Beatty: I would tell you what Rilke said.

Man: Go ahead.

Beatty: That, "Fame is the sum of the misunderstandings that gather about a name."

♪♪ Man: This is Warren Beatty.

Man #2: Warren Beatty.

Man #3: Warren Beatty.

Man #4: Warren Beatty.

Man #5: Warren Beatty.

Woman: Warren Beatty.

Woman #2: Warren Beatty.

Man #6: Warren Beatty.

♪♪ Narrator: It's the story of a young man who dreamed of making his place in the Hollywood sun.

It's the story of a playboy turned movie star, turned successful producer, turned Oscar-winning director, turned ghost.

Beatty: Who are you?

Narrator: It's the story of a star who spent more time hiding than in the limelight.

Beatty: Who are you?

Narrator: It's the story of a man whose reputation as a Casanova outshined the seriousness of his work.

It's the story of one of the last bridges between Old and New Hollywood.

It's the story of an intellectual born in the body of a movie star.

And it's the story of an ambitious man hungry for power who also dreamed of politics.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Jazz music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Rhythmic clapping ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Henry Warren Beaty was born on March 30, 1937, in Richmond, Virginia.

His parents are both professors and raise him as a Baptist.

[ Children shouting playfully ] ♪♪ His father is authoritarian and an alcoholic.

He is very close to his mother, who herself dreamed of being an actress.

She teaches dramatic arts to both him and his older sister -- a certain Shirley MacLaine, who in 1955, at age 21, is already in a movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

Now I'd like to introduce to you one of Hollywood's brightest new stars, Miss Shirley MacLaine.

[ Applause ] Choir: ♪ O, beautiful for spacious skies ♪ Narrator: In 1955, Warren is still in high school and is, above all, a football star.

A bit chubby, a bit of a dreamer, he is reserved, but not antisocial.

He is even a class rep.

Choir: ♪ ...plain ♪ ♪ America ♪ ♪ America ♪ ♪ God shed... ♪ Narrator: After graduation, he decides to take theater classes in New York City before landing his first job on the West Coast in Hollywood.

♪♪ Beatty: Yeah, I made -- My first job was in television.

I was studying acting because I wanted to be a director, really.

I never intended to be an actor.

And a friend of mine asked me if I would do an audition with him for CBS, which is a network in the United States, and I got a job out of it... to my dismay, almost, because I began to work then and didn't really want to.

♪♪ [ Man whistling ] ♪♪ Narrator: Young Warren Beatty is not very comfortable in front of the camera.

Man: Just a moment.

Narrator: He has a hard time looking up to capture the light.

It's difficult for him to unclench his jaw and articulate, and his body movements are stilted, awkward.

Beatty: How do you know?

I call.

Narrator: But he has the physique, the charisma, the oh-so-rare star quality that is a must.

Beatty: Did you ever get into Portersville very much?

If you wanted to see a really beautiful girl, you could go into the National Bank.

She was that blond secretary behind the desk in the escrow department.

There's an expression on her face.

There's a look in her eyes.

Like some-- [ Sighs ] Like just being alive is something so red-hot and special, it should be in all the headlines.

[ Dramatic music plays ] Narrator: Women begin to fall for this tall, dark athlete, and Beatty starts to take advantage of his powers of seduction.

♪♪ In a restaurant, he flirts with and wins over Joan Collins, a rising starlet at the time.

The young aspiring actor is not indifferent to Joan Collins' notoriety.

He knows that going out with her is free publicity.

They become an official couple.

He introduces her to his parents.

Collins brings him to England, her home country, to meet the Queen Mother.

♪♪ Man: Joan Collins.

♪♪ Narrator: It is thus in the role of prince consort, of operetta playboy that Warren Beatty achieves his first level of notoriety, and not for his acting talents.

And it lasts long enough for him to realize that in the City of Stars, he might never be one.

He is impatient, makes list after list of directors he would like to work with.

♪♪ Yet his ticket to starring film roles will come from New York.

William Inge, a playwright who had been a fan of Beatty's, offers him the lead in his play "A Loss of Roses," luring him with the promise of the lead in a film he was writing for Elia Kazan.

Beatty senses opportunity and takes a risk by buying himself out of the remainder of the bad TV series he is under contract with.

Beatty: I worked in television a few times and then did a play.

I did several plays, but one play in particular, which led then to "Splendor in the Grass," which was my first film.

♪♪ Narrator: Beatty is thus back in Hollywood, but this time through the front door, to shoot what would become one of the great American movie classics, "Splendor in the Grass" by Elia Kazan.

Man: This is Warren Beatty.

He starred on Broadway.

This is his first movie role.

You won't forget him.

Beatty: ...I really want.

She'd be a big help to me, Dad.

Hingle: Bud, I've spent my whole life trying to create a place of importance for you in this world.

And then you come home and tell me you don't want to go to college.

You want to marry some little girl.

Beatty: Dad, it's what I want that counts.

