00:00So I had a wild comparison here in terms of another character who's a single father raising children, and that's
00:07Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird.
00:09What was so beautiful about Gregory Peck's performance and the character in the book is that it wasn't the obvious
00:18hero.
00:18He was reluctant, and that was what made it so special.
00:22He didn't want to take up the cause, and it was hard for him to do.
00:25And I always found that to be what was so compelling about his work in this is that he wasn't
00:30the Gregory Peck that we've known.
00:33You know, he's got the glasses on, and he doesn't quite have his, you know, it's not Roman Holiday, and
00:39that's why I love him so much in that movie.
00:44For me, in this film, the redeeming qualities were easy.
00:48I mean, he's a nice guy. He works hard. He thinks that he serves his family well.
00:55He thinks he's done everything right. You know, he thinks he's doing everything right.
00:58That's an easy thing to understand and like.
01:00I remember, I think I remember hearing Redford talking about ordinary people, and he said these characters, this family, everything
01:08would have been fine.
01:09They would have been a cold couple, but they would have, everything would have worked fine if something tragic hadn't
01:13happened along the way.
01:14And I always, I like that idea because I think that they would have sort of moved on through life,
01:22and the kids would have been screw-ups, but they would have done what they did.
01:25And the wife would have, you know, been smoking, drinking, and stooping somebody, and he would have not really realized
01:32any of it and gone through life that way.
01:33And then this, this event happens, and in it, this character has to come to terms with the fact that
01:42he's lost every argument he's ever had.
01:45He doesn't, he doesn't have really much of the, the, the fight in him.
01:49And, and that to me was a really fun character because the characters I play usually are the guys that
01:55have their act together and then bit by bit realize that they've sort of lost their soul.
01:59And this was a character that hadn't really lost his soul.
02:03He's, he was, he's a kind man, you know, he's just not particularly aware.
02:09Part of the, the, the idea of it, and we talked about this a lot, was forgiveness, you know.
02:13You know, it's a, it's not just forgiveness of her and what she did, but sort of forgiveness of your
02:18failures as a, as a man.
02:20And that's, to me, what made the character so interesting.
02:22And often one of the most difficult things in life, I think, to forgive oneself.
02:26Yeah.
02:27I, I find that.
02:28Yeah, I think that's true.
02:29I think it, I think that's more than true.
02:32It, it's like actors when they say, oh, this is easy, I'm just playing myself.
02:36The hardest thing you can do as an actor is actually truly play yourself.
02:40It's a funny thing.
02:41You will, you will deflect and find other ways around it and find ways to say, well, that's not really
02:46me, you know.
02:47Can you think of an actor who did play him or herself?
02:51Like a really raw performance?
02:53I mean, I know Brando thought he, there was a lot of him in Last Tango.
02:58I remember my uncle Jose, Jose Ferrer, was watching Laurence Olivier, I think on The Entertainer or something like that.
03:07But it was something, I mean, maybe it was something on Broadway, but it was something where, where Olivia had
03:12a real breakdown, like a real, like, you know, where you lose your dignity.
03:16And Jose, who was this very, you know, handsome, or, you know, he was, he was this, I don't know
03:23how to explain it, but he, he had, you know, savoir faire.
03:25He was fantastic, and he, he, who had won an Academy Award, he was a wonderful actor, he just looked
03:31at him and said, I would never do that.
03:32I would never be that guy.
03:34And that was the difference in acting styles, too, you know, Spencer Tracy wouldn't have done that.
03:39Olivier probably just done it a few times.
03:42I was friends for years with a Czech director, and he's dead now, and, uh, talking about acting, and he
03:49had, he was making a film in Czechoslovakia, and he had one of, uh, that country's great actors, who was
03:57in a play at night, and would take a helicopter to the set by day, they were shooting somewhere in
04:01Slovakia or something, and then go back for his, real pro.
04:05And, uh, came a scene where the man had to cry, and he said, may I have the drops, please?
04:11And he went like this, to put the drops in, and my friend said, but Mr. Kopech, um, aren't you
04:17going to really cry?
04:19And he said, it's not important for me to cry.
04:21It's important for the audience to cry.
04:25Yes, you've said that to me before, yeah.
04:27And then, um, yeah, and then the Dustin Hoffman, uh, Laurence Olivier.
04:30Just try acting.
04:31Right, yeah.
04:36Thank you.
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