E-mail a friendJames Garner
airdate August 12, 2004
Some years back, People christened James Garner the "last real man." He's maintained a presence in movies and on television for 50 years. It was the TV series Maverick that brought him recognition, and he struck gold with The Rockford Files, for which he won an Emmy. It's been said he shines in any medium and loses none of his sparkle with age. Garner will next be seen in the feature film, The Notebook.
James Garner
Tavis: Mr. Garner, an honor to meet you, sir.
James Garner: Ah, thank you.
Tavis: Thank you for coming on the program.
Garner: My pleasure. After all that speech, we might as well get up and go.
Tavis: Oh, no, you're not going anywhere anytime soon. You have had such a wonderful career, almost 50 years in this business, and there's a lot I want to talk to you about, but I would be remiss if I didn't start with "The Notebook," and I have struggled trying to figure out--and every now and then, I have this problem, not often, but every now and then I have trouble trying to figure out how to describe what a movie is, to share with the audience what a movie is without giving too much of it away, and on those occasions where I don't think I can do a good job, I yield to the star.
Garner: Oh, I don't know what kind of job I can do, either. This--it's really, a beautiful, beautiful love story, and, of course, it's complicated early. It goes from teen-age to old age, and it's love found, love lost, love found, love lost, and it's just as touching a love story as I've seen in many, many years, and I'm so proud of--proud to be in it, but it has the complication near the end. She has Alzheimer's after they finally get together and get married, and she has Alzheimer's, she writes this notebook and makes me promise to read it to her every day so she never forgets, and that's what I do. I do a lot of reading.
Tavis: I'm fascinated by your playing this particular character, because with regard to love found, love lost, love found, love lost, I don't know, respectfully--if I'm wrong, you'll correct me here, I don't know that you can relate to that, in part because you've been married to the same woman, Lois, for 48 years.
Garner: Yep. As I told you earlier, I think--we think it's gonna work.
Tavis: Yeah. After 48 years, you think it might work. What's made it work for almost 50 years?
Garner: Well...
Tavis: And they say these Hollywood marriages, these things in Hollywood never work.
Garner: I don't think they're marriages. I think they want to legitimize having affairs.
Tavis: Whoa! OK.
Garner: Well, that's what it looks like. You're married a month, and then you go to another guy, and then your best friend takes over, and you take over for this guy. You know, they're all going with the same women and marrying the same women, and then it's all over. No, I don't think young people today want to commit, and when you get married, you make a commitment to that person, and they say, you know, "Till death do us part." A lot of 'em don't even get to the "D" in "death," you know?
But the secret, I think, to a long marriage is respect. You have to respect your partner. You have to think of them in almost everything you do in how it will affect them. You know, I've had chances to go crazy, you know, and you gotta think, "Well, what's that gonna do to Lois?" you know? And so, you say, "No, I'm not gonna do that," so, anyway, respect and commitment.
Tavis: Indulge me, if you will, I beg, on some of these questions, 'cause I'm so fascinated to have the opportunity to talk to a legend, and there are so many things you've covered and done in your career that I want to ask you about, so I might make the best use of this time. Looking back on it now, you played, as I mentioned earlier, 2 characters that made you world-famous: "Maverick," "The Rockford Files." Is it a good thing or a bad thing to have a character that you are so associated with that it makes it, you know where I'm going with this?
Garner: I have a pretty good idea. Typing yourself? You know, getting caught in just that? I've been very fortunate, and of course, it was my own decision to...I started in television. I did a couple of movies while I was doing that. I did "Sayonara" and a couple of other movies, but then after I did the television, I moved to movies during the sixties, then back to television in the seventies, then back to movies and off and on, you know, television movies, that sort of thing, in the eighties and nineties, and now I'm back to television with "8 Simple Rules," plus throwin' in a movie or two, and it's a pretty good movie. I don't usually do that. I don't usually come out and say, "This is a really good movie." I didn't do that for...well, I don't remember.
Tavis: You don't usually do interviews. That's why I'm glad to have you here. You don't do a lot of these.
Garner: I don't like to do interviews.
Tavis: Well, a few more minutes, and I'll let you go.
Garner: Well, my wife says, "You'll do him 'cause he's great."
Tavis: You tell your wife I said thank you. Let me ask you about "8 Simple Rules." We all know the tragic and untimely death of John Ritter. That show, though, was able to find its legs to make some adjustments. You add James Garner, the show keeps moving. It's coming back for another season. You gotta feel good about being a part of that process and helping that show transition.
Garner: Well, yeah, but the people you really have to give credit to is the writers. They did a magnificent job with that transition from John to losing John to bring in myself and David Spade, you know? That...little works of genius.
Tavis: As I mentioned, you've done so many things in your career that I'm fascinated by. You served in a war, were decorated with a purple heart a couple times as a result of fighting in that war. Take me back to those days and then try to juxtapose, if you can, what you think of this war that we're in today.