Narrator: For his first film role, Beatty stars in a movie that deals with the hypocrisy of American Puritanism with regards to sexuality -- a recurring theme in his filmography.

♪♪ Wood: Oh, Bud.

Narrator: Bud, Beatty's character, is torn between his love for the prudish Deanie and his desire for a girl of easy virtue.

Wood: I think she's disgraceful, the way she stands there, waiting for all the players -- Beatty: Now, wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

There isn't any reason in the world why I shouldn't speak to her.

Wood: You were more than speaking to her.

Beatty: Well, what do you -- You think I'm supposed to not notice her?

Is that what you expect out of me?

I'm not even supposed to know girls like that exist, huh?

Narrator: Kazan had directed Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and James Dean in "East of Eden."

He would have recast James Dean in the role of Bud, the young man butting heads with his father's authority.

But Dean died, so Kazan let himself be convinced that Beatty had what it takes.

Beatty: Kazan probably utilizes his own talent and the talents of the people around him more efficiently than anyone I've ever met.

And that's the ideal person to train a young, ignorant actor in his first film, and so that was quite a lucky break for me.

♪♪ Narrator: Beatty takes off overnight while Joan Collins' career is losing steam.

He leaves her for his co-star Natalie Wood -- a former child star belonging to Hollywood mythology.

Being with her ensures his place in film history.

♪♪ Announcer: And Natalie Wood arrives with Warren Beatty.

[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ Narrator: Troubled Natalie Wood will quickly learn that she isn't the only one who enjoys Beatty's attention.

His reputation as a Casanova spreads across Hollywood like wildfire.

♪♪ [ Jazz music plays ] ♪♪ Beatty: I never know what I'm gonna do next.

I just follow the breeze.

I just live for kicks.

♪♪ ♪♪ Wynn: Don't you understand?

Times have changed.

Beatty: Sex never changes.

♪♪ Narrator: The whole town knows the telephone pickup line Beatty uses to hit on girls -- "What's new, pussycat?"

A catchline so popular that it became the title of a movie Beatty was supposed to be in.

But annoyed at the significant place taken by a young actor-writer already attached to the project -- a certain Woody Allen -- Beatty drops out, wrongly convinced that still hot off his staggering success in "Splendor in the Grass," they will beg him to come back.

Beatty: I was lucky that the first one was a -- was a hit, because then, since then, I've been able to make a movie whenever I wanted to make it, because I've been what they call [Chuckles] financeable, whatever that means.

[ Wood laughs ] Narrator: Beatty savors his overnight stardom.

He becomes finicky, turning down so many scripts.

♪♪ ♪♪ But by working less, his star begins to dim.

A strange period begins.

He goes an entire year without shooting anything.

He makes his comeback at age 28, choosing only arthouse movies, like "Mickey One" by Arthur Penn or "Lilith" by Robert Rossen.

But they are flops, which he follows with ridiculous mainstream comedies.

Man: Well, listen, folks.

"Promise Her Anything" is the sassiest, funniest comedy we've seen in a long time, and we see 'em all.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] Narrator: He starts to realize that at this rate, he might become just one more pretty face in Hollywood.

One of those actors who had a couple of breaks and then fizzled out, like George Hamilton.

[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ Narrator: But he'll get his comeback, thanks to his new girlfriend, the French actress Leslie Caron.

She takes him on a tour around Europe -- first to London, where this time he is introduced to Queen Elizabeth II.

Man: Leslie Caron and Warren Beatty.

Narrator: The fox is now in the henhouse.

Among the latest actresses in vogue that Beatty can feast his eyes on are Raquel Welch, Ursula Andress, or Catherine Deneuve.

But it is Julie Christie, recently crowned with an Oscar for the film "Darling," who catches his eye that evening.

Beatty: Well, we really must accommodate the fact that a woman... needs a lover.

Narrator: Yet for the moment, Beatty is still with Leslie Caron.

She takes him to Paris and introduces him to François Truffaut, who was just offered the screenplay for "Bonnie and Clyde" -- the adaptation of a widely talked-about crime story in the U.S.

about a bank-robbing couple who go on a murderous rampage.

Truffaut doesn't want to do it, but advises them to shoot it together.

The idea does not fall on deaf ears.

♪♪ Woman: ♪ The wind whispers through a fallen hollow tree ♪ Narrator: Back from Europe, Beatty discovers that Hollywood decorum is changing.

Actors, producers, and directors no longer get dressed up in their Sunday best to drink champagne in their villas in the Hollywood Hills at night.

Now they prefer to share beers and sandwiches on Sunday afternoons in bungalows on the beach of Malibu.

Above all, they are no longer just employees of the studios, but become producers... like Kirk Douglas.

This inspires Warren Beatty.

Woman: ♪ ...I once knew ♪ ♪ But I'm still here waiting for you ♪ ♪ My noble knight, drop your shoe ♪ ♪♪ Narrator: Beatty then moves into a suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

His new home is baptized "the den."

