On Comparisons Between ASJ & Butch Cassidy
I frankly resented the constant needling by the press every time I did an interview. It was always the first question asked, and in my opinion, a moot point. I don’t object to anything resembling anything. Sure it could have been absurd if it was another movie. But considering it was a TV series, well, big deal. So what else can we talk about was my attitude every time the question came up. 1971

On Doing Interviews
This is a part of the business I find amusing and also frightening. There’s a kind of reality to all this press-personality myth, but fame in show business is not in proportion to actual achievement. What happens so often is that things get out of sync. 1971

On Becoming a Better Actor
I realized I knew nothing about acting. But all of a sudden I committed myself and recognized that this is an art and it isn’t easy. That’s when the work began, the pain, the self-searching, the asking 'What do I do? What is acting?’ It’s only in the last two years that I’ve started to get some answers. 1971

On Burdens He Felt
I don’t usually like to watch gooey sentimentality myself, but sometimes it’s a release. It allows you to sit and cry, and you may be crying for a lot of other things. Many people go through a period when all they want is reality, the blacker the better. But oh, that’s a heavy burden to carry. 1971

On Playing Casey Poe (The Psychiatrist)
I wanted to show that addicts are not that different. They are people who are addicted and they’re not from another planet. I wanted to show that Casey was a human being who didn’t like being hooked and was terrified that he was not going to be able to kick the habit. 1971

There have been two roles that have been close to portions of my personality. Never the whole guy. But you zero in on those facets you recognize. On The Psychiatrist, I played an ex-junkie named Casey Poe, who was very clear to me. He was a loner. There was much about life he didn’t understand. He had a lot of hostility, felt himself misunderstood, the victim of circumstances. I could identify with that, with Casey’s fears — the fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of other human beings we all have to a greater or lesser degree. He was my age and spoke the way I’d speak, and I was able to get right into it. I wore my own beard and my own clothes, no makeup, nothing to distract me. I would just drive to work, get out of my car, walk onto the stage and start shooting. Another thing that helped was that I had read Louis Lablanky’s book, Synanon, The Tunnel Back, and for the first time really understood that junkies were human beings. I hadn’t been prejudiced, but that book made me understand that all human beings are basically alike, have similar problems and simply take different ways out. When it came time to play Casey Poe, it was a snap.

On the Changes He Saw Happening to Penfield
When I was kid, it was a real country town with fields and woods to play in. It was a great place to grow up in. Then they started building subdivisions. At that time there was very little interest in preserving the environment, probably because people felt that things had to change and that opposing change was opposing progress.

I was very incensed at the time. I really hated the people who bought the new houses because I thought they were responsible for the builders coming with their bulldozers and tearing up the fields I loved. [Pete regretted that it had to happen, but realized that the people who moved in couldn’t be blamed.] You can’t criticize them for wanting to move out of the city into Penciled. Actually, since it was an early development, the houses are nice. There are lots of trees, and it’s turned into a lovely community. It’s just that it isn’t a country town anymore. 1971

On the Reasons ABC Picked Up ASJ for a Second Season
When you throw somebody to the wolves, and they don’t get devoured, you keep them on. After all, it’s cheaper. You save money by not trying with a new baby. 1971

On The Writing on ASJ
I still haven’t found my way in playing Hannibal Heyes.  I know what Heyes should be, at least I did in the pilot. He favors sweet talking, card playing and safe cracking and needs situations to display those attributes. But when you put a series together in a hurry, it’s hard to get scrappy dialogue for such occasions. That’s difficult to do even with plenty of time. I make it a point never to criticize writers — they have the hardest job going — so I often work around the situation and dialogue, trying to have fun. 1971

On Playing Dramatic Roles
It’s easier with my personality to perform the heavy, intense role. I can feel it working up in my stomach and then I just open the door. Comedy takes more effort to get the juices going. 1971

On His Fuller Apartment
The place was me. It was old and funky and warm and lived-in. It looked as if I’d been living there for 40 years... really interesting... cluttered with paintings and book cases and funky old furniture — it was a true delight. 1971

On the Differences Between Pete Duel and Hannibal Heyes
There is nothing funny about being a fugitive. I find it very hard to smile about. In many ways, well, I force myself to be Hannibal. You figure this man has to be the greatest in the world, hunted by every posse and still able to joke and laugh. I love that about him. He’s happy all the time, or at least most of the time. The more I get to be like Hannibal, the happier I will be. I'm not just doing a role. This is a crash course in psychiatry! I am, frankly, more melancholy than merry. There may be comedy in me in the future, but not now. Someday perhaps I will walk around with a smile from ear to ear clicking my heels, but right now there is not this comedy within me. There are too many things that bother me too much, from war and pollution to the matter of prejudices — all kinds of prejudices, racial and also within white society, the injustices...

On Growing Up in a Changing World
Oddly enough, a child being raised in this world today might be better able to handle it because he’s grown up with it. The troubled individuals of my generation grew up not knowing, not aware because our parents weren’t aware, or if they were, they stuck their heads in the sand. It wasn’t until Watts blew up. Believe me, I never knew... I was so sheltered, so safe. 1971

I feel very much like that, myself. Torn. I’ve had a middle-class moralistic upbringing, yet today’s ways are so different. I want to be free and let myself go, but the guilt feelings creep in.

On Acting in Hollywood
Acting is a pretty lonely business, a lonely art form, especially in films. I don’t imagine it’s so bad if you’re an English actor, in repertory, but in films, especially out here, it’s just you against the camera. Especially when you’re starting out. You work with people you’ve never seen before and a week later, they’re gone — boom — and you’re facing a new group of strangers. It’s getting better now. I am working with people I’ve worked with before, but even so, very often it’s so long between meetings you have to get to know them all over again. 1971

It takes much more than a handsome face to make it big in films and television today. You just have to look at people like Dustin Hoffman, Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland to realize that is true. I don't mean that it is the Age of the Ugly, but audiences have come to expect many dimensions in an actor, rather than a singular ability. The reality achieved from an ordinary, not-so-handsome actor who has substantial talent and who can play both heavy drama and light comedy is what audiences appreciate today. 1971

On His Relationship With Geoff and Being Actors
Geoff and I find ourselves judging, comparing, but we handle it well with each other. We have always talked about it. He is my best friend, my brother.

On His Relationship With Dianne
I was a basket case when I first met her. I was living in a ratty garage apartment. Would you believe I was afraid to leave that place? I was like a child with a security crisis. Then Dianne moved me out and I saw the sun for what seemed like the first time in years. I almost threw-up thinking of the life I had been leading.

On His Inability to Relax and Enjoy Life
Sometimes I’m just not able to relax. In this town, there are always so many things on my mind, things that have to be done. I could relax in this character without any feeling of guilt because I was working. I could be cool and quiet through the period of time I did the role, even after work. I’m not usually like that.

Much more to come.

Top of Page | Close Window