- Gene Hackman rehearsed for The Graduate before best pal Dustin Hoffman.
- Hackman paints on a regular basis.
- Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman were the two actors considered “the least likely to succeed” at the Pasadena Playhouse.
- Gene Hackman loved Montgomery Cliff’s work “because of his sensitivity.”
- Both Marlon Brando and Paul Newman observed Rocky Marciano during the boxer’s practice time at his gym.
- Paul Newman said “people kept mistaking me for Brando” when he first became widely known.
- Spike Lee’s grandmother (an Atlanta art teacher) financed all his student films at NYU.
- Denzel Washington started preparing for Malcolm X one year before filming began.
- Richard Dreyfuss began acting professionally at age 13.
- Spielberg refers to Dreyfuss as his “alter ego.”
- Richard Dreyfuss was the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner (age 29); regarding his character Elliot in The Goodbye Girl: “I wanted to be like him. I really admired and liked him.”
- Jeremy Irons worked small gigs as a musician (he sings and plays guitar) before going into acting.
- Irons worked as a housekeeper (“I enjoyed it very much”) while auditioning for roles in his early 20s.
- Jeremy Irons first (onscreen) love scene was with Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman.
- Irons and long-time wife (actress Sinead Cusack) live in a castle in County Cork, Ireland.
- Kevin Spacey acted in high school productions with Val Kilmer and Mare Winningham in the LA suburbs; he transferred to their school after he saw them perform.
- After high school and before getting into Julliard (“Kilmer encouraged me to apply”), Spacey did stand-up comedy for 1.5 years.
- Kevin Spacey corresponded with Katherine Hepburn for many years, and thought of Jack Lemmon as a “Pop” (father figure/role model in the field of acting).
- Helen Mirren grew up w/o TV and rarely went to the movies/theater (b/c her family couldn’t afford it).
- Mirren trained as a teacher after high school. She worked for a time in inner-city London (Bethnal Green) teaching elective courses.
- Helen Mirren prefers movies to acting b/c theater “is such hard work.”
- Meryl Streep studied w/ the same voice teacher as (opera star) Beverly Sills as a teenager. Before getting a full scholarship to Julliard for her master’s, she applied to law schools.
- Streep wrote her own lines for the courtroom scene in Kramer vs. Kramer.
- Meryl Streep studied Polish for 4 months before Sophie’s Choice.
- Streep heard that director Sidney Pollack didn’t think she was “sexy” enough for Out of Africa, so she wore padding (“We didn’t have the Wonderbra back then”) and a low-cut dress to meet him.
- William H. Macy’s first acting teacher in college was David Mamet. Eventually, their group of actors formed the Atlantic Theater Company.
- Macy and long-time wife (actress Felicity Huffman) have been together since her early 20s; they met doing theater.
- Michelle Pfeiffer worked as a bagger, checker, and won the Miss Orange County beauty pageant. She also went to court reporting school for one year, but found it very boring.
- In The Fabulous Baker Boys, Michelle did her own singing.
- Pfeiffer threw some dishes during her Scarface screen test and accidentally cut Al Pacino’s hand.
- Al Pacino’s maternal grandfather was born in Corleone, Sicily (this is where the family in The Godfather films comes from).
- Pacino left high school (after 2 yrs) b/c he had to work to support the family; he also acted with a group of pals.
- Pacino was homeless for a time; he slept in the little theater where he was performing.
- Barbra Streisand collects dolls b/c she didn’t have one as a little girl.
- Streisand took take-out orders at a Chinese restaurant during high school. The lady who owned the restaurant was “like a second mother” to her.
- The Way We Were was written specifically for Streisand; she feels the film worked b/c she and Robert Redford were so different from each other (just like their characters). Redford “kept asking me about Brooklyn.”
- Natalie Portman studied dance since age 4.
- George Lucas scheduled Star Wars: Episode 2 to shoot in the summer (to work around Portman’s Harvard schedule).
- Natalie Portman speaks several languages, including Hebrew (she was born in Israel) and Japanese.
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