♪♪ [ Group vocalizing ] Narrator: This is where he will be glued to the phone for hours, hitting on girls, as well as organizing his career.

[ Vocalizing continues ] [ Telephone rings ] Man as Beatty: Hello.

Well, I felt [Chuckles] I felt good.

I -- What... Good.

No.

[ Laughs ] Well, I don't know, Katie.

I-I-I don't know.

I... Katie: Well, think about it, Warren.

Man as Beatty: I -- Well, I am.

[ Line beeping ] Narrator: On the professional side, he asks to read "Bonnie and Clyde," the script that Truffaut spoke about.

After only a few pages, he calls up the writers to say not only does he want to star in it -- He wants to produce it, as well.

Beatty: If I didn't control a film and do it exactly the way that I wanted to, I would lose interest in movies completely.

And, in fact, that's -- That did re-interest me in movies.

♪♪ It's important as a movie actor every once in a while to do a film yourself.

Narrator: As a first-time producer, Beatty takes quite a risk... all the more so because Warner, the studio where he wants to produce the film, doesn't really believe in the project.

Beatty accepts a tiny advance of $200,000 in exchange for a hefty 40% of the film's potential profits.

♪♪ Dunaway: Well, I'm Miss Bonnie Parker, and this here is Mr.

Clyde Barrow.

We rob banks.

[ Gunshot ] Narrator: And to direct this bloody crime story, he hires Arthur Penn, the most New Wave of American directors, and Faye Dunaway as his co-star.

Leslie Caron is out.

[ Machine-gun fire ] "Bonnie and Clyde" breaks from tradition by showing shooting scenes and death, both previously taboo in American movies.

It marks the birth of New Hollywood... an unprecedented cocktail mixing more sex, more violence, and more humor... [ Gunshot ] ...and all of it with a very specific political backdrop.

[ Gunshots ] Beatty: We had reached a period during the Depression of the '30s where the socioeconomic conditions in the country simply couldn't support the way we were living, and so this pair of psychotics began to exploit a certain rebelliousness among the people to become folk heroes of that period, running around, robbing banks, and killing people.

[ Machine-gun fire ] Dunaway: Ah, take his picture.

Now, you know, we are just about the friendliest folks you would ever want to meet.

Beatty: [ Laughs ] Hey, Buck.

Hackman: Yeah.

Beatty: Get the Kodak.

Hackman: Hot doggies!

[ Camera shutter clicks ] Hackman: Hold it, hold it.

Narrator: "Bonnie and Clyde" will be a triumph, but not right away.

Warner opens the film in July 1967 in limited release without really getting the crowds out.

Beatty fights to get a re-release in September, and the press realizes that something new is happening with this movie.

Never before had a studio accepted to re-release a film that hadn't had a good opening.

Yet Beatty gets his victory.

Not only is the film re-released, but thanks to its second opening, it becomes a resounding historic success.

[ Crowd cheering ] Beatty alone earns $6.5 million -- 30 times the advance he got from Warner.

Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman's careers take off, and the success of "Bonnie and Clyde" sets off a fashion trend.

Girls start wearing berets all the way to Paris, where singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg writes a hit song as an homage to the film.

Woman: ♪ And trampled underneath ♪ ♪ You have no place for us ♪ Beatty: Where's Faye?

Up there?

Dunaway: Here.

Woman: ♪ Goodbye, my love ♪ Woman: ♪ I know it's hard to say ♪ Beatty: Sit here.

Sit here.

This is Faye's first time in Paris.

Woman: ♪ Watch me slip away ♪ Beatty: Hey.

[ Laughter ] [ Laughter ] [ Laughter ] [ Indistinct shouting ] Narrator: The political message of "Bonnie and Clyde" -- "You must give money to the poor before they kill you" -- corresponds to Beatty's own left-leaning politics.

Less radical, of course.

[ Indistinct shouting ] Like many Americans of his generation, Beatty speaks out for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam.

[ Helicopter blades whirring ] [ Machine-gun fire ] For the first time, he gets involved in politics, supporting Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential run.

♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] Kennedy: And that what has been going on within the United States over the period of the last three years -- the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with our society, the divisions, whether it's between blacks and whites, between the poor and the more affluent, or between age groups, or on the war in Vietnam, that we can start to work together.

We are a great country, an unselfish country, a compassionate country.

[ Cheers and applause ] Man: Senator.

Senator, this way.

Man #2: This way.

This way.

[ Gunshots ] [ Indistinct shouting ] [ Man shouting indistinctly ] Man: Oh, Jesus Christ!

[ Somber music plays ] Narrator: After Robert Kennedy's assassination, Warren Beatty, the man who was just accused of popularizing violence with "Bonnie and Clyde," takes a stand and dares to give a pro-gun-control speech to an audience not really rallying for his cause.

Beatty: If you're for it, then I urge you, in the name of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers and the 198 people who were killed in this country last week by guns to write a letter or a postcard or a telegram to your senator at the Senate Office Building in Washington or your Congressman at the House Office Building.

