Barry
Newman is best known as the star of the cult classic VANISHING POINT
(1971) and the legal drama THE LAWYER (1970). He was also the lead in
the successful spin-off TV series from THE LAWYER - 'Petrocelli'
(1974-76). Newman is also an accomplished and respected theater actor
and has extensive credits on TV and in film. His other film work
includes lead roles in the thrillers FEAR IS THE KEY (1972) and THE
SALZBURG CONNECTION (1972), the disaster movie CITY ON FIRE (1979) and
the drama AMY (1979), and supporting roles in DAYLIGHT (1996), THE LIMEY
(1999), BOWFINGER (1999), and 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS (2002). Newman is
one of the most interesting film and TV actors to have emerged since the
70s, boasting an ability to be a magnetic lead actor as well as a
captivating supporting actor. Rolling Stone fittingly described him as
being ''like producers fused Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen into one
actor. " In the second part of a three-part interview, I spoke with
Newman about how he got cast as THE LAWYER; working with director Sidney J. Furie on the film; returning to the character in two seasons of the TV show Petrocelli; how closely identified with the themes of VANISHING POINT and his character Kowalski; how enjoyable it was to drive the film's Dodge Challenger; his thoughts on the film's ending; and making THE LIMEY with director Steven Soderbergh and actors Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda.
Part one of the interview.
How did you get cast as the lead in THE LAWYER?
Part one of the interview.
How did you get cast as the lead in THE LAWYER?
I
would say Sid was responsible for my film career, really. On THE
LAWYER, I came in and met Sidney at Paramount Pictures in New York.
He didn't read me at all. He just spoke with me. The next thing was
that he asked me to go to lunch with him the following day, and
after that I had dinner with him and I met his wife. It was a brand
new experience to me. I didn't understand it at all. He was extremely
honest with me, and said ''Look, I wanna tell you. You are the
character that I wrote, but Paramount wants me to go with a star,
which I certainly would do if I could find a star who was what I
wrote. '' I understood the situation. This was the lead in a studio
movie. When he left for Hollywood, he still hadn't read me. I
remember it was a few weeks later and I was painting in my bathroom
in New York when I got a call from Sid and he said ''You got the
part. '' It was like something out of a B-movie. What had happened
was that he couldn't find a star in Hollywood who could play what he
had written. I felt very fortunate.
What
is Furie like as a director?
He
was very hands-off, in terms of directing actors as such. He always
felt that casting was the important element. Maybe many actors could
play a particular part, but he was looking for that special quality
that people can have, which in some sense is nothing to do with
acting. Once in a while he would give you very slight direction but
we never had long discussions, like you would have with Lee
Strasberg, sitting and talking about a part.
At
this point in your career were you keen to become a movie star or
were you simply focused on being an actor?
I'll
be really frank with you. I never really thought in those terms. When
I was at Brandeis, they had a Creative Arts Festival in honor of
Leonard Bernstein, and I was his assistant. I remember I used to go
out and get him corned beef sandwiches from in town, and put his
chair center stage in the amphitheater, things like that. He was
being interviewed onstage and somebody asked him ''Mr. Bernstein, do
you love conducting, or do you love being a conductor?'' I thought
''Wow, that's a deep question. '' Well, that question is a little
like the one you asked. The answer is ''A little of both. '' There's
a little part of me that just wanted to act, but all of the
peripheral things that come with doing movies were things I liked
too.
You
returned to your character in THE LAWYER in two seasons of the TV
show Petrocelli. Did you have any trepidation about committing to a
TV show? Were you worried it might hurt your film career?
I
did three or four films after THE LAWYER and then they came to me to
do the series. I said ''I'm not interested in doing a TV show. I'm
interested in doing films. '' In those days, it was felt you didn't
do television if you wanted to make films. Originally I had gotten a
call from the show's creator, E. Jack Neuman and he said ''I'm doing
a take-off of THE LAWYER and it's called Zalengo. The character is
called Vincent Zalengo. '' I said ''Why would you change the name of
the character?'' There had been a fun running joke throughout THE
LAWYER about people mistaking Petrocelli's surname and making jokes
about it. I had just finished a Paramount-EMI film called FEAR IS THE
KEY, and I realised that I had gotten away from the center of what I
should be doing. I was becoming like Stewart Granger from KING
SOLOMON'S MINES (1950), doing the same part again and again. And to
be perfectly honest, I was not getting the top film parts. So I did
the show and we made it about Petrocelli.
