♪♪
Ari: Now, don't expect me to get hysterical
over the life of one Jewish child,
and don't you get hysterical, either.
Jewish flesh is cheap, lady. It is cheaper than beef.
It is cheaper, even, than herring.
Paul: The only thing my mother ever liked
about me being a movie star
was how much it impressed the Jewish half of my family.
I'll teach you a Hebrew toast.
L'Chaim.
[ Chuckles ] I know it.
To life.
Good for you.
She was always intimidated by them.
I'm half Protestant, half Jewish,
but I've always thought myself as a Jew...
because it's harder.
And half of them are Communists anyway.
Yes, and the other half pawnbrokers.
They look funny, too.
I can spot one a mile away.
Would you mind looking into my eye, sir?
Feels like a cinder. Mm, certainly.
You know, a lot of them
try to hide under Gentile names...
but one look at that face and you just know.
With a little experience, you can even smell them out.
To quote Theodore Roosevelt,
"On the one hand, I would stomp it under foot.
But on the other hand, not so fast."
Convey my respect to the general.
That I will.
Bit of a Jew himself, you know.
Not really? Mm.
On the one hand, what a plague my appearance has been.
On the other hand, where the hell would I have been
if I looked like Golda Meir?
I need 50 eggs.
Nobody can eat 50 eggs.
You just said he could eat anything.
You ever eat 50 eggs?
Nobody ever ate 50 eggs.
Babalugats, we got a bet here!
My boy says he can eat 50 eggs, he can eat 50 eggs.
Go!
One...
two...
three.
He's gonna lose a finger, eating eggs like that.
♪♪
He's eating them, Alibi.
Ah, he's chewing them. Just little old eggs.
They're pigeon eggs, that's all. Fish eggs, practically.
Society Red: Five...four...
three...two...
one...zero!
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Hold it! He didn't swallow the last.
Oh, you think so, huh?
Well, let's take a look here.
Open that mouth.
[ Cheering ]
Rosenberg: For me, I looked at Luke
as what legends are really about.
How does a legend develop?
Did Luke really eat 50 eggs, or is that what makes a legend?
♪♪
Announcer: From the Wild West,
the princess traveled back to the present
to meet Alfred Hitchcock
and the stars of a new thriller in the making,
Julie Andrews and Paul Newman.
Then they watched the cameras roll for a scene
in this new Hitchcock film, "The Torn Curtain."
Announcer #2: On the shoulders of Paul Newman
as he pursues his hazardous hobby, go-cart racing.
♪♪
[ Man speaking foreign language ]
[ Woman speaking French ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Camera shutters clicking ]
[ Woman speaking French ]
Announcer #3: A popular choice with the crowd
as world's favorite actor and actress,
Paul Newman and Natalie Wood.
It's quite a feat to be as popular in Great Britain
as you are in Southeast Asia.
It must be the greatest feeling in the wide, wide world.
[ Camera shutter clicking ]
I want the "Cool Hand Luke" section to be great.
Well, yeah.
What we've got here is a failure to communicate.
That's the quintessential Paul Newman performance,
is "Cool Hand Luke."
I mean, that's just like Nicholson in "Cuckoo's Nest."
Like, that is the --
Denzel, "Malcolm X," you know,
De Niro, "Raging Bull,"
Paul Newman, "Cool Hand Luke."
That's what it is in my mind, right?
Nobody can eat 50 eggs.
Like, you have a signature,
and he directed them in his signature.
And then he spent his life really struggling
to achieve that grace ever again, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a guy who's thinking back on 20 years ago
when he won the World Series, you know.
Picture Stuart with his cigar and a whiskey,
and he's saying, "I went to see..."
What was her name?
Come on.
Alicia Alonso, right?
Rosenberg: Years ago, when I lived in New York,
I went to the ballet with my wife,
and we saw Alicia Alonso,
who had just come out of an enforced retirement
because she lost her eyesight and performed a pied.
She just went across the stage twirling
and never touched the ground.
And I started crying.
Man: 21, 22, 23...
Rosenberg: I don't know anything about the ballet,
but I couldn't stop weeping.
Man: ...30, 31, 32, 33.
Rosenberg: It's just remarkable to see someone do so well...