It's going to be a very tough fight.

I urge you not to underestimate the importance of your one letter, the contribution that you can make.

Thank you.

And excuse me for pointing my finger.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] Narrator: After "Bonnie and Clyde's" success, and with Hollywood at his feet, Beatty begins to play a strange, morbid game.

Just turned 30, Beatty has reached the firmament and even beyond.

And yet, like a dead man, he will observe the living react to his disappearances, and will regularly stage his own resurrections... his comebacks.

To nourish this twisted game, he must turn down film after film.

And he does so scrupulously.

Every day, piles of books and scripts are delivered to him.

He reads, gets excited, hesitates, takes his time answering, and ultimately says no to such an extent that an actor such as Robert Redford will owe his career to the parts Beatty turned down.

Except that after "Bonnie and Clyde," the New Hollywood, such as Dennis Hopper with "Easy Rider," Robert Altman with "MASH," and Hal Ashby with "Harold and Maude," is taking over.

Directors breaking free from the studios.

Films that are more violent, more sexual, unbridled.

Beatty senses the risk of being out of touch with the wild and even hippie trend that, ironically, he helped launch with "Bonnie and Clyde."

Man: ♪ But that doesn't mean nothing, you see?

♪ [ Vehicles passing, horn honks in distance ] ♪♪ Narrator: Among the trendy directors in the New Hollywood, Beatty first chooses to work with Robert Altman, the director of "MASH."

Beatty doesn't produce "McCabe & Mrs.

Miller," but for the first time, he gets deeply involved in the screenwriting and discovers that he loves it.

Man: You didn't say your name was McCabe when you come in here.

Beatty: I didn't say it now.

You did.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Man: "Pudgy" McCabe?

The gunfighter?

[ Man singing indistinctly ] Narrator: In the role of Mrs.

Miller, he gets his new official girlfriend hired -- Julie Christie, who spends more and more nights in the den.

Man: ♪ They've been wrong before ♪ ♪ It's not just black and white ♪ Narrator: Beatty, the Casanova, will get a run for his money with this independent and fiery feminist.

[ Foot thuds ] "McCabe & Mrs.

Miller" is hardly the success of "Bonnie and Clyde," but Beatty isn't really concerned.

He's already moved on.

McGovern: Thank you again so much.

Beatty: Go straight out now to the... Narrator: Beatty once again abandons the movies.

Solicited by the Democratic Party to support George McGovern's presidential campaign, he gets deeply involved in it and even puts his career on pause.

[ Crowd cheering in distance ] Man: Through a series of rock concerts, Warren Beatty is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for McGovern.

The McGovern staff doesn't always like it.

They say they're wasting time running Beatty's concerts when they should be running a campaign.

But McGovern likes it because it is clean money.

No obligation.

The stars like it, too.

Narrator: In the beginning, he organizes a series of fundraising concerts and gets all of his Hollywood friends to raise money.

Beatty: And it's important that we don't limit to the... Man: Warren.

Beatty: How are you?

Good to see you again.

Woman: Very nice to meet you.

Beatty: Good to see you.

Man #2: Did you meet my wife?

[ Laughter ] Woman #2: Oh, it's really okay.

I don't mind.

Hawn: Mm.

Thank you.

McGovern: I hear we got a marvelous crowd out there.

Hawn: Fantastic!

Unbelievable!

McGovern: Yeah.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Man: Excuse me.

Beatty: Hello.

Hello, hello.

Whoa!

Whoa!

Woman: Oh!

Man #2: Hang 10!

Hang 10!

Beatty: Listen.

Listen.

You're all welcome at all places.

That's what these little things mean.

So if you want to come back during the show, by all means, do that.

The senator will be back here a little later, and so on, and so forth.

And, also, if you can mill around royally at intermission.

And I think we should go out right now.

Voight: Let's go.

Narrator: The man who refuses to promote his movies, he who never speaks of his personal life, will agree to go on talk shows to support and campaign for McGovern.

[ Applause ] Griffin: You've been hearing much live applause lately, haven't you?

Beatty: Yeah.

Yeah, on the campaign circuit.

Griffin: You don't get out for live appearances until election year.

Beatty: No, no.

Griffin: Nor do you do television.

Beatty: No, I don't do the talk shows very often.

Griffin: Do you know how hard we've tried to get you, and it took a campaign to get you here?

Huh?

Beatty: Yeah.

Yeah, well, I'm sorry.

Griffin: Why?

You're a bright young man, and... Beatty: Yeah, I just... Griffin: You make a very nice impression and... Beatty: I usually feel a little silly talking about myself on the talk shows.

Griffin: This time difficult for you?

Because obviously, you're not working at your own career right now.

Beatty: No, I haven't worked at all in the past three months because I've been working all the time on this campaign, and then I've been working in the campaign for almost a year.

About 14 states.

Griffin: You must be exhausted.

