I directed a comedy once and by coincidence, I had dinner the night before I was to leave for Mexico with Mike [May], Elaine [May], Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, and Buck Henry. Now, I've never been with all of these people at once though they're all friends of mine. I can remember that I was sitting at this dinner and I looked around and I thought, “What in the name of God made you think that you were professionally funny?” It wasn't like I was going to be able to turn to Mike and say, “Now listen, what do I do?” I was leaving the next day to direct a comedy. I started sweating because I was looking at these people and was thinking, “I'm not this funny.” It is difficult. I have been studying it. I mean, it's not that it was a subject that I was unaware of, but I like funny people. Jackie Gleason, I loved him all over the place. I guess that they've all influenced me.
Is it a hard and fast rule for you to date younger women?
No, that has nothing to do with me. I date all kinds. First of all, I don't date. I can't make dates. I'm a little phobic about that, but no, I date everyone, all ages.
Are you more of a romantic now than when you were younger?
That might be the biggest misconception about me, I've always been a romantic. I'm a deep, sentimental romantic. I found doing this picture, the most refreshing thing to me was that I did a lot of things in this picture that I do in life. There was vulnerability and a direct approach in a lot of the scenes that when I would do them, and I wasn't prepared for this, and I'd be done with the scene, and I'd think, “Wow, I don't think that I've ever really done that on film before.” Simple things, as I say, that are not foreign to me.
You once mentioned that when fans meet you, sometimes it’s an important thing for them. How do you feel about your relationship with your audience?
I got my original job at MGM in order to see movie stars so I know what the impact of that is. When I go to a museum and I'm standing there looking at a Van Gogh painting and I look next to me and I see nine people looking at me, that somehow illustrates why I'm more attentive to running into people. It's easy to forget because you don't want to get, “Hey, I'm a movie star.” You don't want to get that way, but it's also easy to forget how meaningful that is.
Last night I stood in the lobby of the restaurant that I was in, and I had just like regular New Yorker conversations with the people about a lot of things. I know that they're New Yorkers, but I know the chances are that it may not be the most vibrant memory of their life, but they will always remember that. This is truly about position. You have to be objective about it, but my civics theme on the interviews these days, I'm always influenced by what I read, and it is that we have to be responsible for our own actions. We have to start there. We're so drawn out into the conflicts of the world and in this movie, I think that's what people ultimately come to believe. In this movie, he goes away and finds that he has to be responsible. It comes from my generation, we're kind of sentimentalists.
What would you say to potential ticket buyers to get them to see “Something’s Gotta Give?”
I think that it's authentically uplifting and an honestly engrossing movie that should make you feel good about being alive. It's honestly romantic, and it's very, I think, accurately observed. I've seen and watched and been in enough movies, and when this movie grabs you, it doesn’t let go. You don't find yourself going, “When is it going to get me?” Moment by moment, it's such original material and so logical emotionally that it's simply engrossing. So uplifting, romantic, engrossing, original, and honest. Diane Keaton and Nancy [Meyers] are two of the people with the most integrity that I've run across. I mean, you don't fool around with these individuals.
At this point in your career, do you have to campaign for an Oscar?
Well you know, I never really did campaign for them. I just didn't feel comfortable with that. Early on there wasn't the intensity of campaigning and of course, other people would do some amount of that on my behalf. I've gotten a little more relaxed about it now because everyone does it, but I look at it like the Oscars are good for everyone. That's the single, easiest thing that you can say about them. And really, to be critical about anything about them, it's only signatory. It's not a real thing. I've always looked at them as a great night. Everyone loves them. No one is getting hurt or this or that. I've, incidentally, never felt particularly popular with them in that sense because remember, I may have won a few, but I've lost a lot of them, and it's the actor's branch that nominates me. I'm old enough now, I start to wonder, “When do I get an old boy's Oscar?”
“Something’s Gotta Give” Cast Interviews:
Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
"Something’s Gotta Give” Trailer, Photos, and Credits
