22-page short story by Richard Kipling and the two characters were so well conceived that we changed seems and when we're making the movie they didn't make any difference because the concept was that it was one complete man and it was based on friendship bTW I'm heartily ashamed for gettin you killed instead of going home rich like you deserve to on account of me being so bleedin high and bloody Mike Lee can you forgive me and I can and that I do damage free and full and without let or hindrance everything's all right there was this great character that was going to this incredible situation thinking he had become a god and it was like almost childlike one of my favorite scenes the ending of the man who would be king when he's going across the bridge the bridge collapses and he falls to his death fully on I think that's probably my favorite Sean Connery film back to back with the man who would be king khan replayed one of the most whimsical leads of his career as Robin opposite Audrey Hepburn's Marian she was highly nervous which is understandable totally professional and I must say I liked her you there what the hell do you want this is Kirk Lee hobby right you are and I'm the Abbess who you good god it's Mary run Maria what are you doing gonna cost you living in it why come home to you man the wars are over I'm here well it's mother Janet now and you can [ __ ] right back to jerusalem's you're angry not with you I haven't thought of you in 20 years well give me a smile and invite me in come back tomorrow I'll be gone sheriff's coming for me and I'm off to prison after prison Marian what'd you say he has a sparkle yes he has like a shiny has enough to see Osman sir she's wonderful I don't think it could make you feel me mix if you didn't have them to the other by 1978 when Connery and director Michael Crichton made the Great Train Robbery Sean had already starred in 33 films the character in the train robber is a rogue a charming rogue and actually aren't very many charming rogues in the world there are plenty of slimy roads in nasty roads and there are plenty of charming people it is charming but a true charming rogue is a rare thing and Sean is one of the people who can do it do you ever tell anyone the truth the truth the truth no there's a way in which I wish that every project I ever did was with Sean Connery what a delight that would be by the 1980s Connery's performance at the box office was totally unpredictable he took risks some paid off some did not incredibly in 1982 Connery agreed to play James Bond one last time it had been 21 years since dr. no never say never made a fortune worldwide I guess whatever I think it was too serious and I think Shawn knew that the formula that really may Bond was not working because this was not the most pleasant like I say in a situation for Shawn I think I stopped after that I really was pretty sickened by the whole the making of the movie it wasn't the best experience and then I don't know how long my wife will tell how long I was out I didn't do a thing two years or two and a half years I didn't do a film the disappointment Connery felt after making his last Bond film was softened by the peace and sanity offered him from a loving wife and family and a quiet home I think there's a real kind of quiet side that maybe only michellene knows maybe I don't know and and he's got a great wife Sean Connery and his wife Micheline Rahman of Homs in different parts of the world but their estate here along the southern coast of Spain has been their primary residence for over two decades I got about your foot you're doing this you're doing this look at you I bet you hold the cob Dupuy yeah there's no question it's it suits my disposition and temperament better to be out of Hollywood just swing it up there and pull it through well you know here he had been really for him very much like a very quiet peaceful place very like a clinic he said it was my clinic it's true when I first came here you wouldn't believe how different it was it was much much more primitive was really a terrible state but we fell in love with the ambience because there was an ambience even though it was totally derelict wasn't ambience and we loved it you have a nice view everything that you see in the house the concept and everything was entirely hard I got the easy part you should to pay for it I'm an enthusiast of coloring and drunk of color I love color no very bright color I'm gonna reveal what it is yet I love that painting I like painting which look which looked like a shot of film I love that you know that initially in his a prolific painter one of her works hangs in the National Museum of women's Art in Washington I want to mention much more than I and I have painted him but it's not an easy model to have because it has not much patience but some time I catch him and sometimes I do without him which is some time I make a composition from a picture that's generally posed yes and mention on the golf course he was a girl you know and he was a good girl fair and I enjoyed playing with him and and then I enjoy doing something else with him and I fell in love with him and you fell in love with me and when I met Sean he said I don't want to play game with you I'm basically very serious and I said me I don't know if I'd first fight I'm out because it's not my first marriage it's myself and I'm very aware of the fragility of a relationship and you have to really work at it it's like you know plant which is delicate and you have to really work at it I decide that instead of saying nothing nothing nothing nothing and taking and and what they say ciao I had enough which I did twice this time I said no I will you know twice a year for example or three times a year I will make a list of the sink I'm not happy with with you and I wrote them and because your second novel we come from completely different background and he was a bit from a very poor background I was from a very wealthy background but I think we have only hold the same ideas about for example but bringing in the children about not spoiling them at all sean has one son Jason by his previous marriage and Micheline two sons Stephan and Olivier and a daughter Maria Oh tom yes this one hits the ball the furthest yeah there's pound for pound yes and I'll put this on television no anybody that they can't outdrive heart pound-for-pound to be able to give anything or to do anything you have to begin at home she's good yeah shoes she never cries this very well she wouldn't dare if you're an emotional [ __ ] woman or useless you're not gonna be much use to anybody else and so if you can get your house in order and yours can apart your priorities in order you're got much more chance of doing what you want to be doing and certainly be much better to be with for over two decades Sean and Micheline have managed to create a private and peaceful life for their family