Starring Austin Pendleton (2016) - full transcript

[sil.] Okay, let's go.

Well, let's fuck it. Well, look,

here is what. Shit, I hate these
things. You can never ever open

them. Shit. Never once have I successfully

opened a bottle by palm, and yet
everybody else seem to be able to.

Oh, well. Here is what I've got.

Every time anybody tries to
apply a rule to this business, it's full

of shit. Because this business
is too chaotic for any rule to

make any sense. You want to work.

You want to work at your... being an actor.

And that's what any actor does if they are 80
years old or whatever. They were just... or



17 or anything in between. You want to work

at being an actor, which is a
process, it really doesn't never stop.

And after a while, people just say, "Oh,

he is still here." And then that
begins to count for something.

I mean, years have to go by
before they started to saying that.

And they spend a lot of energies, like,
trying to beat your way with a baseball bat.

But then they say, "Oh,
is he still here? Yeah.

We're at five, Austin.
Maybe, you are at five.

Okay. Okay. Jesus Christ.

Almighty. Shut the door. If this
guy didn't look the way he looks,

he has got a stutter and he is,
you know, fight whatever he is

and he is funny looking guy and his
hair is all screwy. He beat Marlon Brando.

Come with a team. I'm sorry, I
haven't come up to introduce myself, it's

bad form. It's probably the excitement of meeting
you for the first time. My heart is going mile a



minute. By the way, you can just feel it pounding.
Can't you feel it? Yes, I think I can. People in

the universe who we think are
celebrities and stars, they think of Austin

in that caliber. I don't think that's
quite a situation. I want an answer from

you. I'll look at you, which will be a seldom's
possible. He is the renaissance man. There can be no

true art without living. He acts,
he teaches, he directs, he writes.

Look at there, I got him thinking, I got him
thinking. You only have to watch his acting to know

that he is a fan of working in a way that
we likely all kind of dream of working.

It's machine to silly. Look, you
just press yes or no. But suppose

my answer is maybe. There
is no line between the man

and his work. It's almost as if there
are all these other actors in the play

or the movie and then they dropped this real guy
in the middle of everything. Can you see him? Yeah.

Are you sure. On stage,
he just stole the show,

always. I've never seen anyone get more fan mail.
The fan mail starts with you changed my life.

We talk about Austin being the most famous unfamous
person in the world, but the truth is he is actually quite

famous, because he is famous in the right
way, because of merit rather than notoriety.

He seems to have a never ending
source of energy. I'm saving your life,

hop in. Everybody knows Austin,
whether they met him or not.

He makes the six degrees of separation thing kind of look like ridiculous,
because it is more like one or two degrees and that is all I know.

Life is an anecdote, this is really

one amazing story really.

Hi, AP.

You're looking down there.
People still call you AP?

Oh, yes. You can have Cobb
salad work again tonight. Oh, God.

You live for this? I do. It could
be said. It could be said. Yeah.

Hi there. Yeah, great, great.

Who wants pennies. Yes.

[sil.]

Don't tell anyone, but
yeah, I gave Rachel a dime.

[sil.]

There, Louie. That gives you
some idea of my admiration for you.

Okay. I'm gonna sit places.

Great. We'll go back to the same
page, please. Hello, hello, my friend.

I've been waiting for long time to
see you. Gentleman, you've turned

my study into a tavern again.
I've told you all, one and all,

a thousand times. Look at this, vodka
is spilled all over my paper scrums.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. One

thousand one hundred
rules. Now you take it with you

today, give it to her with your own
hands and you say, Saritha Sarishna

I hope you choke on it.

Only be careful not to let them know
that you got it from me, otherwise.

Otherwise I'll give

them my neck and goose
break coutures. What? All right,

okay. Never mind,

never mind. We are here
with Austin Pendleton,

since making his Broadway debut in
the original Fiddler on the Roof, he has

had principal roles in over 30
movies, many TV shows and

countless stage productions.
He won an Obie for the

The Last Sweet Days of Isaac,
did Uncle Vanya with Steppenwolf

Company and Shakespeare of Broadway and
appeared in doubles in The Diary of Anne Frank

on Broadway. In movie,
he was the condemned man

in the 1974 remake of
The Front Page. A stuttering

lawyer in My Cousin Vinny, a math professor

in A Beautiful Mind, and a
fish in Finding Nemo. He is also

a play writer and a director.

This is a place call Old John's.

This is the place we are going
to eat, this is the place to go to

when you are working at Lincoln Center, and

it's killing me.

[sil.]

I'm thinking of having a Fettuccine
Alfredo with chicken, I better not,

I'll get fat. The whole curse for actors

today was turning out. They
can't... they won't see if you don't

have any credits or if you don't have... and you
can't get any credits, because they won't see it.

I think it was very harder when I
started. I will go to agency and say,

if you submit me into this plan,
they would say what have you done.

I would say, well, it is what
I played in college and here

are the little parts I've played as a leading
star when I was an apprentice. They would say,

you expect us to submit
you to Jerome Robbins.

One of the two or three great
directors of that time. One of the two

or three great directors of the 20th century,
you expect us to submit you to Jerome Robbins

for a leading role when you've
done a few plays in college.

It was an example of Lord saying, when God
wants to punish you, it gives you what you want.

I mean, I got the parts and then
I don't know what to do with it.

And because I was
having such a trouble doing

it eight times a week, I just couldn't do
it. And the guy that cast, who is still a

friend of mine said, he used to... I used to take the
subway to go around the HB, an audition crew of Uta

Hagen. He came and
he set way for us. He said

you got this part before you really
knew how to act. A whole lot of actors that

I known, have had the
pleasure of knowing, they had this

persistence. And sooner or later
it starts to happen, but it is sheer

persistence. And

I think I would have exhibited
the same persistence,

if I had known that that is what
we would be doing, simply because

I didn't know how to do anything
else. Once you step outside the

narrowest circles of here, I don't
know how to do anything, I really don't.

[music]

Do you think that

Austin finds himself to be a success?

Okay. So today we're just going to

re-do, right? And then talk about
it a little bit. Maybe I would say this

before I answer directly,
maybe that's been on and off.

So you could hear Austin or is
it so? This is perfect. Sometimes

what the world might see is total
fulfillment may not be quite enough. Hello?

Hello? Up here. Who
hasn't sat in front of an

Academy Award ceremony, who
hasn't in some ways either he said that's

all over for me, that will never happen for me,
or you might say, why hasn't that happen for me?

