Jack Lemmon Talking Pictures

Jack Lemmon loved acting.

Legend has it whenever the cameras rolled on the film set

he would always announce "It's magic time!"

Lemmon's first big break came in the 1955 film Mister Roberts

for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.

And he went on to become the first person to also win

a Best Actor Oscar for Save The Tiger in 1973.

A master of both comedy and drama,

his desire to be an actor went back to his childhood,

which he discusses here with Michael Aspel in an interview from 1970.

Jack Lemmon, your father was an executive

in the Doughnut Corporation of America

but you decided pretty early not to follow him in the business,

didn't you?

I did. For whatever reasons, probably highly neurotic,

I always wanted to be an actor as long as I can remember and then

he made the mistake of letting me go in a local show with him

called Gold In Them Thar Hills

when I was about four or five.

And I had one great line.

Like, I heard a pistol shot or something or other and that did it.

And from then on I just stayed in it.

He had a marvellous line, not to dwell on this too long,

but I will never forget and I will love him always for his advice to me

and his attitude when I decided after I was through with my schooling

and everything to try to be a professional actor.

And he said, "You're sure you don't want to come in my company and

"start at the bottom?" which he had wanted me to do,

quite understandably.

And I said, "No, I've got to give this a good try."

And he said, "OK, well, two questions..."

Now, his company made doughnuts and doughnut machines

and bread and so forth.

The baking industry in general.

He said, "Do you love it?" I said, "Yes."

He said, "Do you need it?" And I said, "Yes."

He said, "Well, good, because when the day comes

"that I don't find love in a loaf of bread, I'm going to quit."

And I love him for saying that, you know, I knew what he meant.

-Lemmon is your name, isn't it?

-That's... I'm afraid so.

-Yeah.

What's worse is my middle initial is U.

So as a kid I was traumatic by the age of nine from hearing

"Jack you Lemmon, Jack..." At school all the time from the kids.

Did the studio ever want you to change it?

Yes, Harry Cohn, the late head of Colombia Pictures

who was a very feared man.

I had a marvellous relationship with him but when I first met him,

I had never met him until I'd finished my first film

with Judy Holliday called It Should Happen To You.

And he called me up to his office and I thought,

"Well, good, finally I'm meeting my boss," you see.

And I walked in and this very imposing figure,

with the sun coming in, the one open shade that happened to shine

on the top of his bald head, said, "The name is out,"

and I said, "What name?" I didn't know what he was talking about.

He said, "It's going to be Lennon."

And I said, "Lennon? How do you spell it?"

He said, "L-E-N-N-O-N instead of L-E-M-M-O-N."

And I said, "And you pronounce it how?

He said, "Lennon," and as a joke I said, "Oh, you'd better not do that

"because they'll think I'm a Russian revolutionary."

And right away he said "No, I looked it up, it's Lenin."

But I didn't change it and he didn't push me on it.

You're a very honest actor you don't approve of the method for example,

I gather?

I don't approve of the method.

I approve of any method that works for you if it's legitimately used.

I don't approve of any 'method'

in which the method and how your work becomes more important

than the result.

In other words, I think an awful lot of young actors get deluded

thinking that they are becoming tremendously immersed

in the material and the part and the character it's...

But they forget that it doesn't matter whether they're immersed in it

or whether they are really becoming the character

if the audience believes.

They forget about the audience.

The highest compliment, I think, that an actor can ever be paid

is not "You're great, you're terrific, you're magnificent"

or any of those overdone bromides and superlatives.

But that having once seen a particular performance

you can never imagine another actor playing that part.

Lemmon was someone audiences always believed in.

No matter who he was portraying, he always seemed to get it just right.

And how he approached this challenge

is something he spoke about

to Michael Parkinson in 1972.

I tell you a thing that fascinates me about actors is that...

Not being one myself at all, as is quite obvious

to anyone watching this programme, but if you're...

As a technique, Jack, are there certain keys to a character?

Are there things that happen quite by chance perhaps?

-Like all of a sudden - the revelation?

-Yes.

