0:00:17 > 0:00:20One of the cinema's true superstars.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Paul Newman was the blue-eyed all-American with a sparkle
0:00:24 > 0:00:27that audiences couldn't help falling for.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29In the 1960s and '70s,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33he was one of the most popular actors in the world,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36thanks to films like The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45Onscreen, he specialised in playing charismatic antiheroes
0:00:45 > 0:00:47and lovable rogues.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Off-screen, he could be more thoughtful
0:00:51 > 0:00:53and serious than many expected.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56As he demonstrated in his 1973 interview with
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Joan Bakewell at the National Film Theatre,
0:00:59 > 0:01:04which begins with her asking about his first ever role in film.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09I know the film-making career began with something called
0:01:09 > 0:01:10The Silver Chalice.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13LAUGHTER
0:01:13 > 0:01:16Now, I know you wince every time it's mentioned,
0:01:16 > 0:01:20so perhaps we'd like your comments on that.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Well, the question is really a matter of survival.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25I was grateful that I survived.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27It was nobody's fault, it was just, er...
0:01:29 > 0:01:33It was just the worst film made in the entire era of the 1950s.
0:01:33 > 0:01:34LAUGHTER
0:01:34 > 0:01:38So I get a kind of perverse pleasure out of that. Er...
0:01:39 > 0:01:43It's like being the worst kid on the block.
0:01:43 > 0:01:44You at least get noticed.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47And, er...I certainly got noticed.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49As a matter of fact...
0:01:49 > 0:01:51Er...
0:01:51 > 0:01:53I don't read reviews that much any more,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57but I certainly remember the New Yorker review
0:01:57 > 0:02:00to the exact comma,
0:02:00 > 0:02:02in which they said that I resembled
0:02:02 > 0:02:06a Putnam stop conductor announcing local stops.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08LAUGHTER
0:02:08 > 0:02:11And it should have been time for me to get out of the business, but I didn't.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14It was shown recently on American television, wasn't it?
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Yes, and I took an ad in the LA Times...
0:02:18 > 0:02:20LAUGHTER
0:02:20 > 0:02:21..with a funereal wreath around it,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25saying that I apologised every night at 8:30.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29And everybody tuned in to find out what I was apologising for.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31LAUGHTER
0:02:31 > 0:02:32So it backfired.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35(Jesus, guide my hand.)
0:03:25 > 0:03:28After The Silver Chalice, you came back and did a play,
0:03:28 > 0:03:31but then you went back and made a sequence of films.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35Did you, at this time, begin to feel
0:03:35 > 0:03:42that you were going to get a grip, despite the disastrous start?
0:03:42 > 0:03:44Did you feel yourself warming to film
0:03:44 > 0:03:47as a technique to film performance?
0:03:47 > 0:03:49I never really cared that much.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51And I think if you don't care,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55then you can take the kind of chances that can consolidate your position.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Do you care about acting?
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Probably not. LAUGHTER
0:04:06 > 0:04:11I care about all of the peripheral things that go into acting.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15I care about the rehearsals, I care about tearing down the script,
0:04:15 > 0:04:20I care about making terribly cerebral judgements about, er...
0:04:20 > 0:04:24the directions in which a character may go.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27The actual performing, the actual getting up
0:04:27 > 0:04:29and having someone shout, "Action,"
0:04:29 > 0:04:31and put a clapperboard in front of you
0:04:31 > 0:04:34and doing your job is very, very dull.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38All the preliminary things are interesting.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41How extensive are the preliminaries?
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Well, I think that varies on how close the part is to me.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48If the part is very close to me
0:04:48 > 0:04:52or what I think of myself as a human being,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56then the preliminary work is...is minimal.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00If...the part is a distance from me, then, er...
0:05:00 > 0:05:02I hold up for a long while.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Can you give us examples of, say, parts that are close to you
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and have needed relatively little work?
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Butch needed very little work.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16Um...Graziano needed a lot of work.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Er...the part in The Outrage needed a lot of work.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Er...
0:05:23 > 0:05:27..the primitives, basically, need more work with me
0:05:27 > 0:05:29than the sophisticated people.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33Do you hanker for the script that arrives that's a good script
0:05:33 > 0:05:35but is a totally different figure
0:05:35 > 0:05:38from anything you've ever done before?
0:05:40 > 0:05:46Well...I hope that my roles are a little more diversified than that.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52Granted, they are contemporary and almost exclusively American.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54On those occasions
0:05:54 > 0:05:57when I've gone very far afield from that,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59it has not been, er...