Did you think that in beginning... you're going to
walk into this... Or you might say, this is going to

happen for me. I supposed to start on that
movie tomorrow, but I'm starting on Friday

instead. What movie is that? Oh, it's just
a little movie, they are paying me $1.75

to do it. What? Is it like an
internet movie? No, no, it's a

movie, but you know... So I think it
may be more than a $1.75. Well, not

much. I mean, a $100 a
day. Are you serious? Oh,

whole lot of movies were like that. And then you get
a deal on the backend when it becomes a blockbuster.

But... and what they do to distribute
these movies is, they put a DVD

of it in a bottle and put it in the
ocean I think, it's you know... It's really

cruel to see these... with these fabulous
casts and they go straight to the DVD,

it's unbelievable. Yeah. Rebecca is
doing a ton of movies like that. Yeah.

I've done a whole lot of those since the mid-90s.
I've even won awards for a couple of them.

But I mean, if those movies
had seen the light of day,

we would be conducting
this session on my yacht.

Oh, my God, who's sweaters are these?

You can take them if you want. Yeah. I
remember being in New York, I don't know what

I was doing there, because I was rarely
there and I was waiting to catch a train

on the subway. And I just ran into Austin.

Of all people, you know, I didn't
know anybody in the city and

he had... oh, his hair
was like this, you know.

And he had some crumbs all
around here and he had on a women's

sweater backwards, buttoned
up the back. And I said, oh,

Austin, where are you off to? And
he said, I'm going to a dinner party.

[sil.]

Mr. Austin Pendleton is in the house.
Thank you so much for coming by. Thank you

Sissy. I don't want to hold back Austin. Please
don't. I can't, can I... Please don't. Can we

relax? Can we have fun. Sure. Yeah. I'm so
excited. And you guys probably have so much footage

of people talking about the
sexiness of Austin Pendleton.

There were certain women waiting afterwards

and we guys go, that's an Austin groupie.
I think every single women in the acting

business, in the acting
world is in love with Austin.

When we went to see Rosmersholm, there were like
five women or something. Or it is less. It seems

like groupies to me. Every women, every
time you see, Austin Pendleton is like, Ahh.

He is a sexy motherfucker.

[sil.]

Austin, he is part of
the fabric of this city.

He don't spend very long in the pool of

New York Theatre without bumping
into him. Every time I go to the

theatre, I swear to God, Austin Pendleton
is there. He just ran just to be everywhere.

He is always being approached, not as

a famous person necessarily, but
just being approached. Wonderful job.

Oh, thank you. Everybody is kind of just
swarms around him. It's so nice to meet you,

yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Hi. And if you
bump into him, you are meeting this kind

of magical elf. You know, who
sends inspiration everywhere.

You want to be in his
presence. You want to hear

whatever little gems going to fell out
of his mouth. My name is Carl Kelsch.

It was a pleasure to see you off tonight.
Oh, thank you. He doesn't care about status

or money or if you have an agent or if you don't have an
agent. He doesn't care about how famous you were or are.

He will be around somebody who is
mega famous person and he will treat

them exactly the same as he will to his intern.
Oh, yeah. He doesn't have a guarded bone

in his body. And because of that people

gravitate towards him. And let's
move very fast through this room,

so we can go quickly to the bar.
Okay. So we don't get involved

in fourteen small talk
moments. Yes, right. So

here... Hey, David.

Great show. Great show. You
are wonderful. He is a magnet for

people's curiosity and people's
joy, and people were just thrilled

to be with him. So what are you doing? Going
down? Have a drink. You are going to have

a drink? Well, I'll have a drink
with you. Good. Will you? Sure.

[sil.] The Austin Pendleton project. Oh,
that the thing where they are going around

and... Making a movie about you.

Yeah. These... What do you mean that's that thing.
Aren't you know that the cameras are following you.

These two guys are so self-effacing. And just
when you think documentary filmmakers are

self-effacing, that's when you have to get aware, because that's
when they catch you. Well, yeah. I don't like to think about it,

because, you know, it's a... I
mean, I'm happy, and who wouldn't

be happy they are doing it. But I don't like to
think about it, because you get else... you know...

What do you know about
Austin's personal life?

Okay. I don't know anything about
his personal life. He is a private person.

He has a wife somewhere, does
he not? And no one have seen her

that I know. And that means
something. We are trying to

get together with Andrew we were going to
shoot, maybe this week, but I think that he got

busy. And it is...

I hope that's okay with you? Just
seeing Andrew. It's too late now.

Turn that off. What's
that? It's too late now.

[sil.]

I think it is

downstairs. The first
thing I do is go and get

Austin's brunch, I guess you
call it, which consist of some soup,

some hand squeezed
orange juice, two bananas,

and double espresso and a
half sandwich. The other half I eat.

So... Hi.

Hi. So that's the story, right.

What? What's the story. I make the
breakfast story. That's true. Every day

of the year. Every Monday. Yeah, I
understand. Not every day. That can be

misconstrued. I started
staying with Austin in 2003

and I have taken at least one
class a week from him ever since.

I got my equity card in 1967, so I give you
some idea of how long I've been doing this,

but I don't think I really became
an actor until Austin taught me how.

Oh, I feel sexy. What I really
like about Austin's method of

teaching is that, he is really interested
in what we as actors bring to the table.

What's wrong with me. I mean we've been fighting
this for years. Look, I haven't... I haven't

left you for a hairier person.

Because we like each other. He
teaches, gets underneath in a human way

and I just have a huge amount of respect
for him and that respect makes me work

really, really hard. Okay. Good play.

What did you say? I
dropped a line. Oh, my God.

Let me take a moment to recover.

I would say, well, if this were on
a Broadway stage, it would never

fly. You know, I probably like, especially at the
end, but we have to let go. Why? What you said that?

Well, it was just, you know. It's much better
than most of us here on the Broadway stage.

Wow. [sil.]

Thank you. Thank you. Oh, but in advance.
Yeah. Oh, my God. How great. Thank you.

Well I don't know where you live,
but I know where you work. Yeah.

Can I just hug you?

Can I just hug you? Okay. Okay.

I don't see you any more. I come
home, you are going around some place.

Why do you want to
see, you can let somebody

go? What is the matter? You're like him.

No, it's just. I used to come
home, you was always there.

Now I turn around and you are a big girl. I
don't know how to talk to you anymore. Why?

I don't know, you are running. You are running, Katie. I don't
think you are listening anymore to me. Then you should let him.

What's the matter? You don't like him?

Beautiful.

Now, but you tell me
why I'm wrong to say that.

I don't know, I always feel unsound

and unsure about that the whole scene, most part of
it. That's not only part of it, that's the scene.

