Speaker Mark Colvin. Yeah, well, I was you know, I was brought up in the Ensemble School of Acting and I’ve worked for many years with the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago. And I was trained in a way that really the star of any film play, whatever is the story. And and that all the actors you said earlier, something about, you know, it’s it’s you have ego, but you’re also ego less. And it’s that balance of, you know, doing your job really well, but playing very well with the people that are around you.

Speaker And because it’s just almost like to me, any great athletic event, you know, it’s you know, your tennis game is better if you play with a better player. You’re you know, you’re your football team is stronger if everybody’s playing together. I sort of make a correlation with that. And I was very struck with Jeff because I had been raised in this and been from the Midwest and learned how to act in the Midwest, which is kind of a I don’t know, people don’t take it as seriously. It’s it’s very sort of workman like kind of attitude towards it. And I found Jeff when I first met him to be incredibly of that school.

Speaker Yet he does. Doesn’t know.

Speaker But I think his inherent personality is very much a team player. Very he’s extremely curious person. That was one thing that really, really struck me about him initially, is is a delight to be around, has a varying, very, very strong work ethic, is incredibly kind and supportive of the crew and approaches his work very seriously. But there I just respected him enormously when upon first meeting him and seeing how he worked. And it was it was sort of an approach that I felt was familiar to me from my ensemble background. And it seemed to make a very good combination for working together.

Speaker Well, you talk about sort of European this. I’m just something about Western.

Speaker You know, something, by the way, the audience comes to you with a great feeling of knowing, you know, this guy.

Speaker Yeah. There’s no way. But it’s something.

Speaker It’s fascinating because he grew up in a Hollywood family, you know. I mean, his his father, father and working on see, I mean, he was in a he was in, you know, involved with acting and show business from an extremely young age. And I find it really fascinating that he’s still, you know, despite having grown up in that arena, had a very sort of down to earth, you know, workman like approach to to his craft. And I found that, you know, really impressive. I loved his relationship with his family. I know he thought very, very highly of his father was in Tucker as well. I know he looked to his dad for he looked to Lloyd for asking him questions about acting and approaching a certain role. Jeff was always asking and and querying and wondering and and contemplating, you know, what about if you try something this way? And then he would he always loved to use the monitor as well. And we’ll look at playback and watch what some actors hate doing that. But he he taught me a lot about the value of going to the monitor after a take that it can be very educational to you. You can you can look at what you’ve done and go. I maybe I like that, but not that. And you can tweak your work and use it as a tool. And he very much, you know, influenced me on not being afraid of it, you know, OK, I don’t want to see myself. I don’t know that to to look at it from that vantage point.

Speaker Well, that’s interesting. Also worth director.

Speaker Well, the directors at the Monitor as well. Exactly. You’re kind of all grouped around it. And it’s it’s a very collaborative moment. And usually, if you know well, some directors don’t like you to be at the monitor, and that’s that’s true. But there are many directors who do. And Francis Coppola was one of the ones who pioneered the whole use of the monitor. He was one of the first directors to not watch the live action that was going on. And I remember at the time, it was like, oh, my God, he’s watching from a script. What is that? And of course, it’s the norm, pretty much the norm today. But he pretty much brought that, you know, in into into being and and so he welcomed actors coming around looking at the monitor with him, watching playback, discussing the take. What could be better, what could we change, you know, and making it a very collaborative experience in many levels of things.

Speaker One of the things I was thinking about is, boy, please, as Senator and Tucker, the president. Yes, very lovely little parallels that you could sort of such a lovely symmetry in certain parts of this that you could imagine. Yes.

Speaker Things come together now and in in both films, you have Cartola on one. And you have this young Rod Lurie, who had never made a film before and the other. Right. So there’s also these before you with Jeff and in a in a. Type pairing in both situations. Two very different experiences with two. Very. Yes. A season director and emotional and big director. And Lurrie strikes me as well. It was his first film coming out in a very different way with this. Also, I think great on she wanted to be do you know people like Frankenheimer and people like Akula? And. Yes. Right. So I guess I’m just curious about the two here, the two of you were. Knowing that these two.

