SLIFF 2010: WAMG Interviews Stacy Keech

Interviewed by Tom Stockman

Conducted: November 12, 2010

Veteran actor Stacy Keach has been on stage and in front of the camera for well over fifty years. He’s performed in the highbrow ranks of Broadway, Shakespeare, and critically acclaimed films. He’s also participated in the lowbrow humor of Cheech and Chong and grindhouse quickies churned out by Italian exploitation auteurs. He’s worked for some of the great directors including John Huston, Walter Hill, John Carpenter, and Robert Altman, as well as playwright Arthur Miller. When he’s not performing, his charity work as chairman of the Cleft Palate Foundation keeps him busy. Stacy Keach was invited to St. Louis last weekend to receive an honorary Lifetime Achievement Award from Cinema St. Louis. Three of his films were screened including the classics FAT CITY and THE LONG RIDERS as well as his newest project IMBUED, a film in which he not only starred but composed the music score for as well. We Are Movie Geeks caught up with Mr. Keach Friday morning as he was preparing for his trip to St. Louis.

WAMG: Are you getting ready for your trip to St. Louis?

Stacy Keach: Yes. I’m looking forward to it.

WAMG: Good, have you had a chance to spend much time in St. Louis before?

SK: You know, many years ago I played the Muny. A production of The King and I back in the, oh my gosh, the late 70′s. I remember it as being very humid. It was summertime.

WAMG: Yes, we get some hot summers here, but actors seem to love the Muny. Do you know who the most famous movie star from St. Louis is?

SK: No

WAMG: Vincent Price. Did you ever work with him?

SK: No, unfortunately. I loved him. He was a wonderful, wonderful actor. I met him once, very briefly, but never had a chance to work with him.

WAMG: Looking at your filmography, you didn’t make a lot of horror films.

SK: I did a few. THE CLASS OF 1999 was one.

WAMG: That one was crazy. You worked with Pam Grier on that one.

SK: Wonderful actress!

WAMG: Let’s talk a little about your film that brings you to the St. Louis International Film Festival tomorrow night. What can you tell us about IMBUED?

SK: Well, I met Rob Nillson, the director and co-author at the Mill Valley Film Festival some years ago. We struck up a conversation and got to know each other and I liked him very much and he showed me this script and said “Look this is one of these low-budget guerilla films. We’re going to shoot it in five days. Just you and the gal in an apartment in San Francisco, would you like to do it?”Â� Now, I’m one of these guys who’s a frustrated composer. I play keyboard and have been writing music for the last few years and I said “I’ll do it if you let me write the music!” And he paused, and he said “Okay, you can do it!”  So that was my …for me it was a tremendous opportunity to break into the composing game. That movie has more significance for me in those terms than just about anything else.

WAMG: Is this the first movie that you have written music for?

SK: Yes

WAMG: Perhaps you’ll start writing music for more movies.

SK: I hope so. I could do that.

WAMG: So, IMBUED is basically a two-person drama? I haven’t seen it yet but it co-stars an actress named Liz Sklar. Apparently she’s a stage actress and this is her movie debut.

SK: That’s right, she hadn’t had any film experience prior to this. Lovely girl and I enjoyed working with her. Apparently she’s doing pretty well now. I’ve heard she has a few other irons in the fire. That was a good break for her.

WAMG: Did she ask your advice about making the transition from stage to screen?

SK: Well, not really. I always feel that when young actors ask me advice….usually the best advice is by example. I always feel that talk is cheap and if ever have the opportunity to demonstrate the difference between stage acting and film acting, it’s a lot better than just talking about it, which is difficult to do. But in the classroom situation it can be done. I’ve worked with so many wonderful great actors in my career, I feel that I’ve learned so much from them just by virtue of being in their presence and working with them. I’m not one to ask for advice or give it.

WAMG: Do you prefer stage acting or movie acting?

SK: I like them both. I really don’t have a preference in that respect. If somebody were to put a gun to my head and say I had to make a choice, I would definitely opt for stage. You have that live audience. You’re able to do the subject with a beginning, middle, and the end, the entire story with the audience’s participation. I do love film acting.

WAMG: Did you enjoy doing Frost/Nixon last year?

SK: Yes, I did.

WAMG: Was it a little intimidating following Frank Langella in that role?

SK: Not really, no. It’s an amazing role. The part is great. I purposely, because I didn’t want to be intimidated, I didn’t see the movie until after the run was over, then I had a chance to see it. I thought he was great, just terrific. Frank’s an old friend. We go way back to the days of Lincoln Center back in the 60′s.

