Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Honestly and broadcasting.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We get excited when someone special.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
We certainly do. We've been waiting a long time for this,
Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize winning Death of a Salesman who
is finally coming to the Crown Theater. It stars Emmy
Golden Globe and Tony Award winner.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You are, Nelly and Egott.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm obsessed with he got such good to see you,
so lovely to have you joined us in the studio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's nice to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, so Willie Lowman, I'm Some of the names to
have played Willy Lowman over the years, Dustin Hoffman, Bryan Dennahey,
Philip the Great, Philip Seymour Hoffman, probably one.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Of his last sort of roles, George C. Scott.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
I would imagine that as an actor, this is one
of those roles that is like, oh my god, I'm
going to be Willy Lowman.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, it's intimidating. It's intimidating. I've seen two of those.
I saw two of those. I saw Brian Danny do it,
and I saw Philip do it. And I've seen the original.
It was done by Lee J. Cobb, which I actually
think he's the best he's the greatest. Yeah. Yeah, the
old footage of the play, right o man. And what's
(01:20):
remarkable about him is that he looks like sixty and
I play thirty eight or thirty nine. I just always
looks like its like me. I always looked like an old.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Guy, did not look like I always an I walked
down though the event at Crown last week or two
weeks ago, and I walked in and there were posters
if you were everywhere.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
No, it was off putting.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I'm going to be honest. There are dozens of them.
I couldn't avoid you. And as a fan that makes
me excited. But as a performer, what excites you about
a production like this? Is it just being involved in
something so legendary.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well, I hadn't done a play. I mean I started
out in theater probably I did my first seven years
of my career in theater and very little film or
TV or anything. And then it switched over because in
your thirties to start going, I need a couch, I
(02:16):
need a TV nothing but fitter doesn't pay. Usually it
doesn't pay that well, especially when you're doing off off
broad And then I started off Broadway, got to off
Broadway and then finally got to Broadway. And even on
Broadway it pays okay, but compared to film and television,
we can really make a few quid. And so I
(02:39):
went off, and you know, I started doing some movies
and had a bit of success there, but I'd make
a point of going back every couple of years and
doing a play. And then I ended up doing a
series that went for seven years, and then I never
I stepped away from theater completely, and I had never
(03:01):
The last time I did theater was probably ten years ago.
I did a Broadway production of something in New York,
and I thought me, probably not going to do it.
You know, I'm sixty five now, probably not going to
you know, I probably I'll stick with TV and film.
(03:23):
And this came up and these producers approached me about
it and I read it, and I had the good
fortune of working with Arthur Miller when he was alive
on View from the Bridge, and it just reminded me
(03:45):
of what a great experience I'd had on that. And
then I read Death of for Salesman because I hadn't
read it in a long time, and I went, I
just I cannot pass this up. When am I going
to get you know, I've funny, you know, I'm clocking
up the miles on the old meter. How much time
have you got left to do what you'd like to do? Yeah,
(04:06):
And as soon as I got back into it, I thought,
why did I ever leave this? Yeah? Yeah, it's the
reason I got into it. Yeah. The movies and TV
they've just become not all of them, a lot of
them have just become product. You know, they've got so
(04:27):
many different channels and out, you know, different different places
to so many streamers, so many streamers that they're just
need materials. So half the stuff you read, it's just
it's unactable. I mean, it's not all Boys Wallows Universe.
It is not all Boys Swallows universe. Yeah, and most
(04:50):
of it's pretty average and pretty bad. And even if
it's good, you have to look at the people that
are doing it, and they have an unbelievably fantastic knack
of taking something good just hacking it to Pisa. So
you know, you read discript me, oh this is good,
and then you see it and you go, who edited this?
I've got some mouse trying to get it cheese or something.
It just dropped it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So but I guess it affords you the opportunity to
then do it.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Does it does? And then you know I came. I
came out to do it. And the other connection I
had with it was that Neil Armfield, who's the director.
We'd done a movie or two together before, and we
had talked about the prospect of doing theater together. And
(05:39):
when I heard he was going to direct, it's just
not even there was no question that it was not
going to be he has and you know, he's probably
one of the best theater directors in the country. Sure,
I'm probably one of the best directors in general. I
think he's very he's very specific, and he did something
(06:06):
with this play that takes it out of the ordinary
what I call kitchen table drama. He's opened up the stage, right,
so okay, you're much more involved in the whole community
instead of being a kitchen table drama. So it has
more scope, which is why we can do it at
the casino. Yeah. Yeah, the set's quite beautiful. But he
(06:31):
solved a problem that that's always been there with that play,
is how do you open it up and how do
you not have it in the traditional everyone's packed tight
in the kitchen just good in a three hund of
three theater, it's not good in when you've got a
thousand three theater.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
It's not to be discounted that it's not a doddle physically.
It is a three hour play. So you know, I
guess you've got to carefully pace yourself for the run
to know, because it's Mattinee as well.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
With Arthur's stuff, you cannot phone it in. You have
to mean when I work with them, to be on
your game. He was very you know, I loved him
because he was just such a blunt human. But n
you know, oh, he'll haunt you if you don't. I mean, basically,
his his his his. His opinion always was, if you
(07:25):
just say the words, if you just say the dialogue
as quickly as just get it out as quickly as possible,
this other thing will take over and it will come
to life. And that's what happens how fast you do it.
This emotional stuff starts to he writes that. Okay, so
when you read it on the page, it's a bit
bare bones looking. It doesn't do many stage directions or anything.