0:06:01 > 0:06:02..with any great acclaim
0:06:02 > 0:06:05on the part of either the critics or the populous.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09And certainly, an absolute disaster
0:06:09 > 0:06:12as far as the financial backers are concerned.
0:06:12 > 0:06:13So...
0:06:15 > 0:06:17..I don't know whether...
0:06:18 > 0:06:21..that peculiarly American stance that I take
0:06:21 > 0:06:25and contemporary stance, is, er...
0:06:25 > 0:06:28an act of wisdom or an act of fear.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31I suspect it's rather an act of wisdom.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34If you know your own limitations,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36I think you should be prepared to live with them.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40I'm not very good with the classics. I've never had a classical ear.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Er...
0:06:45 > 0:06:50I seem to be stuck inside of an American skin, like it or not.
0:06:50 > 0:06:51We're going to see The Hustler,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53a piece from the Hustler in a moment.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55Can you tell us about that?
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Because there's a great deal of good pool played in that film.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03Did you have to practise?
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Well, we moved the dining room table out of the dining room
0:07:07 > 0:07:09and put in a pool table for three months.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13And, er...I had the good fortune of learning from William Mosconi,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16who was, at that time, World Champion.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19And I subsequently won a lot of money.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21You'd better not miss, friend.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25I don't rattle, kid.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27But just for that, I'm going to beat you flat.
0:07:34 > 0:07:35That's one.
0:07:42 > 0:07:43That's five.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47That's six.
0:07:53 > 0:07:54That's 10.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57You punk, you two-bit punk, come on, pay up. 100 bucks!
0:08:02 > 0:08:06- You quitting, friend? - Yeah. I'm quitting.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Apart from dying rich, happy and in bed, what is your ambition?
0:08:18 > 0:08:20That would just about be good enough.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22LAUGHTER
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Well, if I could be a competitive automobile driver,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28I'd chuck this in a minute.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32But aside from that, no, I'm doing what I like to do.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Er...there are some...
0:08:38 > 0:08:41..liabilities, but, er...
0:08:41 > 0:08:43in the long run, it's been very good to me.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47But you're quite serious about wanting to be a racing driver.
0:08:47 > 0:08:48Oh, yeah.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53It's pretty hard to start something like that when you're 47.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55LAUGHTER
0:08:55 > 0:08:58You don't want to branch out in any other sphere at all,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00besides films or theatre?
0:09:02 > 0:09:06I think not. I thought about politics for a while
0:09:06 > 0:09:09and realised I had neither the patience, er...
0:09:10 > 0:09:15..for it and possibly conceivably not even the credentials for it.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20But it's... Politics is absolutely medieval.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22And anybody who would get involved with that
0:09:22 > 0:09:26has got to have his blood pressure checked and his brains.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Because I would have no part of it.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Would you say, then, that you're in a rut?
0:09:31 > 0:09:32LAUGHTER
0:09:37 > 0:09:39I'm just a happy hooker.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41LAUGHTER
0:09:43 > 0:09:45- Thank you very much indeed. - APPLAUSE
0:09:47 > 0:09:51Paul Newman enjoyed many box office successes, but perhaps the most
0:09:51 > 0:09:57popular was the enduring classic, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00It teamed him up with Robert Redford for the first time
0:10:00 > 0:10:03and created one of the cinema's greatest double acts.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05We find him here discussing the film
0:10:05 > 0:10:09with Iain Johnstone in an interview from 1982.
0:10:11 > 0:10:12There came a point in your career
0:10:12 > 0:10:14when you were able to obviously shape it
0:10:14 > 0:10:16because of your own status,
0:10:16 > 0:10:21when you could begin to produce the Newman form and company.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23And I think your first production was Butch Cassidy.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Had Bill Goldman written the screenplay when it came to you?
0:10:26 > 0:10:30I'd read the script long before it was ever done.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Maybe a year or so.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36As a matter of fact, Bill Goldman came down to Tucson, where I was shooting a film
0:10:36 > 0:10:40and he stayed there for about three or four days.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46And, er...we just kind of talked it through and worked at it and,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50er...the next time that I saw the screenplay,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Steve McQueen called me to his house.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56And, er...he had the flu.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00He said, "I've read this remarkable script."
0:11:00 > 0:11:02And he handed it to me and I said,
0:11:02 > 0:11:04"I saw this script a year and a half ago."