And it's a terribly difficult thing to explain but they can.

You can work and work for weeks and weeks,

you can search and delve and dig.

And rehearse and everything and you still haven't quite got him.

It doesn't feel right, it isn't full and it isn't there.

And sometimes it gets worse and worse, you really are lost

and then one little thing, and it can be external too.

It can be the way you tilt your head,

the way you walk or whatever can do it.

Like that.

And I remember reading an article about Larry Olivier

in which he said that he was in about the third or fourth week

of a rehearsal of a play and he could not get the character.

And one day when they were breaking from rehearsal and going to lunch

it looked overcast and he brought an umbrella along.

And it wasn't yet raining so he was carrying it like a cane.

And all of a sudden the whole part came to him

as he walked across the street.

He swears the entire part came to him, after three weeks of nothing,

by the walk and the way he carried the thing.

The whole manner. Everything about him changed and he had it.

And it was there, it was irrevocable.

And I can understand it, it can happen.

-It sounds silly but it's true.

-Yes.

-Those little things can do it.

Years later, Lemmon gave another example

of how he found his way into a part.

Talking about his role in the 1989 film Dad

in which he was playing a character struggling with old age.

You have to be physically an old man. What did you do to be...

Well... Of course, from the time I knew I was going to play the part

I started studying people, you know,

they get the slower movements were the thing for me

cos I have a lot of excess nervous energy

and trying to, get the hands slightly arthritic,

slightly shaking and to move very, very slowly and the voice,

sort of, through whispering, etc.

And the walk, the lower...

the lower centre of gravity.

I don't know how to explain this walk to you

but the whole thing is whatever you're going to do

in the physical aspects, the outer coating of the character,

it's something that should be embedded in you

by the time you're out of rehearsals you shouldn't have to think of that

while you're playing.

You play the man and the physical stuff

takes care of itself, hopefully.

And I was worried about the walk. How the hell am I going to explain this?

All I knew is I wanted to lower my centre of gravity.

-You know, so that...

-Well, as if your Y-fronts have dropped?

-Yeah.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

Finally what I used... Sometimes we use images.

As, you know, here's an image of this or... whatever you want.

Anything that works.

But I just suddenly one day in rehearsal

got the image of someone who had...

Have you ever tried to walk when you've had an accident in your pants?

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

-It's... May I?

-Not since I was about six.

-What you do... First of all...

I don't mean to be crude about this. No, but it's true but it works.

-Go on, be crude.

-You don't put your legs together.

-No.

And you don't walk erect. You walk very carefully.

It slowed everything down and I just didn't move fast...

It was the greatest thing in the world for me.

from then on once I had that, man, I never moved fast.

It was perfect. Everybody said, "Isn't that a convincing thing?"

They didn't know how I got it. What the hell.

Perhaps the perfect example of Lemmon inhabiting a role

came in one of his most enduring films.

Billy Wilder's, Some Like It Hot.

Along with Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe was, of course,

one of Lemmon's co-stars and people always wanted to know

how he found working with her.

Here's Jack talking to Mark Cousins about the film's famous

train sleeper compartment scene.

I read that, you know, she's famous

-for doing like 40 takes or something.

-Yeah.

Did she do it here?

One take.

One take. The whole thing.

And Billy said "Marilyn, do you want to do another one?"

And she said, "No." And he said, "That's it."

It was the first shot in the morning. It was the only time I think

she ever did one take in her life.

And it was not that she was not capable

or that the director would cut.

She would cut because she didn't feel right.

Whatever it was an alarm clock went off in her brain

and just said "No." And she would stop.

So you must have dreaded scenes with her, then?

In a way, except I liked her very much and we got along great

and I knew that she had problems and that she was not happy.

I didn't know why but I knew that she was basically not happy.

Um... It was none of my business, I never pushed it.

We never got close enough for me to find out

what her troubles may have been.

I mean, we all know she had troubles but...

..the biggest problem, really,

was not that, it was her lateness

cos she would just not come onto the set and shoot until she felt ready.

And it was not temperament at all.

It really was a psychological thing with her.

