Theater Talk: Actor Christopher Walken

coming up on theater talk I have this idea that actor you don't have to know what an act is talking about you just have to know that he knows theater talk is made possible in part by the CUNY TV foundation well what are you doing being friends with a bunch of no-good scum in the first place for oh they did my friends that's some business with them from New York City this is theater talk I'm Michael Riedel of the New York Post and I'm the show's producer Susan Haskins one of my favorite performances this season on Broadway is by Christopher Walken in the play of be handing in Spokane he of course is one of our great actors and I'm very pleased that after this big big movie career he said he's coming back to Broadway welcome to Broadway and welcome to theater talk Chris thanks great to see you I read in a terrific profile of you written by me in that as much as you love doing serious theater dramatic plays you love musicals and you've said to me in the piece that you would love to do a musical version of that great old Vincent Price movie theater of blood and since that article came out I understand some people have actually contacted you and made this project start to happen yeah there's a couple of people who have been working on that I'm not surprised you know it seems obvious I don't know whether I'd want to do it but I think it's a very good idea for a musical the movies a lot of fun there's too many murders for people haven't seen a movie what's what's it about it's about an actor who had a big career as a Shakespearean actor but he always got terrible reviews and it keeps them in this big book it's almost kind of masochistic thing you know open the book and read this review that says that he should never set foot on the stage again and yes this bunch of acolytes who sit around and he decides to kill all the people who said these things about him to kill all the London drama critics yeah and according to Shakespeare yeah so he Robert Morley is one he's got these poodles so he does it's my favorite one really it's the Titus Andronicus one week he gets Robert Marley's poodles and he bakes them in a big pie and then Robert Marley eats them [Laughter] and without that the part it would be perfect for you I mean it's this larger-than-life Shakespearean actor and you love musicals I can't imagine anyone else doing it and you know what with a musical the music is so important right right and you know if somebody says to me let's go see a show I always say you know let's see a musical why I love musicals and you yourself started I started night and I spent a lot of time doing them I was a chorus boy and then I toured stuff like West Side Story and for a long time but I love musicals now when when this article appeared and producers have come to you did they say we're actually working on the show yes score they're having some sort of invited me to hear some of the songs really yeah who's doing it you know they're two different people working on it I don't know if they know about each other but I do now so you get to pick which score Adam off against each other excellent in be handing in Spokane which is at the cherry Schoenfeld theater crass running till June 6th yeah any chance of extending I mean you got great reviews and yeah I guess they could do it would you stick around with it I think I would right going back to your musical theater roots one of the things I notice about your performance in this play you're playing a menacing but funny guy who had his hand hacked off many years ago and you're looking for the hand but it's a wonderfully physical performance just the way you sort of move about on the stage is that all come from your dancing background your physicality on the stage I guess you know if you if you play a part and there's a lot of stuff I have to do I ever get a lot of props and so forth and to deal to do all that with one hand is tricky yeah you have to bite things and you know carry things in your teeth and kick them around with your feet and then you have to find a way to do that and then the other night a piece of paper got stuck to my shoe and I had to get it off and I had to do it with my foot those are sort of great those more know I guess but yeah to having to do things with one hand it brings up a lot of stuff do you choreograph the whole or just happens it just happens so you're not an egg reversal so you don't work everything out every little bit out you know in rehearsal and that's the thing about the theater you know you you trying to find our director said to me one day that looking for serendipity you know something some sort of accident that that that works and then you try to and then if it works you can repeat it it becomes part of the performance who is your director John Crowley and how much of the blocking did he have worked out before you came into the man well he had a lot worked out but in rehearsal then stuff happens the other thing that to me is the most startling ly wonderful about your performance is your intonation the way your your line readings do you work those did you almost like say how does it sound if I say it like this how does it sound if I say it like that could be yeah I think that's right yeah I do it in my kitchen by myself and usually I'm doing something else cooking or something amazing and I have the script on a counter and I read it not allowed but out loud and sometimes