- 3 months ago
"I’m able to be the voice for those that have no voice and that’s all I can promise them is share their stories," Patinkin told THR.
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00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm in studio today with Mandy Patinkin.
00:09Hello.
00:09Thank you so much.
00:11We are here to talk about Homeland.
00:13All right.
00:14We're seven seasons in. We have our final season ahead of us. Let's talk a little bit about the end of the season.
00:21The seventh season?
00:22Yeah.
00:23What do you want to talk about?
00:24I want to talk about the fact that we're looking at possibly the most emotional season yet to date between Saul and Carrie.
00:33What was even of greater interest to me was the speech that Alex wrote for Elizabeth Marvel to deliver President Keene in our show.
00:42And I thought that was the height of what you can ask for from any television show, particularly a television show like this,
00:51as an offering, as a possibility, a suggestion of what, in the dramatic sense, one might consider suggesting to the real world.
01:01Right, right. And, you know, with every season, you also take some time to be an activist for refugees.
01:10I do.
01:11Where are you at with that right now?
01:12Well, ever since the fifth, I don't know which season, I think it was the fifth season, the first episode took place in a Syrian refugee camp.
01:20At the same time, 125,000 refugees are trying to get across the Balkan route, many dying in the sea, to get to sanctuary and a new beginning in Germany and other places in the United States.
01:30In March of 2016, the EU closed its doors and these people were trapped in limbo.
01:34Every year since 2015, the day after we wrap our season, I get on a plane and I go somewhere with the International Rescue Committee to a refugee crisis somewhere in the world.
01:45Last year, I took my wife.
01:46This year, I took my wife and my eldest son, Isaac, to Uganda, where the conflict is on the South Sudanese border and in South Sudan.
01:54And 1.4 million refugees have come across the border between South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.
02:00We went to two refugee camps in Uganda, the Bidi Bidi, which has 290,000 refugees, and Invepi, which has 130,000.
02:12It was an extraordinary difference from other places we've been because Uganda was a real lesson to be had in terms of welcome.
02:21It was about building welcome, not walls.
02:23The people are extraordinarily generous.
02:24Because the resiliency of refugees on their own moves me, teaches me how to breathe.
02:30People say, why, after doing such an intense season of Homeland, why don't you go to Hawaii and just sit on the beach?
02:35Because these people teach me how to live.
02:37An unimaginable horror and conflict that they've lived through.
02:41And yet they play drums and they dance and sing music.
02:44And they're, you know, women's centers for gender-based violence where they cry and they weep and they go on and they build their homes.
02:53And every person there is given an eighth of an acre.
02:56And in this one refugee camp, they built 37 primary schools and seven secondary schools.
03:01And a birthing center for pre- and postnatal care where 1,400 babies have been born since October 2016.
03:07And their moral, ethical value, because the Ugandan people were refugees a few years ago when their own conflict and they knocked on the South Sudanese door.
03:18My grandfather had an expression in Yiddish called a redelzat redlach, which means the wheel is always turning.
03:23So if you're on top, don't think that you're on top forever.
03:26The wheel's turning and one day you'll be on the bottom.
03:28So when somebody comes knocking on your door, offer help.
03:31As the South Sudanese people did now, they're asking for help and their brothers and sisters in Uganda are offering it to them.
03:38And the larger question at hand, aside from the privilege that I'm given by being in a television show that has a global platform and I'm able to be the voice for those who have no voice.
03:49And that's all I can promise them is to share their stories.
03:51But the bigger question is the conflict.
03:54These are innocent individuals that didn't ask for the conflict, yet they're the victims.
03:57And the larger question is, what do we do as people that aren't living in a conflict situation?
04:04We have more power than anyone.
04:06You don't need a Hollywood reporter, studio set, you don't need to own a newspaper, have a television show or a talk show or a TV show or have the most money in the world.
04:14You have the most power.
04:15You have what's called a vote.
04:17A vote.
04:17And if your leaders are not matching your moral ethical code of standard for the very basics of human existence, then go out and find out who those leaders that are running for office in your neighborhood, your county, your country are and work to get them elected.
04:36And if you don't know those people, find out people who do.
04:40And that is such an important request that I make to everyone.
04:44I don't care who you vote for, but apathy isn't an option.
04:49And that's the privilege of being in this country, to have your voice heard and exercise it or please don't complain.
04:58Yes.
04:59So after seeing a successful refugee program like Uganda, do you feel a sense of positivity in how maybe this can be used as a model to help other countries with their refugee program?
05:11A hundred percent.
05:12That's what was so extraordinary about this particular visit.
05:15It's so different from the refugees that are caught in limbo because in March of 2016, the EU shut its doors.
05:21America shut its doors, essentially.
05:23I mean, not completely, but at the end of the previous administration, we were accepting 85,000 refugees, which we did, and the quota was brought up to 110,000.
05:33And then this new administration came in and brought the quota down to 50,000.