Till she could face that camera she wouldn't do it.

And you didn't know she was pregnant?

-And you didn't know she had a miscarriage during this film?

-No.

-We didn't know it.

-It makes the film more poignant, I think...

-Yeah.

-When you know that in retrospect.

-Yes.

You said a fascinating thing which was when you were playing scenes

with her it's like there was a piece of glass, a glass wall

between you and her and yet...what?

-When you looked at the rushes... there was...

-Yeah.

Then you'd go to the rushes and you wouldn't look at yourself,

you'd just look at her.

Cos it looked liked, it seemed like nothing was happening

but it was happening between her and the lens

if not between her and you.

Do you think she would have been good in the theatre?

You know, we talked before about the theatre or was she a...?

I personally don't think so.

I don't know, we'll never know but I don't think so.

-Right, let's look at this...

-I think she had a magic on film.

I don't want her to know

we're in cahoots.

Oh, well, we won't tell anybody.

Not even Josephine.

Maybe I'd better stay here

till she goes back to sleep.

You stay here as long as you like.

I'm not crowding you, am I?

No, it's nice and cosy.

HE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY AND SNORTS

When I was a little girl on cold nights like this

I used to crawl into bed with my sister,

we'd cuddle up under the covers and pretend we were lost

in a dark cave and we were trying to find our way out.

-That's brilliant.

-HE LAUGHS AND SNORTS

-Anything wrong?

-No, no, no, not a thing.

-You poor thing. You're trembling all over.

-It's ridiculous.

-Your head's hot.

-Ridiculous.

-You've got cold feet.

-Isn't that ridiculous?

-Here, let me warm them up a little.

-Hmm.

-There. Isn't that better?

-Yes, I'm a girl, I'm a girl, I'm a girl.

-What did you say?

I'm a very sick girl.

-Oh, I'd better go before I catch something.

-I'm not that sick.

-I've got very low resistance.

-Well, I'll tell you, sugar.

If you feel that you're coming down with something, my dear,

-the best thing in the world is a shot of whiskey.

-You've got some?

-I know where to get it.

-HE GIGGLES

Don't move. Shh.

-Hold on.

-OK.

Up, up. Now.

LOUD THUD

-Are you all right?

-I'm fine.

-How's the bottle?

-Half full.

-You'd better get some cups.

-Cups.

-NARRATOR:

-And this very scene also came up in Lemmon's visit

to the Parkinson show.

Oh, I tell you, my dear. This is the only way to travel.

You'd better put on the lights, I can't see what I'm doing.

No lights, we don't want them to know we're having a party.

-But I might spill something.

-So spill it.

Spills, thrills, laughs and games.

This may even turn out to be a surprise party.

APPLAUSE

Actually, I think if I'd had been playing with Marilyn Monroe

in that bed scene, the initial sequence there,

that I'd have been glad it took 30 odd takes.

-You know something...

-Really?

That whole first long thing was the first take.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

Just to show you how things can happen and it totally shocked me.

It was the first take straight through.

Billy said, "Print" and she said, "I loved it too."

And I thought, "What happened?"

Because I was ready for it to go all day.

And...it's lucky I got all the words right because I had learned to,

kind of, pace myself with Marilyn so you don't go by it,

you don't end up just exhausted and with your energy level way down

as she began to, you know, pull it all together.

Because the day before we had gone, like, 37 takes.

And she had exactly two lines.

She walked in and said, "Where's that bourbon? Oh, there it is."

But it didn't feel right for her, you see.

-And we went 37 takes.

-And that was...

And the next morning we came in, did the whole upper berth thing -

that whole first take before he goes down to get the booze -

in one.

And she had it in the first crack. So you never know.

Perhaps she didn't like being in bed with you.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS Oh, well.

-Nobody's perfect.

-No.

That marvellous thing there that Wilder did in that movie

and, indeed, you and Tony Curtis did was, I mean,

wore women's clothes throughout the entire movie

and yet you trod the tightrope all along,

-it never went over into the queer thing at all.

-No, not at all.