Speaker Well, Francis was was, you know, fantastic to work with. I mean, I was. I had done Peggy Sue got married with Frances before, so I’d had an experience of working with him. So was my second time working with him. And but I was still a pretty inexperienced film actress. I had done a tremendous amount of stage work all through my 20s. I came to film pretty long in the tooth. You know, these did this day and age. So I was in my late 20s and early 30s when I really started working on on film and film was kind of intimidating for me. And that was something that Jeff just was an incredible teacher for me. I was a little daunted by even working with Frances a second time because I was, you know, you know, so reverent of of so much of his work.

Speaker And but Jeff really was a wonderful example of how you work in film. And I watched his work and I learned a lot about I was not used to makeup artists coming in and, you know, two seconds before cameras were all, OK. We’re doing this. We’re tweaking this. We’re pulling that. You know, I was used to that. The curtain goes up. You do the entire play. That’s that’s the whole thing. You know, and the the kind of concentration. It’s a very different kind of concentration. And I was trying to learn how to do that. And Jeff was a wonderful teacher in terms of watching how adept he was sometimes. Vittorio Storaro was the cinematographer on it and he set up these incredibly elaborate, gorgeous light settings. But with you know, I remember once Jeff had to walk down the sidewalk, turn around, spin over here. I mean, it was court choreographed the most.

Speaker I watched Jeff how he would what before we would do a take. He would just kind of do it, repeat it. You know, he would use the time before why the lights were being tweaked or whatever to use that time to get extremely comfortable with what he had to do, because there was a lot of precision involved in addition to him acting and having the performance and all of that. And so I watch that a lot. And I watched how he focused. And it really was incredibly valuable for me to see him work.

Speaker You. You really, in a way, his.

Speaker Oh. Yes.

Speaker That’s the beauty of this stuff. You cut away. It’s it’s it’s fine. It doesn’t matter. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker There’s so many things about Tucker, too. I mean, yes, it’s very stylish and stylized. Extraordinary. The way the seams are cut, the way the scenes are married to each other. The staging is interesting. The stage in the 70s is.

Speaker Is there, too. Yes. You actually look at it and it’s a little more stage set film. Yes. Yes. Which is. Also very interesting. And when you do watch it, you are very aware of the fact that there is a certain choreography to it. Exactly. And so that sort of element is very different than sort of the realistic right, really in life. Yes. Yes, I agree.

Speaker There was a little bit of a heightened quality, stylized quality to Tucker. And the contender was more, you know, for lack of a better term documentary esq. But by the time we got to do the got to do The Contender, I was a more seasoned film actor and started making more sense to me. And in some ways, I felt like I was almost better playing with Jeff because I was not so anxious about the technical aspect of performing in front of the camera, hitting your mark, staying in the light, doing your lines. You know all these things in Tucker. I was just kind of like, OK, if I hit my mark and say my wife, I’ll be OK. I was more relaxed about it. It was it was more comfortable for me. So I kind of appreciated having more experienced myself to be hopefully a better playing partner for Jeff, even in The Contender than I was in Tucker.

Speaker And as we said, we first came in the difference in these two characters in two films. Tucker, you’re the support, right? He’s a support. He was. Which he is, which I find also interesting because Jeff’s big star. And Jeff hasn’t been as big from our films. So I’m interested, too, in that juxtaposition for you as being.

Speaker Yes. And then being in LA. Right.

Speaker Well, you know, in in I hear what you’re saying, but the contender in many ways is is something of an ensemble film. You might say that my character, you know, is is she’s the focus point of the story, really the incidents that happened to her.

Speaker And, you know, and so, yeah, maybe a little bit more, you know, and more featured. But from my perspective, that’s quite an ensemble film. And and Shelly Runyon, Gary Oldman played and and Jeff in particular, I think almost those three roles were a little bit, you know, intertwined and kind of so I didn’t feel like, you know, I was on this whole quite this whole other level.