in Spain but it hasn't always been easy it's very heavy everything you we cannot do what we want to do we cannot go and and have walks in places and so on you know anonymous it's impossible with Sean it's impossible since Sean's return to the film world in the 1980s his professional life has flourished like never before and in 1988 Sean Connery was nominated for an Academy Award for the untouchables it was long overdue recognition for the actor who was essentially self-taught now gotten his start in a chorus line of South Pacific 35 years earlier for somebody who did not have any of the qualifications scholastically and it would seem to be the obvious choice if you think about it because as an actor I then have to acquire from then on as much as possible and what do I have I have only myself or my instrument which is me you got a beef what is it how did you know I had a gun what do you want a free lesson in police work No are you okay pal I had a rough day on the job huh are you going home now it was about two well then you just fulfilled the first rule of law enforcement make sure when your shift is over you go home alive here endeth the lesson that could have been Shawn talking to me that scene was an older man talking to a younger man seeing his hurt and understanding that that's why Shawn is so successful because he has great humanity you know I believe you know here's this megastar but there's humanity you know in everything he does Sean Connery I must say I wasn't convinced that I would get the Oscar it didn't seem that important to me and and I have to admit that when I did receive it it did seem very important I was calling it and thank you all together at the point of Untouchables he really became untouchable everybody realized what a fantastic film actor he was if you look really at all the performances he and there's not one thing he hasn't played and he's still just on a roll I mean the man the man it's not stop it's not possible in the last decade among Sean's many starring roles he has portrayed a medieval monk and in the name of the Rose the dynamic father of Indiana Jones and Spielberg's epic and a modern-day medicine man in the Amazon in Rising Sun he played a zen-like detective and in just cause Sean Connery was a lawyer driven to serve justice in the 1996 blockbuster The Rock Sean assumed the character of the only man to have ever escaped from Alcatraz I started thinking about the leading men that we have now in contemporary film who holds the screen that way where you really cannot take your eyes off of them whether they're speaking or not and I can't think of anybody who has the same combination of qualities where its strengths its masculine its powerful it's a thoughtful it's intelligent it's very terrific to look at you know I don't think there is anybody that is his peer sure actually I think it has is one of those people that is assisted by age because the other one that I can think of immediately is Cary Grant it's obvious to everybody that he didn't consume himself with the loss of hair with the loss of you know with it you know it sounds trite that Ava that I even say that but you know you know there's a vanity that can run with how you're perceived and if Sean just gracefully moved right through that and of course it didn't he didn't even miss a beat and it's a good lesson to us all to be who we are you know we just don't happen to be Sean Connery Alec Baldwin starred with Connery in the highly successful Hunt for Red October now just beginning working in the movies and I was kind of conscious and being on-screen with people and I thought Sean Connery huh I thought well you know he's got no hair and he's kind of old now you know he's you know maybe I'll have a chance uh you know be on screen with this guy he showed up the first day of shooting for him and he had this incredible steel colored gray salt-and-pepper hair piece and the spear to this uniform and that's what I'm dead the guy still has the best-looking guy you've ever seen in your life of course I became just a piece of furniture whenever he was around after that he's very lucky because I said to him last year last year although yeah before I said imagine I was you know absolutely covered with wrinkled as you are and no hair and you think anybody would say I'm the sexiest women in the world and this Tim say that but him you know it's just great and he never lets the fact that he's a gigantic movie star you either get to him or get to you it's like when the guy phones up and says you you've been voted the sexiest man alive well I mean what he switched the reply to that sean has received many unusual tributes he was given an honorary Doctorate at st. Andrews University as well as being awarded two of the most prestigious titles France can bestow the commander of Arts and Letters in the Legion of Honour perhaps the award that had the most meaning for Shawn came from his native Scotland the man who had once delivered milk on the streets of Edinburgh now came home to receive one of the greatest tributes Scotland confers on anyone the freedom of the city it's a big big deal especially in Edinburgh and they did it for Shaun who is the most famous living Scottish person and knob they'd had it for 20 years and Prince Charles made it known he was interested in receiving it and didn't get it I went to the Asha hall and I said well the only thing is that I insisted to people where I come from language are certainly going to be there and they couldn't get them all in the theater and it was 2,000 there and there was over 10,000 15,000 outside in the street very very moving it's really an amazing honor it's 500 years and the people who received it guys like Garibaldi Benjamin Franklin Churchill what really added to it was that it was the people in Edinburgh and then in town in Scotland who voted on it when I was first informed about the possibility of receiving the freedom of Edinburgh what I was flattered and thrilled I knew then I would not be able to express my full thanks adequately and what I can tell you how I feel I feel like I've gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson but I won let me go I don't think you ever get any kind of final satisfaction I don't think that's in the cause I don't know anybody who has that fine they'd be pretty boring as you think and the not the kind of company I'd be wanting to be keeping the boy from the tenements had become a man of profound dimensions despite having made nearly 70 films he retains his down-to-earth charm Sean Connery is truly at the height of his career more popular vigorous and unpredictable than ever before you

Channel: David Bell

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Keywords: Sean Connery, profile, close up

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Length: 44min 51sec (2691 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 11 2012