I think that in a part like that that if...

anybody would have ever worry or think about that,

that that kind of self-consciousness would ruin it.

I think you'd just have to say, "Forget it" and just play the part

-to the hilt, absolutely to the hilt and just go to the moon with it.

-Yes.

Let it go, you know, because...

or at least the character I played, anyhow, is absolutely insane, anyway.

He never acted he only reacted.

And once I realised that then I was all set.

I mean, you know, no matter what you said he would then react.

He never stopped to think. MICHAEL AND AUDIENCE LAUGH

He could never... He was incapable of creating a thought

whereas Tony's character would be the motivator.

He's the one that would get the ideas.

He's the one who would do it and I'd just go and react,

-no matter what it was, you know?

-Yeah, yeah.

And...without ever thinking, he never stopped to think.

So I just never stopped to think or worry about that.

Just said, "To hell with it, just go." And let it go all the way.

-Did you base it, actually, on any woman at all?

-Um...

-You may be honest on this...

-No.

But I'll tell you something very funny

that I realised shortly afterwards.

Once we'd gotten the make-up right and everything

and they'd gotten the hair right, my mother came to the set to visit us

and I suddenly stood beside and it was one of those wardrobe mirrors

and we both were there and I looked and I'm like,

"God, I look just like her." AUDIENCE LAUGHS.

I really did.

She had her hair done like mine and she always had this, sort of,

slight bee sting, you know, the lipstick thing on there.

And we really did.

And so I had a couple of pictures taken of us together

and we looked like sisters. It's very funny.

Did you ever try out the disguise, Jack, though, in real life?

Yes, oh, yeah. When we first...

It took about three or four days of tests to try to get it right

because it had to be funny, yes, but it also had to be good enough

so that even though it was a broad farce it would be believable

that they could get away with it in front of the girls.

So that, also, was another fine line about it.

And when we did get the make-up to our satisfaction,

we were going to lunch, Tony and I, at The Commissary,

and I said, "Wait a minute, I've got an idea."

And there was a bunch of girls...

that were working on another film...in the backlot of MGM

which is where we were doing the tests.

It was not a MGM film, it was a United Artists film

but that's where we were shooting at the moment.

And I said, "I think they're going to the ladies room, follow them."

So he said, "What?" I said, "Yeah, follow them." So we did.

And nobody batted an eyeball. We just went right on in.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

And I figured if we could get by with them, you know, then...

So we told Billy and he said,

"Terrific, that's it, we don't change anything."

And that's how we ended up with the final make-up.

Today, Some Like It Hot is considered

one of cinema's greatest comedies.

But Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe were by no means the only co-stars

with whom Lemmon will be forever associated.

What about the extraordinary Walter Matthau I mentioned earlier,

you've done The Odd Couple and Whiplash Willie.

Now, there's the laconic Matthau, the frenetic you.

-Is it a happy combination?

-Very.

Again, I'm very close to him personally.

I must say...

I always hesitate if someone says who's your favourite actor

or favourite actress because you don't wish to say someone

as averse to somebody else, you know, for the sake of their feelings.

But I've never worked with an actor

I've enjoyed working with more than Walter.

And that's just professionally,

aside from the fact that we're very close friends.

He is a marvellous, wonderful, thoroughly trained,

disciplined professional man of great good spirit to work with

and, of course, enormous talent and a very considerate actor.

He is concerned with his job within the scene,

not just what he is going to do, you know.

And it's a joy to work with him.

He doesn't care where any camera is or anything else,

he wants to work with you and not at you.

And I tell you, usually you work at an actor and not with them.

And here's an example of Lemmon and Matthau working together

even though they were 1,000 miles apart on the Wogan show in 1989.

There was another hilarious role as that fussy, the motherly...Felix.

-Oh, Felix. Oh, God.

-In The Odd Couple.

-Well...

I mean, we've got a little clip from that.

That's not only a great role

but there I was playing with one of my very dearest friends and...

-Walter Matthau.

-Yeah, it's a joy.

-We've got a little...

That's not even like work that's just, sort of,

like just sitting down and chatting over breakfast.