(07:46):
But if you play the dialogue with much commitment, as
much and as quickly as possible now that I think
we've got it down to under three hours, but that's
kind of rare. Yeah, and that's going for you can
think you're going full you know, full tells on it. Yeah,
because it is a it is a what I like
(08:08):
to call an energetic play. There's a lot going on
and you know, so we started in Melbourne and the producers,
I guess you know, wanted to see how it went,
and went well enough for us to take it to Sitney,
did well enough for us to now come to Perth.
So I'm hoping that you know, we can get the
(08:29):
lovely people of Berth to come out for a.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Night and come and see someone who can't wait wait
the classic production. They will these themes, you know, the
struggle with work and expectations of your children, all of things.
It was seventy five years later, they're all as relevant today.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You know, you want to pull its for it and
that's seventy five years ago. And that's a really great
point from you, is that people think, you know, it's
an old creaky It's not an old creaky play. None
of his stuff is old creaky because it deals with
themes in society and in our family. This one probably
more so than it's about you know, we've got these
(09:06):
strange people moving in, so it's about immigration. We're people,
strange people moving in the neighborhood. And then you've got
the expectations of fathers and their sons, especially their elder sons.
That's in general. I mean, if you're a whack, you know,
your father wants you to be a lawyer or a doctor.
That's it. Mine died and you know, most of the
(09:30):
kids I grew up with who were of you know,
Italian or Greek or Mediterranean descent, they expect their parents
were working class, but they really wanted the kids to
move up the ladder and they felt like Australia was
the place you could do and whether you liked it
or not, it was something you were interested or not.
That's what they were interested in. So there was a
(09:50):
lot of pressure. I remember me when I was growing
up with my dad. It's a tarner pressure. And you
only got one of us to fold. You've got my
youngest brother to fault, became a doctor, but the other
myself with my other brother, we you know, we failed
to make the grade.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, and it's a universal story too. It's not just
a commentary on the American dream.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, translates to I mean, I mean I was born here,
I grew up here. I had exactly the same kind
of situation with my father, who was not happy with
choices I was making in my life, and I had
to move ten thousand miles away. Basically I have my
own life. That's how intense it can get. Yeah, but
I think it's the most done play in China. Get
(10:39):
out of Here really Yeah, Wow, the Middle is extremely
popular in China. I didn't expect and this is the
most done production in China. This is like it's done
in China, Korea, it's done in Europe everywhere. Yeah, but
even in Asian countries. The dynamic works.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, you know, I would imagine we know that expectation
and all that stuff, and that's all in there, and
you know it's.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
About pride and when do you let that go and
when you let somebody be there? And it's also raging
a guy, you know, Willie, who's in serious decline. You know,
probably I never know whether this is like a Tale
from the Grave. River made up my mind, was the
(11:27):
Tail from the Grave? Or is in He's definitely in
the mid stages of Alzheimer's for sure, which I think
a lot of that's very hard for children, which I
think a lot of families have to deal with now. Yeah, absolutely,
you know my generation, it's quite common and it's tough
(11:49):
when it happened, very tough. That's a terrible jab. No.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I think most of us have experienced that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, it's very difficult to see someone that you knew
as kind of like a vital, you know, in charge
of life person to not knowing which door to go through. Yeah,
it's very difficult.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So many people go through that fundamental thing right now.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
We all know multiple people who go through and it's not.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Them, it's their children going through.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I mean listen, I think if you're
if you're my grandmother had it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
My grandmother had it too, but.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
She would pop out once in a while, she came
out for a visit. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like they're lockdown, man,
and that there's an opening and they come out and
they're normal for like three minutes.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yes, I know your name, everything, and then they go, oh,
they're gone again. If they go, it's very difficult. We
would love to keep you here. All we all have
to go before you go. Is it true you were
rejected from drama school? And have you ever gone back
and done a pretty woman and said big mistake?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Huge? No? No, no, no, I wasn't. I wasn't. That
story has always been blown out of proportion, makes a
great story. I don't know it. Listen, Nina. It's typical
that you have to go, you know, probably three times
before they let you in. And I got there the
first time and I was just young and impatient, and
I made it down to like the last couple of
hundred or whatever it was, and the guy said to me,
(13:23):
we don't think you're quite ready because you don't have
the right vocal quality. You don't have this, you don't
have that. And I said to him, well, if I
had that, I wouldn't need to come here. What I
and I meant it good? That isn't that what? Therefore? Yeah,
I said, if any were those things, I wouldn't need
to come here. And that was it. Out the door
(13:44):
and I just walked out that door and I thought,
I'm not going to get anywhere here. Everything back then,
I always felt like Australia had a very low glass ceiling,
especially if you're an ethnic background. And I think maybe
it's I don't know. I haven't lived here long enough
to know if it's changed, but it seems like it's
(14:06):
changed a little bit, a little bit. But I still
think that I think Australia is a bit stuck. I
think they need to become a republic. And it's going
to make me a lot of enemies, but I really
feel like they need.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
To become a republic time in history, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I mean, I think the thing I've been part of
the Commonwealth has always robbed them a part of their
identity and there their place in the world as Australia
and being part of an antiquated, broken down thing that
serves no. Since the old girl got, I like the
old girl, but since the old girl went, you know,
(14:49):
no disrespect the childs. But no, it's it's especially, isn't it.
It's it's not what it was. Well, they're just waiting
for they just waiting for the revolution to go. Which
could be.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Tickets for Death of a Salesman at Crown Theater a
through Ticketmaster. It starts August fifteen through to August twenty nine.
Get in quick. It's been a pleasure to have you
with us this morning.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Thank you, good to see you, and my apologies to
all the Commonwealth people. They'll enjoy it. They'll be on
the text line. You know best.