Get out of my eyeballing seats, you Newmeat dummy.
Rosenberg: In those years, you know, 1967,
there were two stars in the world, really,
two superstar sex symbols.
That's Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.
Paul was a giant. He was it.
It wasn't any Redford at this point.
He read the script. He read the book.
And after all, I was a TV director.
I had no track record as a -- as a film director,
and he committed to the project because he liked the character
and he wanted to do it.
♪♪
And Paul, he didn't play the superstar.
I mean, he was part of a company,
and he was a guy in the trenches working.
♪♪
He comes into the situation, he looks at it, and he says,
"This is the toughest test these men have to do,
and you -- you can do two things.
You can rebel against the system by objecting to it,
or you can rebel against the system by defeating it.
♪♪
You know, that Sisyphus is a figure of literature
through the century that is always
the perfect symbol of frustration.
He's the guy who has to push the rock up the hill every day,
and every day, it rolls back down.
♪♪
Camus comes along and made this startling observation,
which changed my life.
Camus says, "Huh.
Uh-huh. You're all wrong.
Sisyphus was a happy man because he knew what his job was."
That's it. That's the end of it.
What do we do now?
Nothing.
Rosenberg: I mean, that's a remarkable observation
that Camus made, that Sisyphus was happy
and there must have been a smile on his face in accomplishing it.
There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
[ Laughter ]
The best thing I can say about Paul is that working with him,
you feel that it's possible to achieve that grace.
He always made me feel that I could get
that one moment of glory.
You know, the one that Thomas Wolfe talks about
that maybe I could get that one moment this time,
those golden moments.
[ Projector whirring ]
Melissa: My dad always described himself
as an emotional Republican,
and I think that's what he struggled with as an actor,
was trying not to paste emotion on the outside,
trying to dig in.
♪♪
I wonder if he ever accessed that emotion
from experiences he had as a child.
♪♪
I'm leaving the place to John.
I just...
I just never give John the...
the kind of, you know, feeling that I give you,
so I'm -- I'm --
I'm gonna pay him back now.
Sometimes, you just...
just have a feeling for a child.
else you don't.
With John, I just didn't.
[ Whistles ]
I got to go, Arletta.
Yeah, well...
laugh it up, kid.
You'll -- You'll make out.
Rosenberg: I felt that something had to be done to pay tribute
to the memory of this crusty old dame
who came out to visit Luke,
and I felt the audience would feel cheated
if he didn't pay some sort of tribute to her.
♪♪
This is an inarticulate guy here.
This is an uneducated guy that Paul was playing.
I mean, he can't make a speech about his mother.
One day, I found an old jingle that was used
by a Southern firm, actually, that made religious objects.
You know, get yourself a plastic Jesus.
His mother's dead.
And I told Paul, and God bless him, it's fantastic.
He said, "Let's do it."
Problem is, Paul's not a musician.
He had to learn the chords on the banjo.
I didn't want to do it with him in cuts, you know?
I wanted to just slowly come in and...
The point that I'm making here
is I went to the dressing room at the lunch break,
and he showed me what he was doing.
And I came out, and I said to myself,
"It's too, uh...
I mean, he's done it too well."
I hope -- I don't think he knows this story to this day.
What I had to do with Paul was disturb him a little.
I said, "Paul, shit, we got a copyright problem.
You have to reverse the first line
and the second line."
He said, "Oh, for Christ's sakes,
all that -- after all that fucking -- God damn it."
So we roll the camera, get the sticks, and he starts.
♪ I don't care if it rains or freezes ♪
Rosenberg: And it's fucking brilliant.
♪ Long as I got my plastic Jesus ♪
♪ Sitting on the dashboard of my car ♪
♪ Comes in colors pink and pleasant ♪
♪ Glows in the dark 'cause it's iridescent ♪
♪ Take him with you ♪
♪ When you travel far ♪
Melissa: One scene comes to mind,
and it always makes me cry and it seems so genuine.
It's in "Cool Hand Luke" when he's singing --
when he's playing the ukulele and singing "Plastic Jesus."
I'm not sure what aspects of his childhood
or his -- or his youth he was drawing on...
but he seemed to have tapped into something
in that moment.
Gets me every time.