-You know, he's...ah!

-He's an old pal.

You have a clip of that?

Yeah, we've got a clip of it over here.

Mmah!

Phweh! Phnawah!

Phaha! Phwah!

Muhh! Phwah-phwah-phwah.

-Phwa-ha. Phwah.

-FELIX SNORTS.

Stop that, will you? What are you doing?

I'm trying to clear out my ears.

Pwahh. You create a pressure inside your head,

it opens up the Eustachian tube.

Mweh. Phwah! Phwah!

Phwah! Phwah!

Muhh! Muhh!

Muhh!

Phwah-phwah-phwah-phwah-phwah

-Phwah-phwah. Phwah!

-FELIX SIGHS.

-Did it open up?

-I think I strained my throat.

APPLAUSE.

-Oh, gosh.

-That wonderful clearing of the throat. I mean, I don't know...

How did Walter Matthau keep a straight face? Did you...?

How did he keep a straight face?

That was the toughest scene in the film for me

because I could not look at Walter. Just those sly little...

those looks of his just absolutely destroyed...

What he does...if he says, "Hello" I'm on the floor.

Well, let's see if he'll say hello to us now because he's

with us by satellite from Los Angeles.

-You're kidding?!

-So can we call him in?

Walter Matthau, are you with us?

-There is the man himself.

-Hello.

-That's my Walter.

APPLAUSE.

-Hello, how are you?

-Hi, Walts.

Oh, for God's sake.

It's terrific.

Hey, what are you doing? Where are you?

-Well, I'm here at the St James Club.

-Yeah.

And Bette Davis is sitting over there.

She looks about as bad as I do.

JACK LAUGHS

Jesus, old silver tongue. He's at it again.

I'm here, I just want to say, this fella went to Harvard University

and graduated and his finest moment on the stage is when he went,

"Mwuah! Mwuah!

"Mmwuah!"

-How are you doing, Jack?

-Oh, terrific. I miss ya.

-I miss ya, I'm having a great time.

-Are you all right?

How do we get you back? How much do they want?

-I don't know, that's up to the critics.

-How do we get you back?

We may find out very shortly.

-No, I mean, aren't you being held hostage?

-Probably.

-Yeah.

-How are they treating you? Are you all right?

I am terrific. I'm having a wonderful time,

I'm working with some great guys.

You never call me. You don't call, you don't write.

You don't fax.

All right, I'll call, I'll call, I'll write.

Why don't you fax?

All right, I'll fax, I'll fax.

What's going on over there?

I'm doing a play, you dummy.

-You're in a play?

-Yeah.

-You mean you're acting?

-Yeah.

I'm acting with some terrific guys. You'd love it.

-They pay you money to do this?

-Oh, yeah. Sure.

-I finally got the hang of it.

-That's remarkable.

-Yeah.

Ah, no wonder you left America and went to England.

-They give you money there.

-Oh, yeah. Sure.

-Are you guys great friends?

-That's good.

Do you two meet on a social level or is it just pals in the movies?

-What do you do when you get together?

-Well, mainly...

-Every Christmas.

-JACK LAUGHS

-Mainly we listen to our wives...

-His wife is a very extravagant woman.

His wife buys me very expensive gifts.

So I stay friendly with him.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

APPLAUSE

Oh, God.

Lemmon often said comedy drama was the hardest thing to get right.

That didn't mean the serious roles were easy.

A very different part for you, a very different film, of course,

-was Days Of Wine And Roses.

-Yes.

What made you particularly want to do that subject

which is about alcoholism, wasn't it, Jack?

I was afraid of it.

-You were afraid, really?

-That's one of the reasons.

I think there's been parts that,

I don't mean that they are necessarily difficult

but they might be to me.

And if I've read a script and I know damn well that it's good

and that that's a heck of a part

but I'm a little afraid of it,

then I really don't want to turn it down because I'll start rationalising

and I'll spend the rest of my time saying,

"You backed away from it, kid, you were afraid."

So I'd rather do it if I felt that strongly about it and flop

than not to do it.