Speaker And I agree with you, it’s kind of blurred. Who is who you if it matters who’s leading this right. It was kind of weird because, of course, the scene in the grass. Yeah.

Speaker Scene is just a great scene. Everything about that scene is just.

Speaker It’s comfortable. It’s real. It feels it feels like to people who work together, a lot of you sort of are looking at it that way. Yeah. And also, it also had the formality of two people in those actual roles.

Speaker This is the president. This was this contender, this choice for vice president. I guess you had the dubious distinction of being the only former vice president.

Speaker Yes. Yes, exactly. Exactly right.

Speaker But I’d love to talk about that scene because it is a seamless scene. To me, it has an extraordinary power in its warmth, in its depth, in its shyness, in its in its complexity.

Speaker Wow. Well, I haven’t seen the contender for a while. But I. Jeff is just. I don’t know. He’s so easy to play with. He’s so open, he’s so.

Speaker Is is very generous to his fellow actors with holding onto his own work, you know, which is which is quite a balance. And I think he he strikes that so well and everything that he does. But I think we also shot that scene a lot later in the in the shoot. It wasn’t a very, very long shoot. It might have been a seven or eight week shoot, but I think we shot it closer towards the end. So we’d had a rhythm and we’d had other scenes that we had done together. And that kind of all builds. I think, too, if you can shoot a little chronologically sometimes in film, which doesn’t always happen. It sometimes is to your advantage because you’ve built up that time of doing other scenes together and you have that sort of. What’s going on up there? Sir, some siren outside the.

Speaker I thought it was, as has been said. Oh, I’m sorry. I mean, I really want to stop it. You were saying it was a little bit later?

Speaker Yes, it was a little bit later in.

Speaker It was a little bit later in the shoot and you have had the experience of shooting all these other scenes. Hopefully a little bit chronologically, you know, when they attempt to try to do the schedule in that way. And so, you know, you’ve you’ve been at work every day. The days are long. Twelve to 14 hour days. You’re working together. You’re hanging out together. You’re you’re just kind of getting more and more sort of comfortable with each other and then and spending more and more time with each other. And so I think also that contributes.

Speaker I just remember the scene was very fun. I got to smoke a cigar, which was cracking me up. And it was it was it was lovely and charming. And I think Jeff has a great capacity to to do his work very well and make you feel confident in the work that you’re doing so that it feels, you know, like you can experiment and try and you feel do something a little bit different. He’ll go with you. You know, he is extremely open that way and generous. And and I think that that makes maybe four things to be excuse me, more spontaneous, more real, more in the moment. And and I think that was the case in that scene.

Speaker You mentioned that film. And it’s true. By the time you get to that moment in the film, you feel you have gone through some things to get right. Just before you talk about this, his portrayal in this film is quite extraordinary. Yes. Yes. He plays it with this. He plays it with tremendous fearlessness, toughness at the same time. He’s got this great pragmatism about this great level of understanding, you know. And I think what I think is so powerful about this portrayal from him is how. Much you can’t believe this is the personal side of president, right? Is what you don’t get to see.

Speaker Yes. Yes, I think Jeff was completely masterful in having so many different colors to play. The president is a very difficult thing to project. The kind of authority, real a.. You know, the leadership qualities. It’s it’s it’s it’s very, very difficult.

Speaker And and Jeff walked this incredible balance. I don’t know if he used you know, if he thought some about Bill Clinton, who were some of it. I think he had an LBJ quality almost to it with his humor. I think he kind of pulled a little bit from other, you know, other past presidents. But there was there was an ease and authority, a humor and a power. He exuded power at the same time, which I just am amazed that he was able to strike with the balance, with it, with all those and make it so believable and so real and again with me.

Speaker I was also kind of marveling at Sam Elliott has hit the dude abides. Exactly. These guys. And now certainly and it is true, there was there was sort of colors in this performance of both of them. Yes.