Yeah, it's upsetting. Yeah.

We go into acting to
feel on top of things, right.

That's the last thing we should feel when
we're acting, because no scene ever written

is about somebody on top of
things. So the thing is how to use

actively and dynamically and dramatically

the fact that we don't feel on top of
it. If we don't feel on top of it means

we are in touch with
something in the scene. It's so

important to learn that. You know, it's a scary
place to go for any human being, for me it's...

That's why people write plays about it.

Some of the audience can

watch their worst nightmares
happen in a controlled situation,

a control being that the dialog
is written out and all of that.

But the actors have to
somehow be in touch with that.

All of us have things inside us that
could ambush us at any moment.

And it's when we are... we
think we've got everything in

hand that we relax our
guard and that's when

stuff happens.

Okay. Another class?
Ahh ahh. Another class?

Yes. Then I have bad news, next two weeks

I'm going to be gone, I've got a movie. I know
I've already missed three or four classes,

but I can't turn down this movie. Oh, what
you're doing? An indie movie. This one I hope

might possibly one day come out.
Generally, they probably go to DVD or

something. So who knows what this one could at least,
I don't know. Maybe this one will get seen by somebody,

you know. That too is what show business
is about. May be someone will actually see

this one. You know,

I'm going to wash my hands. I
wash my hands off the whole situation.

Okay. Oh shit. Oh.

Well, no, the soap thing

popped right out of the
container. When you push the

soap thing to make the
soap come out be very careful,

because it just went boom
and on to the floor. Okay

now. You start acting and I
work through my food. Okay.

Austin and food is a whole dramatic

experience. The way he
eats food is not pleasant,

you and your food around him
is not pleasant. It is kind of like,

I don't know, being around a hungry animal. He
knows you bring food out that they are going to

be attracted to it and they are ultimately
going to come over to you and eat it.

[sil.]

You know, what I almost did, I almost
grabbed a piece of bacon of that plate.

I had a physical impulse,
as plate just went by

with some chips with bacon on top of it, I had
a physical impulse just to reach and take it off

and eat it. Like in a restaurant, you
know, I walk by a table and there will be

a bunch of French fries, people are eating, and I
have to physically restrain myself from reaching

and taking a bunch of French fries
off of some total stranger's plate.

See, this is weird, this is
really weird. This is disorder.

[sil.]

They closed Barnes &
Noble there. It makes me sad.

I would actually go to Barnes & Noble and
sit in the corner and read about theology.

Something it wouldn't happen anywhere else.

[sil.]

There will be no room at all on this
subway car, so we have to be brutal.

[sil.]

Maybe I'm just tired,

you know, it could be just that.

This... I'm tired. I should
take it easy for a while.

When was the last time you took it easy?

The late 1980's, I remember, I took
it easy a little bit, something like that.

[sil.]

We have transfers available for the A, C, E, and
Kew Garden Meadow. 2, 3, 7, and Port Authority Bus

Terminal. 32 years ago you could
cheat me in a scene and some.

Oh my God.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a...

[sil.]

If it had been something
Tennessee Williams and I may

act in it, we will be
doing it every weekend,

on Friday's through Monday
nights. It's a great show, I love it.

I love it because everyone in it has
been one time or another a student

over the years. Yeah.

Some of the best students

that I've ever had. Yeah. Hi there.

Hello. Hi there. Hello.
Hi. Hi. Hello. It's the

superstar himself. It's the superstar
he is facing. It's the great Austin.

Yeah, that's right. Excuse me.

[sil.]

Who is this?

I'm going to shut the door. Sure, this is
embarrassing, but we have to, you know.

Well, this could be the section
that would sell a movie. But I

didn't close, I wouldn't
do the nudity in rehearsal

at all, not until the dress of
so-called rehearsal, because

we were rehearsing in the basement of a church
and right in the next room was a daycare center.

And I just thought some kids going to
run around and say, mommy, mommy,

the man from The Muppet Movie was
naked today in the basement of a church.

Then how was it getting
naked on the stage for you.

You guys ready? It was fine. In that play,

you express long scenes.
And so you just forget

about it. It's really weird. In fact, everyone saw
on the middle of... there is a scene where there is

...there are scenes actually once it happens, where
it's never even referring to. And you are in these

intense arguments with people and you
suddenly, I forgot to put on my clothes.

How are you? I'm good. I'm still dealing with a little
stomach thing, had ulcerative colitis, but it's getting

better now, I'll be back in your class before you
know it. I can't wait Yeah, me too. Thank you.

All right. Yeah. We are totally sold out,
we are over sold. We have mats out, we have

put all the backstage chairs out,
so everyone showed out tonight.

[sil.]

He certainly has this
quality of just absolute reality

and authenticity. There is
never any actory thing with him.

I've observed a play that he has
directed with his students. And what I

noticed in that play was that same quality

of reality that he somehow
imparted to his students.

It was like it was really happening
in front of you. You know,

the artifices are all gone. And I

don't really know how he does that.

[sil.]

Hello.

Just went on... like, thank you
very much, just want to... so much...

Thank you. We saw, also Ivana...
Yeah. We just had a chance to really

talk to you, but it was just wonderful... We talked
for a little bit after that, didn't we? You were

surrounded with... No, not that day. I think... No, I
just said thank you, but you were surrounded by people and

I'm sure you didn't notice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Just, yeah. But, it's just brilliant. Thank you so

much. Thank you. Yeah.

I know it was backstage at Sophistry.

It was like, me, Ethan, Steve
Zahn, Anthony Rapp and Austin

sharing a dressing room that
was about this big. And Austin,

as I recall, he's like, came in,

Austin was there and he
sort of standing, my tidy

whitey isn't t-shirt, like,
and he just didn't look happy.

Yeah. In the New York Times magazine was
this picture of Jeff Bridges, and he said

the most underrated actor in
America. Jeff Bridges, America's

most underrated actor, he is on the
cover of the New York Times magazine.

I'm sitting here in this shithole
and with fucking students.

I'm America's most underrated actor.
Fuck Jeff Bridges. This guy gets paid a

million bucks a movie. This guy, you know,
goes does... goes to parties with Jane Fonda.

The fuck I have been doing the hard work my whole
life, I'm the most underrated actor in America.

And this kind of ego came
out of him that I had never seen.

It was a completely absurd headline. And

he called that out what it was
and it really got under his skin. In a

film he'd enjoy to see, because I
started to think he was, you know, perfect.

And he was just so enlightened all the time
and doing everything for the right reasons

and I was like, "Oh, wow, there
is some passion there." You know.