And I didn't know how to play the part,

that's another thing that attracts me.

If I can finish a script

and I don't know how to play that part yet,

then there's something there, you know, you've got to dig

and there's something to find rather than say,

"Oh, that's 4-H, I did him last year."

You know, well, that's off the side of your foot because you played him,

you know, it's skin deep, it's just surface.

And those two things - if I don't know how to play them

and if I'm a little bit afraid...

I felt that about that part and so I said, "OK, let's go."

And I felt it about Save The Tiger which is a film that's not out yet

that I just finished before Avanti.

It's the same thing. And that's a heavy drama, also.

Well, let's look at...

There's one particular scene from Days Of Wine And Roses,

which I shall always remember,

which when I first saw it in the cinema,

really made me catch my breath.

It's a scene where all of a sudden it turns nasty.

Where this, sort of, comic drunk really gets it.

LOUD THUD

HE GIGGLES

HE SNORTS AND LAUGHS # Doo-doo-doo-doo. #

Magic time.

HE LAUGHS

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

That's the most extraordinary blend, isn't it, of comedy and real drama?

I mean, the flowers behind the back. That's pure Keaton that, isn't it?

That awful walk into that plate glass.

I love things like that. That's...

Blake Edwards had directed that.

Usually... It was interesting, because Blake...

I had done practically all comedies,

as far as films were concerned up to that point

and Blake had done practically all comedies.

You know, Pink Panther, this, that.

He's certainly more known as a comedy director.

But, I don't know why. I got that crazy idea of hitting...

Of picking the flowers. It was not in the script, picking the flowers...

Of almost walking through the thing

and then having the elevator doors... chop them off,

so that later, in the middle of a dramatic fight,

which comes after that,

I could suddenly notice them

and wonder what the hell happened to them,

because he never did figure it out.

I love if you can throw... Put comedy into drama.

I love it. It's because that's what life is like.

We tend to sort of label films.

If it's a comedy, it's supposed to be a comedy,

if it's a drama, it's a drama.

That's why Billy in The Apartment did such a brilliant job

of putting comedy and drama and romance together.

He's done it again in Avanti, I think. And...

It's not easy, but it's always...

..marvellous, sometimes, even if it's just for relief.

I remember being struck years ago when I saw Marlon...

Yeah, Marlon who(?) Marlon Brando, who else?

When I saw Marlon in A Streetcar Named Desire,

which was one of the great performances I've ever seen

by any actor, anywhere, any time.

This was in the theatre prior to him doing it on film.

Now, Streetcar Named Desire won the Pulitzer Prize and all of that

and was certainly was a magnificent, heavy drama.

But it had more laughs than any comedy running on Broadway that year.

It had an enormous number of laughs, hundreds of them.

And it ran very long because of that.

They had to invent business all over the stage

while people were laughing about every fourth or fifth line

and yet it had a tremendous power.

And when you can combine comedy with drama like that,

I think it's always much more telling.

Let's have a look at another sequence from...

from Days Of Wine And Roses now, which is...

Which shows a sort of heavy side that we were talking about.

It's a sequence, in fact, when you're finally taking the cure.

-You're in the straitjacket.

-Oh, yes.

HE GROANS

HE SCREAMS

HE WHIMPERS

No.

No!

HE SCREAMS

Argh! Ed, give us a hand.

HE GROANS

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

AUDIENCE APPLAUSE

Did you actually observe people going through...?

Yes. We went... It was terrible.

Both Lee Remick, who played in it with me, of course,

and I went very often to...

down at the drunk tanks

and we'd go down late at night to the Lincoln Heights jail

outside of Los Angeles.

And...

..observe them. It's frightening.

The drying out tables too and the straitjackets and everything.

It's really not the slightest bit exaggerated

and just go totally berserk.

Terrifying.

They're gone. Totally out of it.

-What effect did it have on your drinking habits?

-Drove me to drink!

AUDIENCE LAUGHS Naturally! What else would it do?

A part like that!

Actually, I don't think it had any effect at all.

-Didn't it?

-Really.

-Didn't make you frightened?