05:36Then they brought it down to 45,000.
05:38And it's already June, and approximately 23,000 plus have been brought in.
05:44No, 10,000 plus have been brought in, which means by the end of 2018, we will barely make half the quota for the United States.
05:51And that is because of all the red tape and bans, et cetera.
05:54And there's something else I really, really want to say.
05:56And this is so important, and I don't like to spew a lot of facts, but we live in a post-truth world, and it's no joke.
06:05And facts sometimes are extremely important.
06:08And politicians particularly use false information to get themselves elected, like refugees are a danger to your community or are going to harm you.
06:17And that's not true.
06:19That is as untrue as any statement that can be made.
06:22Why?
06:23Because here are some facts that I learned through the privilege I have by my association with people in the intelligence community from the association I have with Homeland.
06:30And they've given me essentially a Ph.D. course on vetting.
06:33To become a refugee to the United States, and the United States vetting program is considered to be the gold standard of vetting.
06:39To become a refugee, the U.N. has about nine stations, I think nine stations around the world.
06:44So you as an individual or a family go there first and have to be vetted by them to see if you can even make it through a two-year process of being vetted.
06:52Once you get through that process, it never ends.
06:55You're vetted when you get on the plane.
06:57You're vetted when you get off the plane.
06:59And if you and I are brother and sister, and I do something wrong, your life is in danger.
07:05And we could all be shipped back.
07:07So refugees that come to the United States, and here's the only fact I offer, is since 1970, not a single terrorist incident has taken place by a refugee in the United States of America.
07:20Not a single terrorist incident has taken place by a refugee in the United States of America.
07:25So those that tell you, you need to be afraid of them.
07:28It's the oldest game in the book.
07:29It's a way to gin up the fear so that you vote for me and I'll keep you safe.
07:34These are the safest citizens in our country.
07:36And when you think of why you and I are sitting here, or anyone in the studio, or anyone listening at home, it's because our ancestors had the privilege of being welcomed with open arms by this country.
07:49And that's who we are.
07:50That was our moral, ethical nature and symbol to the world.
07:54And we've lost track of that.
07:56And it's time to get a hold of it again, rebuild it, and remind ourselves.
08:01So exercise your vote.
08:03If you are not pleased with the moral, ethical nature of the leadership at hand, you can change it by voting.
08:10Right.
08:11Absolutely.
08:11Well put.
08:13It sounds like your character, Saul Berenson, has really changed your life.
08:17Playing this character, dealing with the people that you've dealt with on Homeland, all of the security advisors, the refugees.
08:25Life-changing.
08:25Life-changing without a doubt.
08:27One of the great privileges of my whole career, for several reasons.
08:31One, just the quality of the company in the job itself.
08:35I knew the pedigree when I signed up with Claire and our writers.
08:39But I never imagined that it would be as extraordinary as it had become.
08:43And the grace and gift of Claire Danes to me.
08:47And the gift of Alex Gonson, our whole writer team.
08:49And the gift of our whole crew and all the actors.
08:51But then when it becomes successful, and it's not just successful in our country, all over the world.
08:57So it affords me, an actor, a platform to be the voice for some of the most vulnerable people in the world who have no voice.
09:05If you ever told me that I'd have that privilege earlier on in my life, I would have said, what are you talking about?
09:09But it has been such a gift to my life, for the rest of my life, that I can't get over it.
09:21What's the gift of Saul Berenson?
09:22Of, you know, so many things.
09:25But what my wife and kids would say, I guess the way he listens.
09:29And the way Mandy has absorbed some of those skills of listening.
09:35Doesn't seem like that right now, because I'm just talking constantly.
09:37And brought them home, so I apologize.
09:41But it's just been one of the gifts of my life on so many levels.
09:47And to be the voice for the most vulnerable in the world, because of this job as an actor, is the singular greatest gift.
09:55And, you know, speaking of this job, I can tell that you're a very compassionate person.
09:59And the character of Saul, you've said before on a roundtable, is much more subdued, because the editors tend to use your subdued takes.
10:10What would Saul be like if he were able to use your more emotive takes?
10:14He'd always be arrested.
10:19He'd always be in the trunk of a car.
10:21He'd always be in prison.
10:23He'd never be listened to by anybody.
10:25He'd make the country a complete mess.
10:27And Carrie Matheson never would have had the first cup of coffee with him.
10:31That's amazing.
10:32Other than that, everything else, okay.
10:35Yeah.
10:37I wanted to go back to one of your most classic roles.
10:42You were in the most quotable movie of all time, The Princess Bride.
10:46But I heard that you have a quote from that movie that actually is your favorite quote.
10:51Yes.
10:52Thank you for asking.
10:53That no one ever quotes.
10:54And it was a gift that William Goldman gave us.
10:57And this was one of the favorite things he ever wrote, this movie, Princess Bride.
