E-mail a friendAlan Arkin
airdate November 10, 2006
Alan Arkin is an award-winning actor, who's starred in films, plays and on TV. A founding member of the famed Second City improv troupe, he's equally comfortable in comedy and dramatic roles. He's also directed projects for all media. Arkin began his career as a singer-songwriter and co-wrote "The Banana Boat Song," which Harry Belafonte made into a mega-hit. The New York native is the author of a number of books, including The Lemming Condition, which is in the White House Library.
Alan Arkin
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Alan Arkin to this program. The Oscar-nominated actor has starred in seminal films like "Catch-22," "The In-Laws," "Wait Until Dark." His latest film is one of the most talked about of the year and sure to be part of the upcoming Oscar conversations. The movie is "Little Miss Sunshine" which, even months after opening, is still in theaters. Here now a scene from "Little Miss Sunshine."
[A film clip is shown]
Tavis: I'm not sure watching that clip, Mr. Arkin, whether that was a smile on your face or a smirk or something I totally misread, but your muscles moved in your face watching that clip.
Alan Arkin: My muscles - oh, you mean while I was watching?
Tavis: Yeah, the muscles in your face. What was I seeing?
Arkin: (Laughter) You're supposed to be watching the clip. Don't watch me.
Tavis: I can do two things at once. I multi-task.
Arkin: Or maybe cross-eyed (laughter).
Tavis: (Laughter) What was I seeing on your face, though?
Arkin: I don't know what it was. Maybe slight amusement. I don't know what it was. I'm enormously proud of the film. I love the film.
Tavis: I said to you before we came on the air, I called this "the little movie that could."
Arkin: Why?
Tavis: Because it's still going after all these months.
Arkin: Oh, yeah, right, right. Well, I know people have seen it four times.
Tavis: And you want that. Repeats are good.
Arkin: I like it.
Tavis: So does the studio (laughter). What drew you to this character? I'll let you set it up. It's a fascinating character that you play in it.
Arkin: Well, I just love people like that. I've played people similar to that character a couple of times. I love people who haven't got a clue in the world what's going on who spout philosophy.
Tavis: Isn't that most people?
Arkin: I guess so. But every once in a while, you meet somebody who seems to know what they're talking about. This character just doesn't have a clue. His life has been a complete mess, but he's willing to tell everybody how to live their lives.
Tavis: I think that scene, though, kind of gets to the heart of what the character is, a guy, to your point, that seems not to have a clue and yet, in a moment when something loving and inspirational and motivating -
Arkin: - well, he just loves the kid. He just loves his granddaughter. He's a sucker for his granddaughter. I don't think he likes anybody else but her very much.
Tavis: Speaking of offspring, is it getting confusing in this town now when you hear Arkin and you're listening here if they said Alan or Adam?
Arkin: I don't know. I don't live here, so I don't really know what they're saying. Great story, though, Adam was on a movie - Adam is my older son -
Tavis: - and doing quite well.
Arkin: He's doing very well. He's a great actor and he's now becoming a really good director. He's getting a lot of directing parts. But he was on a movie line waiting to get into a movie a couple of years ago. He feels this tap on his back and he turns around and there's a lady smiling at him. She says, "Excuse me, but aren't you Alan Alda's father?" He said, "Lady, you've got it wrong in every conceivable way."
Tavis: (Laughter) In every possible way. Did you encourage Adam or discourage him?
Arkin: No, no. I didn't do either. I don't think it's a good idea to discourage any kid from doing anything that's creative. Well, I know how tough it was. I couldn't get arrested for like fifteen years. I wanted to be an actor since I was five years old. I didn't get my first job until I was twenty-eight, so I knew the pitfalls. But by the same token, I sensed when he was very young, when he was like ten, that he was very gifted and I didn't want to stifle that.
Tavis: What allows one Alan Arkin, in this case, to know at the age of five that this is what he wants to do? Apparently, you were right because you do it extremely well. But how could you have figured that out at five?
Arkin: Oh, God, who knows? I don't know if I figured it out. I don't know what it was. I haven't got a clue. Attention-getting devices. I was blown away by several performances I'd seen in movies and I saw how much it was affecting my father. My father used to sit in the theater and yell up at the screen when things weren't going well (laughter). I think that was part of it.
I remember seeing Chaplin when I was five, six or seven in "The Great Dictator." The person who took me there - I threw a temper tantrum in the theater when they wouldn't let me sit through it the third time. I just laid down on the floor of the theater and started kicking and screaming (laughter).
Tavis: What then do you see as - I don't want to overstate this. If I'm overstating, you back me off of it -
Arkin: - I'm going to back you off.