WAMG: I read that you actually worked with Morgan Freeman in the mid-60′s.

SK: I did, that’s right!

WAMG: So Morgan Freeman was young at one time?! That’s surprising.

SK: We were both young at one time.

WAMG: I’ve seen you young. I don’t recall seeing a young Morgan Freeman.

SK: (laughs) He was young at one time! I just love Morgan. He’s an amazing actor.

WAMG: Let’s talk about some of your early films. You’ve done so much. You’ve worked with great directors, Robert Altman and John Huston, but you’ve also gone to Italy and done some exploitation over there. Did you ever work with Charles Bronson?

SK: I never worked with Charles Bronson. I had the great privilege of giving him a lifetime achievement award toward the end of his life, by that time he was not able to work. Sweet, wonderful man, I loved him.

WAMG: Charles Bronson and your father had something in common.

SK: What’s that?

WAMG: They both played Machine Gun Kelly in films (Stacy Keach Sr. in THE FBI STORY and Bronson in MACHINE GUN KELLY)

SK: That’s right! I’m really Stacy Keach Jr. When I became an actor, my dad changed his name to Stacy Keach Senior, so I said that that’s great I can just be just be Stacy Keach. If I ever use the junior I can play my own son.

WAMG: Who were some of your favorite female co-stars? You’ve co-starred with Jamie Lee Curtis (in ROAD GAMES).

SK: Wonderful actress.

WAMG: I watched FAT CITY just last night. Susan Tyrell was an interesting actress wasn’t she?

SK: Amazing, yeah. She’s one of my favorites. She had a tragic thing happen in her life. She got diabetes and had to have her legs amputated. Very sad, she was so wonderful. And I did another picture with her, a film called THE KILLER INSIDE ME, which they just remade I think.

WAMG: Yeah that was remade last year. That was from a very famous book by Jim Thompson.

SK: Yes, I worked with Susan on that after FAT CITY.

WAMG: Another actress you worked with was Ursula Andress. That’s a crazy movie, SLAVES OF THE CANNIBAL GOD. I saw that at a drive-in movie theatre 30 years ago.

SK: That’s one of my, uh…..I love to tell stories about that film because we shot that is Sri Lanka and I remember the day we had to shoot my death scene. We had to climb up this mountain and they were running out of light and the Italians were getting nervous and they had this dummy and I’m supposed to fall off of a mountain, they had this dummy that they weren’t able to make up these rubber arms. So they had this dummy with my costume on. The light was going down, so I took my clothes off, put them on this dummy with no arms and they threw the dummy off the cliff and it proceeded to bounce all the way down the and it’s the most ridiculous shot, but they kept it in.

WAMG: That’s a ridiculous movie, but it’s a lot of fun

SK: One of the good things about this business is that you get to go to a lot of these exotic places.

WAMG: With Ursula Andress no less! UP IN SMOKE. What was it like on the set of that movie?

SK: Everybody thinks everybody was stoned on the set of that movie, but no, it was very professional. I mean there was none of that hanky panky going on during the shooting. After hours, who knows?

WAMG: Were you familiar with their routine and the Sergeant Stedanko character before you were cast?

SK: Absolutely. I loved it, yeah. And you know, they’re back together now.

WAMG: They should make another movie and you should come back as Sergeant Stedanko.

SK: Well, it’s being talked about. It’s definitely in the works. I had the great privilege when I was doing Frost/Nixon in Huston and they were in Huston at the same time so I made a surprise appearance on stage in the middle of their act and busted them both. The audience loved it.

WAMG: One other movie I wanted to talk about was THE NINTH CONFIGURATION, a movie that’s really developed a cult reputation over the years. It’s not a movie that did well

SK: Not at all

WAMG: Although I did see that one at the theater in 1980

SK: (laughs) You were the one! I love that movie. It’s a very bizarre, strange film. William Peter Blatty who wrote it and produced and directed it, and plays in it, he’s plays the part of a crazy doctor. We shot that in Budapest. They had frozen funds from Pepsi Cola that financed the movie and everyone thinks we’re in upstate California. Part of the castle was in Germany. The courtyard was in Vienna, and the interiors were all shot in the studio in Budapest.

WAMG: The movie has aged in an interesting way. I think it was ahead of its time. I know a lot of young movie buffs who really like that movie now.

SK: It was very strange, sort of the flip side of THE EXORCIST. I think it’s really a movie about faith. That final scene, the fight scene, is one of my favorites.