Let me do a commercial.

Beatty: I want to sit down.

Griffin: Oh.

Of course.

Right away.

After this word.

[ Applause ] [ Indistinct conversations ] Narrator: As the weeks of the presidential race go by, Beatty gets more and more involved, becoming George McGovern's right-hand man, going so far as proofreading his speeches at the very last minute.

[ Indistinct conversation ] McGovern: Is that all right?

No?

"This is an unbelievable crowd.

According to the polls, I didn't have many more supporters than this nationwide only a few months ago."

Beatty: [ Laughs ] You'll get a big laugh.

That's a good one there.

McGovern: Okay.

Choir: ♪ Oh, beautiful ♪ ♪ For spacious skies ♪ ♪ For amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ For purple mountain majesties ♪ Narrator: McGovern will lose the election to Richard Nixon.

Chorus: ♪ Above the fruited... ♪ [ Drum cadence playing ] Narrator: But between the assassinations of presidents and Watergate, the climate of the era had become so paranoid that when Beatty finally goes back to cinema, it would still be about political conspiracies.

[ Screaming ] Beatty: Whoever's behind this is in the business of recruiting assassins.

Man: There is no evidence of a conspiracy.

Beatty: It was a film relating to the possibility of conspiracies and assassinations in politics in the United States.

It's a subject that's gonna be reopened.

It's a very important subject, and it's part of the entire... reopening process that's taking place in the United States now on the entire fabric of the last 25 years of our life as a nation.

[ Ominous music plays ] Narrator: Is Warren Beatty a great actor?

He's not a character actor like Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino.

Neither is he a Method actor like James Dean or Marlon Brando.

Beatty is actually at his best when he plays characters close to himself.

Inhibited characters attracted to both darkness and light.

♪♪ And did he only seek to be a star to be able to bring his projects as director-producer to life?

♪♪ Indeed, it is now time for Beatty to initiate a big project.

For seven years, he's been contemplating his second film as a producer -- "Shampoo," the story of a hairdresser who shags his clients.

He locks up his co-writers in the den, where they spend days and nights on the script.

[ Typewriter keys clacking ] Beatty: No one ever controls any film completely, but if you produce a film, as I do, and you're the person who the buck stops with, well, let's say you have -- You have more control over it than anyone else.

Narrator: Beatty will have total control on "Shampoo," but he still officially delegates the direction to Hal Ashby... one of the key directors in the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking.

♪♪ [ Hair dryer whirring ] Man: Columbia Pictures presents "Shampoo."

It's the story of a Beverly Hills hairdresser named George... Woman: George.

Woman #2: George.

Woman #3: George!

Woman #4: George.

Christie: George is great.

Hawn: Yeah, George is great.

Man: ...and all the beautiful people he does.

Beatty: Listen, you're great.

I thought you were great.

Baby, you're great.

Hawn: What about me?

Beatty: You're great.

♪♪ Christie: Oh, George.

♪♪ Man: ♪ Like the splendor of the... ♪ Beatty: Either come in or stay out.

Christie: Shut door, honey.

Come on.

Beatty: Just don't let the steam out.

Warden: Oh.

Beatty: Now, when I make a film like "Shampoo," I'm not interested, basically, in how people perceive it.

I'm interested in telling the truth.

Consequently, as embarrassing as I might find it, as distasteful, as cruel as this comedy may be in its sexual context, et cetera, I try to tell the truth.

[ Sighs ] I go into that shop, and they're so great-looking, you know?

And I -- And I -- I'm doing their hair and they feel great and they smell great.

That's it.

It makes my day.

I mean, it makes me feel like I'm gonna live forever.

Man: ♪ Like a carriage ride in Central Park ♪ Narrator: "Shampoo's" script happily plays on the mirror effect between the lead character's womanizing and Beatty's own reputation.

From Goldie Hawn, to Julie Christie, Beatty himself had been in the arms of quite a few of the actresses in the film.

Man: ♪ Like a mountainside ♪ Narrator: To avoid harsh critique from feminists, Beatty cleverly makes his character into an uncultured man, one who is overwhelmed by women.

Man: ♪ You are so beautiful ♪ Christie: What are you trying to do?

Beatty: I want you to marry me.

Christie: It's too late.

Beatty: We're not dead yet.

That's the only thing that's too late.

♪♪ Narrator: The question that remains is, what is Beatty's degree of sincerity and confession when he depicts a character who is such a victim of his own sexual impulses?

Beatty: I just want us to have a normal life like everybody else.

Get up early and take you out to a movie on the weekend.

I'm trying, baby.

I just can't get out of my own way.

Shalit: I want to know -- What makes you irresistible to women?

I mean, I would like to take lessons.

I mean, have you got a good-looking pill on you?

Or -- Or... Why are you irresistible to women?

Most of the beautiful women in the world are after Warren Beatty.

Now, how can we change that?

What should I do first?

[ Both laugh ] Beatty: Well, how do you want me to handle that question?