stuff just sounds good and then what's the determination to you keep it it's interesting you say she's talking about your line readings which you're famous for I mean people took quirky line reading the eccentric liner II need you you often remind me of a wonderful actor Patrick McGoohan who had would read lines and ways totally unexpected is that something that you always did or something that you have developed as a kind of Christopher Walken signature part of your acting yeah I don't know that all that is mysterious to me but I think it has a lot to do with my basic training which was in musicals and in dancing and it's that it's that rhythm thing you know hearing stuff in beats and you know frankly eight counts how does that one combination you know I 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 2 3 and then you hear some kind of a what do they call it in England skittle skittle yes right yeah you hear a kind of jazz yeah that's her and that's how you hear a play when you're reading your kids telling in my part well it is like jazz your it is yeah because I I have this idea that actor you don't have to know what an act is talking about you just have to know that he knows yes interesting yeah I've had that in being in foreign countries I've come into the theater and watched the play right and not known what was going on but it was wonderful to watch because I knew that that they knew you know they were right you know some some of the actors tell me when you're doing Shakespeare if you forget the lines if you keep the rhythm going the audience doesn't know that you forgotten the speech yeah but you have to be good at that yeah I don't actor who would do that he would just go off and and but he was really good at it if I'm doing Shakespeare and I forget my line I'm in big trouble can't versified know speaking of Shakespeare you have done a fair amount of Shakespeare I saw years ago a brilliant Coriolanus that you did at the Public Theater all in leather I remember you know directed by who was it Steven Steven Steven Berkoff Stephen Burke yeah that was I haven't had a lot of good things in Shakespeare but that was a that was a good one yeah why is that when you say you haven't a lot of good things in Shakespeare is it something that doesn't you don't feel comfortable doing I think it's hard for American actors period there are some American actors who do it great you know Kevin Kline and Stacy Keach and Frank Langella and but for most of us I think it's pretty tough it has to do with I don't know do you enjoy it Shakespeare I like it and it's been very valuable to me in in certain ways I've played things and not been successful at all but having to do that is a it's it's a it's a very valuable training it's why when one reads interviews with you did you not say that I mean you take many things you're offered you're known for working constantly in tea and you said that even the bad things you learn from them oh sure and I've done a lot of Shakespeare and not been good most of the time but doing it you know I played Hamlet three times and I and I never was much good Romeo twice yeah it was good I was Richard ii yes that was really awful perfect for these as a young Hamlet you would have been dashing and good-looking and yeah you know but Richard I'm sick of Hamlet but Richard ii I thought it would think you'd be great no no okay do you know did you know when you were doing these Shakespeare's that they weren't good when I was doing oh yes and that's another thing you know to be on stage doing something and know that you're not good it's tremendous you know that takes it the Laurence Olivier said that an actor has to have an actor has to be sensitive and yet have to have a hide like a rhinoceros and there's something in that you know you have to be able to you know be there and you also have to be pretty resilient to sorry don't because said you know basically it has to do with you know keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going now you told me that you don't read you don't read your reviews until the show's over wait a while you wait now but I do read them very interested Brad you I hope you like those behind in reviews well I got everything in a big envelope yeah just like Vincent Price do you read your bad reviews - oh sure and you pull and you learn something from those I keep everything really everything written about you yeah because I mean I've read I read your interview the other day and I read it a few times and I thought oh that's interesting you know just something about yourself you didn't notice but that's a puppet but didn't what hadn't you no no I said now but no that's that's what happens you see some little thing and you notice something about yourself I'd like to ask you about your childhood you said you had the height of a rhinoceros and we no no no I know I have to try try and you have great sensitivity and an incredible work ethic where did you get that don't know don't know well I mean know so I mean because I read your father was a brand of a curry was my father worked very hard yeah my father was the hardest working person I had personally known and and the great thing about it was that that he did that because that's what he loved to do yeah he had a bakery in Queens or in Queens it was his bakery and he was a German immigrant a German American he came here as an adult and from difficult circumstances my mother - you