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Later

Liev appeared again as a guest on NBC's Later with Cynthia Garrett on Wednesday, August 23, 2000. Following is the transcription of the interview. Video clips will follow. Thanks to Marie for the photos and to Cami for the transcript.

(More Pictures....Click Here)

Cynthia Garrett: Tonight on “Later” I am talking to Emmy nominated actor Liev Schreiber from HBO’s RKO 281 who truly became Orson Welles. Watch this: (an excerpt of RKO281 is shown)

(Opening credits for “Later”)

CG: Hello, what to applaud some more, you can applaud more, my cheap attempt to get some attention.

CG: Hello everyone and welcome to Later. Now you have seen my guest tonight in praise worthy films like “Hamlet” and the “Hurricane” but now he is getting some praise of his won by winning an Emmy nomination for his role in HBO’s RKO 281. First take a look at his work and then I will tell you how fabulous he is as a friend.

(Another scene from RKO281 is shown)

CG: He’s a fantastic actor, a wonderful friend, and this is his second time back to this show. Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome back to “Later” Liev Schreiber.

(Applause)

CG: What’s this thanks for having me again...

Liev Schreiber: Well, you know, I thought that maybe I blew it last time.

CG: No you didn’t blow it last time.

LS: In fact I am on a real set now and this is what I recognize from watching the show.

CG: Yes, this is the real set but you know what, in the Fall it’s going to be a new and improved set.

LS: What’s going to happen?

CG: It’s going to get you know Gucci-ized

LS: Really?

SG: ...and fabulized

LS: What are you doing with these chairs?

CG: Well, these chairs, we were going to give them to you.

LS: That’s cool.

CG: That’s cool.

CG: You like the blue?

LC: Yeah

CG: It will go in your apartment in New York?

LS: Very tie dyed.

CG: Very tie-dyed, yes.

CG: Congratulations honey!

LS: Thank you.

CG: An Emmy nomination.

LS, Yea, it’s exciting.

CG: IS your life changing?

LS: No, No, I was sorta hoping that it would but it hasn’t really.

LS: Um, you know I had the Golden Globe nomination and I was up and there was all of these incredible actors in my category. Again they are the same incredible actors in my category for the Emmy’s so it’s terrific to be selected, nominated enough, but I think that it’s pretty slim chances with those guys that I will win in that school.

CG: Well

LS: They have been doing it longer and they and you know

CG Well you are very diplomatic but you just might get surprised, okay.

CG: So talk to the audience a little bit about playing Orson Welles.It’s kinda of interesting because we all, you know, sort of we all kinda of know him, so does that present any challenges when you are playing someone who is such an enigma in the American psyche.

LS: Yea, it was really nerve wracking for me because not only did I know him, but I was a huge fan, but I am still a huge fan. Hmmm and the idea of playing a character like that who you admire so much and is so enginimatic and so many other people admire so much it’s really scary, because you feel like if you screw that one up, then you are in big trouble. You get nervous with these sorts of bio pictures because you are afraid of representing the character in the wrong way. I mean part of what we do in films is to tell dramatic stories and the medium of a two hour film is not necessarily able to encapsulate the life of someone as interesting as Orson Welles was, and to be responsible for that was really nerve wracking, but I had a great director and a great production team, and I think that if there is any place to do that kind of work right know I think it’s HBO, and I just love the way that they work.. I love the people that are there and just the whole system. They are really sort of progressive and it’s like making a feature and they really treat it like a feature and then it goes on HBO.

CG: So have you seen Citizen Kane?

LS: I had, about 4 times.

CG: Yeah

LS: and then once we started to shoot the film I saw it about four or five more because there are actual scenes that we were duplicating in our film and I had to sorta of watch those to kinda get a feel for what he was doing acting wise.

LS: It’s just such a remarkable film, Kane, and it’s such a great story. There is a wonderful documentary that inspired Ridley Scott to make the film and it’s called “The Battle Over the Making of Citizen Kane” and it’s sorta of about the parallels between Hearst and Welles which were two guys who were going head up against each other and it was a very interesting perspective to see that they actually had a tremendous amout in common and I think that’s what interested me about Orson. Was somebody who is both ambitious as an artist and tremendously ambitious as a person and who is really looking for his place in the world and looking for appreciation.