0:11:05 > 0:11:08And...I don't know. That's...that's history.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12- Was McQueen, at one stage, going to play along with you in it?- Yes.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14- We tried to buy it. - The two of you?- Yes.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18And somehow, they found out that Steve and I were interested
0:11:18 > 0:11:22and the agent gave it to a friend of his at 20th Century Fox.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28- And I heard Brando's name canvassed. Was that true?- Yes. He was...
0:11:28 > 0:11:31- Who was going to play the younger man?- It didn't make any difference.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33- I was prepared to play either part. - And how was Red...?
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Was it you who, in effect,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38gave Redford's career that nudge upwards, as it were?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41- That was Joanne's idea. - Ah! Tell me about it.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43She read the script and she said, "It's marvellous
0:11:43 > 0:11:47"and the only guy that can play it is, is, er...Bob Redford."
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Other people don't remember it that way, but I remember it that way.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57I remember someone once showed me a memo in 20th Century Fox
0:11:57 > 0:12:00when Redford had completed part of it, saying,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03"He is just another Californian blond.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06"Throw a beach board and you would hit 20 of them
0:12:06 > 0:12:09- "on any given day at Malibu." How wrong they were.- Oh!
0:12:09 > 0:12:11He's... We have a lot of fun together
0:12:11 > 0:12:13because we bounce off each other very well.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Did that happen straight away? Did you know each other already?
0:12:15 > 0:12:17No. Never met him.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Er...
0:12:21 > 0:12:25went back and, um...ran some of his films
0:12:25 > 0:12:28and then George Roy Hill and I went up and we had lunch with him.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34But I would've preferred to have played Sundance.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36- Why?- Oh, I don't know.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40I feel a little more comfortable with that cooled-out kind of quality.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44It's the better part, do you think?
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I suppose it's the easier part, yes.
0:12:48 > 0:12:49Ready?
0:12:51 > 0:12:52No, we'll jump.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59- Like hell we will!- No, it'll be OK.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02If the water's deep enough, we don't get squished to death.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04- They'll never follow us. - How do you know?!
0:13:04 > 0:13:06Would you make a jump like that if you didn't have to?
0:13:06 > 0:13:08I have to and I'm not going to.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Well, we've got to, otherwise we're dead.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13They're just going to have to go back down the same way they come.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15- Just one clear shot, that's all I want.- Come on.- Nuh-huh.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18- We've got to!- Get away from me! - Why?- I want to fight them!
0:13:18 > 0:13:22- They'll kill us!- Maybe. - You want to die?- Do you?
0:13:23 > 0:13:27- All right. I'll jump first.- Nope.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30- Then you jump first!- No, I said. - What's the matter with you?!
0:13:30 > 0:13:31I can't swim!
0:13:36 > 0:13:38HE LAUGHS
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Why, you crazy...! The fall will probably kill you!
0:13:54 > 0:13:56Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Is it true you and Redford send each other motorcars from time to time?
0:14:06 > 0:14:11We have been known to play, um...some eccentric practical jokes.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14He sent me a Porsche for my birthday.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Except it had hit a tree sideways at about 130mph
0:14:19 > 0:14:21and there was no transmission in it
0:14:21 > 0:14:24and it was just left in my driveway with a big bow around it.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28So I had the whole thing compacted.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32And, um...called the real estate agent.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35He was living in a rented house in Westborough.
0:14:35 > 0:14:41And we got through the burglar alarm and left it in his vestibule.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Took five guys to carry this thing into his house.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48And, of course, he finally won that one
0:14:48 > 0:14:51because he never admitted that anything was in his house.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55He briefed the kids.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58I called up the next day and I asked Jamie, I said,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02"How's it going? Anything new? What's going on?"
0:15:02 > 0:15:05And there was simply no response to it at all.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09And would you like to categorically deny on camera
0:15:09 > 0:15:12that you have a lavatory roll with Redford's face on it -
0:15:12 > 0:15:14a terrible rumour I once heard.
0:15:15 > 0:15:21Yes, I never had the courage to send that to his friends
0:15:21 > 0:15:25- and I was stuck with a thousand rolls of this...- What does it look...
0:15:25 > 0:15:28- You didn't happen to bring a piece? - No, it was a very bad...
0:15:28 > 0:15:30It was a very bad likeness to begin with, so...
0:15:30 > 0:15:34- In the centre of this sheet?- Yes. - So you still have them?