WAMG: And what a cast. You’ve got Richard Lynch, Neville Brand, Joe Spinell, there’s some faces on those guys. You were the handsome guy in the cast.

SK: (laughs) Yeah, me and Jason Miller.

WAMG: Is it true that you were offered the role of Father Kharis in THE EXORCIST

SK: I had the part! For about twenty seconds. It’s true. I was in New York. I was a young actor at the time. I went in to audition. It was on a Friday at about three o’clock in the afternoon. At about six o’clock my agent called and said “you got the part”Â�. I was absolutely thrilled. Then he said “but they made a very low offer”, but that wasn’t important to me. The fact that I got the offer was the important but my agent said “I’m going to try and get more money” Anyway that night, William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin went to see That Championship Season which was playing on Broadway and that was written by Jason Miller.

WAMG: Right, he won the Pulitzer for that

SK: That’s right. I Jason was at the theater and went out with William Peter Blatty and Billy Friedkin and they went out and had a drink together. I got a call Monday morning saying “You lost the role. They didn’t want to come up with the money and they’re going with Jason Mille” That was a crushing blow. Oh, I’ll never forget it. But that was just destiny’s hand. But I did get a chance to do THE NINTH CONFIGURATION which at the time was called Twinkle Twinkle Killer KaneÂ�. Bill Blatty could never make a decision about the final scene of that movie as to whether or not Killer Kane commited suicide at the bar or was he killed by the bikers. He never reconciled that.
WAMG: A lot of ambiguity in that film and I think that’s one of its strengths. Now this weekend, you’re going to be here in St. Louis. They’re going to do a tribute to you and show FAT CITY. You must consider FAT CITY something of a milestone in your career. How did you get that role?

SK: I was doing a western in Spain with Fay Dunaway called DOC. It was about Doc Holliday and John Huston paid me a visit and asked me if I’d like to do this. I was over the moon, I said “Absolutely!”. I’d read the book my Leonard Gardner and loved it and that was one of the greatest experiences of my early career. I worked with Jeff Bridges, an old buddy, just won the Oscar last year. Just great. I learned so much on that. I was just coming off working primarily as a stage actor. Jeff Bridges had just done THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, maybe one or two other films and he was a natural movie actor. I learned a lot by working with him.

WAMG: FAT CITY will be shown Sunday afternoon. Sunday night they’re going to be showing THE LONG RIDERS and your brother James will be here as well. Whose idea was it to cast all these brothers in THE LONG RIDERS?

SK: That was our idea. The studios didn’t believe we could get everybody together. So we took a photograph of myself and my brother, and the Carradines and, at that time, Jeff and Beau Bridges, who were going to be in the movie.

WAMG: Who were they going to play. The Fords?

SK: No, the Miller brothers. But they both got busy and couldn’t make the schedule so we cast Randy and Dennis Quaid. That was one of Dennis’ first movies.

WAMG: Walter Hill was a good director, wasn’t he?

SK: Absolutely. Still is.

WAMG: HARD TIMES was his first movie, with Charles Bronson, who we were just talking about.

SK: That’s right. That’s a great film. You know, Walter started as a script supervisor. He worked with Sam Peckinpah. The influence is very obvious. THE GETAWAY was one of the films Walter worked on. Interesting job script supervisor, because you really get to know the nuts and bolts about how to make movies.

WAMG: Sure, a lot of observation. Well. I’ll be there Sunday night. I have a FAT CITY lobby card I’m hoping you’ll sign for me.

SK: I’d be happy to.

WAMG: What’s next for Stacy Keach?

SK: Well, today’s my first day of rehearsal for a new play at Lincoln Center by John Robin Bates called Other Desert Cities. We start previews in December and play to the end of February. So I’ll be working, doing some theater. I just completed this past year a series for FX network called Lights Out, about a boxing family and I play the father/trainer to two boxing sons and that will be on in January as well, so I’ve been keeping busy, I’ve got two kids in college, I’ve got to keep punching the clock.

WAMG: You’ve always stayed busy and have been on my radar as an actor as long as I can remember. Well, I will see you Sunday night at THE LONG RIDERS at Webster University. Congratulations on your lifetime achievement award from Cinema St. Louis and be sure to check us out at We Are Movie Geeks.com

SK: We Are Movie Geeks.com! I will do that right away.

WAMG: Thank you so much Mr. Keach for your time and enjoy your weekend in St. Louis.

SK: My Pleasure.

Stacy and James Keach at the screening of THE LONG RIDERS at the St. Louis International Film Festival