How
did you keep it interesting for yourself when you're playing the same
character so many times in a row?
Interestingly
enough, I never got bored. The character was interesting enough for
me, and each episode was different. I could work the character into
different scenes and situations. I got more bored doing a show on
Broadway for 17 months.
VANISHING
POINT has a counterculture vibe and a main character with an
existential outlook. How much did you identify with the material and
the character of Kowalski?
The
reason I did the film was interesting. I had just done THE LAWYER,
where I was speaking non-stop for 90-odd minutes and I got the script
for VANISHING POINT. I wasn't even thinking of the idea of the film
or the existentialism of the character – I just thought it would be
interesting to do a part where I am playing the antithesis of the
character I had just played.
When
the film first came out, it was the second feature to THE FRENCH
CONNECTION (1971), but when it opened in London at the Leicester
Square theatre, critically it was acclaimed and people lined up
around the block to see it. In England I was a hero, and in America I
was just a guy picking up his bags at the plane terminal! It opened
again in America after playing Europe and people then started getting
on to the film. It became a cult film without me even realizing it.
To this day, I'm always being asked to talk about it somewhere.
Do
you credit the ongoing cult of the film to how you got some of your
high-profile roles in the 90s?
No,not
at all. It seems to me that anybody's career is like the stock market
– bulls and bears. I was happy to do the parts, but the fact of the
matter is that those parts weren't really that great. I remember
doing the Sylvester Stallone film DAYLIGHT in Italy, and it cost
about a hundred million dollars to make, but only grossed about $38
million. I do have to say though, that Soderbergh did hire me for THE
LIMEY because of VANISHING POINT. He wanted icons of the 60s and 70s
in it, like Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda and myself.
Your
character in THE LIMEY was interesting. This nervy, shady attorney
with all these criminal connections who knew where all the bodies
were buried.
Someone
described him as the coldest character that Soderbergh had ever put
in a movie. It was an interesting character to play.
What was it like being directed by Soderbergh?
What was it like being directed by Soderbergh?
He
was terrific. What Soderbergh always did was to line up the close-up
and the master together on two different cameras and hold them
together. Then he would kind of rehearse the scene and walk around
it. If your face was on camera while they were blocking it, it was on
camera. If not, the camera would be moving around but the actor
wouldn't be moving. He had all of his shots on the two cameras.
Terence
was a very nice guy and I enjoyed working with him. He was very
private, very professional. Most of my time on the movie though was
spent working with Peter Fonda, who I also enjoyed working with.
Talking
of co-stars, how was working with the Dodge Challenger in VANISHING
POINT?
It
was the star of the movie! It was a great car to drive because it had
terrific power. I was asked to test drive the new version of the car
for a magazine and the body and the engine seemed to meld together
even better.
I
read in an interview that you interpreted the ending as Kowalski
believing he would get through the road block and that he was not
attempting to commit suicide. Do you think part of the appeal of the
film is that the ending can be interpreted in different ways?
Absolutely.
What I loved about that film was the fact that it was so visual. It
didn't show you lots of scenes of Kowalski being a cop or spending
time with his girlfriend. You just had things like the surfboard
washing up on the beach, so you knew his girlfriend was dead. When I
was playing Kowalski I believed I could get through that roadblock,
because Kowalski had nothing to lose. People can see the ending how
they like, although as an existentialist piece, the character is
fated to die.
I
was moved by what you said about him seeing a glint of light and
believing he could get through. It could be applied to real-life
situations. That glint of light is all some need to believe they can
survive or overcome or endure.
Everything
this guy had done had gone wrong, and they were after him, really,
for nothing, for misdemeanors. His life had been nothing but
disappointments, but he kept getting up again and trying. It was that
kind of thing – ''What the hell? I have nothing to lose. ''
Part three of the interview.
Copyright © Paul Rowlands, 2019. All rights reserved.
Part three of the interview.
Copyright © Paul Rowlands, 2019. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment