00:15I felt guilty for decades, and then I began to tell you my story.
00:24Tonight, my secret ends.
00:36With such complex, obviously, subject matter, you know, it's interesting to look at the man, because with Herbert, it was
00:46about mortality, but it was about living.
00:49So it's that irony of structure. Could you talk about capturing that in the psychology, because that informed probably physicality,
00:58movement, everything?
01:01You know, the title of the film is The Optimist, and it took a long time to title the film.
01:06And in the end, I was very pleased with the title because it really, really does say it.
01:11I think that Herbert Heller was born with a native positive attitude, which was reinforced by his father and his
01:23family.
01:24So there's a nature and a nurture thing going on with him.
01:27He just, he just is a positive person.
01:30And to put a person like that in the circumstances that he and family and so many thousands and millions
01:40of others were put in at the death camp of Auschwitz.
01:43So that's pretty, that's quite a test of one's personality, of one's fortitude.
01:50And I can only imagine how difficult it was for him.
01:55And yet he came through it and he, he not only survived, but he lived to thrive.
02:06You mentioned irony.
02:08I just think it's a wonderfully ironic fact that what did Herbert Heller end up doing?
02:13He ended up owning a store, starting a store, building a store, Heller's kids.
02:19You know, this was all for kids.
02:21Everything you need for a baby, from a bassinet to a bottle to a binky, anything.
02:26And there's something that's just incredibly beautiful, positive and forward thinking about that.
02:33You know, that's an embrace of life, it seems to me.
02:37And I think that Heller embodied that, you know, I think he did.
02:40And I think one of the ways he was able to do that was for so long suppressing these, some,
02:47some very hard memories, some very hard truths about what he had to go through and what his family lost.
02:54You know, he lost his family, didn't, his mother survived, which is one of, but his father and his brother
02:59were liquidated, as it were.
03:02And so I think that, that, that all concludes to, to it to me.
03:07Why me?
03:09Why you?
03:10Yeah, why'd you pick me to tell your story too?
03:14I've tried to tell it before, but, uh, I didn't want to upset anyone, but.
03:22I already am upset.
03:26Maybe it's because you don't make me nervous.
03:30Or maybe it's because I want to hear your story.
03:38Yeah.
03:41Muscles.
03:43Muscles.
03:44Well, it's interesting because, yeah, you were talking about, he was so optimistic and so, you know, accepting and understanding,
03:51like in this film, I know Abby's a conglomeration, but it's, it's one of those things that he will listen.
03:57And it's interesting for somebody put through such brutality to have that.
04:03Could you talk about sort of, you know, embodying that?
04:06Because, you know, you use softer tones, you know, there's a, there's different, there's a different approach here for you.
04:12Yes, there is.
04:13It's very different for me.
04:14And it's one of the reasons I was so delighted and honored and privileged to play this role.
04:18Because it's very, very different for me to be able to do this.
04:22I think they, I think the film, I think Finn Taylor, who wrote and directed this film, chose a very,
04:27very smart way to access this narrative.
04:32Because, you know, it's not easy to talk about the Holocaust.
04:36And whenever you're going to watch a film that you know deals with it, I think one has to kind
04:43of brace oneself and take kind of a deep breath.
04:46You know, just because the subject matter is so direly awful.
04:51And, but this film finds the kindest and most humane way to deal with trauma.
04:59And that's what I admired so much about it when I read it.
05:03I think it was extremely smart to juxtapose these two stories.
05:08One, a trauma from a young woman, which has just occurred.
05:12She's, you know, what she's going through, she's going through.
05:17You know, it just happened.
05:19Whereas he has repressed, sat on this truth for 60 years.
05:26And now it's coming out.
05:28And somehow their own, they sense each other's vulnerabilities and need and probably potential.
05:36And they're able to come together and, you know, and help each other and therefore thereby helping themselves.
05:45What are you supposed to do when you've done something unforgivable?
05:50What wrong did you do?
05:58I know it feels like it's the end of the world, but it's not.
06:02I saw the end of the world.
06:04I had a ringside seat for it.
06:07When this war is over, we will be reunited.
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