Speaker To achieving some kind of feeling and understanding of what these guys must feel and who are constantly around people constantly. And yet we’re the little it is a room of who they can trust and how. Yes. The moment that I loved all of it was just screams. He’s so frustrated and there’s just that huge scream.

Speaker Exactly.

Speaker And then you actually get here in your office. And it’s just it really was, I thought, an amazing. And then when he is in the end presidential, he is fully present. Yes.

Speaker Yes. I think it’s I you know, presidents are human beings as well.

Speaker And I think what Jeff was able to achieve so beautifully is to show that. And and, too, there are times when I’m sure presidents are screaming and wanting to tear their hair out in frustration. I mean, it’s an enormous. I can’t imagine anybody taking that job on. And and I totally agree that Sam Elliott, the the two of them together, having been, you know, the dude’s it’s wonderful.

Speaker I mean, that is one of the great things about acting and that you can be a chameleon and do different things. And I think that’s something that also that Jeff does so brilliantly is is he changes himself very so much from role to role, from how much weight he puts on, from how long his hair is from. You know, he’s he is he’s sort of he he doesn’t have vanity. And because he is a gorgeous man. And then you see you see him in certain roles and he’s all, you know, Tucker, you know, he’s all perfect in his beautiful suits and he’s completely gorgeous. And then you see him, you know, scruffy with a plaid t shirt on, you know, plaid flannel shirt on and and, you know, some baseball cap and a big heavy beard. And he he he seems to love to do that and that. And I think, you know, I mean, women certainly have certain things about vanity even being maybe a little more careful about roles that they’ll do. But but even men, I think and and Jeff is is is very open and interested, I think, in playing a big variety.

Speaker And he really does do it again with his effortlessness. Yes. Do it. Getting back and thinking about scene on the line. Was that the. Two of you. Was it one day?

Speaker Well, I’m trying to remember it. It might have been. I mean, we shot it. I spent quite a while since I’ve seen it. And I don’t know what the edits are in that scene. So but I think, you know, there were pretty significant chunks at different times that were just, you know, go on one, go at it.

Speaker It’s just such an EU. It is such a. Normalcy. It doesn’t feel like. Parts of Preston, parts of Tucker. Feel it.

Speaker Yes. And I think that’s deliberate. Exactly. I think that. And again, he does that rather well. Yes.

Speaker Yeah. It’s wonderful to play with different styles, too, you know, in in acting. I mean, some some material requires, you know, maybe a slightly heightened you know, if you think of the Coen brothers, you know, something that’s just a little almost hyper real.

Speaker And as an actor, it’s really kind of wonderful to work in different, you know, work with different material that has sort of different demands in terms of kind of the the style of it, the feel of it.

Speaker Well, the other thing I was thinking to I was also the sort of the Americana films and these two in these key in this case, I think these are sort of the American guys. Yes. In the sense of how the red, white and blue sort of America. Jeff, to me is also somebody you cannot mistake as being anything other than an American actor. Yes. An American character. Yes. Whether he plays a lead or whether he plays character. Yes. He has an American ness about him. That is unmistakable. Yes. I think you equally complement that. I think when you look at both of those parts and I can think of you and other things to I think of you as Pat Nixon, I mean, I can think of your other trajectory, kind of a both of you. Is this was in both cases, a great pairing of American.

Speaker This ethos of American, yes.

Speaker Yes, I would sort of agree with that. I would. I think that’s an interesting observation.

Speaker I have never really thought about it that way. But I do think that there is something that Jeff projects that is very American now within that he plays, you know, all the range. You know, he plays a wide, wide range.

Speaker And it is much, much to be an American guy as it is. It’s it’s no less American to be bad. Blake. Exactly. Shepard side of America. Exactly. This also these absolutely broken down know.

Speaker And that can happen. And that is also sort of an evocative character of this culture. But he is of this country as of this time. And yet he I see him also just coming right through his time. Yes. He’s coming right along with himself.