♪ 'Cause I got the Virgin Mary ♪
♪ Assuring me that I won't go to Hell ♪
Stern: Did you ever see Paul cry?
McDonald: No.
♪ Get yourself a sweet Madonna ♪
Never?
Did you ever feel that he needed comfort?
Did you ever feel called on to comfort him?
[ Sighs ]
I don't think he left himself open for that.
♪ Assuring me that I won't go to Hell ♪
[ Train whistle blows ]
♪♪
Rosenberg: Paul was born in Cleveland.
At 18, he enlisted in the Navy.
He was a radio gunman, third class on torpedo planes
in the Pacific in the Second World War in Hawaii,
Guam, and Saipan.
He was discharged in 1946,
and he attended Kenyon College, where he was an economics major
until he switched to English and speech.
And he spent his summers in Stockton,
because by then, he had decided he ought to be an actor.
♪♪
Well, tell me about the stock company,
where you first met Paul.
How did all that happen?
Well...
♪♪
...must have read in the paper
or heard somehow or another
that the Belfry Players were having auditions,
and I went and read for them.
I can't remember the plot, if there was any,
to "John Loves Mary."
I think John had a funny sidekick
and something like that, and that was Paul.
♪♪
Well, what can you tell me about your first times with Paul?
Do you believe in love at first sight?
No.
Neither do I.
I believe in confusion.
McDonald: We'd spend a lot of time together.
We were both there for the entire summer
and probably through, you know,
hidden needs of our own to escape
from whatever was holding each of us.
We must have decided we were each other's salvation.
♪♪
Stern: What about the wedding itself?
I remember it being very lovely,
lots of snow.
My bridesmaids wore deep wine
and I think a deep green velvet.
♪♪
How was Paul?
[ Chuckles ] I don't know.
I guess he was okay. It's funny, I don't remember.
I really don't remember.
♪♪
We went from the wedding to Woodstock.
We were in a Stockholm theater,
and, you know, that's when his father died.
♪♪
They -- right as they get married,
Paul's father dies,
so he has to take over the sporting-goods store
for his father.
And now he's running a sporting-goods store.
He's like 22, right?
Stern: Did you go to the funeral?
McDonald: Yes. I must have.
Do you remember that trip?
I remember I was impressed.
[ Chuckles ]
It seemed to me to be a very affluent neighborhood.
I remember that I ate my first lobster.
I remember I had a -- that I had a new dress
and that it was, what, little knife pleats of taffetta,
and his mother, Theresa, I'm sure accidentally,
spilled something, lobster butter,
all over the pleats.
And they were never the same.
That I remember.
And what about Paul's reaction?
He was terribly upset.
But I can't really, in my mind,
separate the upsetment over the actual death
from the upsetment of having to fit into the mold
of the Newman-Stern sporting-goods company.
Why do you think he was doing it?
Guilt, probably.
I think that his mother just about fell apart,
that she felt...
truly felt somehow to keep her going
that she had to some kind of control over her two sons.
It was very important to her that they both stay
with the Newman-Stern Company.
♪♪
I mean, I think his mother was totally unconscious
of how oppressive she was.
I remember where someone --
even someone as young and naive as me,
thought, "No, come on."
♪♪
The relatives came to the house after the funeral.
It was somewhere around that time.
She was sitting there with Paul and his brother, Arthur.
She's telling the story about
how popular Paulie always was
and how the girls used to call here all the time
and on and on and on about how popular Paulie was,
da da da da da.
And then, I'll never forget it.
She looked over at Arthur and said,
"And they never called you, did they, honey?"
Don't be hard on yourself.
♪♪
I thought, "Gee, what kind of monster is this woman?"
...my mother.
What do you know?
Hawke: Paul starts drinking up a storm
because he doesn't want to be
running this sporting-goods store,
and he finally gets up the guts to leave his mom.
And he takes them and he goes to Yale to study acting,
and it was very upsetting to the family.
Do you still like me a little?
I love you, Mother.
Even when I'm like this?
McDonald: I mean, this woman --
she told me that when Paul was young,
and I don't know how young anymore,
that he did this peculiar thing.
He stood on his bed, rocking back and forth,
hurting himself
or doing something, something or other,
and she went to the doctor.