I can go several ways on this question.

Shalit: All right.

The first way is, why is Warren Beatty irresistible to so many popular, good-looking, fun-loving, intelligent women?

Beatty: Uh... Could I get back to you on this question?

Shalit: You mean by mail?

Beatty: [ Laughing ] Yeah.

[ Both laugh ] ♪♪ Narrator: Does collecting so many conquests make Beatty thrive?

Or to the contrary, like his character in "Shampoo," does it make him lonely... unhappy... almost pathetic?

♪♪ Beatty will find levity with his new project, "Heaven Can Wait," a fun, unpretentious comedy.

♪♪ [ Cannon screaming ] Narrator: Two-time hugely successful producer, and with "Shampoo's" success, a confirmed screenwriter, there is only one role left for Beatty to conquer -- directing.

He'd been circling around it for quite some time and now finally takes the leap.

Mason: I want you to look at me and listen very carefully to what I'm saying.

Beatty: Yeah?

Mason: This is not a dream.

Beatty: Are you trying to tell me... I'm not supposed to be here.

Mason: But you are here.

Beatty: Well, you guys made a mistake.

Henry: There is no mistake!

Beatty: Anybody can make a mistake.

Man: ♪ Hey ♪ Beatty: Something that was clean and funny and romantic that would be a good way to spend an hour and a half or two hours.

The problem with me was that I had to spend a year to make it.

And that -- That's a lot of work.

And they stuck him in a bathtub, and then I stepped in.

[ Crowd screaming ] Man: Ladies and gentleman!

Narrator: And all this hard work pays off.

"Heaven Can Wait" is a triumph.

It brings Beatty no less than $15 million and nine Oscar nominations.

Beatty has never been stronger.

From now on, he is one of the main Hollywood players.

He has the power to do whatever he wants.

The press crowns him the all-powerful King of Hollywood.

Man: The real beauty of what Beatty has done with "Heaven Can Wait" as producer, co-writer, co-director, and star is that he's made a thoroughly engaging movie experience out of what is basically kind of a fairy tale.

But I still -- As good as that film is, do you really think that's the best use of your talent?

Beatty: Fairy tale?

Man: Mm-hmm.

The fantasy, the whole fantasy idea.

Beatty: Gee, I don't know.

I don't know.

I mean, I... The best use of my talent?

I don't know.

I'm not sure I should be making movies.

In fact, your surprise surprises me slightly.

Man: Maybe the question is more like the best use of your clout, because obviously you are a man with some power in Hollywood, in the movie industry.

You can get things made.

You can make things happen, right?

Beatty: I mean, do I think it's the best use of my clout?

I think you want to know on that, and I think you're gonna get it.

[ Chuckles ] No.

Man: No?

Beatty: No.

Man: Then why didn't you use your clout more?

Beatty: Well, do I have to use my clout every time for -- for more?

Man: Right.

♪♪ Maybe the question is the best use of your clout.

Beatty: The best use of my talent?

Narrator: For four years, Beatty will refuse all the offers he receives as an actor in order to devote himself to an extremely challenging project in an ultra-free market America that just elected Ronald Reagan.

♪♪ [ Men singing in Russian ] ♪♪ [ Men singing in Russian ] ♪♪ [ Man singing in Russian ] ♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Men singing in Russian ] ♪♪ Narrator: For 10 years, he works on "Reds" -- the adaptation of the true story of John Reed, the founder of the American Communist Party who joined the Russian Revolution in October 1917.

Beatty knows that with the level of power he has after his three successful productions, there is a unique window of opportunity to convince Paramount to support him on this adventure.

[ Men singing in Russia ] [ Thunder crashes ] Beatty: John Reed made people uncomfortable in this country... just as socialism makes people slightly uncomfortable in this country... and Communism makes them more than uncomfortable.

♪♪ Narrator: Multitasking as producer, screenwriter, director, and actor, Beatty reveals himself to be a perfectionist to the point of obsession, waking up his collaborators in the middle of the night to check on the historical accuracy of a costume.

[ Choir singing "The Internationale" ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Narrator: "Reds" will go down in history as Beatty's great film... in terms of budget -- $35 million... in terms of audacity -- a film about the Russian Revolution produced in the United States at the height of the Cold War... and in terms of its cinematic ambition -- a film both epic in scope, as well as intimate in the love scenes with his new girlfriend, Diane Keaton, and even documentary, as Beatty filmed the survivors of the October Revolution straight into camera.

[ Singing continues ] ♪♪ [ Singing continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Lemmon: The winner is Warren Beatty for "Reds."

[ Cheers and applause ] Narrator: Beatty will win the Oscar for Best Director for "Reds."

A 3-1/2-hour film about an American Communist produced by the studios in the Reagan era is no small victory for an ex-playboy who started off in a bad TV series.

And who other than Beatty would have fought tooth and nail for the film to exist?

Beatty: It's something that I had to do, that I'd spend a long time, you know, working on.