These guys work hard for everything
he is. Do you have any separation

between yourself as an artist and any... is there
any other? No, I don't. I never had since I was

a kid. I never could imagine anything else.

We are talking on the
late 1940's I know what.

And I didn't even know how it
was going to happen or anything.

I got the idea of being in
theater and by extension

film and so forth, way early
on and it was an 8-day fix

and it was complicated by the fact that
when I was young I literally couldn't talk.

Come up. Come up and read.

This summer...

I had a real, real serious
problem with speech.

It's like these athletes who you find out they
were crippled when they were kids or something,

and you just get... it's all about

trying to get free of that, and

you don't want to put
energy into anything else.

When he was a little
boy he said to his mother,

they are making fun of me, they
are making fun of me, telling about

his contemporaries, his fellow
students. And she said, so what?

So what?

Well, there is a fiber in that answer,
isn't there? What are you thinking?

I wish I were dead.

I don't think you'd give up that easy.

So what in the case where a
person is sort of asking for sympathy.

And so what is a way of, phew,

going right over that and
continuing to live and to function.

And people would say, Austin,
about you are being an actor.

I would say, I'll do a lot
of workout, and you know.

It... I've never... it
replaced like everything,

except actual personal
relationships in my life.

I'm and Austin going to the theater and I
said, how the things are going? He said, okay.

And he says my

mother is coming to see the show.

A classic example of a
stutterer. And what does he

stuttered with the name, I was my

mother. They came to
see Austin in everything.

In everything.

And very often a drive
from Marion, Ohio, they miss

nothing. I know that I've
experienced his stutter

when it was worse and
when it was not quite so bad.

And I may be reading into this, but the time
when it was worse was when his mother came to

see him. My last psychiatrist

told me that stuttering is some
conflict between expressing

yourself and holding back, whatever that

means. That would have been
enough to stop many people. And he

just continued, just... he just
continued to work on it and

find his way, and... It
was pretty amazing to see

you would just have a moment
with a particular word and...

...would just choose another word to say.
He's always got a little piece of himself

concentrating on will he stutter,
will he not... how he'd cope with it,

will he put these words together. That's a really
scary thing. As an actor, it'd be like, I could

get stuck in hundreds, thousands of
people watching me to have that challenge

and be like, fuck it, I'm going to go
on stage every night and I don't care.

What kind of actor would I
become if I didn't have this problem?

Not so interesting one.

Today, I would say about turning
down One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

He is like so funny, he didn't
want to be defined as a stutterer.

Well, now, ladies

and gentlemen of the

jury.

The director of My Cousin Vinny was
an old friend of mine and he send me the

script and said, will you do this? I
said, is this a sick joke? On January 4th

of this year, my

client... And I thought it will be... although it's an
exclusive script, it will be a little cult movie, little that

I know would turn into Gone with the Wind.
It's like... it's everybody's favorite movie.

It's like, you know, to this day.

I've made a hundred movies, this is the one

they are going to remember. And I did it as a
favorite of my friend, because he got me drunk.

Coincidental. Thank you.

I went into acting to get away from
stuttering. And here I'm going to be remembered

for it, it's like it's a cruel joke. What about
everything we talked about? No, I got little nervous.

A little nervous? I'm getting better. A
student of mine who is an older women

asked if she could have dinner with me a
couple of years ago and she said, I just wanted

to... she had a some... I don't know
how anyone ever gets over this. But in the

early '90s, her 13-year-old son, he died

in great pain from the brain
tumor. She said, when he was dying

and he was in pain he just
love to watch My Cousin Vinny

and he loved your scenes.
And that's something

in me shifted at that point. I
said, you can't... that's fantastic.

Irreplaceable. Yeah. Whatever your own

personal things about our totally
evaporate in front of something like that.

It's like, I said, oh, thank
you for telling me that. I'm

horrifying that that happened and thank you
for telling me that. I mean, it's like you

do the work and then
it's out of your hands.

Do you get your... do you get pedicures?

No. Beautiful finger nails.
Thank you. So clean. And you do it

yourself? Yeah, I do it
myself. Oh, multi-talented.

The simplest theory is usually
the correct one. The correct theory

is that I was thinking too much to function
properly and then I had this wild dream,

you were acting me in play about my life,

terrible play, and you were terrible
because of the booze. A dream to replace

the drink, I think. See, see, it's a proverb
ending in ain't, pretty naught thing.

It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing.
If It Ain't Got That Swing. Two Gallants have said

that baby. You know your music.
I do. I think you are just exotic.

All right, great. Faith of
luck. You are released.

Steven, will you read the
man's line from the rehearsal.

Certainly, read this. Austin, Thank
you, Austin, that was wonderful,

and we'll try to get and tomorrow we change
your direction. I was going to ask, did we get

any good commercial? No. We got commercials and it is going to conflict
and we can't get up to do the commercials. No one in Los Angeles has

ever even thought of pushing me
for anything like a Jessica Lange.

What does that mean in Jessica Lange?
That kind of movie where... about real

people and you are not playing some absentminded
professor. It's all in the name of science,

Charlie. Definition of being a character actor,
one is, you are not the star of the movie.

We have very little time, Mr. Larry.
Who are you people? You play

something that supports
the tech, supports the stars.

Nothing. Nothing. What
does that mean? You dressing

him smaller, you get paid less. It is
precisely the moment where the mutation or

beast will attempt to kill an
unlikeable side character. The film being

a visual medium demands
beauty. I'm perfectly sane and sound.

You just have to look certain way, you have to look good
enough for people to want to look at you for two hours.

If you don't look satisfying
for two hours. Mind is

the true face of vampires. I
get all these parts particularly

in TV and stuff like that, playing
people who speak scientifically, I never

know what I'm talking about.
This is an ABX technocraft.

I learn it by wrote. Austin, he is

not being exceptionally good
looking, he is not being exceptionally

poetic. Help, I'm stuck,
I'm stuck. He is not

being exceptionally heroic.
Just come on out. Oh, I can't

my legs are asleep. Those are all
virtues. I won't sing and I won't dance.

Don't ask me. There is something
about it that pigeon holds us successfully

enough, so that when you think of absentminded
professor, Austin volley into other people's show.

I have almost never been cast as a

normal human being,
because they are not sure

that it would be believable.

[sil.]

I would not be cast as a President
of the United States. Get off

my plane. I'll be more likely
actually to be elected President

than to be put in the role
of President in a film. I don't

think that anybody wants
to be a character actor.

Why don't you give me half the money you
were going to bet. Then we'll go out back,

I'll kick you in the nuts and we will
call it a day. Secretly we all believe

ourselves to be complete human beings.

