Robert Forster talks acting on his first Chicago film in 50 years
Fifty years ago, Robert Forster wrote a page of Chicago's cinematic history as a journalist in Haskell Wexler's classic 1968 Democratic National Convention drama "Medium Cool."
Since then, the actor earned an Oscar nomination for his role as Max Cherry in "Jackie Brown."
This weekend, his second Chicago movie, former Hinsdale resident Elizabeth Chomko's "What They Had," opens. He plays the hard-edged husband to Blythe Danner's Alzheimer's patient.
I met Forster last week at Chicago's Conrad Hotel where I peppered him with five questions.
Q. You're now 77 and still churning out work. Any advice to budding actors?
A. I remind actors to learn the words so that they come out of your mouth the way thoughts come out of your mouth, not the way lines come out of your mouth. Know those words so you have great confidence. That's Golden Rule No. 1. I tell actors there ought to be a Golden Rule No. 2, but I don't know what it is.
Q. Can you describe your toughest shoot?
A. If there were a hardest moment in my career, it would have been the long speech in Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." I played Simon Oakland's part of the shrink. So I was sure they were going to break this long speech up into pieces like they did in the first movie. No. I had to do the entire speech at exactly four minutes and 13 seconds or whatever. A single shot close-up. I wasn't even prepared for that. But I did it on the second or third take.
Q. How did you get your first movie job?
A. I get a call from my agent. He asks, "Do you know who John Huston is?" No, I don't. "Well, he's a big guy in this business. He wants to meet you for 'Reflections in a Golden Eye.'" So, I jump on a plane to New York City and go to a hotel because I'm going to meet this John Huston. I tell him, "I don't know how movies are made, but if you hire me, I will give you your money's worth."
My agent calls me later and says I got the job. My career went like gangbusters for five years, and then, the next 27 years, it went ... (crashes his fist on a table).
Q. I hear you got along well with former Daily Herald editor Lee Strobel on the set of "The Case For Christ," based on his autobiography?
A. I played his father. He (Strobel) was estranged from him, and that made it easier to play. You don't have to know somebody's whole life. All you need to know is what those little moments of a person's life are about, and bring them to life.
Q. You've finally done your first Chicago movie in 50 years. How does it feel?
A. I'm a lucky guy. If this is to be my career capper, great! If this is the beginning of a third act for me, great! This movie has laughter and tears. When they show this movie 100 years from now, it will still get laughter and tears.