And I just -- I really couldn't -- I couldn't not do it.

Man: Warren, why do you do it?

Why not just sit home and do guest shots in other people's movies and earn a living that way?

Beatty: Mm-hmm.

That's a -- That's a good question.

And I don't really have an answer for that.

But I have -- I don't know the answer to that question.

I don't know that I really consider myself an actor.

Actors act, you know.

They go out and act.

They act in the theater.

They act in movies.

They keep acting.

I don't seem to keep acting.

That's not to say that I don't think that I'm, you know, acceptable as an actor, but I don't spend an awful lot of time acting, obviously.

Man: But, I mean, I read that you turned down films like "The Godfather," "The Sting," "Gatsby."

Why, if that's your profession?

Beatty: I don't know.

I just didn't want to -- didn't feel like doing it.

I don't think I enjoy acting a lot.

No.

Man: So continuity of acting isn't the appeal?

Beatty: No.

I don't know whether I have the right to call myself an actor the way that so many people do.

I don't think I enjoy acting a lot.

No.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] Narrator: After "Reds," Beatty won't shoot for six more years.

During this time, Hollywood has already changed.

Young producer-directors top the box office with films for younger audiences.

♪♪ An entire generation that will not know the name Warren Beatty.

♪♪ His relationship to directing grows more and more complex.

He doesn't want to hear a word about time or budget constraints, even though, despite "Reds'" critical success, it never broke even.

Far from it.

[ Clapperboard clacks ] Pauley: What would it take to get you guys to make more movies?

Hoffman: Good question.

Warren?

Beatty: I think I can answer this coherently and succinctly and immediately.

It would take the ability to go out and shoot movies as we're preparing them, and have an unlimited amount of time to make mistakes, come back, redo it, do it again, come back, redo it, look at it, go back, do it again.

And you can't do that anymore.

Pauley: Why not?

Beatty: In other words, if you could write movies the way you write books, if you could shoot movies the way you write books, I think we'd keep making movies.

But you can't do that now.

Narrator: Having just turned 50, Beatty forms a comic duo with his buddy Dustin Hoffman in "Ishtar," a movie that he produces and in which he casts his current companion, Isabelle Adjani.

♪♪ Hollywood is astounded by its colossal shoot that shatters the initial budget.

And then at the box office, the film is a catastrophe of epic proportions.

Beatty is held responsible for what is then called Warren's Gate... a sign that he is increasingly out of sync with the industry.

♪♪ He responds to the critique with "Dick Tracy" by adapting the comic strip -- a genre that is prospering in Hollywood -- into a film which he produces and directs for Disney.

Highly stylized, thanks to the extreme use of primary colors, the film seizes the zeitgeist by having the role of the femme fatale played by the singer Madonna, Beatty's latest conquest.

♪♪ Man: It's dangerous having love affairs in the office.

Now, you seem to make a practice of putting your current lover as the starring lady in a movie.

Is that dangerous?

Beatty: Well, I-I... [ Stammering ] You know, I -- [ Laughter ] You ain't gonna get me to answer that question, so... I can't talk about personal relationships.

Never have been able to do it.

And if you ever see me quoted talking about a personal relationship, whether it's with a woman or a man, you'll know it's made up.

Man: The fact that you are as well known as anyone in Hollywood is based not just on the few films you've made, but on this obsession with your love life.

♪♪ Narrator: Contrary to Beatty, Madonna doesn't shy away from showing off her private life.

She even traps Beatty in a private moment for the documentary "Truth or Dare," which today can be seen as one of the first reality shows.

Beatty: This is crazy.

Nobody talks about this on film?

Madonna: Talks about what?

Beatty: The insanity of doing this all on a documentary.

In a documentary.

Madonna: What?

Beatty: Well, this is a serious matter, your throat.

Yes?

Madonna: Why should I stop here?

Beatty: But does anyone say it?

Madonna: Who's anyone?

Beatty: Well, anyone that comes into this insane atmosphere.

You realize they all feel it when they come into this atmosphere?

When they come into your dressing room, when they come, wherever you are, they feel crazy.

Now, do they talk about it?

Madonna: No, they accept it.

Beatty: Well, why don't they talk about it?

Madonna: 'Cause.

Beatty: Well, you want to think about that, don't you?

Madonna: No, I don't.

So let's get back to my throat.

Doctor: [ Laughs ] Do you want to talk at all off-camera?

You have nothing to say?

Beatty: [ Laughs ] She doesn't want to live off-camera, much less talk.

Doctor: That's it.

I think that's what it is.

Beatty: [ Laughs ] There's nothing to say off-camera.

Why would you say something if it's off-camera?

Doctor: And tomorrow you're gonna be... Beatty: What point is there existing?

Man: The producer and the star of "Dick Tracy," Warren Beatty.

[ Cheers and applause ] Beatty: Hi.

[ Man speaks indistinctly ] ♪♪ Beatty: Um... [ Laughter ] Man: Warren Beatty.

