106 new york | december9–22, 2019
fromout oftown in the audience.I
rememberincredible experiences,like
KimStanleyplayingthe momentinA Far
Country when Freud discovers the
unconscious.Itwasjust one ofthemost
bone-chillingmoments I’ve everexperi-
enced!That sort ofexperience wasmore
readilyavailable,it seems to me,tothe
audiences.Understand, that’snot to
knockwhat’s herenow, becauseI love
goingtothetheater,and I love themusi-
cals,too.I thinkHadestown is reallywon-
derful.AndI loveCome From Away.
Howareyoungactorsdifferentnow
than when you joined the Studio?
There’s more work available,sothey
work sooner and they don’t allbotherto
develop their art. I was doinga scene
with an actor, and I could tellhewas
from television and had no realtrain-
ing. So I said to him, “Wheredidyou
study?” He said, “Well, I gotcast ina
series ri ht out of m hi h-school ro-
duction,andI didtheseriesforsix
years.That’sthebest trainingyoucan
get.”No,it’s not.Sothere’s a lotofthat.
Actors who cometo theStudioare
interestedintheart ofacting,andthose
actorsarethesameinany generation.
They’retheseriousseekers.
Isstudyingactingusefulforanything
besidesbeinganactor?
Yeah.It’susefulintheway that therapy
is useful:Yougettoknowyourself. When
theyfirststartacting,actorshavenoidea
what’s goingoninsideofthemallthe
time.They aresurprisedwhenthey sud-
denly access something they hadnoidea
was cooking and alive.
You have jumped betweentheater,
film, and television over thedecades.
What’s different about acting onstage?
Let me tell you abo et at
happened when I was Sa e,
Next Year on Broadway. It had beenrun-
ning for several months. I was settledin.
But all of a sudden, in the midstofa
scene, my consciousness jumpedoutof
the scene into the whole theater, andI
saw that, in this little triangle oflighton
the stage, there I was with thisother
actor, and we were pretendingtobetwo
other people, and over a thousandpeople
were sitting in the dark watchingusdo
that. And I thought, What is this?Whatis
happening here? And then I realized,It’s
not just happening in this theater,it’s
happening in other theaters around
Broadway.Andnotjust that:It’s happen-
ing around the world. Peopleare still
going to the theater. It hasn’t beenreplaced
by television or movies or anythingelse.
Why is that?
So the next day, I went to the bookstore
and got a book on the history oftheater.
I opened it and, on the first page,it said,
“The moment someone stood uparound
the cam fire and told the stor ofthetribetothetribe,theaterwasborn.” I thought,
That’swhatwe’redoing.We are tellingthe
storyofthetribetothetribe.That’swhat
thatfeelingofconnectionis,thecommu-
nion.It ’s that it’s notus/them,it’ swe.
You’ve starredinmanyfilmsaboutreli-
gion,spirituality, or, attheveryleast,the
possibilityofa worldbeyondwhatwecan
verify. Threeofyoursignatureperfor-
mancesareinTheExorcist,abouta battle
betweengoodandevilforpossessionofa
girl’ssoul;Resurrection,aboutafaith
healer with Christ-likepowers; and
Requiemfora Dream,inwhichthecharac-
ters use drugs to escape earthlytorment.
All of those performances wereOscar
nominated. You were also in TheFountain
and Interstellar, which are alsopreoccu-
pied with these sorts of questions.Were
these choices?
We ection was a filmI put
together. That was no accident.Beyondthat, I don’t know what forces combine to
bring us to a particular piece of work that
we do. But I know that’s what interests
me, the things you mention. Specifically,
I would have to say cosmology really
interests me. That’s what I read about all
the time, from different points of view.
Have you ever visited the Natural History
Museum and that sphere where you go
out into outer space?
I love that. I took my kids there.
It’s so wonderful. I went in there, sat
down and then we were off the planet,
andprettysoonwewereoutofthesolar
system. And then we were out of the
Milky Way and then we were out of the
whole megagalactic system. I was just
thrilled! When the lights cameup, the
thought that went through my mind was,
The Bible is a limerick. It’s just a little
piece of work about a tiny littleplanet.
And then later I wrote a limerick. Would
ou like to hear it?Of course.
“Thereoncewasa planet calledEarth
Thathada terriblethirst
Toknowhowit gothere
Andif there’s a Godhere
AndwhatonEarthcamefirst?”
Movingtoanearthboundplane:You
weretheintervieweronanepisodeof
InsidetheActorsStudiothisseason.The
subjectwasyourfriendandco-president
AlPacino. Isthisa permanentarrange-
ment,youintheinterviewer’sseat?
Ohno.We’renotreplacingJimLipton
withoneperson.We’regoingtorotatedif-
ferent people in and out. You were there
when I interviewed Al, right? What did
you think?
He’s a remarkable presence, the great-
est Al Pacino character of them all.
Isn’t he something? I’ve known him so
many years. He’s just such an original
being. I would ask a questionand AlThe CULTURE PAGES
the last
picture
show
1971the
exorcist
1973an ellen
burstyn
pantheon