Garner: Well, I wanted to get in World War II, and when I was 16, the day I was 16, I joined the Merchant Marine 'cause that's one of the few things I could do at my age.
Tavis: You kind of fibbed about your age, as I recall.
Garner: No, I didn't fib about it, because at 16, if you had your parents' permission...
Tavis: With your parents' permission, you could get in. All right.
Garner: And I got in the Merchant Marine, and then I found out that this country boy who had never been to sea...
Tavis: Oklahoma?
Garner: Yeah. Did not like the ocean very well.
Tavis: You like being on land, huh?
Garner: We didn't get along too well. I think I lost 35 pounds on board ship just 'cause I couldn't keep anything down. But, uh, I did very little of that, and then I went back to school--high school--and then, uh, I--I was in the Merchant...I was in the National Guard in about '48, I think it was. And I tore up a knee, uh, doing maneuvers, and so they gave me a medical discharge. And then I went and had the knee operated on. The government should have paid for it, but they didn't. 'Cause I wanted to play high school ball again. And then in 1950, they drafted me. And, uh, I told the doctor. I said, "Hey, doc, what about my knee?" He said, "What about it?" I said, "Well, they operated on it, you know?" He said, "Well, they must have fixed it. Next!" So, I went over as cannon fodder in Korea. They just needed people to stuff up the gap. We were in the first group of replacements over there.
Anyway, you learn a healthy respect for war, and I'm not happy with what's going on today. Uh, you know, our sterling president--um, I shouldn't get into this. Everybody's gonna kill me, but I'm not happy with him. I--I-- if he had ever been in a war, he wouldn't have been so happy--so eager to send other people into war. And it's--it's like a Christian crusade over there. I mean, he's having his own crusades. You don't mess with the Middle East. I mean, those people...they do it different. They think different. That's why they hate us so much, you know? And they've always hated...since the crusades, they hated whites or whatever you want to call it, the Christians coming in there and trying to change their religion. And, uh, you know, I--I just think it's terrible what's happening.
Tavis: You're confirming for me what I've heard from any number of people who've known you for years, and what I've read about you is that you are very, very politically astute. I'm told that over the years, many of your friends have tried to encourage you to consider running for office. We got a guy now who's the governor of this state who started in Hollywood. We just lost a president who started in Hollywood. And James Garner, you did a TV show that lasted for a little while that I liked where you played a politician.
Garner: Oh, "The Judge?"
Tavis: "The Judge"--no, the one where you played--where your ex-wife, you took over her place on the City Council. It'll come to me in a second here. Um, it was a short-lived TV series. You don't ever remember. You were good in it, but I'll tell you what it was in a second. It'll come to me.
Garner: Well, when they're that short-lived, I don't--I don't remember 'em.
Tavis: Lois is watching, your wife. She knows what I'm talking about. It'll come back to me in a second. But why have you resisted all the years becoming more politically involved even though you love this stuff and you know it very well obviously?
Garner: Well, I'm not that well-informed, but I, uh--I've had a chance. In 1962 or 3, they wanted me to run for Congress from the 27th District on the Republican ticket. They called my business manager, and he kind of giggled and said, "Well, he's out on location. I'll get back to you." And, of course, he called me, and we laughed. And then he called him back and said, "No, Mr. Garner doesn't want to do that, because he's a Democrat."
But it told me something about the whole electoral process is that they don't care what you do, think-- if they think you can win the election. Uh, and the reason they chose me for Congress--Steve Allen was the opposition, and I'd beaten him in the ratings. So therefore, I would have beat him in an election, you know? But that's the way they think. They don't care, really, what you think or do. And that's politics.
Tavis: My time with you is so tight and so limited. I didn't get a chance to talk about your love for racecars. I'm from Indianapolis, so you know the 500 very well.
Garner: Oh, are you? I was just back there a couple weeks ago.
Tavis: Let me close it with this question: um, it's very clear, with all due respect to this wonderful new project you've got out, "The Notebook," and your wonderful work on "8 Simple Rules." You don't have to get up and go to work every day. You're a legend in your own time. History will record that. Why are you still getting up and going to work every day?
Garner: 'Cause my wife gets up and goes shopping.
Tavis: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I can't end on a better note. Uh, Miss Lois, you encouraged him to come do this, so you--you take that in the spirit of love that he offered it.
Garner: Before we get off the electoral process, they wanted me to run for governor about 8 years ago--ahem--and I didn't want to do it. I wasn't gonna get in with that--
Tavis: Now you wish you had.
Garner: No, no, no.
Tavis: Hey, Arnold won.
Garner: No. I think I could have won easy, but I don't think that they ought to have somebody like me or Schwarzenegger as governor. It's no way to run a state.
Tavis: Heh heh. On that note, James Garner, a pleasure to meet you. Glad to have you here.
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