[ Cheers and applause ] Narrator: From now on, Beatty must give in to a kind of self-promotion that he had always refused to do -- a massive PR campaign that was against his philosophy.

[ Indistinct shouting ] [ Laughter ] [ Crowd cheering ] Man: Warren!

Woman: Warren!

Warren!

[ Indistinct shouting ] Man #2: Warren!

Woman #2: Warren!

[ Camera shutter clicking ] Woman #3: Look out!

[ Cheers and applause ] [ Indistinct shouting ] Man #3: Darling, over here!

Bear right!

[ Clapperboard clacks ] Narrator: A year later, for "Bugsy," the story of a narcissistic and vain gangster obsessed with Hollywood, Beatty does a casting call for the lead actress and retains a young woman named Annette Bening.

Beatty: I saw her in some movies and I thought, "Wow, that woman is the best young actress that I've seen around."

And she's beautiful and she's funny, and she's got all of this -- She's got everything.

And I had never met her before this movie.

Narrator: This audition for leading lady becomes an audition to be his wife.

Much to the amazement of the tabloids, he puts an end to 55 years of being single and marries her.

[ Applause ] ♪♪ [ Beatty chuckles ] Um... Hello.

What am I to do?

What are we... Reporter: What's the name of the baby?

Beatty: The name of the baby is Kathlyn Bening Beatty.

Reporter #2: Katherine?

Beatty: Kathlyn.

Yes?

David: Do you expect more going in... Beatty: That's -- That's... [ David speaking indistinctly ] Beatty: David, David.

It's K-A-T-H-L-Y-N.

Reporter #3: How is she?

Beatty: She's great.

Yeah?

Reporter #4: How do you think your life will change now as a father?

Beatty: It's already changed.

I don't leave the house.

[ Laughter ] I'm completely fascinated with -- with -- with our child.

And -- And I'm equally fascinated with Ms.

Bening, so there's not a lot of reason to go out of the house.

♪♪ Narrator: Beatty's wedding is the death knell of the hedonistic parentheses that the 1960s Casanovas enjoyed, thanks to the sexual revolution.

He not only marries Annette Bening, but she becomes the mother of their four children.

He has a last hurrah as a director with "Bulworth"... a political satire in which he denounces the negligence of the people in power on the left.

All the more audacious because Beatty will soon orchestrate his own return to politics with a very specific goal -- the 2000 presidential election.

Choir: ♪ America ♪ ♪ America ♪ ♪ God shed his grace... ♪ Woman: Warren Beatty seems to be thinking about a career change from actor to presidential candidate.

Beatty has never been a national politician, but he has played one in the movies.

Man: Long a supporter of Democratic Party candidates, Beatty hinted he's not too excited by the current contenders.

"There certainly should be someone better," he said.

NBC News was unable to get any comment from Beatty himself, but he certainly has all the political pundits talking these days.

Reporter: Mr.

Beatty!

Mr.

Beatty!

Are you gonna announce your candidacy?

Beatty: That's a good question.

Hoffman: [ Speaks indistinctly ] Warren represents us.

He can say anything he wants.

[ Reporter laughs ] Hoffman: Isn't it wonderful to have someone?

At the moment, it's Warren.

Beatty: Honored guests... members of the press... my fellow Americans... [ Laughter, applause ] ...the state of the union is sound.

Thank you very much.

I just had to get it off my chest.

What we're in danger of experiencing is a slow-motion coup d'etat of big money's interests over the public's interest.

Narrator: Is he really thinking of running?

Certainly Ronald Reagan's precedent made the idea of a Hollywood actor moving into the White House credible.

But as the date approaches, Beatty, true to habit, is elusive and makes the party wait.

♪♪ Only, one cannot postpone a presidential run like one can a film project.

Even if the story was too good to be true for the media, not to mention for the electorate, he ends up renouncing.

Beatty: I've always preferred not to run for public office, and I still prefer not to run for public office.

[ Crowd groans ] Oh, don't go there.

I have a day job.

Narrator: A day job?

Really?

After a final massive flop, "Town & Country," in 2001, Beatty goes 15 years without shooting, neither directing, nor producing.

He continues to turn down movie after movie, including "Kill Bill" by one of his fans, Quentin Tarantino.

And then, just as Hollywood thinks he is putting an end to his career, an old project from the '70s finally comes to life -- the adaptation of the end of Howard Hughes' life... champion aviator, and millionaire producer with multitudes of feminine conquests, and who finishes his days alone, crazy, and reclusive.

Why Howard Hughes?

Beatty confides to a friend, "It has something to do with accumulating too much power and being the victim of it."

In what one could consider his cinematic legacy, Beatty has chosen to film, perhaps like a mirror image, a man with whom Hollywood was obsessed and who was himself obsessed with Hollywood.

I would tell you what Rilke said.

Man: Go ahead.

Beatty: That, "Fame is the sum of the misunderstandings that gather about a name."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