Tavis: Give me a chance to ask first. Give the brother a chance (laughter). What then -
Arkin: - I have to back you off from this.
Tavis: What then do you see as the power or the possibility of this industry? Something you wanted to do so badly? I raise that because it impacted your father, it impacted you. You wanted to sit and watch and watch and watch. There's something about the power or possibility of this medium that pulled you in or that you see now in retrospect?
Arkin: I mean, you see a movie and everybody's got such big heads. They must be telling the truth (laughter). I haven't got a clue. I don't know. There's something about a screen. I don't know what it is. If you're watching a real event going on here, two people beating each other up on the floor, and it's on the television screen, you're going to watch it on the television screen. Why did I pick that analogy?
Tavis: Because you like WWF or something. You like wrestling.
Arkin: No, no.
Tavis: Let me take you back, if I might, to early in your career. You have been over the years very frank, very courageous in fact, in writing and talking about - this is my word and not yours - self-discovery. You talk very poignantly about the fact that you started in your career the only place that you were comfortable, the only place where you felt you belonged, or is my phrase out of -
Arkin: - it's true.
Tavis: On the stage, and you have spent the better part of your life trying to figure out why you felt so comfortable there, but so uncomfortable in other places. So what have you figured out?
Arkin: Well, I didn't spend the better part of - I started getting comfortable in my life. I mean, the balance was way totally on the side of unreality and fantasy in theater and film. I started with analysis and analysis went a certain distance and then I got really into Middle Eastern philosophy and that took me another distance which I haven't begun to tap yet. I mean, after thirty-five years, I still feel like I'm a beginner.
But I got more and more excited about moment to moment existence and that just started swinging the balance the other way so that film and theater, my work that I do to earn a living now, is an expression of my life and not the reason for it. My life doesn't need validation. It doesn't need a reason for its existence. I don't need a reason for my existence. I just exist. That's substantiation enough.
I used to feel like being an actor and doing a good performance was release. It really didn't make me happy. It only made me happy while I was acting or when I got through a performance and I felt good about it, but now I feel pretty good most of the time, almost all the time.
Tavis: I'm really fascinated by this. Other than the fact that we should accept it because Alan Arkin has lived a few years and because he's wise -
Arkin: - I don't think anybody should accept anything on my say-so.
Tavis: That's what I'm getting at. Other than accepting the fact because they heard Alan Arkin say it because they assume he's lived long enough to be wise about certain things, what's your best advice on people trying to get to that place of self-discovery because most of us are dealing with that in some way, shape, form or fashion?
Arkin: Self-discovery?
Tavis: Yeah. Try to get to that place of peace, for lack of a better word, where you are with the purpose and the reason for your existence. People struggle with that every day.
Arkin: Well, the only thing I can say, it sounds like a cliché, but I mean it from the bottom of heart, is stop looking outside yourself for your substantiation. Most people look for it, if I get this, if I get this award, if I get this job, if I get that woman, if I get something that's going to make me happy, then I'll be able to relax. It never, ever works. It only works for ten minutes and then you're on to the next thing.
If you're in the mode to start looking for something outside yourself to substantiate your existence, it's not going to work. I'm absolutely positive of that. It can't be done. It can be done for short bursts of time. To paraphrase - who said it? "Money does bring you happiness, but only for ten minute increments."
You buy a $250,000 automobile - yeah, I got enough money to buy a $250,000 automobile - where can you drive it without thinking somebody's going to bang into you or somebody's going to touch it or scratch it or somebody's going to steal it? You cannot look outside of your own system for your purpose or your substantiation.
Tavis: I was participating in an event in New York the other day, and I'll close with this thought. I heard someone say -
Arkin: - but I have a lot more to say.
Tavis: You can come back sometime. You're welcome. What are you doing tomorrow night?
Arkin: We'll go for coffee.
Tavis: I just want to say that, to your point, the other day, if you want to be happy for a year, win the lottery. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, learn to love what you do.
Arkin: And who you are, if I may add that.
Tavis: Sure.
Arkin: Learn to love who you are.
Tavis: I appreciate it. Glad to have you on. "Little Miss Sunshine," if you haven't seen it, if you're not one of those persons who've seen it twice, three, four or five times, go check it out. There'll be a lot of talk about it come Oscar time and you will have wanted to check it out, starring one Alan Arkin. Mr. Arkin, nice to have you here. Pleasure to meet you.
Arkin: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.
Tavis: That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. I'll see you back here next time, though, on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching and, as always, keep the faith.
Back to November 10, 2006