Speaker Right. Right. Yes. He’s young.

Speaker He was a young, you know, Duane Jackson in Nice Picture Show. He then he finds himself again 30 years later. And, you know, in the 70s. So there’s the trajectory stays right with it.

Speaker Yes. Yes. I would I would agree with that.

Speaker If you look at the body of his work and I think that there’s something you’re really onto about that observation, and I think it is a rarity of that also in terms of being able to sustain.

Speaker Through all this. Still something.

Speaker Yes. Yes, I don’t think there’s anybody quite. I don’t think there’s another male actor quite like Jeff in in that way. Who does projects America.

Speaker American is from all these different levels of, you know, authority, money, whatever that he really is, is unique in in that way. And thankfully for all of us, his career just keeps going on and on. It keeps getting great things to do and it’s wonderful for us.

Speaker I would like you to also talk more about this week in L.A.. First thing he said about you is he just didn’t stop asking questions. He was just curious.

Speaker Well, how does that tell you about and you’re repeating the same thing again in a very with a very different actor in a very different circumstance.

Speaker Yes. I was very charmed by his curiousness. And it also helped me because I said I was more particularly. But, Tucker, more of an inexperienced film actor at that point, you know, and I thought, oh, they’re spending all this money. I’ve just got to hit my mark and not ask too many questions. He was a great role model because he would go to Francis or whoever talked to talked to different people to say, well, what do you think about this and what do you think about that? You know, and and he was very, very curious about what other people thought, what the director thought, and he would mull it over.

Speaker But my I think my favorite favorite story that came out of Tucker was there was an actor. One day we were doing the courtroom scene and there was an actor who’s on the stand who has to do testimony against I think against Tucker and this gentleman. Was so it was early in the morning, it was very warm around, and he actually fell asleep during his close up. And he and we were all watching because he was the he would say his lines and he would start saying them about halfway through.

Speaker And then you wake up and and and we were all like, oh, my God, he’s falling asleep to bring his take, that that’s so incredible. I’ve never done that in my life. And Francis didn’t say card. He kind of kept. But I think he find Francis finally did sort of announce that something was going out. Well, afterwards, Jeff, when we were having lunch, then we were back getting our touch ups in the in the hair and makeup trailer. Jeff said, Now, I am so interested in how that guy could fall asleep during his take. Now, if he said, if you could be that relaxed, you know, what would that be like for, you know, in terms of opening yourself up to do better work and getting rid of any anxiety that might get in the way of being able to perform well. And he would he would sit there in the mic and just, like, try to close his eyes and sleep. And I just love that he he was so taken by what he had seen. He was like, I wonder I wonder if that works. I wonder if that would help with your work. I wonder if it would relax you or wonder if it would open you up. I wonder, you know, if you could be that relaxed to fall asleep during your close up, you know, how could that help you at your work? I love that story about him.

Speaker I was like, you know, a little bit a little bit about how great he was. Also a producer. Right. Right. That was another I mean, I don’t know. You were in some of those.

Speaker Some of them.

Speaker You know, I just if anything, I just feel like we all did.

Speaker You know, we all did fairly. We all did very well together. You know, I think Gary’s character was a little more a little more prickly and and God. I mean, he pulled off a coup. You know, there are people who who did not know that was Gary Oldman until the rolling credits at the end. They were like, Gary Oldman is in this movie. Where is he? Where is he? He transformed himself. I mean, that was quite a feat. And so he had Gary had a lot with it. He had to do a different accent.

Speaker You know, I mean, he had a lot on on his plate and and he was, you know, one of the producers on it as well. And so, you know, it was I think we all had kind of a, you know, wonderful dynamic. The three of us.

Speaker I think the food part was he had. I don’t want to give away, too, because I wanted to talk about. So Lloyd plays this very. Main guy, Senator Tucker. And so here we are. So here we are. Politics of politics again. Right. And you suddenly you sort of sort of suddenly see that tough veneer come out in Jeff. Yes. Yes, exactly. It’s deps. And so I’m interested, too, if you can remember back on even that. If you. How much? Just watching him with his own father was right. I believe that’s the only actual film he did.

