it is a pleasure and a huge huge honor to be able to sit down with you like
this tonight thank you so much thank you so much I love you know I hope I hope
you're not too modest about your accomplishments because I feel I i we
have to recount some of the highlights from your resume before we begin is that
ok yeah depends on which one you think of the highlights I don't know too many
or three Emmy Awards you perform some of the best-known movie quotes and
delivered some of our most beloved awards show
acceptance speeches from what I understand when the wind is just right
you can fly
summary fine detail but your new movie hello my name is doors which is opening
tomorrow I've heard this said that this is I think the first movie that you have
this solo leading role in in about 20 years is is that I mean I don't know I
haven't been counted you guys around obviously I mean clearly you know you
have been busy and you've done wonderful work and TV work but how is it that you
know you know i mean you're not sitting around saying I only hear pitches when
they come from Steven Spielberg or if they come with a pay check of a certain
size I mean is it is it a scenario where even when you become a celebrated and
reliable talent just the industry circa take you for granted at some point is
that happen
take for granted III I wouldn't put it in terms of that I mean you know your
career is always been in the business of 53 years so they've been hugely busy
times in the new transition and you always have to be able to go with that
transition and realize it's your gonna be in your arriving into another day in
your life and to express an actor to be able to explore that stage and I've
always gone where the work is I'm not I've never been out for wanting to do so
if I'm not starring in a film I don't want to work you know that's just not
what I feel I want to do what work interests me doesn't matter fortin
television or and I've been lucky enough to do things on stage or when they're in
films and they're not leading roles that's trying to
I I really don't want to do things that you're in the midst of doing going why
did I created a wide on earth was I thinking that's a painful place to be so
that's never happened to you to give the audience just a sampling of of hello my
name is doris was we have a few clips that will show throughout the program
and you know we'll talk more about it as well but I wonder just before we show
this first clip because I mean I think this character is so unique and so
wonderful if you could just tell us a little bit about her and the person that
we're we're going to see well well it it is a coming of age of a person of age
and which is something I think we're always doing coming of age no matter how
old you are
this person has been shut off from the world she took care of her mother
most of her life and I think she's got personality issues someone borderline
the health mental health issues and I think her mother was probably a very
domineering personality and doris was a retiring 12 all promotions like when
inward and she lives in a fantasy world and dresses from old clothes she finds
on the streets borderline horning issues that we came mostly from the mother but
together they were creating this little world that doors never had a job but it
was a job that she was ignored and as it changed hands the company she worked for
into a younger and younger firm she got shoved in the back and shoved in the
back and I think she was fine with being in the back Abbey I'll be in my own
little private private bubble and dress for myself and live in a fantasy place
and then something happens when her mother passes and one little moment
something happen
and and it begins to change her life and it is the challenge we all have will we
move forward in our lives or will we hang on to what we were because it's
more comfortable comfortable to accept what we were hanging on to that rather
than finding out what we're about to become so we're going to get just a
little bit of it of a taste of of the film and an important moment in the
early part of the story of Doris or show that clip and then we'll talk a little
more ok
person I like doo wop
tombs Durabolin doors
as far as you know your first on-screen fist bump Greenfield you get your
coworker and he becomes a pretty important figure in really the bait
draws her out of this cave she's been in her life she sees him passed away and
he's kind to her and see if she wants she's decided you know that's it for me
folks and it it's it's not quite like a stalker anything as much the city's
someone who is so desperately wants to feel what life is about and she just
thrusts herself in in his direction and the friendship that comes out of it and
how he benefits from their friendship as well
is kind of the basis of of understanding certainly what courses journey is yeah
it's not that the movie treats their relationship is somehow implausible or
wrong i mean they really do find unique connection and it's something that is
very very plausible and completely real and very sweet yeah its people that
connect with each other everybody the way everybody is that I think everybody
feels isolated and alone or even if you're lucky enough to have a partner
you you you feel so left out something going on in the world and I think it's
sort of hard wired enough certainly in this fighting to feel so left out and
isolated and to connect with the human be somebody who hears you who sees you
who wants to know what if I feel like I feel incredibly enriching and
that's what they do they listen to each other when no one else takes the time we
should definitely talk more about the film will show some additional clips
little bit later in the program because we are so lucky to have you here I i I
just have to ask you about just the extraordinary career trajectory that you
have had and I wonder if we could even start about you know what were you like
before before you began America's Sweetheart when you were just a little
itty bitty Sally Field and actually know wondering you know what life was going
to be like how would you like before before you start working professionally
while I was a child
childish things I just was I was painfully shy little little kid who
didn't want to go to school because I didn't want to strangers around me I
know I don't know that I never really fully got socialized because I think my
mother wasn't all that socialized herself I know if they ever had a
playdate ever I'm beginning to want one
I think I didn't like the whole like why am I here with all these weird people
and I want to go home and then when I was in a working-class about it
0 it's a tough tough life was a stuntman / after and much better than me and then
this / even though he tried he did a lot of things and my mother was an actress
and she did you know episodic television so she'd have a job and do an episode of
perry mason and then wouldn't work for three per month job on bonanza and then
wouldn't work too
lord knows when it's a really difficult existence but what made you want to
follow them know well I think that I had an early language with my mother she'd
been fortunate enough to be put under contract which is very very young during
the war actually when someone thought she was pretty and she was put under
contract to paramount and she was 23 and at that time when you were put under
contract they you study which was fabulous he would movement lessons they
tried to get you to speak like the latest star weather or whomever it was
Jennifer Jones or whomever and the blessing thing was she got to study
acting with Charles Laughton with the great brilliant charles laughton and she
studied acting with him and he put her as a member of his small company of
players where they did check off and and Ipsen around in little theaters around
Hollywood caller told a lot of players or something and I remember this in my
head even though I couldn't possibly remember it but I have the little books
where she was study the cherry orchard and playing the maid and underlining the
line that it was what really stayed with her all her life the love of that craft
and words and everything and so I had that early somehow vision that this is
what delighted her so deeply and when I found a stage at when they had those
things in middle school called the theater arts department arts for kids
that needed to have
some sort of expression outside of you know mathematics and language I found
this place a stage and it really save me in a very big way and I stayed on the
stage from 7th grade to light graduated in on the 12th grade did you have