CG: Well that’s an interesting comment. Do you have, umm, do you have that sorta same kind of ambition to find your place in the world.

LS: Yeah, I think that we all do.

CG: We all do.

LS: I think that maybe Orson felt everything a little more intensely than everybody else so his is obviously amplified.

CG: The last time that I saw you we went to like a fund raiser or something for the Joseph Papp Public Theater.

LS: Oh, Yeah, that’s right.

CG: Yea, and then you left to go off to make your next movie.

LS: Yea, I just came back from Amsterdam. I was there for two months doing a movie called which is know titled “Dial 9” (but that may change) with Jean Tripplehorn and it was a very interesting script written by a Dutch guy about an American couple that lives in Amsterdam and the husband is a cheat.

LS: You know the Europeans have this very interesting perspective on relationships that I don’t know, I shouldn’t generalize all Europeans but they seem to me to be a little bit more open about talking about sex.

CG: Right, are they more open about talking about sex or are they more open about the fact that men cheat and it’s cool.

LS: Okay, your right their more open…in France they say a couple is three and so you figure that they could shed a little light on this and they did in this script. It’s very interesting and what I think is interesting about that perspective is okay men cheat and they do because that gets the cheating out of the way of being the issue and then the issue becomes well why do they cheat.

CG: Right

LS: and that’s what the film was going after and it was going after that for both characters and then I think that the answer that the writing was working toward and the film was working toward is that we cheat because of something in ourselves not something in our partner.

CG: Absolutely

LS: Something I am working on and something that I am sure that a lot of us are working on is that when you can really live with yourself and your comfortable with yourself then you can begin to start thinking about a relationship and until you have kinda of done that work relationships can go awry pretty easily.

CG: Yea, you are just taking someone else on your journey.

LS: Right

CG: Before your journey is completed.

LS: and your journey might not be a very healthy one

CG: Yes, okay we will talk a little more about that but I see the commercial sign and that means that we have to take a commercial break and we will be right back in a minute.

(A clip from the movie RKO 281 is shown)

(a clip from “Mixed Nuts is shown – dance scene between Steve Martin and Liev)

CG: Welcome back to “Later” I am here with Liev Schreiber. Your cute as a girl.

LS: Why did you show that?

SG: Oh they found it and it was...

LS: What does that have to do with Orson Welles and my serious acting career?

SG: I know and you are so macho as Orson Welles.

LS: Oh, I was so hideous. That was like Nora Ephron’s joke. It’s funny to get a really big man that will make a really ugly woman.

CG: I think that you made a good-looking woman.

LS: Oh I was hideous.

CG: No you weren’t.

LS: I cant’ believe that you did that to me.

SG: (to the audience) Don’t you think he was cute, I think that he was cute.

SG: It’s true.

LS: As the applause sign is flashing madly.

SG: We were kinda talking at the commercial break and the first time the Liev came on the show was when we were doing some shows in New York and you were kinda of a talk show virgin and I took your cherry.

LS: I still feel like a talk show virgin.

SG: You do?

LS: A little bit.

SG: Why you are doing really great with it.

LS: Oh, thanks.

SG: Your becoming, your becoming a celebrity.

LS: I like the ones where there are people here that makes you feel better, it makes you feel better, it makes you feel like you are not alone.

CG: Yes, I know.

LS: If anything really bad happens it happens to them to.

CG: Yes, you mean like that clip.

LS: Well like if a plane comes through there or something or they show your first movie and your dressed in drag and you’re waxed from head to toe.

CG: You were so cute, you know after that clip I am supposed to ask you what is it that attracts you to a roll.

LC: In that case it was the free waxing.

CG: That’s always good.

LS: I always wanted an excuse to wax myself from head to toe and you know and if there is a movie then I can say well I had to get waxed.

SG: Did you like the feel of your body smooth?

LS: It was the most unpleasant thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. I went to a very famous, because Nora Ephron is a very famous New Yorker, and she is very good with all of the beauty things and she sent me to the most prestigious beauty salon in New York. Of course there are eight super models sitting right outside of the room which I am being waxed by a rather angry Persian woman. And I am actually a very hairy guy and I have got hair in places where one shouldn’t have hair and all of this hair just had to go. And I don’t know if any of you, and I am sure that some of you ladies out there have been waxed, but I don’t know if any of you men out there who are as hairy as me have had to be waxed, but it really is just bloody awful, and it is the most painful thing. I screamed every time she would pull it off and I think collectively with all of the hair on my body she must have pulled about 147 tugs of this thing off of my body

CG: Oh, that’s painful.