know post-world War one Europe and you know they came to America and it was great and my father had a bakery and he loved he went there seven days a week some people work hard because they have to but he really loves and yes you love acting and your father he puts you in show business my mother was was smitten with the show business which when she said your void into show business do you remember that how did you feel about it I don't remember my I have two brothers we all did that and so did a lot of kids in those days in the fifties after the war no television got started and it all came from New York there was no videotape yeah there were 90 live shows from New York every week a lot of them we were saying 15 minutes they used a lot of kids you know TV was very fan we oriented and especially holidays they just bring kids in and stick them around like you know plants and that'd be you and that'll be me and there were schools for those kids so that they could do that three of them and it was a big thing then videotape got invented someplace in the late 50s and everything moved to California but in those days all that TV came from I would say six block radius out of Rockefeller Center studio 54 and at Sullivan's Theatre was over there so well where David Letterman is now I think was Ed Sullivan yeah any chance you would have gone to work in the your father's bakery at all I did sure so then when did you become chorus boy oh you know when I was a teenager because I'd always gone to dancing school it was just a natural step to you know go an audition for a show and you told me audition for Jerome Robbins your audition for ian's oh yeah I I did a lot of auditioning yeah and I wasn't a great dancer but I was tall and so poised I mean from that thing I've seen you but you had such poise you feel well I'm the tall dancer it doesn't have to dance that great it's kind of a premium he can stick him in the back you see can still see it well in fact Tommy tune and I did a musical together called Baker Street right of course yeah we had a big number and in fact that number of me and Tommy tuned all the guy named Ivan harem we were the villains in this kind of ballet that ended the first act and it was very successful and from that I got asked to audition for the line in winter ah so I think that's really where my acting because I was wondering how you went from being a chorus boy to winning an Academy Award for The Deer Hunter within a very short period I was in Baker Street I got asked to audition for the line in winter which was originally done on Broadway with Robert Preston rosemary Harris and a guy who used to walk around saying I'm writing this musical with my friends and and everybody said yeah right it was James Rado who wrote hair he was the Richard yes Richard yeah and so he wrote hair yeah I think you know you know I guess he was he like a straight guy that I mean straight bi mean line non-drug I love he was a very handsome guy he was a terrific actor and yeah he was writing a musical but he turned out to write you know one of the months the music and you know I really never saw him after that but yeah so how did you get something how did you get and then I got into a movie yeah a lot of people knows no your background the theater but you've worked with some of the real legends real legends of the theater what was Robert Preston who was one of my favorites what was he like really a great actor and he was very good to me they were gonna fire me because I was so nervous really and this being your first non-musical job yeah I was terrified and he was very nice to me and he in fact he interceded he said you know give him a minute and we were they were gonna fire you because they could see you were nervous on stage right yeah I had a scene with with him what were you blame I was the King of France and I had to pour him a this goblet of wine and handed to him and I had on this ridiculous outfit and my hand was shaking it would spill all over the place and they said you know you're a nice guy but we're gonna have to get somebody else and he said didn't give him a chance he was very nice to me did he give you any advice about coming than the nerves he said yes he said don't stand there repeating your lines day long he says you know your lines just just go out and I used to just stand it constantly mumbling my lines then when I walk on of course I forget the back another great that you worked with you were telling you about the other day and you have some wonderful observations about him was no coward because he does high high spirits his musical that he directed that you were dancing in it was the musical of his play Blithe Spirit right with Tammy Grimes be Lily and he directed it I think it was the last thing he did he was I think it not in great health but he was he was wonderful didn't he take her out to dinner he did we put this number in very quickly and it worked me and two other guys number with B Lily well something is coming to t and it was very complicated weed and it worked and he took us to supper you know I don't want to drag it out but it was it was great we all sat in this kind of Sardis place in Boston you're out of town the show he said well and he said well you have a drink I said well I'll have a coke and all the other guy said yeah coke and he said well I'll have a coke Cola also and and then what would you like to eat and somebody said tuna fish sandwich