And I doubt it was the child psychologist at that time,
and this doctor's solution for this problem
was to get a harness
and put it on Paul at night
that evidently would fasten to both sides of the bed.
And I don't know whether Paul remembers that at the time,
but I remember thinking, "God, that's awful."
♪♪
Stern: He remembers being tied down.
Both boys remember banging their heads.
Ah, that was it, banging the heads.
[ Chuckles ] Oh, yes. Wonderful.
The banging of the heads.
She told me --
She told me that the doctor told her
that's something only Jewish kids do.
♪♪
Only Jewish kids?
Mm-hmm.
"Only Jewish kids do that."
That's fascinating.
I wonder what it was that drove them to do that,
to just go in there and bang their heads to the wall
on a fairly regular basis.
I don't know.
♪♪
Paul: My mother and I just didn't get along.
The second year, Joanne and I were living in New York
in the apartment on 11th Street.
Joanne said, "Why don't you
invite your mother up for Christmas?"
I said, "Fine."
She came in and said,
"What a beautiful place you have here, Paul,
all these lovely things,
but you take it all out of that business,
that terrible business
that's filled with nothing but bile and pornography.
Oh, what you could have done if you'd only tried."
♪♪
One day, I was driving or somewhere in the city.
Suddenly, my mother said, "I know why your wife hates me.
Because I know she's having an affair with Gore Vidal."
[ Scoffs ] I couldn't talk.
♪♪
Luke...
What you doing?
I jammed on the brakes,
opened the door, and said, "Get the fuck out of this car."
Pushed her out on the corner of 18th Street and Fifth Avenue
and left her there.
We didn't speak again for 15 years.
What we got here is a failure to communicate.
[ Gunshot ]
Luke! Luke!
Rosenberg: After the first screening we had at Westwood,
the lights went on,
and the audience was absolutely still.
And they came running to me, you know, the studio,
"They don't like it."
And I said, "Wait a second, what do you --
what do you want them to do, applaud?
The hero's just been killed, you know?
They're gonna go out there and they're gonna think about it
and they're gonna talk about it."
Go get him.
Vidal: I think he will be remembered for something that
in a curious way is very like Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper.
They are so good, no one knows they're any good.
And you can achieve a kind of perfection as a film actor
that the people who -- overexcited types
who believe in the auteur theory don't notice.
♪♪
Ritt: Faith is one of the most important items in the equipment
of the actor, writer, director.
I have faith in the material and the people I'm working with,
and that faith is --
that purity, because that's what faith is --
it's impossible to fake.
And when you have it, it's a thing of beauty.
You got two ways to go -- put it down or use it.
♪♪
Even if you tie me, you're gonna be dead.
♪♪
You persuaded me.
♪♪
Vidal: Newman -- oh, yeah, he was good. He was good.
Cooper -- yeah, he was good. He was good.
Fonda -- Oh, yeah.
He was always very good.
He wasn't acting, though.
[ Chuckles ]
♪♪
Woman: If any of you listening or live in or around Westport,
they have really, truly one of
the most enchanting homes I've ever seen.
It's right on a lovely pastoral stream.
Just trying to get rid of my chewing gum.
Well, don't --
please don't put your chewing gum in my ear, Paul.
[ Chuckles ]
Tell us a bit -- Tell us about your children.
Well, there's six of them, and they're marvelous children.
What else can I say?
♪♪
I think people should think so carefully
before they have children
because people are very often so cavalier about it.
They think of this lovely little bundle, you know,
without thinking it's going to grow up to be a gawky teenager
with a lot of long hair.
And we may still need to be loved and hugged and kissed,
even if he is tall and gawky.
♪♪
Man: How different is it
for a woman to bring up a child she has not borne
compared to the one she has?
I mean, I have three who aren't mine --
I don't have them,
but I have been blessed with them for many, many years,
and I have three that are -- that I bore.
I could not in any way say
that I love one more than the other.
I mean, they're --
As much as any other person can be yours,
they're mine.
♪♪
Hawke: I guess I wanted to ask you,
when did you get that tattoo?
Stephanie: Oh, I got that about...five years ago.
I got it facing me on my forearm
because I wanted to be able
to read it all the time.
And just as a reminder,
even though I don't really need one,
but she... uh...
