Table Of Content

i The Actor Within (cid:74) The Actor Within (cid:62)(cid:67)(cid:73)(cid:62)(cid:66)(cid:54)(cid:73)(cid:58)(cid:0)(cid:56)(cid:68)(cid:67)(cid:75)(cid:58)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:54)(cid:73)(cid:62)(cid:68)(cid:67)(cid:72)(cid:0)(cid:76)(cid:62)(cid:73)(cid:61)(cid:0)(cid:60)(cid:71)(cid:58)(cid:54)(cid:73)(cid:0)(cid:54)(cid:56)(cid:73)(cid:68)(cid:71)(cid:72) Rose Eichenbaum Wesleyan University Press Middletown, Connecticut Wesleyan University Press Middletown CT 06459 www.wesleyan.edu/wespress ∫ 2011 Rose Eichenbaum All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Richard Hendel Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eichenbaum, Rose. The actor within : intimate conversations with great actors / Rose Eichenbaum ; [foreword, Aron Hirt-Manheimer]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8195-6952-3 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-8195-7165-6 (e-book) 1. Actors—United States—Interviews. 2. Acting. I. Title. pn2285.e35 2011 792.02%8092—dc22 2011012328 5 4 3 2 1 Title page: Karl Malden To Mimi May your actor within soar and propel you to great heights. i Contents Foreword ix Julia Stiles 130 Preface xiii Shelley Berman 136 Teri Garr 142 Norman Lloyd 2 Bill Irwin 148 Frances Fisher 10 Marcia Gay Harden 154 Joe Mantegna 16 Elijah Wood 160 Amber Tamblyn 26 Lainie Kazan 166 Karl Malden 32 Elliott Gould 172 Amy Madigan 40 Piper Laurie 178 Hector Elizondo 46 Stephen Tobolowsky 184 CCH Pounder 52 Marlee Matlin 190 James Cromwell 58 William H. Macy 196 Gloria Stuart 64 Wes Studi 202 Bill Pullman 70 Ruby Dee 208 Debra Winger 76 Larry Miller 214 Charles Durning 82 Ellen Burstyn 220 Stockard Channing 90 George Segal 96 Acknowledgments 227 Marsha Mason 104 References and Recommended Viewing 229 Ed Asner 110 Index 239 Amanda Plummer 118 Ed Harris 124 i Foreword Rose Eichenbaum met her first movie star at the age of ten. Her big brother delivered newspapers at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio near their home in West Hollywood. He often took Rose along on the back of his bike, and when they entered restricted areas, he left his extremely shy sister on sound stages and instructed, ‘‘Don’t move until I get back.’’ On one such occasion, she was on the set of I’ll Take Sweden, starring Bob Hope, Tuesday Weld, and teen idol Frankie Avalon. During a break, Avalon walked up to her, stroked her cheek, and said, ‘‘You’re very pretty. What’s your name?’’ ‘‘It’s . . . Rosalie,’’ she stammered. That experience would presage her entrance some forty years later into a world inhabited by the people most mortals see only on the ‘‘silver screen,’’ theatrical stage, or television. Even if her brother hadn’t taken her on his paper route, Rose couldn’t have escaped the glow that the movie industry cast over the landscape of her life, from such visions as the imposing hollywood sign, street ven- dors hawking maps to stars’ homes, and the frequent street closures for on-location movie and television filming. And if you were in the right place at the right time, you might even catch a glimpse of a famous movie star. Rose once spotted a white-haired Cary Grant on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, and Lauren Bacall in a restaurant. But you knew they were a di√erent breed, almost royalty. As a rule, you could acknowledge them with a polite bow or by calling out, ‘‘I loved you in . . .’’ but to say more would be regarded as a rude trespass. As a teenager, before the era of shopping malls, Rose and her friends hung out on Hollywood Boulevard along the Walk of Fame. Their play- ground was the sidewalk imbedded with star-shaped bronze plaques, each inscribed with the name of a film industry icon. From Highland to Vine, Rose knew the exact locations of all of her favorite stars so enshrined. In front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre she would place her hands and feet into the cement impressions left for posterity by Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Elizabeth Taylor. As an adult, Rose overcame, one might say overcompensated for, her shyness, as evidenced by her two earlier books, Masters of Movement (2004) and The Dancer Within (2008), which required her to interview ix

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In Rose Eichenbaum’s third work on the confluence of art making and human expression, she delves into the lives of thirty-five celebrated actors through intimate conversations and photographic portraits. With her probing questions and disarming manner, she captures the essential character of her s