0:15:34 > 0:15:37I think there's 990 rolls left, yes.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40I think probably some Midwestern University will buy them
0:15:40 > 0:15:42one day for their library.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44I think there could be money in that, yes.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Well, they certainly will be museum pieces, yes.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53When you are coupled - as you are often coupled in print -
0:15:53 > 0:15:55with James Dean and Marlon Brando,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59do you regard that as a compliment or a piece of really myopia on the
0:15:59 > 0:16:04part of the writer that the three of you are and were very different?
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Er... Funny story.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12When I...er...
0:16:14 > 0:16:16..was asked to do Graziano...
0:16:19 > 0:16:21..I studied with Graziano -
0:16:21 > 0:16:25I mean, studied - we almost lived together for three or four weeks.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29Boxing, going around, seeing what the er...
0:16:29 > 0:16:31south side of Manhattan where he was born,
0:16:31 > 0:16:37the guys that he grew up with, all of that, and I tried very hard
0:16:37 > 0:16:42to put at least my version of Graziano on the screen.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45They accused me of imitating Marlon Brando.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Subsequently, I don't know, a year later or so, Rocky
0:16:50 > 0:16:53and I were sitting around drinking beer together
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and I mentioned Marlon's name and he said,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00"Oh, that's one of the stories that I forgot to tell you.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03"I kept noticing when I was sparring that there was this kid that
0:17:03 > 0:17:05"was sitting there with a sketch pad, and so forth,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08"and he kept watching me for a year and we'd chat, did this and that.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10"I never knew the kid, never knew what he was doing,
0:17:10 > 0:17:12"he said he was an actor.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16"I thought he was a spear carrier in some Shakespearean production.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18"What do I know?
0:17:18 > 0:17:22"So finally, I didn't see him for a long time and he came back
0:17:22 > 0:17:28"and said, 'I'd like you to come and see this production that I'm doing on Broadway.'
0:17:28 > 0:17:33"And I said, 'Sure - what are you? Musical? What is it?' You know."
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Well, it was A Streetcar Named Desire.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38And what had happened, of course, that Marlon
0:17:38 > 0:17:42and I had both the same basic character that we were dealing with.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48He had taken Rocky and put him up on stage in A Streetcar
0:17:48 > 0:17:53and I had put him up on the screen in Somebody Up There Likes Me.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55Just before we meet Joanne,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57there is something of a paradox in an actor's career
0:17:57 > 0:18:00in that of course he wants to become eminent, he wants
0:18:00 > 0:18:05to become well-known, better choice of parts, better pay, more influence.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09At the same time, it makes life less and less tenable.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Is there any part of the world you can now go where you're not
0:18:13 > 0:18:14recognised or known?
0:18:19 > 0:18:20Um, it's difficult.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24It's one of the things that I don't really care very much about.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31I'm not very good with photographers who linger out in the streets.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Well, I'm sorry - they're not photographers.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35They are guys with cameras.
0:18:37 > 0:18:38My daughter was telling me
0:18:38 > 0:18:44about a marvellous photographic book that she wanted to get for me -
0:18:44 > 0:18:48a photographer who documented what happened in Nicaragua.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51- Yes. Susan Meiselas, I think her name is.- Is that it?- I've seen it. It's beautiful. Yeah.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55That's a photographer, as compared with those guys with
0:18:55 > 0:18:59their cameras that linger and lurk about and skulk about in the streets.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05I'm not very comfortable with that.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07Do you sign autographs?
0:19:09 > 0:19:11No, I don't sign autographs.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17There's no sense telling you why
0:19:17 > 0:19:20but I'll tell you when I stopped signing them.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24I was standing at a urinal and a guy came through the door with
0:19:24 > 0:19:28a pencil and a piece of paper in his hands and I said, "Never again".
0:19:28 > 0:19:30That is the terminal insult.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37But it's a cleft stick. You can't have one without the other.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41- You can't be an international movie star and be unrecognisable internationally.- No, no.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45I understand it comes with the territory but...
0:19:46 > 0:19:48..autographs are something else.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55I remember many occasions in the old days
0:19:55 > 0:19:57when Joanne and I were having a romantic dinner
0:19:57 > 0:20:01or we were having dinner with the kids or walking down Fifth Avenue and
0:20:01 > 0:20:05there was some unwritten law that anybody could stop you from doing
0:20:05 > 0:20:09whatever you are doing and you had to put your name on this piece of paper.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14I wasn't around to vote when that rule was made
0:20:14 > 0:20:17and er,
0:20:17 > 0:20:22I think the only obligation that I have to audience is to do the best
0:20:22 > 0:20:26I possibly can to prepare myself,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30to not cheat them on the screen, and er...