You know, I'm just trying to survive.
You know, I mean, I'm just trying to

earn a living, just trying to pay
my rents and my bills. Both Austin

and I whatever part we
are given, we are trying like

lawyers for the characters
we play to make a case

for ourselves as complete human beings.

Whatever the part, and I've played
creatures were not even human,

but I'm try to make the
case that they are fully

human. Anything else you need,
come see me personally. As a character,

you always have their kind of beating the bush
and being very happy to accept what you're

given. Curse you
AquaScum. His high get the big

box. I still have people who
will stop me in front a multiplex

for say maybe two movies I may not
playing, they say, do you ever act anymore

and you don't want to say you don't want
to get... you don't want to get defensive,

you don't say, right there.

I. What?

She can't possibly understand me. She can't possibly
understand me. I'm sorry, if you... my head is

spinning. I understand

nothing. Either I'm going
along with my old age or

suddenly everyone is becoming more cleverer
than... I've been damned to understand any

of it, any of it. In this scene, that the
two of you is beautiful, is just beautiful,

the two of you, yeah. What

do you feel? There are times when I feel a little
unsteady. Is that okay for you if I used a cane?

Please. Really? Use a walker, if
you want, I don't know. Okay. Use a

wheelchair. Okay. Yeah. And there are times when I move
my... when I turn or something. Yeah. Don't even make

it an issue. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely.
Yeah. It couldn't be less important. This floor is too

flat. Yeah, I spoke to them about
that. Yeah. All right. Yeah. No,

I'm not. I spoke harshly to them, but
they would have none of it, what can I say.

Windows is checking for
a solution to the problem,

see, it just totally fucked the
next five minutes of my life.

I was going to just finish out some
e-mail. How great. You love... No, I'm

gonna to take a pee, I'm just
...oh god, I can't deal with this.

[sil.]

Hey, this... I hope I've the right number,
this is for... this is for Daniel Demello. This

is Austin Pendleton. He has my number.

I want him to... I'd love it if you
would invite to Small Craft Warnings

John Simon, the critic,
and it's really... it's

important to me and I know that... that... I know that
John Simon wants to see it and he's of course a great

critic. But, thank you very,
very much. Okay, bye-bye.

Okay, so that I've done

that and he will hate it
probably, John Simon,

but still I don't care. I've
sometimes gotten into trouble

for being what they call too personal,
which in fact was just being too

tough. He didn't enjoy my acting
very much, the first Britain play

that I had that was done in New York, he
said it's got lot of great things and it has

flaws, but we mustn't dwell on the flaws, we must
encourage him, Austin Pendleton, as a playwright,

anything to keep him off the
stage. John Simon's review of Austin

and his play where he was playing, you
know, and a legend, molester of a student

of his, and an alcoholic, it was
Austin Pendleton for once well

cast. And my feeling is that if you give a

terrible review to somebody,
if the person is a real artist,

he can live with that, he can
transcend that. I get really paranoid

anywhere about reading reviews. If they are
bad, I'm afraid that it might shoot a hole in

what I go out and do every night, but even worse
is if they're good because then you try to do

what you just seem described, you
know, in a review. The only safe thing to

do is to pretend that critics all
is important and maybe they are,

but if you take them very seriously,
then you are in the position where

really bad review that you might
get, you have to take just as seriously

as the favorable ones and you don't want to do
that, that's only human and understandable. I

think you don't want to depend
too much on criticism and

by saying you don't read it or by
actually not reading it, you establish your

independence. There

is the two of us and a sister who is

five years younger than Austin, four years
younger than me. And I think throughout

our lives, there's been a
fundamental compatibility and

bond, and that endures today.

Austin had this passion for theater

from a very early age and sort of

swept everybody along
with it. So, he started his own

theatre company such as it was in our basement when he was,
what, eight years old or ten years old, is what I'm thinking,

and he was put on these
extraordinarily, extravagant productions

and then I would get
roped into playing parts very

badly in those and Austin's
whole circle of friends

developed around this theatre.
And did you expect that he

will be as successful as he is. Oh
god, yes, absolutely, no question about it.

I'm kind of disappointed he is
not more successful. You're right,

exactly. We are here.

Welcome. Terry,

hi. Look here, here is our name, THE
FRANCES M PENDLETON STAGE. The M is... the

M stand for Manchester. If you
need me to turn the stage lights on,

I'll be happy to do that.
Sure. Here's the theatre that

they built with their bare hands. It's

a Quonset hut, as you see. It's
one of the best theatres I've ever

worked in, just as a
theatre, as a place to put on a

play. So this is where you directed your
...I directed... in The Glass Menagerie

in 1965, after

my contract in Fiddler on the
Roof was up. That was where

Hal Prince had produced Fiddler on the Roof
and he said, 'are you going to renew your

contract?' And I said, why am I in a
buying, because I'm now being asked

to go out direct my mom in The Glass
Menagerie in Warren, Ohio, at our... the

community theatre she is part of. He said, 'you
have to do that'. I said, 'but I don't want to leave

Fiddler on the Roof, it's like leaving this
secure place, you know. He said, 'well, I'll

tell you what, I'll make you a
deal. You go out and you do that,

and then you can come
back into the show. And in... in

the three months or so
you're gone, we will have your

understudy play the part. And my understudy was
Leonard Frey who then played the part in the movie of

Fiddler and got an Oscar
nomination for it and was beloved in

that part. I happened to have that
program. Oh, you do. The Glass

Menagerie. Yeah, oh my god. Here
is how she build herself as an actress,

Mrs. Thorn Pendleton. She

was this weird mixture of a
feminist before her time and a

total non-feminist.

Oh, my god, that's mom. Alec is

this picture is 28 and I'm 30, 31, yeah. We

were late bloomers, yeah. I acted

here too under her direction a few years after that in The Seagull
and... What were you in The Seagull? I was Konstantin Treplev.

Katina, my wife was Nina.

And also our dad was in a whole
lot of productions that our mom

directed. He wasn't in anybody else's productions. I don't
think... I don't think he was, no, no, he never did any lines.

