someone said to me how could you play
Cheney and I said there's a little bit
of Cheney in all of us and there is and
was and will always be
I'm Richard Dreyfuss and this is my
career timeline and it's all through
because I have no secrets okay
I'm nine years old and we've just moved
from New York and my mother is in the
kitchen and I say to her I want to be an
actor and she said don't just talk about
it and I got up and went down to the
local Jewish Community Center and
audition for a part and although I
didn't get the part I wanted I did get
gassed in that show really without a
break of any kind I proceeded to work as
an actor at the Jewish Community Center
for maybe 20 years I was doing a TV show
and I was working with Richard something
or other as we were doing this scene he
up a line and I win cut you know
do that into the silence that was
created from that faux pas cut Peter
Tewksbury lead shows writer-director
walked over to me he said you don't do
that by the time he got to the end of
that sentence I was about at B but I
never did that again you mean she isn't
here she said that she'd be here if we
needed her no she's not here the actors
oath you know the actors opens do you
know how to ride horse are you kidding
me I was raised in a ranch outside of
Vegas no I don't speak Italian and no I
don't know how to flip a rope in those
meetings you don't tell the truth then
on the day that we shot all of the ranch
stuff I went up to the head Wrangler and
I said jet he said this is hard this is
really hard I knew I was doomed and so
we put the two kids on the buckboard
next to me the moment the word action
was uttered it was followed hastily by
Cat Cat because they knew I didn't know
what the hell I was doing and I was out
of control she's alright she's upset and
she's screaming but it's okay now shall
I get the cops one I'll get the cops hey
wait a minute first of all every young
actor in America wanted the role and the
Graduate by auditioned because all I
wanted was to get to Mike Nichols I
wanted to get there the night before I
was supposed to see Mike his office
calls and says he had to fly to New York
last night in order to see a young actor
named Dustin Hoffman and I could just
sense myself reacting to the name Dustin
Hoffman and I knew it was like
immortality went right up to the back of
my neck and then he did the greatest
thing in the world Mike Nichols who is
known as a great gentleman proved it
because he offered every actor who ever
auditioned for that part another part in
the movie and that's where shall I call
the cops I'll call the cops came in my
first film role was in a film called
the young runaways and directed by a man
named Dreyfus I had to be outfitted and
in his bestest suit the costumer did a
half hour on short actors you know
Humphrey Bogart or Dustin Hoffman uh-huh
after a half-hour of this I said here's
me are you are you trying to tell me
that I'm short and I couldn't wait to
get back
tell my best friends about this crazy
costumer and I did I went to Rob Reiner
Karl boric and Albert Brooks and I went
I have the funniest story to tell at
that moment I realized for the first
time that I was short I didn't know how
to handle this I still don't I'm in
therapy for the long but we we made
friends with it I can sincerely tell you
that I tried desperately to get out of
that one because I had done a film in
Canada called the apprenticeship of DD
Kravitz
I turned Steven down and he said why I
said because this is gonna be a to
shoot and I'm really lazy and then I saw
Diddy Kravitz for the first time and I
said to myself if somehow this film is
sold in the United States I will never
work again I had to get that behind me
and so I just did what every normal
human would do I begged for the part on
my knees and then Steven gave it to me
and Steven said we had a deal break
another actor out of the film I felt
like I got the role and then acted
as well as I could and that made me
something I wasn't a star but I wasn't
not a star I knew that Steven was known
at that time as the uncrowned Prince of
Hollywood I wrote a piece for one of his
tributes that said there is a man who is
a film director in Hollywood and I spent
a summer with
I watched a young director to be turned
from a boy into a man during the
shooting of that film I watched this guy
accrue authority and accrued confidence
and it was amazing and it was so subtle
he told me how to shoot jaws without one
interesting shot there is not one shot
in the film stands up but the story will
hit you right between the eyes and you
will never ever forget that experience
Steven told me towards the end of the
shoot of Jaws what his next films gonna
be about I knew if I didn't get this
part I was going to get rim I walked by
Stevens office every day and bad-mouthed
every actor in Hollywood only time I
ever did that and I said Pacino has no
sense of humor
De Niro is crazy finally after weeks of
that he looked up at me and said you got
the part it was only the only film I'd
ever done or could conceive of doing
that was as filled with potential and
greatness as that film knows that part
will outlive us all so what's the deal
huh I mean I got Eliseo in my pocket
you gonna Hana right or what I got a
phone call to read another script called
the goodbye girl it was what happened in
real life to Dustin Hoffman when he was
not
to prove how terrible his life was
really apparently all happened I thought
it was hysterically funny three weeks
later we were in rehearsal and we
rehearsed by reading the script in the
morning and reading the script in the
afternoon and doing it all over again
the next day we came intimately familiar
with that script then the next week we
were introduced to the complete set of
the goodbye girl which was true down to
the ash trays true and nothing was as
brilliantly conceived as that set and
then we finished this movie and then got
praised my agent calls them says you've
been nominated for Best Actor I've been
nominated however and I said who else
was nominated and he said Woody Allen
John Travolta marchello Mastriani and
Richard Burton and I said I'm gonna win
it was the happiest moment of my life
someone said to me how could you play
Cheney and I said there's a little bit
of Cheney in all of us and there is and
was and will always be I didn't have to
go very far because I knew he was right
here right there and I didn't have to be
persuaded I had been part of the crowd
all within me and I can pick them choose
the appropriate character everyone has
Mahatma Gandhi and everyone has Dick
Cheney no kidding
where is my son if she paid the ransom
they'd be here by now daughter of the
wolf was a part where I got to play a
truly psychopathic completely utterly
insane beast eale killer so much fun I
have a theory about where you find
actors like that and it's always that
you find them right inside yourself I'm
sitting on a set for the witch I'm
nervous and I'm saying to myself why are
you nervous you made your case this is
gonna be it for the rest of your life
why are you nervous I then got up walked
over to the lens and I leaned in and
said I like you I want you to like me
I have no other ambition this is it and
I leaned in and blow kissed his I was
never nervous again I don't know why but
I became overnight ten times the actor I
had been
[Music]