Joanne was one of the best things
that ever happened to me.
And she gave me my sisters,
because she could have been
a different kind of stepmother
that was totally uninterested
in keeping up with Pop's other children.
She embroidered me pillows.
I have postcards and letters from her
from all over the world.
Melissa: She worked really hard
to make sure that we were a family,
and I don't think it necessarily would have happened
the way it did if it had just been my father.
She advocated to make -- to make us a family,
and it was a complicated -- an obviously complicated family.
Woman: I know two -- two of them take dancing lessons now,
And I believe they had their first dancing lessons this week.
And then, of course, you have the baby.
The dancing lessons, incidentally,
are really quite marvelous.
The eldest one of the second batch is 7,
and she thinks she's a horse.
She gets in her dance class, really.
[ Laughs ]
Very good!
Yes, I thought it was a rather good horse.
♪♪
Ritt: Paul is...
very demanding.
I mean, he has to be.
I mean, I made -- I made a couple of pictures with him
that were flawed.
♪♪
You -- You know me, do ya?
I don't think he work-- wants to work with me again,
and I don't -- I don't blame him for that.
From his point of view, "Paris Blues" was flawed.
I don't think he really liked any picture we did together,
except for "Hud."
He thought "The Long, Hot Summer" was flawed.
He thought "Hombre" was flawed.
Woman: ...plays an Apache Indian.
[ Chuckles ] Get a good look at this hairdo.
Everyone was constantly ribbing him about looking like a Beatle.
I hope this movie doesn't make the trend any worse.
Please! Please, help me!
Paul: The theme of "Hombre" was that ultimately,
the competent people pick up the tab
for all the incompetent people.
The plot has all these incompetents
screwing it up until finally, my character arrives
to save their asses and gets killed.
It was a good idea.
Lady, up there in those mountains,
there's a whole people who've lost everything.
They don't have a place left to spread their blankets.
They've been insulted,
diseased, made drunk and foolish.
Now, you call the men who did that Christians,
and you trust them.
I know them as white men, and I don't.
Ritt: He was extremely good in it.
I mean, it was one of the best things
he's ever done in his life.
I mean, but I think he thought it was flawed.
Paul: When I see the image on the screen
of that goddamn self-conscious movie star
with blue eyes playing an Indian...
What's that?
How are you gonna get down that hill?
[ Scoffs ] ...it doesn't come together for me.
Now, you hold on.
I'm going down this hill the same way I come up it.
You hear me? Now, you just hold on.
Just you hold on there.
Ritt: But -- But they were not like "Towering Inferno."
I mean, [Chuckles] they were not overt exploitations.
That's what that film was.
Put your arms around me,
and you tell me what to do, okay?
I mean, I know he's had a lot of money pressures.
You know, I get it. I get it.
He's always had enormous hits with that George Roy Hill.
I mean, I saw the "Sundance" Film.
It's a very entertaining film.
♪♪
Hawke: You probably have a martini.
You're nervous about Paul writing a memoir
because you don't think it's a good idea.
But you know that your job here
is to be as honest as possible
and still be a great best friend.
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
♪♪
Hill: When Paul came on set,
I noticed he had a large jar of underarm deodorant,
the dryness stuff that he puts under his arms,
and he had three changes of shirts.
And I didn't ask him about it, but it kind of made me curious.
And then I realized that he was so nervous,
he had to change T-shirts all the time.
This gave me great hope
because I don't trust an actor who's not nervous.
♪♪
That sultry, hip-swinging, brooding American male --
that was his persona, but it wasn't Paul.
When Paul had a chance to shed that,
he found such joy in it.
Butch: Boy, you know, every time I see Hole-in-the-Wall again,
it's like seeing it fresh for the first time,
and every time that happens...
He was able to play himself in Butch,
to finally learn to relax.
He didn't have to push, and I think that role
may have helped him into what he later became.
What's your idea this time? Bolivia.
What's Bolivia?
Bolivia. That's a country, stupid.
Man: Was it you who, in effect, gave Redford's career
that nudge upwards, as it were?
Paul: That was Joanne's idea.
Ah. Tell me about it.
I think she read the script and she said, "It's marvelous,
and the only guy that can play it is Bob Redford."