0:20:32 > 0:20:34I don't know if anything else is really required.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37There is something of a command in that.
0:20:37 > 0:20:43"Smile! Take off your glasses." "I'm sorry, my pants'll drop off. "
0:20:43 > 0:20:44Um...
0:20:44 > 0:20:46It makes me uncomfortable.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51I think most of us who were watching would defend your right to that degree of privacy.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55- Mr Newman, for the moment, thank you.- You're welcome.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Despite all the hits and acclaim, by the mid-1980s,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Paul Newman had been nominated for an Oscar five times and never won.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06It felt like an oversight.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Even his wife - the actress Joanne Woodward -
0:21:09 > 0:21:11had won this highest accolade.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15That changed with The Colour Of Money,
0:21:15 > 0:21:20Martin Scorsese's sequel, 25 years on, to The Hustler.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Here we join Newman talking about the film with Russell Harty
0:21:23 > 0:21:28a few weeks before his winning of that year's Best Actor Oscar.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33Right from the very beginning, there was such a sense of exploration,
0:21:33 > 0:21:38of lack of ego, of a...of a...
0:21:38 > 0:21:41willingness to er, oh,
0:21:41 > 0:21:43I don't know - jump off cliffs
0:21:43 > 0:21:49and when you have that kind of feeling going in,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52it's pretty hard to make mistakes.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57- Did you do all your own shots in the movie?- Yep.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01- You went into training for that, or you remembered it from The Hustler?- No.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04I lose my eye pretty quickly and I get it back pretty quickly.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08- Cruise was fantastic. And never had a pool cue in his hand.- Really?
0:22:08 > 0:22:12And he was as good, if not better, than I was in five weeks.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Now this nation at the moment is obsessed with that kind of activity.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19Do you watch it? Have you been here long enough to watch?
0:22:19 > 0:22:22HE SNORES
0:22:22 > 0:22:27I was up until 1.30 this morning watching Dennis...
0:22:31 > 0:22:35- Park...no, Dennis Parker?- Taylor. - Taylor.- Dennis Taylor.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Watching Dennis Taylor win the championship.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42Joanne being the perverse lady that she is,
0:22:42 > 0:22:48had never watched a...a billiard game in her life
0:22:48 > 0:22:53and was keeping the entire hotel awake last night, jumping up and down
0:22:53 > 0:22:59on the coffee table, which I thought was rather tacky but we stayed up.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02It was an extraordinary night.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06In the United States, nine-ball, which is fast and quick
0:23:06 > 0:23:10and loud and noisy, is the game of television.
0:23:11 > 0:23:17Straight pool used to be the game but snooker here is...is tougher,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21the table is bigger, the pockets are less forgiving,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25the strategy is much more critical.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Do you think you'll get an Oscar for this?
0:23:30 > 0:23:32Er...
0:23:32 > 0:23:36That's not anything that I think very much about.
0:23:38 > 0:23:39The prizes are OK if you win them.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43They are not so good if you don't win them. But it's rather nice...
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Well, I tried to explain this morning. er...
0:23:46 > 0:23:48It's been a long time
0:23:48 > 0:23:52and it's like chasing a beautiful woman for 80 years and she finally
0:23:52 > 0:23:59says, "Well, here I am," and you say, "And so...
0:23:59 > 0:24:02"..now what?" So I don't know.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12I guess...I may have been competitive about acting at one point in my life.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14I'm certainly not competitive any more.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18It would be still nice to use it to stop the door open with,
0:24:18 > 0:24:23- wouldn't it?- Well, it would create some kind of balance in the house.
0:24:25 > 0:24:31Every time I get into an argument with Joanne about
0:24:31 > 0:24:36cooking or how to launder shirts,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40she just shakes her Oscar at me and I'm dead in the water.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46So it would kind of be the great equaliser now after 33 years.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51- Sickening.- Is there such a thing as pillow talk at the Newmans'?
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Does she say, "I don't like what you did today. Don't ever do it again."
0:24:55 > 0:24:57- Constantly.- So you never sleep?
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Well, yes but at odd times.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06Through lunch and dinner a lot and...
0:25:08 > 0:25:12And that kind of thing. Er, Scorsese...
