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Quotes
 I
was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not
to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press.
Dysfunctional
families have sired a number of pretty good actors.
I
do not like assassins, or men of low character.
I
wanted to act, but I'd always been convinced that actors had to be
handsome. That came from the days when Errol Fyln was my idol. I'd come
out of a theater and be startled when I looked in a mirror because I
didn't look like Flynn. I felt like him.
I
was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not
to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press.
If
I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play
best.
If
you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the
portrayal of any human being.
It
really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on screen. I think of
myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man
with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and
all that.
The
difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.
You
have a powerful weapon working for you. For you there is no tomorrow and
that makes you all very dangerous people!
It
really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on-screen. I think of
myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man
with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and
all that.
Psychologically,
Gene/myself, we did not think about making it in the terms that people
think about. We fully expected to be failures for our entire life.
Meaning that we would always be scrambling to get a part. We were
actors. We had no pretensions. There was more dignity in being
unsuccessful.
I
wish all five of us could be up here, I really do.
If
I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play
best.
I
came to New York when I was 25, and I worked at Howard Johnson's in
Times Square, where I did the door in this completely silly uniform.
Before that, I had been a student at the Pasadena Playhouse, where I had
been awarded the least-likely-to-succeed prize, along with my pal Dustin
Hoffman, which was a big reason we set off for New York together. Out of
nowhere, this teacher I totally despised at the Pasadena Playhouse
suddenly walked by HoJo's and came right up into my face and shouted,
'See, Hackman, I told you that you would never amount to anything!' I
felt 1 inch tall.
He
made it seem something natural.
I
wanted to act, but I'd always been convinced that actors had to be
handsome. That came from the days when Errol Fyln was my idol. I'd come
out of a theater and be startled when I looked in a mirror because I
didn't look like Flynn. I felt like him.
I
suppose I wanted to be an actor from the time I was about ten, maybe
even younger than that. Recollections of early movies that I had seen
and actors that I admired like Jimmy Cagney, Errol Flynn, those kind of
romantic action guys. When I saw those actors, I felt I could do that.
But I was in New York for about eight years before I had a job. I sold
ladies shoes, polished leather furniture, drove a truck. I think that if
you have it in you and you want it bad enough you can do it. |
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