Yeah, well, he would have lines,
but he would learn them just in

sequence, he didn't know what the cues were.
So, whenever there was pause, he would say

his next line. So, our mom's
productions were known for their electric

pace because people were afraid to take a pause
because he would just say his next line. And

then... he would... then he would hear the cue come up
in the dialog and he would say his thing. He was actually

pretty good, he was
really good and he was in

the production of The Seagull that Katina and
I were in and he had a lot of lines in that,

in The Seagull. Did he?
Yeah, and he would... there

were scenes where he talks to the actress, the character
who is the actress in the play, and you know, Ann Kim

Harry, and he would, he would say, 'oh
my damn, you're a marvelous actress, you're

the greatest that I... he would turn and rehearse
them, say them out to mom and the audience, all

those lines, his name was Thorn.
She would said, 'Thorn, talk to

her, not to me.' 'I'm
sorry, I'm sorry', you

know. She would say things to me like during The Seagull
rehearsals like, 'Austin... this is in front of the whole

cast, 'I'd told these other
actors you are a professional', a

thing... without any evident

humor in her voice. But she

was also... I mean creating...
she was also a whole lot of fun.

She was an extraordinary woman in
many ways. And she was very kind to people

and all that, but she had a tart way of
speech, wouldn't you say Terry? On occasion,

yes, I would say that. Yeah, yes, she would. And
I have to say the results that she got on the

stage... Were electric.
From absolute amateur

actors who were in indeed electric.
Yeah. They were fine productions.

Okay.

[music]

Hi,

Peg. Hi, Austin, how are you? Just
that I have to give him a hug. Good to see

you. Good to see you. This is my
friend, Tensin Ascuda. Hi, nice to meet

you. Nice to meet you too. She is an aspiring actress. Oh. And
she's gonna sort of hang with you and make sure you're okay

there and then she will bring you to the green
room... Okay. At 6 when we're ready for you

and... Excited to be
back? Oh, yeah, yeah. [sil.]

Hi.

Hi, guys. Hi. How are

you? Oh my god! I was so glad that you're here. It's so wonderful. Thank you. Watching
and following your work for a long time, ever since The Last Sweet Days of Isaac.

Oh my god,

yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I'm Stephanie Corrianno,
it's wonderful to have you here on our town.

Thank you, Stephanie. Thank you. You're a wonderful
actor. What? You're a wonderful character actor,

wonderful person, just... follow your
work. Thank you. My Cousin Vinny.

Oh, thank you, thank you. One of my
favorites. Thank you, thank you, yeah.

[sil.]

What quality do you think you took from your mother
and what quality you think you took from your

father? I really don't know,

because I don't know, they both, as
Alec said they were both very energetic,

career-driven. They had their issues

as everybody does, but
they actually set it both

in two different ways, they try and put
over their issues, you know what I mean.

They lived very productive lives

although they were both,
you know, they both had

stuff they struggled with. And I think

that... I think

that all three of us, that
was kind of an inspiration

because you can tell they were in trouble, I mean just
each of them individually, but they just... I don't know

they carried on. Okay.

[sil.]

Hi. There you are.

Hi. [sil.]

Oh, my... Yeah, I

know. It's amazing. Yeah. Look here. That was our house. Oh, your
house? Yeah, when we lived out there a little... in the early 1950s

and then we moved to Atlantic
Street. Okay, alright. Yeah. And this

was your living room. Yeah,
yeah, right, in... out in the country.

Yeah. Yeah. As far as I ever got was the front
of the... front door, I never got inside. Yeah.

I've a major problem at
home. My mom, she has MS

and she is bedridden. And my dad, he is

taking care of her. He is a nurse's
aid and he has no income right

now. Wow. So, I'm just
trying to... helping my mom

every day, you know. Oh, yeah.
And I don't really have much of a life

...I've been

living a lie basically... How do
you mean? There's nothing inside,

I need something to
bring me back to life. Yeah,

like what? An actor.

Yeah. I love acting. Would you be free to
go out and work with TNT? You have to start

somewhere. Right. And this group
is really good, really good. That's

where I started, you
know. I can introduce you to

somebody here. Yeah,
yes sir. Okay, let's see

Terry Gilbert is whom I'm
looking to introduce you. Terry,

talk to this young man. Hi.

I got a

terrible review in The New York
Times for Yahgo where the whole first

half of the review was about me and then the
other half said, 'on the other hand, there

are some good things'. It happened that
my mom was at the performance that night

on the evening of the
day the review came out.

And my cousin came to see it with
her and my cousin told me afterward

that... that she and my mom were in
their seats after the performance and they

were going to wait for me to come
up. And some person past them

and wasn't aware that she was my
mom and he said to whoever he was with,

'God, the Times was right,
Austin Pendleton is terrible.' And

my mom said, 'just a moment',
and she never revealed she was my

mom. She just said, 'you don't
know what you are talking about'.

[music]

Is there any food?

Anywhere? Do you have any food laid
out, anywhere? Let me get some food for

you. Yeah,

okay.

I'm going to take a shower. And I'll wait.

Yeah, hi.

Hi. Excuse me. Hi. Hi. How is it going?

Did you have a good flight? Well, it was eventful, let's
put it that way. You're here now, that explains enough.

Yeah, right. Hey, Sean.

Yeah. Yeah. I haven't been in here

since I acted it here as

Yahgo in 1997. Wait,

this doesn't make any
sense that it would be

dark down there. I am
now retracing my steps. You

know, it's up this

way, this way. I think what they have

done up here is a... is a homeless shelter.

[sil.]

Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no

shit. I can't... oh

no, oh, this is terrible. Let's see.

Maybe you should ask
someone in there. Hello? Yeah.

[sil.]

Oh, this is bad news

here.

This is a very small plane.

oh yeah.

[sil.]

There. I'm a new man.
I'm a new man. (inaudible)

. [sil.]

One of the things that separates
Austin from everybody else is his

incredible inability
to give into bitterness.

He once told me as something
that Joseph Pappa told him that,

how you most easily define success is by
how you handle your disappointments. And

Austin has handled his
disappointments in his life with

tremendous grace.

[music]

He went through a period in New York where it
was very, very difficult for him. It's as if

the critics did not want him.
They wanted him to stay in

a box, they wanted him to
play only certain parts. And

anytime he try to do something else, they would
just land on him like a ton of bricks, and

what did he do, he just went wherever
people will let him play the great parts.

He will act in the things you don't even know
where he is, like he says, like... I know he's

only in some place, somewhere, whether it's
Broadway or 99C House or someone's house.

Austin, what's with that cup? It's a
cup that somebody gave and whenever

I go into a coffee bar and I get espresso or
anything, I just pour it in here, well, like

just now, I love it. It's things from Alice in
Wonderland, somebody gave it for me. Really?