Redford: The studio didn't want me for the film.
They wanted somebody as well-known as Paul,
and he stood up for me.
I don't know how many people would have done that
and they would listen to their agents or the studio powers.
Hill: Actors can sometimes be a terrible pain in the ass
with their jealousy of each other,
but on this one, even though they didn't know each other
before they started,
Bob and Paul consciously established
a relationship that was excellent
that included Redford's having to laugh
at all of Newman's god-awful jokes.
And Newman had to put up with Redford showing up
anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes late all the time.
And he kept telling Paul to not try to be funny.
"You have to trust that you are funny."
You're one of the funniest guys I have ever hung out with,
but never because -- never when you're trying to be funny.
Hamilton: Right, right, right.
Bet on Logan.
I would, but who'd bet on you?
Sundance...
when we're done, if he's dead, you're welcome to stay.
[ Clears throat ]
Listen, I don't mean to be a sore loser,
but when it's done, if I'm dead...
kill him.
Love to.
Redford: Both of us were fundamentally American actors
with the qualities and virtues
that characterize American actors -- irreverence.
No, no, not yet.
Not until me and Harvey get the rules straightened out.
Rules? In a knife fight?
No rules.
Well, if there ain't gonna be any rules,
let's get the fight started.
Someone count one, two, three, go.
One, two, three, go.
I was really rooting for you, Butch.
[ Chuckles ] Well, thank you, Flat Nose.
That's what sustained me in my time of trouble.
Redford: We played on each other's flaws for fun.
One-upsmanship, but always with an underlying affection.
I figure we can either fight or give.
If we give, we go to jail.
No, we'll jump. I'll jump first.
No. Then you jump first.
No, I said. What's the matter with you?
I can't swim!
[ Laughs ]
Why, are you crazy?
The fall will probably kill you.
Oh!
♪♪
Hill: The final scene between Paul and Bob
was a tremendous acting challenge.
In the dialog itself, there is no reference
to the fact that they had been terribly wounded.
Now, Paul and Bob's playing of that scene
and finding the right balance of pain and humor
and -- and hope is, I think,
one of the best acting achievements
I've ever seen in my experience.
Butch: Australia.
That's your great idea?
Oh, it's the latest in a long line.
Australia is no better than here.
Oh, that's all you know. Name me one thing. Name me one thing.
They speak English in Australia.
They do?
That's right, smart guy,
so we wouldn't be foreigners.
Got horses in Australia.
They got thousands of miles we can hide out in.
Good climate, nice beaches.
You can learn to swim.
No, swimming... isn't important.
What about the banks?
They're easy.
Easy, ripe, and luscious.
[ Chuckles ]
The banks or the women?
Well, once you got one, you got the other.
It's a long way, though, isn't it?
Ah, everything's got to be perfect with you.
I just don't want to get there and find out who stinks.
That's all.
At least think about it.
Alright.
I'll think about it.
Hey...
if we get outside and we get to the horses,
just remember one thing.
Hey, wait a minute.
What?
You didn't see Lefors out there, did you?
Lefors?
No.
Oh, good.
For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble.
♪ Oh, the streets of Rome ♪
♪ Are filled with rubble ♪
♪ Ancient footprints ♪
♪ Are everywhere ♪
♪♪
♪ She promised she'd be there with me ♪
♪ When I paint my masterpiece ♪
♪♪
Redford: I love Paul,
and I think he's a rare, rare human being.
♪ Oh, the hours we'd spent ♪
And when you come across someone like that,
you don't let go.
♪ Inside the Coliseum ♪
He would never do anything to hurt you.
He would never do anything that would in any way denigrate you.
If you are a friend of Paul's, you are safe.
You could go out and rob a bank and Paul would disapprove,
but it would not affect his friendship.
When Paul commits, he is committed for life.
I hope you say that about me someday.
You know, I was thinking about you.
[ Laughs ]
That's okay. Yeah.
♪ The back of my memory ♪
♪ When I ran on the hilltop ♪
Man: Does it seem funny the man you know at home
as just an ordinary human being
that other people become giddy over him?
Woodward: To see someone that you've known as that nice boy
from Shaker Heights, Ohio,
who happened to be in the same play with you, you know,
and you thought, "Well, he isn't really very talented,
but he's got a pretty face, so maybe he'll make it."
