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ADVICE TO YOUNG ACTORS I see so many plays I wished I'd done. They would've been so important for my growth. That's what I recommend all the time -- involve yourself in the classics. You'll learn a lot. It will give you the variety you can never get if you constantly do the same thing. My grandfather was a plasterer. He had such a love for what he did. You felt that he really wanted to get up and do it again the next day. Acting is all about pursuit and staying with something. What is the saying? He who continues in his folly will someday be wise.
AGING I've been doing this [acting] for 30 years. It's not that my time is running out. But I'm either too old for specific roles or they don't interest me in the same way they did a few years ago. If I want to do a play, that's a year out of my life. As long as I keep the idea that the play comes first, I can handle it. There was a period when I was out of it for a few years. Almost four years between movies. But for some reason during the last few years, I have been more interested, more active. Sometimes, you are waiting and you are not particularly excited about anything. But you are still living in a workaday world, trying to develop yourself — trying to explore things, trying to go into areas where you haven’t been before. You have to decide, ‘Which one do I choose?’ And as you get older, and your time is running out, you are trying to figure out, ‘What am I going to do in this next year?’ There is something to be said for not doing anything, and waiting for something inspired. But that doesn’t seem to happen enough. So you start to figure, like they say, you bring the body and the mind will follow. You hope that, if you go ahead and do the thing, somewhere along the line, you’ll get excited by it. Sometimes, the cart is leading the horse in that respect.
AMBITION At least in my time, I grew up uh... you had to... you... kind of... averted ambition. It was... it had a kind of pejorative connotation, for some reason. Ambition was uh... was negative. I don't believe that, but I do... do see that ambition is relative. Somebody asked David Mamet, a very interesting... he had a very interesting answer. And I hate to quote him because I... I haven't had his approval. But it's a... such a beautiful thing I think I'm gonna go out on a limb. Someone said to him, "David, you write movies", which he does brilliantly, he writes plays, he writes books, he sent me a book. And someone asked him, "David, you are just constantly writing, writing all the time, how do you do it?" And he said, "It beats thinking". (laughs) I... I thought... I thought... It's just a great quote. I... I... and I... I... kind of... I kind of agree. You know, that's why when anyone talks to me about working, and stuff, I think well, you know, it beats thinking. And so if it's ambitious, it's really about engaging in what it is you do. I knew early on that I was an actor, I mean I was doing it all the time. I was in the school plays and everything. But I didn't know that I was going to seriously go into it. I never made that conscious decision till I was in my early 20s. . . . Once that happened to me, I found that this whole idea of success, making it, didn't matter as much. What mattered was the involvement and engaging myself in this kind of activity. ACTING The wonderful thing about playing these roles, the opportunity to play them, you see, you get to see what it is like then, to go up against this kind of stuff. What it's like to suddenly be thrown into this kind of a world where the stakes are as high and you're dealing with this kind of a thing. It's exciting because in a way you say, finally say, well, what would I do in that situation? The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful--my personal life suffers. CHILDHOOD I was never allowed out alone, so my mother used to take me to the movies and I'd come home and act out all the parts. It was a lonely childhood. With no brothers and sisters and having to stay off the streets, I had no friends. I felt isolated and odd. So, acting kept me sane. DIRECTING Thank You, thank you. It's an honor for me to be here tonight, one night of the year, when all of us in this profession take a moment to honor, to recognize and encourage, excellence in the theater. So now to the directors. The work of the lighting people, costume set, even the actors, is instantly visible to the audience's eye. It's accessible, it's tangible, but with the director, it is somehow different. Usually the best direction is the direction you can't see. Is it almost imperceptible to the audiences which is probably why it is the most illusive, subtle of theatre graphs. Now who are these people? What do they do? Well, the director usually helps encourage the writer, to shape the play, also direct the cast, and play, with actors, mostly actors, usually. He tries to bring the actors, to their highest creative potential, and this is not easy. Since actors are different, some actors would rather be left alone, others enjoy collaboration. Still others have to be sweet-talked, and congealed, and almost coaxed into their roles. Now the director must do all that, at the same time bring together the entire production, while maintaining his or her own vision of the play, satisfying both the playwrights' needs and intentions, and ultimately hoping to bring the audience to its feet in appreciation. This is not an easy job, (smiling), and so it is with great respect, and a little bit of awe, I present to you, the nominees for best direction of a play NEW YORK I know every street in this city. I never thought about moving to Hollywood. Not for a single moment. I have always been a kind of a real homeboy. SHAKESPEARE What it did, and what I think Shakespeare does, in a way, is, it mirrored a lot of what I was... the emotions that were in us... human beings. And I think that part of what Shakespeare's appeal is, I think, and why he's lasted this long, is I think he runs the gamut with it. I think he gives you as much room as you have emotion, he gives you that room, and I think that's why we all relate to it. Because if we've loved, if we've hated, if we've felt... uhhh... deprived or betrayed or happy or joyful. He emcompasses that in his work. WINNING THE OSCAR To win the award was like winning a gold medal. It lasted for weeks. I never had that amazing feeling before. Success is sweeter now that it continues. As long as success doesn't become your goal, you have the best of both worlds.
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