In this business you go through
a lot of downs that are... that

seem to be definitive, that
seem to be like, 'forget it,

that's it'. And so, you have to develop

a way of looking at things that can

get you through that. When my carrier

kind of collapsed in the late
'70s, I started to get offering these

great parts in showcases like in the place
where you got tonight. I started to being

asked to do these great
classical roles. I used to be

told, 'don't ever do a showcase, it makes it
...it makes you look bad. The fact that you've

done it, that fact that you will freely
do it'. In the world we all came up in, in

the '70s, theater was a
religion, but how you made

it was your mission. Austin
never lost the mission. It's

not a work ethic, it's a work
necessity. If you do a showcase,

somebody is going to
see it. That's the only thing

that will get you through all this, that that's
the only thing that could be important. And

if you say, 'well, I'll harder on this
because it's more hope, high profile

than I work on this', then... then you
have already begun to throw it away.

You've thrown away the
one thing that's the only

thing that's ever going to
get you through. I've been

in a whole lot of movies
that no one has ever seen,

just to pick up a little cash, just so
that I could then go back and be in

some more of these
showcases. Very important people

to me early in the work, important teachers,
important people I knew kept saying, 'it's

about the work, it's

not about anything else'.

You know what, I have
to go, I've to go and sleep.

Good night.

Are you going to the opening

night? I guess there's a party or something
like that, after a few minutes, I hate

those things. Yeah. Everybody is looking at their phones, wondering
what the reviews are, I just hate it. I really don't believe it

but

you know, I cannot show
up. That's our first song

in that show.

[sil.]

It was fantastic. Yeah, enjoyed it. Thumbs

up. Thank you. [sil.]

Hi, Josh.

Congratulations. Thank you. I hope you've been
okay. Having a great evening. Oh my god, wait, food.

I need to give you a huge

hug. Where... is that wine or... You want a
sip of my champagne. Where is the champagne?

Let's get you some. Yes. Congratulations, can we get you to
do some photographs on the other side. Sure, sure. Somebody is

getting you a glass of champagne. That's all I
need, yeah. We will bring it to you. Take one

just together. I've to be in the picture with him? Yes. I
thought my... I thought they had read my contract right, no; no.

[music]

Thank you. Oh, wait. Oh, thank you.

[music]

The quintessence of Pendleton.
I guess we will hear the reviews.

Does the Times come out tonight? Oh yeah,
the Times will be up within an hour or so.

How will this party find
out about it? Some person

will look on their phone. And then
people will start avoiding us. Yeah. There

is the moment at the party when everybody
is looking at each other strangely.

Well, sometimes you don't really care,
even if it's show you love, sometimes

you just say, 'well, whatever' and other times you
get nervous. It's been like that all the way along. We

worked so hard on it for three years, you
know. What are your... what's your hunch?

I've learned long ago not to have
a hunch, you just don't ever know.

Thank you, Jack. Nobody forces
you to go into this business, so

you can't even complain, you know they didn't tell
me there would be critics, you can't say that. [sil.]

Yeah.

Austin is the most famous guy right now. He
doesn't know, he doesn't remember, 30 years

ago, April 19, when I
interviewed you at the Little

Foxy, I told him he was going to be the most
famous director in the world as he directed

Elizabeth Taylor for the first time
she ever stepped on stage. I'm so drunk

and happy, I'm just going
to go. Okay, bye. Bye.

You're the best part
of this whole thing. Oh,

thank you. Thank you so much. It's good. What's good? The New Times,
it's up and it's good. What? It's good? What? What? What? Yes,

I've just been told, I haven't read it, I've just
been told. Small stirrings of the heart and mind

evoke delicate musical
responses in A Minister's Wife

who lovingly composed chamber musical that opened
on Sunday night at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

at Lincoln Center. The musical
moves with a gentle step keeping

an intimate focus on its central characters
as they circle one another in a cozy

London study that becomes
the site of a well-mannered moral

and intellectual boxing match, conceived
and directed by Michael Halberstam

and Austin Pendleton wrote the smartly
condensed book, the creators of A Minster's Wife

are aiming for something closer to the original.
Congratulations to you guys, you guys need to.

What did you get? We got Aces, but the

crapshoots, don't take it seriously.

That's true, but still I can see it your eyes.
But still it's nice, it's very nice. Alright.

Don't, be careful. Always be careful.
Yeah. You never know. Because

the next time out, he won't like what you do. Who
knows that if there would be a next time. Yeah, right.

Yeah right, I know. Correctly they say to
me right now is, 'fuck the next time'. They

either get what you are trying to do

or they don't, and that's the life in show
business. Welcome to our career. Thank you.

It has its ups, it has its downs. You're
right. Ladies and gentlemen, we are

back please, we are back and we are
at the top of act four, top of act four,

please. Thank you. Okay,

stand by, upright, go.

Listen carefully and with all due respect

of course and you, the
mademoiselle demands attention

with your intelligence and compassion

doesn't even understand her own father.

I've been an actor for, I mean,
say, and I don't remember, almost

55 years. Put a wick
in your mouth, light it

and go breathe fire on
everyone. During a lot of those 50

years, I've worked with him frequently,
acted with him, directed him. He is

almost 90, but he was still I
thought at the peak of his form. I

just came off a knee operation. I
just want to, let's see. In other words I

was saying, take it day by day by
day. And then one day in rehearsal

I was sitting and Ethan Hawke comes
behind me and I turn the greet him and

I fell. Hello. Oh! Oh, Jesus
Christ! Too much vodka?

Too much vodka. And everybody went,

oh my god, oh he fell.
How are you? I'm okay, no, I

didn't hurt myself, it was just... it was the funny
way I turned, that's all, yeah. Story of my life. No,

she isn't. Characters in the play
need to... We started talking about

my balance was not that good.

So, they just... we will get you a
wheelchair and I felt uncomfortable

wheeling myself around the
stage. So I said to myself, 'what

am I trying to prove?'
So I told Austin this,

look, I don't think I could
go on with the show.

He said, I don't think you are going to believe
this, but I don't want to be in the show. I said no,

I don't believe it because you are
fucking brilliant. And we get emails,

'I saw this show tonight,
this guy was magnificent'.

He just gets to the heart of
things. Never seen servant died,

suddenly for some reason he
wants to marry you, oh... never mind,

never mind, I'm just
an old crow, that's what I

am, I am... Who is going to do
it? I said, well, they want me to

go and do it, but I'll tell you why I'm
going into it. If I... if you change your

mind in a couple of weeks and
I'm doing it, all you have to do is

lift the phone and you will come back again.
When I talked to Austin about it, he says, if

for some reason after you leave the show

and you think about it and you want
to come back, you're welcome, and

I said no, no, no, no.