Speaker Maybe it might be. Yeah, well, I know he revered his father and and and found his father to be an extraordinary actor. And I think felt a little bit that, you know, the Seahawk thing was it was a true in some ways a wonderful thing. But also, she was Lloyd Bridges became so recognizable as that particular character. Sometimes as an actor, it becomes difficult to go, okay. What? I can do this and I can do that. And I think Jeff recognized in his father a really wide ranging talent, perhaps more than the industry allowed him to do. And and I think Jeff and, you know, respected that. Admired it. And I think he looked to his father a lot to converse. You know, I think I remember during different takes, you know, Jeff would do a take and then his dad would be in the courtroom. He would go back. You say, Dad. You know, he would have conversations with him.

Speaker I think he just loved having that.

Speaker I think he did tremendously. I really, really think he did. They’re a great family. His mother was there on the set. They’re they’re they’re just a wonderful close, you know, deeply devoted family to each other. It’s it’s really terrific to see, particularly because, you know, Hollywood is not always, you know, conducive to doing that because it’s a difficult profession. But it’s so it’s really great to see such a wonderful, tight family.

Speaker As I started to say, he this wonderfully weird part in Tucker of this family.

Speaker Yes, exactly. Exactly. Absolutely. I think there was a similarity, I would say, between the two between the Bridges family with his wife, Sue.

Speaker Yes, exactly.

Speaker Think about that that I would at and I thought there’s a there’s a, again, a great ease of coming into this because I’m sure he was greatly resonant.

Speaker Yes, I would definitely agree. I would agree with you.

Speaker And I think he therefore imbues that character with all that fatherly ness. Yes. Love. Really nice.

Speaker And I definitely think that all of that, you know, of his own family background helped him, you know, do the role. And in in Tucker, I mean, as actors, you do pull from life experiences. And I think in that particular case, he had kind of a gold mine of, you know, a family that sticks together and pulls together and, you know, is there for each other and cares deeply about each other.

Speaker Another very interesting point about these films is how actually relevant they remain now. And really, I mean, just the car stuck out that car. Here’s this guy with a car in a dream, right? Yes. Here here you have a situation again of just getting a little guy, getting a little message, a little guy. But again, just getting trampled. Yes. And trounced by these horrid, horrid creatures that just see this constantly. And this used to be the constant battle cry of imagination’s anywhere in any industry.

Speaker Yes. And so, you know, here, here, this is it is obvious in Frances’s life as well. They keep fighting that. Absolutely.

Speaker And to sort of pull that, you know, the happy ending kind of got a happy ending in both of these four, which is something that you kind of kind of got you kind of didn’t want to, you know. And then the contender, you know, with Sarah Palin. Now with Geraldine Ferraro. Right. The actual getting out, getting a nomination. But it is very interesting to that particular subject. Yes. How what was the subject in that which was to really take something. Right. To look at something with great equality. Yes. Tremendously.

Speaker Yes. Well, hopefully, you know, I think as actors, we we we hope to be a lot of us in in in stories that have a resonance that, you know, becomes timeless and is timeless and that the themes in in the in the story, you know, whether it’s you know, that that will hold up over over time.

Speaker And and, you know, I, I, I feel that the little guy, the little engine that could. That’s a universal story, you know. And and I do think in terms of Tucker and I and I do think in terms of the the contender, you know, women, you know, in in the political arena and what that all means and what that’s about and is still, you know, very relevant, maybe someday it will lose its role.

Speaker Well, the way that we take that on doesn’t kind of better than we’re doing in real life. Right?

Speaker Right. Yeah, right. I think so.

Speaker You know, it’s kind of great that when I can agree that what they actually decide to pick is. A sexual situation rather than just something else, because it really, of course, just loads everybody up the way it does. But it’s also the perfect example of how these things need to be.