0:25:12 > 0:25:15- That rather stopped you, didn't it? - Yeah, it did.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17I took a big swallow in the middle of that, didn't I?
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Where will you look for the next script?
0:25:21 > 0:25:25Presumably there are piles by the desk's side, or the top of the desk.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Do you have somebody who reads these and says, "This is yours"?
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Well...
0:25:31 > 0:25:36I have a young fellow who reads them first and has an excellent eye
0:25:36 > 0:25:40and I don't necessarily depend on that.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43I just know it's very dry out there.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46I know I'd like to do at least two films a year
0:25:46 > 0:25:52and now it's getting lucky if I do a film every two years.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56But maybe there isn't the same need and power
0:25:56 > 0:25:59and drive to prove yourself inside you.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01No. There are no good scripts out there.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11Let me give you an example, Redford and I made The Sting 13 years ago.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15George Roy Hill and Redford and I have been looking for a script together for 13 years.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19We've not been able to find one that we felt that we liked
0:26:19 > 0:26:22enough for the three of us to be in it together.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28That's not out of lack of desire. It's simply out of lack of material.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33- How's your memory? - Terrible and getting worse.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36And what do you do to help yourself? Do you make lists or do you...
0:26:36 > 0:26:40- They say choline is good. - What is that?
0:26:40 > 0:26:44That's a massage parlour outside of Westport Connecticut. No.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48- You can remember the address? - It's a vitamin.
0:26:48 > 0:26:49Well, I remember the bad things
0:26:49 > 0:26:54and I have trouble remembering the good things. It's par for the course.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59You sure as hell have a lot of good things to remember, don't you?
0:26:59 > 0:27:01No, but I can listen to them while you tell me.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03Well, you've got a good wife
0:27:03 > 0:27:06and you've got something in your eye which is...
0:27:06 > 0:27:09- No, I was just winking at you. - Yeah, I thought you probably were.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14And you've got a fairly fulfilled career,
0:27:14 > 0:27:16which in a kind of way allows you to choose
0:27:16 > 0:27:20whatever work you may want to work at, given the right material.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24- I'm very fortunate. - And you're wealthy.- Yes.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27And there are those people who say you're a good-looking guy.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29What do they know.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32There was one person in the whole world who didn't know that
0:27:32 > 0:27:36you're an actor, that you got a note or a message from,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40- whose girlfriend introduced him... - Where did you hear..? - ..to your salad dressing.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44I just heard on a great little grapevine that this guy who
0:27:44 > 0:27:47didn't know you were an actor sent you a note.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49Do you remember that note?
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Yes, as a matter of fact, I have it hanging in my office,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57in the bathroom, as a constant reminder to be modest.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02It said that...
0:28:02 > 0:28:03It was addressed to me
0:28:03 > 0:28:07and it was addressed to the salad dressing company in Connecticut
0:28:07 > 0:28:09and he just said,
0:28:09 > 0:28:14"My girlfriend and I just had this terrific..." - his girlfriend, "GF".
0:28:14 > 0:28:19"My GF and I just had this terrific dinner. We just whipped home
0:28:19 > 0:28:23"and scattered your wonderful spaghetti sauce over some spaghetti
0:28:23 > 0:28:28"and it was just terrific, and she also told me that you did movies.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30"Is any of your stuff on cassettes?
0:28:30 > 0:28:33"Can we get something for us to look at?"
0:28:34 > 0:28:39Well, it does take you down a little bit.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42Those sauces that Newman put his name and face to
0:28:42 > 0:28:46would end up becoming more financially successful
0:28:46 > 0:28:49than even his glittering cinema career.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51They made hundreds of millions of dollars
0:28:51 > 0:28:55and Newman gave every dollar of profits to charities.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00He also did go on to enjoy a second career as a racing car driver.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02And of course, he carried on acting
0:29:02 > 0:29:06in films like the Coen brothers' Hudsucker Proxy
0:29:06 > 0:29:09and Sam Mendes' The Road To Perdition
0:29:09 > 0:29:13which would become his final on-screen film role.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16In 2007, he announced his retirement,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19saying he'd lost confidence in his abilities
0:29:19 > 0:29:24and the following year, Paul Newman died, aged 83.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29On hearing the news, his friend Robert Redford summed up
0:29:29 > 0:29:32the feelings of many, saying,
0:29:32 > 0:29:34"I have lost a real friend."
0:29:34 > 0:29:40"My life, and America, is better for his being in it."