A soldier,a painter, a thief, a lover, a bongo player, and a genius. Is there anything the actor can’t do?

HOW TERRIBLY SYNERGISTIC—NOT ONLY DO YOU PLAY THE FATHER OF A FAMILY OF GENIUSES IN THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, BUT THE NEW YORK TIMES RECENTLY DEEMED YOU TO BE ONE AS WELL.
Well, I’ve always said they’re very bright people at the Times. I’m just kidding—it’s embarrassing, really. I mean, I never read reviews, nor do I see the films unless I just absolutely have to.

AND WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU DO?
I see this old man who looks like my grandfather—that kind of thing.

NEVERTHELESS, AT 72, YOU KEEP PLASTERNG YOUR FACE UP THERE. I MEAN, JESUS, IN THE PAST YEAR YOU’VE BEEN IN FIVE FILMS (TENENBAUMS, BEHIND ENEMY LINES, HEIST, HEARTBREAKERS, AND THE MEXICAN). WHAT’S THE DEAL, DUDE?
[laughs] I suppose some of it is the hang-over from when you

couldn’t get a job, so now you just take everything that’s there. I mean, I don’t quite do that, but I love the work so much that I get seduced into it.

AND YOU’VE OFTEN SAID THAT NOT ONLY HAVE YOU WANTED TO ACT SINCE YOU WERE A TEN-YEAR-OLD KID IN ILLINOIS, BUT THAT YOU COULD ALWAYS DO IT, AS WELL. SINCE YOU DIDN’T ACT UNTIL YOU WERE WELL INTO YOUR TWENTIES, HOW’D YOU KNOW?
I just knew I could; I really did. Every Saturday if I could get a quarter to go to the movies, I’d go, and when I’d leave, I’d look in the mirror and be stunned that I didn’t look like James Cagney. I’d be so in tune with what he was doing—I’d become that guy—that a real period of depression would follow. I’d think, “How am I gonna be that guy if I don’t look like that guy?” I finally realized that I could just be me, and if I was good enough, that would work.

EVEN THOUGH WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED ACTING CLASSES, YOU AND CLASSMATE, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, WERE VOTED “LEAST LIKELY TO SUCCEED”?
Yeah, but whadda they know? [chuckles] I wouldn’t say we were outcasts, but we were different than everybody else. Anyway, they’d grade us on a scale of from 1 to 5, and I don’t think I ever got over a 1.5 average for anything. So, yeah, I was really on the road to not being an actor, I really was.

IS IT TRUE THAT YOU AND HOFFMAN PLAYED BONGOS ON THE ROOF BECAUSE YOU’D HEARD BRANDO DID?
Yeah, we thought that was the road to stardom!

IT’S BEEN SAID THAT, LIKE BRANDO, YOU’RE OFTEN BETTER THAN, UM, YOUR MATERIAL.
[chuckles] In terms of being able to tell if a film is gonna be terrific, I’ve never been able to tell. Unforgiven is a good example—I had to be talked into it. So let’s just say I don’t have a great eye for material.

WHICH BRINGS US TO THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE….
Yeah, I felt like I could steal some money there. [laughs]. Because I hadn’t made any money on The French Connection, and Poseidon was, like, a Big Hollywood Movie, and I’d never done that before.

SPEAKING OF FRENCH CONNECTION, PEOPLE THINK YOU REALLY ARE POPEYE DOYLE, YOU KNOW.
That or maybe the editor of Fishing & Hunting News. [laughs] And I’m totally opposite of that—I don’t hunt, I don’t fish. I mean, I’ve done quite a bit of the “manly” things people think of, but, really, I sculpt, I paint, I try to lead a kind of artistic, genteel life. But I was cast early on in violent things and that’s always been what people kinda think I am.

ESPECIALLY YOUR DIRECORS—EVEN YOU’VE SAID, “I PITY THE DIRECTORS WHO WORK WITH ME.” DID YOU GIVE WES ANDERSON HELL AS WELL?
Yeah, I did, and I feel bad about that, because I had no sense of what a terrific, stylized film Tenenbaums was gonna be. [sighs] I don’t set out to give people problems; it just seems to work that way.

NEVERTHELESS, PEOPLE NOW SPEAK YOUR NAME IN HUSHED TONES.
[appalled] Oh, Jesus!

SO, ARE YOU LOVING YOUR ICONHOOD?
I don’t—I just think of myself as an actor who occasionally goes off and [chuckles] does some work.

© 2015 Brantley Bardin. All Rights Reserved.