But then to some, they see him, you know, emerge,
I think, by the roles that he plays,
because when I go and see him in films,
I mean, I get a whole thing about him, too.
I mean, not that I -- [ Laughter ]
I don't mean to say I don't anyway, but, you know...
Stephanie: It was very weird.
I remember being at a very nice hotel with Nelly
and having some women come up to us,
and one of them said,
"Can you get anything from his room that's his?
I'll take a bristle from his toothbrush."
♪ Masterpiece ♪
♪♪
Rachel: Hello? Are you there?
Anybody home?
Yeah, I'm here.
Well, what are you doing?
When? Now?
Yeah, now.
Just sitting in my room.
And...?
Just sitting.
I can't think of anything to say.
Well, maybe I can help you.
I'm just sitting here
stark naked as the day I was born.
[ Chuckles ]
That open any interesting lines of conversation?
Well...
[ Telephone rings ]
♪♪
Are you, uh...
really naked?
I thought you'd never ask.
I want you here, but it just doesn't...
Clea: He -- He needed her in a way that she didn't need him.
I mean, she was constantly learning new things
and pushing herself
and doing things that she was afraid of.
Melissa: She really was kind of the --
truly herself, free flowing,
and I think he wanted -- he wanted some of that.
And so he married it.
I'm gonna see if I can get some sleep, okay?
Linney: There was always a sense that there was a lot going on.
You know, she was a big knitter. She knit.
What are you doing? Can I see what you're making? Oh, yes, this.
Well, actually, I'm really doing this,
and I'm doing it for a birthday present.
What's gonna be in the squares?
A picture of one daughter and a picture of the other.
Allen: I love the fact -- people used to make fun of her,
but she would go on to talk shows,
bring her knitting.
She'd be sitting there knitting while she was talking to them,
and she didn't really care,
like, what anybody thought about it or not.
She was just kind of very uniquely her own self, you know?
Linney: But there's something about knitting in that
each little stitch, like, leads up to something else,
and then you have a beautiful sweater.
Man: When was it dissolved?
Woodward: I don't think there's a moment when, do you?
I think it's a gradual progression of things.
I think they say that one changes every seven years,
every cell in your body.
Maybe when I was 35
and decided to take up ballet,
thereby making myself the oldest --
oldest beginning ballerina in the world.
36, I went on pointe, you know.
How to let a work evolve,
how to let your family evolve, how to let your marriage evolve.
Like, how do you keep evolving?
I think that's why "Rachel, Rachel" meant so much to me
because it -- you should do things.
You shouldn't say, "No, it's too late for that."
It's never too late.
♪♪
[ Clock ticking ]
Every time we've ever gone for an ice-cream cone,
you've ordered vanilla.
That's not the only kind, Rachel.
There are 30 other flavors,
plus a flavor of the month,
and there are more people on this earth
than just you.
Parsons: "Rachel, Rachel" had just been
a very important experience
in my life progression as an artist.
I mean, it's an experience that's so much more refined
and artistic than most.
I mean, it's no good to break the mold
if you haven't got anything worth doing.
Woodward: I had sort of been semi-retired
for a few years raising children,
and I said, "There's no way you're gonna get anybody to,
you know, they're not gonna put this film together for me."
And Paul said, "No, you really ought to do it.
Let's -- Let's figure out how to do it."
Reporter: In 1968, Paul Newman,
famous in front of the motion-picture cameras,
undertook his first assignment behind them as director.
Joanne Woodward, Mrs. Newman in private life,
agreed to star for it.
Paul Newman tells it.
Paul: She's sitting on a set,
and she appears to do absolutely nothing.
But there's some strange motor going on.
♪♪
Parsons: I went to see Paul at some apartment on the east side.
I'd never met him before, and I remember thinking, "Oh, my."
[ Chuckles ] I mean, he was like a Greek god.
Paul: As it became more and more difficult for me to find parts
that I wanted to do as an actor, if I read a good script,
I should like to be connected with it in one form or another.
That's why I directed the first film.
I'm exactly in the middle of my life.
This is my last...
♪♪
...ascending summer.