-No, I still kept to 2,3 bottles a day.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

Has drink other affected your work?

God, I hope not.

I don't think so. I hope not.

You'll have observed people in your business whose work it has affected?

-Yes, not very often.

-No?

I've seen, you know, there are some and it's a pity.

If they're going to drink when they work.

I mean, that's, you know....

Usually, if drink affects an actor's work,

it's because, basically, he's petrified in the first place.

If he ever drinks before a performance...

I don't give a damn how much he drinks afterwards,

but the actor that drinks before,

to give himself a little lift or a boost

-is in trouble, I think...

-Yes.

-..emotionally.

Because he really doesn't want to go out there in the first place

or he wouldn't do it.

Another of Lemmon's heavier roles

came in the 1982 controversial political drama Missing.

Based on a true story,

the film was attacked by the US government

for claiming that America was involved

in the military overthrow of Chile's President Allende.

Lemmon played Ed Horman,

an American patriot whose belief in his country is shattered

as he searches for his journalist son who's gone missing in the coup.

Here we find Lemmon in the serious mode,

discussing the film and how he found portraying a real-life character.

I was terribly pleased once I had met him,

because we did not meet until towards the very end of the film,

which I think is good.

So, I didn't have any restrictions placed on me...

..in my attitude towards the character.

He, at least in the broad strokes,

the general basic characteristics that I found from the pages,

are in Ed Horman, thank God.

So, I don't feel guilty that I portrayed a man

who is quite different than the real man is.

There's an innate decency and a dignity about him.

It's absolutely unflappable.

It's quite wonderful. He has great strength.

He's got a great, big strong rod up his back, you know?

Morally and ethically.

He's a very principled man.

I don't think that that man could tell a lie

if his life depended on it.

He's not capable of doing that, you know?

Which also made me feel good,

because I feel that in if it's basically his story.

We are not saying that there was complicity of the government.

We are saying that Ed Horman says there was complicity in his mind.

There's a big difference there.

Uh, but I believe him.

I really would tend to believe this man,

because he's intelligent,

a very naive man, as he started out,

who was wised up quite rapidly to the ways of political life.

And the fact that being an American does not mean that

you are given preferential treatment all over the world, you know?

I think we Americans think that,

because we sit naively over there in that huge country

untouched and unsurrounded.

And we just somehow think that, well, you know,

Americans are known all over the world.

Anywhere we go, we'll be taken care of,

everything will be fine, you know?

But that's not true necessarily.

I don't know what happened to your kid, Ed.

But I understand he was a bit of a snoop.

He poked his nose around in a lot of dangerous places

where he really didn't belong.

Now, suppose,

I went up to your town, New York,

and I started messing around with the Mafia.

I wind up dead in East River.

And my wife, or my father, complains to the police

because they didn't protect me.

They really wouldn't have much of a case, would they?

You play with fire,

you get burned.

But did it worry you that the American government

reacted against the film as it did?

No, I was thrilled. HE LAUGHS

I loved it. I'll tell you why.

They would never have done it.

They would never have come out with

that long, what, 500-word denunciation of whatever

saying this is distortion of facts

and these things did not occur as the film says.

Well, it is not a distortion of facts, they did occur.

But, they have to protect the stand they always had.

They would never have taken that stand

unless the film were very strong and unless it was a hit...you see.

So, it was flattering in a way, that for the first time in history

the State Department comes out against a film.

The book came out, you know, four, five years before that

and it was not a bestseller.

They didn't say boo. Nobody said anything.

They didn't criticise. They didn't say anything about it.

But, when the film was a hit, boom,

then they felt they had to do something to save face.

Missing and another political thriller, The China Syndrome,

were impressive additions to Lemmon's body of work

and his reputation for versatility.

So, which of his roles was his own personal favourite?

What you think was your best work?

I don't know. I can't judge that.

I know that for about half of the parts that I've done,

and all of the good ones,

I have been afraid of them.

But I learned early on that that's OK.

It started way back with Days Of Wine And Roses.

I found that I was scared to death once I said I want to play it.