Speaker Yes, I think so. And I think it also the film also brings up, you know, what, you know, in our age where every age of revealing in the age of Facebook and the age of everybody knows everything. What is privacy and what’s crossing the line? You know, I think that is very relevant today with, you know, the culture of revealing, revealing, revealing about yourself. And I think there’s starting to be a little bit of a backlash. It’s like, well, maybe I don’t want everybody to know everything that I’m doing. And maybe there there is something to be said about maintaining privacy and what is that line? I think that that’s very relevant today.

Speaker And his is yes. It’s kind of a strange message right now. Absolutely. Christian Slater, I want to you. Yes. Together. Yes. I mean, there’s all these kind of little couplings all the way longer than there’s your other ones.

Speaker But I’d forgotten I’d completely forgotten that he wasn’t a contender. I know. And also sort of shows up in this kind of pivot role as a as a guy who can learn.

Speaker Right. Exactly.

Speaker Well, put the light of day. Yes. Right. Again. So here you have the three of you in two very different films, the two very different times.

Speaker Yeah, it’s kind of wonderful. I mean that in some ways it’s a small community. You know, the the entertainment community. And sometimes it doesn’t feel away, but sometimes, you know, paths cross, you know, cross again.

Speaker And it’s kind of wonderful to go, you know. Oh, my gosh. We worked together so many years ago. Now we’re getting the opportunity to do it again. And, you know, everybody’s grown and changed and different experiences. And and sometimes it affords the opportunity to do that. And that’s really wonderful.

Speaker Do you ever feel sort of sliding back from one or the other? Did until this very sweet story about a British film Masked and Anonymous together in 2003, which was five or so years after the Maskey. Right. And he’s on the side of the story that it was very early in sort of the end. And he said it was 5:00 in the morning and he said we were too tired to laugh. He said everybody was just so tired and just sort of said he is his character in the mask. He was Walter. Yes. And yes, you said, come on, what we can we can do this again. And he was he said it wasn’t it, wasn’t it. Remember this. Remember back to this. It was more time. He couldn’t even make the distinction.

Speaker That is really the theme speaking here.

Speaker You’ve been his wife. And yet now you’re going to be a partner in a different way. I don’t know.

Speaker I you know, I can certainly see if you’re really tired, you know, that you could slip back and say something that I could I could totally see. But, you know, actually what’s kind of fun, too, is if as actors to play a different relationship.

Speaker That’s actually part of the fun. It’s like, OK, we’ve had this one relationship, husband and wife, which is a very different thing. And now we get to be, you know, you know, he’s the president and the vice president’s a very different relationship. And what is that? And and and so actually, as an actor, it’s really kind of it’s like playground time. It’s like, OK, well, let’s do this. Let’s try, you know, let’s let’s redefine that. And actually, it’s kind of one of the really fun parts about acting.

Speaker It’s also it’s also just great to watch it as an audience because you just eat. It is. It is it’s wonderful to see sort of those trajectories progression. Yes. Any anecdotes that you can remember on either one of them or just in life? I mean, have you had many encounters with them other than this you have largely been on while you’re on the set?

Speaker I’ve had one encounter. Well, I’ve seen him periodically.

Speaker A couple couple encounters. What was he doing? I’m trying to remember how many years ago. I don’t know if it was The Big Lebowski. It might it might have been. I was in an elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles because I live in New York. But I was in Los Angeles for four business and I got in the elevator in the evening. I was coming home from dinner and there’s this guy in the corner and he’s both burly and he’s got a flannel plaid shirt on and he’s got a big beard and a baseball cap. And I’m like, oh, my God, it’s the Creedence Clearwater Revival sort of concert. There must be something going on. So I kind of forget and I just I just sort of put my head down and I pushed the button alone. Then I hear this. Hey, Joan, how are you doing? And I and it was Jeff. I had no clue that it was him.

Speaker He was completely transform. And I just screamed. Laughing That’s just an example. What a chameleon he really is. I didn’t even know it was him.