The same year that he's Butch Cassidy
and, like, America's Marlboro Man,
they spend their own money and their own time
on a movie about a 35-year-old woman
having a midlife crisis.
You know, Joanne -- both Joanne and Paul,
they absolutely loved...
this craft of storytelling.
♪♪
Man: Did you have any misgivings at all about being --
to be directed by your husband,
somebody you're so very close to?
Did you have any misgivings at all?
Woodward: I didn't have any misgivings about it
because I've never understood
why people always think that that's so strange.
I mean, who could direct you better?
I made a fool of myself!
We're all fools.
You can't be part of the human race and not be...
Parsons: I don't know where that kissing scene came from.
I just -- I found it -- I found it very easy to do,
and I remember just before we shot,
I had an idea that was very effective, and I --
I just kissed her all over,
and then I kind of found her mouth and...
♪♪
Oh, Rachel!
Oh!
Oh, I didn't -- I didn't mean that.
I'm sorry!
Oh, please, now I'm a fool!
Scorsese: It was a big risk
to make a picture like "Rachel, Rachel."
People were not -- the independent films were not as --
you had to really put yourself on the line,
and in a way, I think he took this journey.
And it's a long trip to "Rachel, Rachel,"
and it must be because of her.
She kept Paul on that tightrope walking and growing
and growing and growing.
Maybe if they hadn't been together,
maybe if it was a different kind of situation,
he would not have taken those -- those risks.
You're a loving person, Nick Kazlik.
Babe, we've only had two dates. You don't know me at all.
I know enough.
I know enough to say that...
I love you.
I want a child. I...
Woodward: Sandy Meisner, whom I quote ad infinitum,
said that for an actor,
it takes -- it takes 20 years to, like a violinist,
not wonder where you have to put your fingers on the strings,
and Rachel was a real breakthrough for me
in that respect.
Hold on to me.
♪♪
I think you want to. Be willing, please.
Please allow what you're feeling.
♪♪
D'Onofrio: Every day when you're young,
you have to keep reminding yourself,
"I'm an artist, I'm an artist, I'm an artist,"
and then 20 years later, you're a fucking artist.
If you've applied yourself all that long,
you're a fucking artist, man.
♪♪
Melissa: She knew that her husband,
who was really famous,
deeply believed that she was a way better actor than he was,
and he did a lot to prove it.
I mean, he worshiped her as an artist.
Parsons: I do think the film was terribly taxing for Paul.
He was in a state of shock the whole time.
But it wasn't hard for me
because I was working with Joanne Woodward!
Woman: The winner of this year's Golden Globe goes to...
Joanne Woodward for "Rachel, Rachel."
Announcer: Joanne received her second Academy Award nomination
for her portrayal of the title role in the movie.
Paul: One thing that I admire,
the thing that I recognize, is excellence.
Woman: By any reckoning, it is her best performance.
Paul: I recognize it in almost anything --
plumbers, museum guides, limousine drivers, concierges,
waitresses, bank tellers.
I delight in seeing excellence.
"Rachel, Rachel," Estelle Parsons.
Stewart Stern for "Rachel, Rachel."
Woman: Joanne Woodward for "Rachel, Rachel."
Paul: And unless I have it for myself,
I'm not gonna be satisfied.
Man: ...was moving up in the field.
♪♪
Acting, that whole real feeling, eh, I have my moments.
Single scenes, maybe.
I've had maybe a dozen inspired races in 16 years of racing.
I've won a lot that weren't necessarily inspired.
It's kind of the way I feel about my acting.
[ Indistinct announcement ]
Acting, racing,
you're constantly aware of your own inadequacies,
and I just try to get out there and do the best I can.
Anything can happen.
But as in all things, you can do anything you want to
if you're willing to pay the price.
♪ One day, I'll stop to listen ♪
[ Singing indistinctly ]
♪ Don't forgive me anymore ♪
♪ Find me sleeping ♪
[ Singing indistinctly ]
♪♪
♪ One day, I'll stop to listen ♪
♪ Don't trust the moonbeams ♪
♪ Moonbeams are off the record ♪
♪ Don't count your heartbeats ♪
♪ You heart won't beat forever ♪
♪ One day, I'll stop to listen ♪
♪♪