and then the other two said yes tuna fish sandwich and he said yes I'll have a tuna fish sandwich so Paul head cogs and twenty few sandwiches and he ate his sandwich with a knife and fork he was absolutely charming and and in total control is the director right he really felt this was a man who everybody respected him so much and very nice and be Lily yeah be Lily was was great eccentric of course yeah but she got the longest hand I've ever seen a Broadway show she finished this number about poltergeists and there's something and I used to time it they would applaud four five four five six minutes that's really something and I was being a big dancer I she her entrance was on a bicycle that's right Madame Arkady right as Madame Akane and and she'd fly on stage on this bicycle but somebody had to push her and I was the guy and I did that every night for I don't know five or six months and one night she turned to me and she said oh you must be the new boy slap but going back to be handing now that you're an iconic actor are you an actor who are you are you a method actor when you're preparing this menacing figure and be handing do you go deep deep down into the characters that the kind of actor you are no no how do you approach a role like this this guy who's a killer who's dangerous I mean the whole time he's on stage you don't know what he's going to do to the other people there yeah you know I always it's with me it's never changed much from when I was 9 years old you know it's let's you know I'll be this and you be that and we'll pretend and and my friends and I used to go see movies particularly war movies or any kind of action type of thing then we'd go and do the movie out in the and a lot next door and it was it's still like that that's the Chris walking School of Acting have you taken acting lessons over the years I study serious with serious teachers and yes and you know basically it's that the seven-year old thing let's let's have fun and thank goodness yes well you told me the director at one point when you were talking you said now because this guy's with one hand and the director said now Chris what do you think is going on inside what's going on inside this guy how's he feeling yeah we did talk about that you know what it was all you know what's his life and I and I I said you know what I think this is this is like about watching Chris run around with one but I like that approach tacky and that I think that's the kind of approach that no coward would have had I think because I've read what no coward said about acting and he said you know you have to have a natural ability to make the character come alive he said but then you just have to have basic technique to do it and then you just do it yes you know it's very difficult for me to talk about these things but I do think that the just are you know are you glad you're there when you're glad you're watching is this entertaining I love that moment in the gladiator movie for a Russell Crowe throws his knives into the ground then he says are you entertain [Laughter] they brought in play bill or somewhere that you were the last person cast in that production is that true yes well the the part was written written for somebody 20 years younger than me cause it's hard to imagine that play without you we had to bump up all the ages in the men in the play I think he says I've been searching for my hand for 27 years but then they got me and I said well I can't say that I said make it 47 years and make my mother 90 something and I said the whole thing is funnier first of all a guy you know my age still chasing around for his hand and his mother's climbing trees yes and he still lives with his mother and he's afraid of her and she finds his porn magazines and it's just funnier all right the play is be handing in a be handing in Spokane at the Schoenfeld theater a lot of talk about extending you think it'll would you stay on with the past June 6 I think I would you know for a while yeah having a good time and after that you're open to Theatre of blood possibly got to hear the music some enchanted evening you've got for movies and productions something like that no I have lots of movies that never came out oh look at your IMDB listing here they've been there so there's a place I think yes you spend all your time especially if you know if you think you're OK in them yeah it just means more theater from you that can't be bad for us you go to the theater regularly or something aromatherapy don't miss Chris walking in be handing and Spokane at the Schoenfeld theater terrific actor great storyteller and a delightful guy thank you for being our guest tonight and he now [Music] our thanks to the Friends of theater talk for their significant contribution theater talk is made possible in part by the Frederick Loewe foundation the Eleanor Naylor Dana Charitable Trust the Allen s Gordon foundation the quarry and Bob Denali charitable fund Kerry J fries that Dorothy's stressin foundation the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts a state agency [Music] we welcome your questions or comments for theater talk thank you and good night [Music]

Channel: CUNY TV

Views: 67,356

Rating: 4.890223 out of 5

Keywords: Christopher Walken, Martin McDonagh, A Behanding in Spokane, CUNY TV, Theater Talk, Susan Haskins, Michael Riedel, Broadway, actor

Id: CrDQZZ9TgrU

Length: 26min 47sec (1607 seconds)

Published: Fri May 13 2011