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• Little Miss Sunshine
• Q & A with Mr. Arkin
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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," and "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."

[Clip]

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 were moving. What was I seeing?

Arkin: (Laugh) You're supposed to be watching the clip. Don't watch me.

Tavis: I can do two things at once. I'm a multi-tasker.

Arkin: Or maybe cross-eyed (laugh).

Tavis: (Laugh) 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 like the film. 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, right, yeah. Well, I know people have seen it four times.

Tavis: That’s what you want, though. You want that repeat business.

Arkin: It’s good. I like it.

Tavis: So does the studio (laugh). What drew you to this character? I'll let you set it up. It's a fascinating character you play here.

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: (Laugh) 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, he just hasn’t got a clue. His life has been a complete mess, but he's willing to tell everybody how to live their life.

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 is required -

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 to hear if they said Alan or Adam?

Arkin: I don't know. I don't live here, so I don't really know (laugh). Great story, though, is Adam was on a movie - Adam is my older son.

Tavis: And doing quite well in this business.

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 work. But he was on a movie line waiting to get into a movie a couple of years ago, and he feels a 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: (Laugh) In every possible way. Did you encourage Adam or discourage him?

Arkin: 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, but I knew how tough it was. I couldn't get arrested for, like, 15 years. I wanted to be an actor since I was five years old. I didn't get my first job until I was 28, so I knew the pitfalls. But by the same token, I sensed when he was very young, when he was, like, 10, that he was very gifted and I didn't want to stifle that in any way.

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 (laugh). 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 (laugh).

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 a brother a chance (laugh). What then -

Arkin: I have to back you off from this.

Tavis: (Laugh) 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: Well, you see a movie and everybody's got such big heads, they must be telling the truth (laugh). Their heads are gigantic up there. 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 are 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: ‘Cause you like WWF or something. You like wrestling.

Arkin: No, I don't, no.

Tavis: Let me take you back, if I might, to earlier 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 when you started in your career the only place that you were comfortable, the only place where you felt you belonged, in my phraseology, not yours -

Arkin: It's true.

Tavis: Fair enough?

Arkin: Yeah.

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, and the balance was weighed totally on the side of unreality and fantasy in theater and film. And I started with analysis and analysis took me a certain distance. Then I got really interested in eastern philosophy, and that took me another distance which I haven't begun to tap yet. It’s been 35 years, and 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 - now my work, what 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 that being an actor and doing a good performance was the reason for my existence, and 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 because he's wise -

Arkin: I don't think anybody should accept anything on my say-so.

Tavis: And 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? 'Cause most of us are dealing with that in some way, shape, form or fashion.

Arkin: Self-discovery?

Tavis: Yeah, trying 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 my heart, is stop looking outside yourself for your substantiation. That most people look for if I get this, if I have this, if I get this award, if I get this job, if I get that woman, if I get something, it’s gonna make me happy and 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 stuff outside yourself to substantiate your existence, it's not going to work. I'm absolutely positive about 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 get a 250 - where can you drive it without thinking somebody's going to bang into you, somebody's going to touch it or scratch it, 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 at this event where I was speaking -

Arkin: But I have a lot more to say.

Tavis: Well, you can come back sometime. You're welcome.

Arkin: We'll go out for coffee (laugh).

Tavis: What are you doing tomorrow night? Come back tomorrow. (Laugh) I just want to say, though, to your point, the other day - if you want to be happy for a year, how’d they put it? If you wanna be happy for a year, win the lottery. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, learn to love what you do.

Arkin: Who you are.

Tavis: You made me think of that.

Arkin: 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, five times, (laugh) go check it out. There'll be a lot of talk about it come Oscar time and you will have wanted to have checked it out. Starring one Alan Arkin. Mr. Arkin, nice to have you here. Pleasure to meet you.

Arkin: Thanks, man, nice to meet you.

[Clip]