11:01And he says toward the end of the film, which I didn't hear or pay attention to when I was
11:06a young 36-year-old Mandy making the movie, but a 50-some-year-old Mandy heard it and went,
11:10oh, my God.
11:11And it's the words that Inigo says to the man in black at the window right after the princess
11:16Robin Wright jumps out the window and falls into Andre's arms.
11:20And Inigo turns to the man in black who asked him if he'd like to be the new Dread Pirate
11:25Roberts.
11:26And Inigo says, you know, I have been in the revenge business so long.
11:32Now that it's over, I do not know what to do with the rest of my life.
11:37And I went, oh, my God.
11:39How did I not hear what I was saying?
11:42And when I, at that moment, when I thought of Ted Cruz was running for president, and
11:48he loved the movie.
11:49He loves the movie.
11:50He quoted it everywhere.
11:51And he would quote it as a political tool to say it's a family movie.
11:54I'm a family guy.
11:55But he never quoted that line.
11:57And he was spouting violence and revenge all over, you know.
12:01And I just asked him and continue to ask him and any other politician to consider those
12:08lines of a movie that maybe you like, that William Goldman wrote, that ask us to question
12:13what's the value of real revenge?
12:15When you work in the International Rescue Committee, as I have the privilege to do with
12:19the refugees, led by David Miliband, who I hope one day will go back to England and become
12:24the prime minister of England because we need leaders like him.
12:27What David's profound gift is, among many, is that he doesn't point and shame and blame.
12:32When a situation comes up, like in Syria, where chemical weapons are used yet another time,
12:38and our administration finally recognizes this, he simply says in the most profound diplomatic
12:44manner, now that you're paying attention, let's up the diplomacy.
12:47He doesn't talk about violence or revenge.
12:49He says he talks about international diplomacy, sanctions, discussions.
12:53That's how you stop the conflict so that these innocent people all over the world and these
12:59conflicts aren't going to end tomorrow because of climate change, because of violence, because
13:03of crazy people, and because of God knows what the other reasons are.
13:08So when you are in a free climate, free nation, where you have a vote, exercise that diplomacy.
13:16Ask your leaders to exercise it, to stop the conflict in the first place, so that these
13:21innocent individuals have a new beginning and a new belonging.
13:26And when you're there face to face with these gorgeous children and families and women who've
13:30been raped and tortured and brutalized, and the malnutrition is, the kid's hair is like,
13:36just almost like sand.
13:37It's because they don't have enough food.
13:39And so we've got to help.
13:41We've got to give up the revenge business.
13:43Yeah.
13:43There's been a lot of renewed interest in Andre the Giant since the new documentary came
13:48out about him.
13:50Can you share a memory of him for us?
13:53Yeah.
13:54I loved him.
13:56I spent almost five or six months with him.
13:59Had breakfast with him every day.
14:01He would eat plates and plates of food, and the fork looked like a little doll's fork in his hand.
14:05And he had great pain from his giant condition, and his spine could barely support him.
14:15So he would drink 12 bottles of wine sometimes at lunch, bottles.
14:20And there'd be no change other than a little smile might show on his face in the afternoon work.
14:24But at the end, we were on the boat, coming into a final shot at the Cliffs of Insanity in a studio.
14:33So Andre and I were on the boat with the script supervisor.
14:37And she said to him, has this been enjoyable for you?
14:40Has this been a good experience?
14:41Have you enjoyed this?
14:43And he said, oh, yes.
14:44She said, what?
14:45What have you liked about it?
14:47He said, nobody looks at me.
14:52Because on a film set, it didn't even happen to me.
14:55The first day I met Andre, it was exactly what William Goldman wrote in the book and then in the script.
15:00Like a giant landmass.
15:02And the second day I walked in to have rehearsal, and I turned to Rob at a private moment when Andre wasn't listening.
15:09I said, did he have on padding or makeup yesterday?
15:13Or his prosthetics?
15:15No, why?
15:15Rob said.
15:16I said, because he looks one-fifth the size today.
15:20Because our brains immediately normalize anything that seems shocking or unfamiliar the first day.
15:27And the most beautiful thing that happens, those of you who haven't been on a film at home,
15:33and particularly in England, when the shot's going on and the crew doesn't have to pay attention,
15:38as soon as work's over, they want to get to the pub.
15:41So it's the final day of shooting.
15:43We're at Shepparton Studios.
15:44The last shot happens.
15:45And the crew, they were in lines like at Disneyland.
15:49They brought their families, all to wait, to introduce their family to Andre, their children to Andre, their relatives to Andre, to have a photograph with Andre.
15:59And he waited for hours until everyone got that.
16:03And I've never seen anything like it.
16:06What a sweet man.
16:08Oh my God.
16:09He was the definition of a gentle giant.
16:13Well, Mandy, thank you so much for sharing that with me.
16:16The show is Homeland.
16:18It's on Showtime.
16:19And we will see you for Season 8.
16:21I'll be there.
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