Remembering Paul Newman

Remembering Paul Newman

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Advanced

Speaker: Chuck Rollando

Standard: American accent

As you know, Hollywood legend Paul Newman died in 2008 at the age of 83. Yet he was more than just a film star: he was also a racing driver and a political activist who said he felt proud when he learnt that he was number 19 on Richard Nixon’s enemies list. More importantly, he was philanthropist whose “Newman’s Own” food company gave more than $200 million to charity.

As a tribute to him, here are some excerpts from an interview he gave in 2006, when he was promoting one of his last films, the animated feature Cars, for which he provided the voice of Doc Hudson. Newman was asked what was the secret to making a good movie:

Paul Newman

(Standard: American accent)

Well, there are so many ingredients that go into making a film. That’s one of the reasons, incidentally, why I like racing. I mean, it’s a very simple sense of winning. It’s down to a thousandth of a second now, and electronically, and that’s a very uncomplicated conclusion. There’s so many things that go into making a film: the director, the actors that you’re working with, the time that you have to rehearse, whether you catch up with a character in time.

There are so many different ingredients that go into making a performance. It’s pretty hard to tell which performer performed the best. Somebody may have started out with a piece of junk and brought it up to past mediocrity so that it was pretty damn good. And another guy starts out with a beautiful script, a deliciously-defined character, a marvelous director, a comfortable schedule, he’s got everything going for him: I would give the credit to the guy in front of him.

THE EARLY DAYS OF TV

Newman then reminisced about his experiences in the 1950s, when he worked in television:

Paul Newman:

Live television, in those days, was really exciting because you didn’t have a hell of a lost time to work on things, and if there was a mistake made, it was not retrievable by having another take. So I think that working under that kind of pressure was a good experience for any actor; and some funny thing happened, too. Sets felt down. I can remember Walter Cronkite in a thing  called You Are There and Joana of Arc was being burned at the stake and the fire began to crackle and then they cut away to Walter Cronkite in the 20^th century setting and said, “And you were there.” And, little by little, the smoke from the set started to filter into the broadcast room and there was Walter!

GET YOUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66

Newman then talked about the time he and his wife, Joanne Woodward, drove along Route 66, the famous road which provided the setting for Cars:

Paul Newman:

Actually, we started up north and we drove to Las Vegas. And it said “All you can eat for a-buck-and-a-quarter,” I think. And we went into these casinos and the spreads were extraordinary; I mean, fresh shrimp – I’m talking 1951 –fresh shrimp and lobster, and a table laid out lie you’d never seen before. And we had a lovely meal and then Joanne put 160 bucks in the slot machine and I lost about $400 playing blackjack. So that meal was not really a-buck-and-a-quarter!

COMMITMENT

In conclusion Newman was asked what advice he had for the many people who felt disillusioned with politics:

Paul Newman:

Be engaged. I was campaigning at the University of Cincinnati and they admitted with a certain amount of shame that the students there, only 19 per cent of the eligible students had voted in the 2004 election. But they had taken polls, the polls had looked good, but the kids were on cell phones and they weren’t being polled and the figures were going to be staggering because the kids were engaged. Figures came out: 19 per cent. So, if people who have the privilege of voting don’t vote, then you have to ask if…if they’re really getting what they deserve. We have less of a percentage of eligible voters voting then vote in Iraq. I think that’s shameful.

So, if people get engaged, they can make the changes: they don’t get engaged, then we just have a chauffeur up there motoring us wherever he wants to go, instead of us, you know, giving the directions.