Then I was worried, "Can I play it?" And...

I realised that's good, because you're not going to relax.

You're going to do better work,

whether you're good, bad or indifferent.

You'll do better work if you're a little bit afraid.

"Hey, maybe I can't do this."

Are you any judge of when you see the finished work?

Are you any judge of whether it's any good or not,

or do you think it's all good?

Not always.

Oh, God, last time I was on.

-Crazy Walter, my friend Matthau came on, you know and so forth.

-Yes.

One time, I thought I had done a brilliant job

in a film called Alex And The Gypsy.

I think it hit the 50-cent houses in about one minute,

but anyway, comes the first sneak preview.

I couldn't wait to bring my friend Walter, huh?

Now, unlike the theatre, where were faced with that terrible thing

where you go back to see a friend who's just opened in a play

and you don't know what you're going to say

if the performance is not good

or the play is a turkey or this and that.

You always worry, "What am I going to say to him," you know?

"Ah, you've done it again!" Uh, what are you going to do?

In a film, the one difference is that's it.

It's there forever, you know?

Unlike a play. At least that can close.

Well, I brought Walter to the screening of Alex And The Gypsy.

We sat in the back.

I think by the time the lights came up, there was 10 people left.

They had all gone up and just disappeared during the screening.

It was just God-awful. It was awful.

And I then realised it.

So, the last of the people had gone out.

Walter was sitting beside me just...

And I said, "All right, Walts. What do you think?"

He said, "Get out of it!"

It was my favourite.

It was almost worth doing the film for that line.

How the hell do you get out of a film?

THEY BOTH LAUGH

-That's a lot of help.

-But you can't.

Sometimes you think... When you feel, in a film, I think,

or in a play, very often,

you feel, "Hey, this is not going very well."

Usually, you're right, it's not too good.

But sometimes, you can think, "Oh, boy, this is terrific" and it's not.

Failures like that were few and far between,

but there might have been more

had Lemmon been forced into one particular genre of film

that he definitely didn't feel suited to.

Has anybody ever tried, Jack,

to persuade you to do something other than play a 20th-century man?

I mean, have you ever had an offer of a biblical role

or anything like that?

Oh, I did a test...

Oh...

Thank God that Harry Cohen and I hit it off as well as we did,

because they were doing Joseph And His Brethren.

It never was finally made.

And as a matter of fact, I think Tony, at one point,

was going to play it.

He would have been infinitely superior to me in it.

But can you see me as Joseph?

Well, they just...

Harry kept saying, "Now, come on. Please do this test."

And I kept saying, "Listen, I don't... It's just...

"It's wrong. Please."

And, er... Jerry Wald, who was then alive, was producing it and...

..Clifford Odets was writing it

and they all kept asking me

and I said, "Well, I can't refuse."

I didn't have the right to refuse, as a matter of fact.

So, I did.

Well, they brought me up and put on this thing.

This kind of a skirt with a belt down to here and one strap over

and then the sandals with the laces up to here.

Oh, Jesus.

I walked onto that set to do a serious scene

and the grips started falling out of the rafters.

I never, ever, ever, in any comedy got as big a laugh...

AUDIENCE LAUGHS ..as I got in there.

We could not shoot all morning long.

Every time I'd opened my mouth, they'd start going.

And the cameras were jiggling, guys were turning away

and it was just awful, just God-awful.

I did the test with Rita Hayworth.

Hmph! And she had a great deal of trouble, I'll tell you,

because she'd start cracking up in the middle of the scenes.

And I tried, I tried my best.

but, then Harry said, "OK, you don't have to play the part," he said.

"But, if you ever give me any trouble

"and you try to back out of a picture that I'm going put you in,"

he says, "I'm going to show everybody in town that test."

LAUGHTER So he held it over me.

The Hollywood epic aside,

Jack Lemmon showed time and again

that he was one of cinema's finest actors

and with the greatest range.

When Jack died in 2001

at the age of 76,

one line quoted repeatedly summed up the reaction.

It came from the great director Billy Wilder, who simply said,

"Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon."