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CG : Hi everyone and welcome to « Later ». On tonight’s show right here from New York City is one of the stars of the film Hamlet, Liev Schreiber. He had a lot of really shocking and personal things to say but I’ll let you decide for yourself.

[Clip from « Hamlet »]

CG : My guest tonight is a talented actor who’s emerged from the stages of New York to become one of Hollywood’s rising stars. You know him from the horror film trilogy Scream, but now he’s showing off his classical training in the much talked about film version of « Hamlet ». Please welcome Liev Schreiber. And I noticed actually that Rosie O’Donnell kept referring to you as Shriver.

LS : And Leave.

CG : And Leave. Yes, heh.

LS : Yeah, Leave Shriver.

CG : So I’ve seen enough of your interviews now to know exactly how to 

LS : How to say it. And you know me too, so I hope you know how to say my name.

CG : I know. You’re no nice I have to tell you you’re one of the few people who, you know when you run into out and you say you gotta come on the show who says « okay » and really follows through! [laugh]

LS : [laugh] Really, do you, do you ask a lot of people to come on and they say yes and they don’t show up?

CG : No. Everybody’s been pretty good, but there are the couple who are ok I’ll do it but we gotta schedule it for like 4 months from now.

Liev : I never know what to do on these shows, I always feel uncomfortable because I, you know unless you’re sort of hawking a movie, you know the idea that someone wants to talk to you for an extended period of time is kind of nerve wracking.

CG : Well for this kind of show I know the way I feel about it is I’m pretty selective about who I actually do ask to come on because it has to be someone who has the depth enough to have a conversation. And a soul. And since you are a graduate of Yale...

LS : Yeah I’ve been geting a lot of grief for that recently.

CG : Yeah?

LS : Yeah with the Hamlet movie. Ethan’s got a chip on his shoulder about the Yale thing. And you know I gotta tell you you know most of my classmates, and a lot of people I went to Yale with, you know they’re struggling for work they’re out of work actors and you know I was an out of work actor for a long time. And Ethan is a huuuge movie start who’s had a very successful career but every time we do this thing he gives me this every time we do these like, uh screenings or this press stuff, he’s always giving me grief about this Yale thing because it’s Shakespeare I guess, but you don’t have to, you don’t have to have the training it’s just, it’s been useful to me, my experience at school has been great for me because it’s about acquiring knowledge and just more experience. I think Yale was a great experience because that’s the kind of school that it is, they have a pretty strong endowment and there’s two, you know fully operational theatres that people come up from New York.. So the way that they train you is a sort of trial by fire you get to do plays in front of people and they’re you know, budgeted shows. And that was a great experience for me cos I’ve never really done any acting before that.

CG : My first thought when I was reading that you got an MFA which is a Master of Fine Arts for Yale [Liev says yes] in order to, I mean to really go through without much training and schooling you must of had a great passion for acting as a craft. You know what did you initially sort of intend to come of your life as an actor

LS : I think I was a pretty anti-social person growing up . I mean I , I dunno I’m, I just think I felt awkward around the other kids

CG : Why?

LS : Um, I dunno I didn’t fit real well well there was some, you know, strange elements in my childhood and you know I wasn’t good at being cool I think I was a little bit of a spazz maybe a little bit of a hyper kid or something you know. I wasn’t that cool and so at a certain age I think around 12 or 13 I think I sort of gave up and decided to sort of just watch, cos I wasn’t that good at participating. But I think all along I very much wanted to participate and I very much wanted to feel as if I weren’t different which was the irony for me with acting is that I didn’t want to feel special I wanted to feel like I belong, like I was... you know, amongst them. And I think the first time that I acted in College I did a monologue show and um, people liked it, people laughed and people applauded and after the show suddenly I was making friends, I was meeting girls and I was social, and I thought this feels really good, and whether or not I could articulate myself personally one on one, it seemed that, as soon as I was on stage, or I was being expressive in a greater context, I was actually articulate, and coherent, and that was a very very rewarding feeling. And as I got older and I started to learn more about acting and sort of asked myself why I wanted to do it aside from being social and being liked and all of these other things I realized that the function that it served in my life it actually serves in others', serves for others. And um, to that extent it can be a pretty wonderful profession.

CG : You know it’s really true, I think that there’s a lot of truth in what you’re saying about when you get a validation from people based upon doing something that is kind of public, you’re doing it in front of other people. There is something inside of you that is remaining from your childhood that needs to connect with an acceptance of sorts.

LS : Mm, hmmm, yeah, absolutely.

CG : It’s an interesting assessment of yourself when you say you were a watcher because I remember the very first time that I met you and I remember by the end of the evening you were in a car with myself and I think eight other there was about ten of us in a town car which is entirely ridiculous but we did it anyway, you can only imagine how much alcohol had been consumed by -*I have no idea what word she is saying)*- but there were like nine girls and you and we were all, I mean hanging out the window and screaming and in the middle of Times Square trying to get downtown in New York [Liev chuckles] and you were the quiet, it was like in your space there was calm and quiet and you were observing, totally without judgment. I always felt that you always observe totally without judgment.

LS : Well there was a lot to watch that night! [both laugh]

CG : Yes, there was a lot to watch.

LS : Yeah, but I mean, that, that I guess that has always been my pattern. I’m you know, sort of a voyeur.

CG : Interesting do you think that in order to be a great actor you have to be an observer of sorts of life?

LS : I think so, I think that , um, observing is very important, but I also, I also feel like you know there are as many different actors as there are people. Do you know what I mean?

CG : Yes.

LS : I think my particular angle comes from my background and sort of how I perceive life and social behavior and how to interact, that sort of directs, I think, where I go as an actor. Where some other people who are maybe much more, sort of gregarious and were amongst them and used to being looked at and used to being the center of attention have this interesting style, but different.

CG : What about the concept of fame? Do you ever think about it? I mean, you know, a lot of people do speak about your work with such esteem and I am an admirer of your work and I think that, you know, there’s all these clichés, you know, his star is rising, tah dah da, which is also ridiculous but, in your life if that is your experience, how do you think you’re going to deal with the concept of being « Matt Damonized », you know.

LS : « Matt Damonized » [host laughs] Um, You know I’ve actually, it’s very interesting I’ve been thinking about it a lot because I had a big year last year and there was a lot of press on me and I was sort of looking at it and, you know, things that were upsetting my parents, things that were upsetting, you know, ex relationships and new relationships and it was just, I was, it was confusing to me and so I was thinking about it and more specifically at how it relates to your job. Your job is to be an actor. That’s what I do, I’m an actor. And it seems to me like there’s two ways to do it. One is, there is celebrity, which is a viable route to take and you know, you can get a lot of great work done and you can finance movies and you can get better parts out of, from your celebrity, but it’s this very distinct path to pursue, you have to kind of go after and you have to be aware that you’re going after it. And then also you sort of have to act like you don’t mean to be going after it because, well we all know what that’s like. [host semi-laughs]. And then the other thing is that, the greatest value, I think in a pure sense of an actor to an audience, is when the audience doesn’t know an actor’s an actor. So it’s almost like there’s this incredibly brief life span for an actor when they get to the point when they’re successful enough to get work and they can work and the audience still doesn’t know who they are , which is I’ve had this really rich period over these past two years where I’ve been able to work a lot and not many people know who I am, and because I don’t, I try not to do too much press to protect that because I think the value of my characterizations are that they don’t belong to me as the actor, they belong to the characters as people. It’s like you watch Mike Lee’s films and I’m always amazed by Mike Lee’s films because I know those are actors. They’re very successful British theatre actors most of them very talented, and often after Mike’s movies become very famous. But it’s almost as if he’s filming live. And that experience is to me so much more profound than when I’m watching a celebrity. Which is a different function you see, I think that, I believe there are two scenarios than and audience puts themselves through. One character is the character they either want to be in love with or make love to and the other character is the one who they find themselves being. Do you know what I mean?

CG : Sort of.

LS : And I think that that celebrity functions in that way it’s like, you wanna be in love with or in relation to the celebrity... but the character that you wanna be is often the more cathartic character.

CG : We’re gonna take a quick break and then when we come back we’ll speak about some of the incredible people you have worked with because you may think you’re floating by unnoticed but my God what a great group of people you’ve been able to work with. We’ll be right back don’t go away.

[Clip from Scream 3]

CG : We’re back with one of the stars of « Hamlet », Liev Schreiber, and he’s blushing.

LS : I am.

CG : It’s good to be told by, you know girls in a room that you’re good-looking.

LS : Ok it’s uh... what was that what were you asking about who I’ve worked with, Dustin Hoffman and yeah, Paul Newman, think about good-looking guys

CG : A little bit with Denzel in The Hurricane

LS : Denzel yeah.

CG : What has learning on the job with that caliber of actor been the best training?

LS : Yeah. I mean you know, for a long time, I was taking jobs primarily because of the people I was able to work with. I did that movie Sphere because I so much admired the work of, I mean Dustin Hoffman obviously, you know, people probably can tell has been a hero of mine for many many years, and Barry Levinson is one of my favorite filmmakers, and one of my favorite films is « Diner » and the chance to work with those guys plus Sam Jackson, whom I’ve known from the New York theatre scene, and Peter Coyote and Sharon Stone, and the movie with Paul Newman, Robert Benton, it’s been an incredible experience and I’ve been really really fortunate in that respect.

CG : Who’s left you in total awe?

LS : I think Dustin was a big deal for me, you know. I mean cos I was working in New York a lot and, you know, I was a Shakespeare guy and I was doing a lot of New York theatre. And I never really thought I’d have a film career and as, you know, as much as you wanna joke about it I never really thought that I was, you know I didn’t really think I had... the look, you know.

CG : You got the look, baby, don’t worry.

LS : Ok well I saw you know those guys, I mean you look around and you see guys like Brad Pitt and you go hell I’m never gonna be able to make movies I mean if that’s what they want, I mean, it’s impossible! And I don’t like exercise much and all of these things, and then I saw this guy Dustin Hoffman. And I thought well he does it in a different way, you know. And he makes himself attractive through his characterization and as ugly as his characters are they’re sort of beautiful people. And like The great example of that for me is Midnight Cowboy, you know. The character that he plays in that, Rizzo, you couldn’t imagine a more disgusting characterization and yet there’s something so compelling about the character and something so lovable about him. And I was always very moved by him as an actor and I thought you know if that funny-looking Jew can do it maybe this funny-looking Jew can do it. [Host laughs] And I just, also his commitment is incredible and his spirit is incredible.

CG : Yeah. You seem to be very close to your mom.

LS : Yeah.

CG : Hm hm. Yeah. What do you think is the sort of great lessons that your mom has taught you that you used in picking and choosing the kinds of women that you like to have in your life?

[Liev laughs]

CG : Ah-haaa!

LS : Oh my mom has not taught me many great lessons about picking women , umm... umm...

CG : None of them are good enough I’m sure, if it’s your mom right?

LS : Yeah, well no, I mean she loves everybody, she loves them all. Umm... What lessons has my mom taught me about meeting women, about selecting women?

CG : Yeah! Yeah. Anything or anything in her character that you sort of really like and you would want, in her character...

LS : Basically you’re asking me if I have an Oedipal complex. [host laughs] Do I like women who look like my mom.

CG : They don’t have to look like your mom but your...

LS : Act like my mom.

CG : Does your mom have characteristics that you find yourself...

LS : I really don’t want to have a thing with my mom, I really don’t. [host has a good laugh]. You know, and I sort of resent that whole phase of Freudian thought that guys wanna do their moms, cause I really, I think it’s disgusting, and I really don’t have anything for my mom. And if I even imagine like me like, you know, I’d even feel awkward holding hands with my mom, let alone like, making out or, you know it’s like, I don’t, don’t...

CG : So the girls you date are completely different than your mother.

LS : Completely different.

CG : In what way?

LS : No, they’re exactly like my mother. It’s true. They’re exactly like my mother.

[Cynthia starts using her cards as a fan for Liev]

LS : Thanks.

CG : It’s gonna be ok..

LS : Thanks.

CG : Breathe, we can work through this.

LS : Thanks. No I really didn’t expect to go here. But my mother, you know, she was a single mother, you know, and she was an artist, and she was, um, I hate the word eccentric cause it’s so cliche, but she didn’t believe that anything had to be any way. There was always options, there was always imagination and there was always creativity and there was always, um, an abundant source of weird stuff. And I was exposed to a lot of stuff. The range of my experience I owe to her eccentricity. And my grandfather was kind of the workathic guy. So between the two of them, it was almost sort of perfect for an actor I think. My mother’s like there’s no rules, you know, the impulse. My grandfather was like work work work work work work..

CG : I think he dealt with it fabulously.

LS : Yeah?

CG : Yeah, I do. I do. It’s ok, it’s ok. Alright we’re gonna take a break, we’re gonna let Liev compose himself...

LS : I’m only dating tall blond women.

CG : [laugh] What does your mother look like Liev?

LS : She’s short and brown-haired.

CG : Yeah, exactly. When we get back Liev is gonna tackle the Later list. We’ll see how he does with that.

 

CG : Hi we’re back with Liev Schreiber and we are going to talk about anything except his mom. Now it’s time for the Later list now let me explain it.

LS : What is the later list.

CG : I’m gonna throw some questions at you, it’s very Proust questionnaire

LS : Are there sex things...

CG : James Lipton and the Actors’s Studio.

LS : Oh James Lipton and the Actors’s Studio.

CG : Ok here we go.

LS : I’ve been dying to do that.

CG : I’m sure you will.

LS : Yeah.

CG : I’m sure you will. I’m sure you will. So now I’m speaking your language. Very free form association, whatever comes to your mind, shoot some answers back at me.

LS : Oh no.

CG : Ok?

LS : Oh no.

CG : Oh it’s easy!

LS : Gonna answer mom eight times in a row.

CG : [laughs] Ok. Well you can do that.

LS : I won’t, I’m gonna resist a reason to be dad.

CG : I’ll start with something easy.

LS : Ok what.

CG : How’s that. I’ll start with something easy. Um... who’s your hero?

LS : Mom. No. [host laughs] Umm... my hero, my grandfather, Alex.

CG : Alright... where were you the first time you had sex?

LS : In bed.

CG : [laugh] We’ll take that one. If you could ask the president one question what would you ask him?

LS : [seems to think it’s a very funny question] Um... one question... how come we don’t subside the arts more.

CG : Hmm. How would you define spirituality?

LS : Umm... a sense of self in relationship to the universe.

CG : What’s your favorite quality in people that you choose to be friends with?

LS : Humor.

CG : What’s your favorite quality in yourself?

[Moment of silence]

LS : Humor.

CG : You’re so adorable right now I have to tell you. [They laugh] At the end of the day when all is said and done what does Liev Schreiber want written on his tombstone?

LS : Umm... I dunno, that it mattered. That it mattered and I cared.

CG : See you hasted.

LS : I did?

CG : You hasted.

LS : I did really?

CG : Yeah.

LS : Oh good.

CG : We’ll be right back.

LS : I’m ready for James Lipton.

[Cynthia laughs]

 [The show resumes with Liev seen bouncing on the on the couch]

CG : Unfortunately you can’t see or hear the conversation that has been taking place between the commercial breaks but he’ll come back and do this show and then we’ll have the real stuff! Thanks for being with us.

LS : Thank you for having me.

CG : Oh it’s been a pleasure.

LS : It was fun.

CG : It’s been a pleasure. You can see Liev right now in Hamlet, it’s out in theatres. As always I’m Cynthia Garrett, I’ll catch you later.

Interview transcribed by Marie Paradis.