Speaker Something about this happened. It just came up. We were with. Last weekend at sort of an enclave conclave for clubs and peacemakers, because that’s a big part of his life, too, and he’s in he’s really got this, you know, very I think to. I don’t know why would how I would describe it totally. But there’s certainly a Buddhist bend aspect to him and. Oh, and you were talking to the man who’s of the head of all that, and one of the things that they do is that they go out on the street, people telling me a story is going on. And people are recognizing that he’s wanted to do this. Yes. I was thinking to myself, there’s a certain part of you as as glorious as he is. Yes. You are aware. This is a gorgeous man. He sits down in front of the camera with me and it’s just transforming. You all have what I call an extra gene or something and all of you that’s just so immediately complimented the second there’s a lens on you. And yet I could see I could sort of think to myself. I bet you could get on the street. Yeah. I bet people just accept him as a guy.

Speaker Yeah, I would. Just as a city guy out there with you. Yes, I would think that is to understand that experience. Yes. To be part of that experience of being homeless. Being on the street.

Speaker Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I could totally see him. Totally see him, you know, melding in that way and being able to stoop to to do that. I think that’s right up his right up his alley. He was very also one other thing I. He won the National Board of Review Award for Lifetime Achievement. I guess two, maybe two or three years ago. And they asked me to present him the award. And as an actor, you know, some people think that. And I think some actors are good at it. But being yourself and writing a speech and presenting is very different than playing a character. And I had to write a speech and I was extremely nervous and I wanted it to be good. I’m not a great writer. I wanted to pay tribute to him. I’m not. But public speaking and acting are actually two very different things, at least for me. So I got there and I was seated at his table and he was so lovely and he was the last award of the night. So I had a long period of time and I was looking at my notes and I was trying to have something to eat and I was trying to conversative, but I was extremely nervous. And Jon Favreau was the host that night. And about 45 minutes into the ceremony, I looked at Jeff and I said, gosh, that looks like that guy looks like Jon Favreau. And he said, Joan, that is Jon Favreau. And I said, Oh, my God. That that’s how nervous I am. I can’t even focus on what, you know, what’s going on in the room. That’s how nervous I am to do this speech. And he said, yeah, wouldn’t you rather have to do a scene for 12 hours where you had to cry all day then then stand up and give a speech? And I said, yeah, it’s it’s it’s a very different thing. I think he and he really understood where I was coming from because I read the speech went fine. And, you know, I got through it and I just wanted to pay, you know, a nice tribute to him and not, you know, blow up. But it is a it is a very different thing to public speak as yourself as opposed to play a character. And I felt like he and I were very simpatico in that regard. And he he he sympathized. You know, he knew he knew that it was going to be hard to give that speech.

Speaker You know, the music aspect of his life is very real and had a song about exactly what it’s about wearing a mask. And I assume the math is a lot in many ways a lot more comfortable place.

Speaker It is. It is. Yeah. I think you get as an out you get used to that. And and presenting yourself is is a more difficult thing to do.

Speaker And I think Jeff got that continue those nominations and then and just. That’s very sweet.

Speaker It is very, very, very nice. I mean, I thought Jeff so deserved the nomination, too. I thought his performance was extraordinary. And and I’m so I’m very glad that he won this past year. So he’s gotten on. He’s he’s very, very due to have.

Speaker It was great. Yeah. You felt that this is something that many, many people truly.

Speaker Yes. Yeah. And I was fortunate enough to be at the Golden Globes and get to see him and Suzanne and congratulate him and give him a hug and and he said, sit down and talk to me, you know, so, so warm, so wonderful.

Speaker And I was thrilled for his kids this past year for him.

Speaker I think that’s pretty good. This is pretty good. You’re welcome. Good. Good. Hope you got some good stuff.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sa7SZ6arn1%2Bsu6bAjpqknqqZmK6vucCsq56qo2Sus6%2FHoq2eZ5mjwaa%2B1aKcsGeapK6vecClo56mXw%3D%3D