My head is spinning, I am so
confused, dare hell with you, no,

I don't like it, I don't like any of it. And
he has told, now it's over, I'll act in film

and TV, but not in theater, I'm going to get
him back. The fair Ophelia, O treble woe.

Hold off the earth awhile.

Till I have once more caught her

in my arms. What is he, whose

grief bears such an emphasis.
This is I, Hamlet the Dane.

I'd made two movies with Phil, one of
them is the Fifteen Minute Hamlet. Phil is

sublime in that

movie. Austin gave me my
first two jobs out of college

which were probably two of the most significant jobs I've
had till now. Our audition for him for the Williamstown,

a non-equity company,

I had to give two speeches on contemporary
and a classical and I tore my pants. I went

to sit down in a chair, very much like this
chair and my pocket caught on my... caught

on that arm of the chair and like tore it
significantly, like it's eight inch opening gap

in the side of my pants and I
thought, oh god, that's a disaster. His

contemporary piece was the final
speech of Tom's from The Glass Menagerie

and of course one has heard
that speech 400 times. Phil did it,

it sounded like he was making
it up, it sounded like no one

else had ever said this. Right from the get
go, meeting him in that audition, there was no

preconceptions or judgments or biases,
it felt like, it felt like he was just kind

of accepting me and my
terms. For a while he was... he

told that to interviewers and they
would... and they would call me up.

They would say who? Yeah, right, yeah right. They'd say,
did Phil, there was a crazy actor and he was attributing his

career to you. And that's
Philip Seymour Hoffman is... and

I would say this sounds like, aw, shucks
or something, but it's just the truth.

I would say to them... I was the only
one in the room when he auditioned.

I would say anyone who is in
that room who didn't pick him

truly does not belong in the business. I
damn remember really thinking like, I think

I might get this job and it wasn't because
I thought I like nailed the audition

or anything like that, I thought I... did something happen
in that room, that was quite positive to me, and if I didn't

get that job, I felt like I think I'm
going to meet that guy again. And so, I

would... it's not about my talent
or about what I do. I think it's about

how people think, you know, what
people want to see and how they work.

Because I went through something
when I was so young, at a time

I was so scared and so
anxious, and so full of fear

and I walked into a room and he was
sitting there and he gave me comfort.

[music]

Do you think about

your legacy? No. I
think of trying to be bad

as infrequently as possible.
You know, I'm famous

in... to a lot of people as that guy. He's an
actor. Thank you. What? Oh, you're an actor?

There is... there's one school of thought,

yeah, right, yeah right. I've seen
your movies. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. You asked about a legacy, you

want to leave behind you
as little carnage as possible.

Is it three? Yes. I would get very
freaked out if any kind of search

light would turn on the life of myself
and the lives of people who are close to

me, I really would. If
people are watching you

do your work, either your direction
or your acting or whatever plays you

write, whatever, even your teaching, and they
are not only watching what you're doing, they are

computing things they know about your life,

I think that's too bad. Has

my daughter showed up? I
don't think she has, actually.

Hey, how are you John? Good to see you.

Is Austin successful depends
on what you mean by success and

in this culture unfortunately
people mean famous by success.

Success is a really interesting concept which,
you know, all of us wrestle with in some fashion

or other. I need a cell phone, I
have to call my daughter. Thank you.

To the large public, he may not be well-known,
well, I'm not sure that he cares about that.

I don't think he is an overwhelming success, but
I don't think he will need to be an overwhelming

success. There is no quote making it, because if there
was a quote making it he would have made it seven or eight

times already. Whatever I've
managed to accomplish or figure out, that

little bit has been through the result
of Austin Pendleton's teaching and I'm

not the only person in this
country or the world who will

tell you that. No, I'm looking
for my daughter. When it comes

to art and when it comes to theater,
he knows that that's where his life is.

I just think he is going where the work
is. My experience of Austin Pendleton

comes way before he ever knew where I was. I
was in college. I was assigned Oh Dad, Poor Dad,

which I could not figure
out what the fuck the sign

was and I remember going to the front and

going, who plays this part, and it is
Austin Pendleton. I am like, Austin

Pendleton, Austin
Pendleton. My next six soldier

was I got into (inaudible)

then I was like, who's this
sound? Austin Pendleton.

I started noticing this weird thread
developing about Austin Pendleton. So

then my wife was offered Uncle Vanya

and said I decided Austin
Pendleton is directing it.

Not only did he have to
do that, I was like, I have to

be in that with you like desperately, desperately. I
was like everything's going to come together. It seemed

to be like a thing I never have told

Austin about any of this (inaudible)

on direction and...
He's just a very brilliant,

colorful, kind, patient
person. Growing up, he would

say, 'figure out what you love and the rest will fall
into place'. I hoped that will unsettle me and I am

still teaching medical students and residents and assessing
patients and I'm still you know contributing something to both

the field and the people of my life and if I could
add any fraction of the impact he's had, that

to me is being successful. Ladies
and gentlemen, Austin Pendleton.

[music]

Okay, that's doesn't

mean I'm going to start at the beginning of my
career and go all the way through it, but that

reminded me of a moment, when I was in Oh Dad,
I got this extraordinary role in this play.

Three months after I came to
New York through a series of kindly

flukes, the only factor
that had been left out

of this whole equation was that I
did not yet know how to act. I had no

real training, about a month into

the run, I just began to unravel.
I must state, it wasn't just my

imagination. I began to actually
unravel people, people would mention it.

So, financier Jerry, he

hadn't seen it a few weeks. I said, Jerry, you probably
don't understand how terrible I am. He said, oh, yes,

I do, I read the performance reports,

I know, I know. So, I should... I

am going to leave. He said,
I don't want that. If you quit

this show, you won't ever act again. First of
all, you'd be too afraid to ever act again, and

secondly, of course we will get out if you quit this
show because you just couldn't handle it, you won't ever

act again. So, I can't make you stay,

but I want you to be
an actor all your life.

So I stay... I said, what should
I do? He says, you work it out.

And so, Peter's whole

sensation to being impressed with me when he saw,
saw my name in the cast list that the original

location was based on sand.

Peter spend all his time being intimidated

by something that didn't exist

and... but also that story moves me,

it moves me because of Jerry
Robbins. The result of that,

that early evening chat one spring in 1962

was that here I'm and
here I'm having been to

work with all these wonderful people. So,
actually I'm thinking everybody. Thank you.

[music]

This happens, it doesn't

ever happened in the program where we
dream up that we do this and then the door

opens because of that to this and then we got
a good review here, so that leads to that,

and then you know once singular sensation

you know, it hardly ever happens
like that and if it does, if all falls

apart at some point. Oh, shut up.

[music]