LS: and I screamed at every one and at about the last 13 I was weeping and I walked out into this waiting room where these super models were and I wanted to tell them that I am in a movie that is why I am waxing you know, I am going to be a film star that is why I am here . But I couldn’t say anything and I walked out and there were tears streaming down my cheeks and all of these super models were laughing.

CG: There you are in what could have been a major New York guy’s moment with like Naomi Campbell, Giselle, and Kate Moss and you walk out of the room completely hairless and crying.

LS: Red and hairless and crying.

CG: That’s beautiful.

LS: That’s what attracts me to roles, that sorta of thing, yeah

CG: There you have it the deep stuff.

CG: You know something I do actually want to back up a little bit because we were having an interesting conversation on the phone over the weekend because when Liev got in he called and left this cute message and basically said “They tortured you into putting me on the show again” which it’s never torture. You said something funny like that and we feel honored that you are hear.

LS: Thank You.

SG: Your welcome. Were friends we can always shamelessly plug and promote

LS: That’s what I am doing, I am shamelessly plugging you.

SC: There you go I am shamelessly promoting you but you said something about the movie that you just finished and we were kinda of talking about it a little bit before the break and let’s elaborate on the concept of cheating and infidelity in relationships because . (Liev takes a sip of coffee and makes a face) Oh, Liev that face, I am interested in understanding at this point in my life what the hell is wrong with men basically and so since you are my friend and you’re a guy and maybe you could help me work through this issue because my therapist isn’t making any headway.

LS: You know I am just as interesting as you as to what the hell is wrong with men. Umm. My theory is that it’s the same thing that is wrong with women it’s just that it manifest itself differently because of some chemistry.

CG: Right.

LS: Umm. But I think what was so interesting about that movie and what was so interesting about are conversation is not dealing with infidelity but trying to go back a little further and thinking about dealing with loneliness. Because, I think, infidelity is a result of a deep kind of loneliness that is very hard for people to access and so kinda of a way that they access it is by reaching out to other people to give them a sense of themselves and a feeling of love or a sense of their own value, and when you are reaching for that outside of yourself rather then from inside yourself then I think that’s it’s very hard to satisfy. I think, you know, umm, there is all this stuff people have been talking about since the real onset of the women’s movement that men’s character has had to adjust, you know you got these Robert Bly books and Iron John books and all the guys banging drums and hitting shoulders, but there is something true in the fact that the male identity, and particularly the male sexual identity seems to has been ask to recede a little bit, and yet this is a country that I think that market sexuality in a big way. So showing men all of these sexual images but then saying you shouldn’t really do it. We want you to buy it but don’t do it. And so it’s very easy to fall into those traps of how can I get something for myself without really getting something for myself which I think is what cheating really is and that’s what sex is sorta of a band aid for. That’s was the hypothesis for this movie that I sort of rant on as if it were my own. But I think that it is true and I think that it’s a covering of loneliness.

SC: Well, it’s interesting because then that means that no matter what awards or accolades that you possibly ever win in life that’s not going to satisfy you. Let’s talk about you, you went to Yale you have had an incredibly overachievers life in a lot of ways.

LS: Yea, but if I won an Emmy I really think that I could really find the perfect girlfriend

SG: I love it. Did you hear that Emmy committee he needs an Emmy. Okay so we do have to take a commercial break and then we are going to take a shot at the later list but I will tell you that in my dating life in the last 6 months since last we meant I have dated a number of actors and you are crazy all of you.

LS: No, it’s not true.

CG: Yes, you are.

LS: No, It’s not true.

CG: You are all out of your mind.

LS: No, No, it’s not true. Please no not on national television.

CG: It’s true.

LS: It’s not true.

CG: You deserve an Emmy for God’s sake.

LS: Go to commercial please.

CG: Okay we go to commercial please. We will be right back with Liev Schreiber and the “Later” list. Don’t go away.

CG: Okay, welcome back to “Later”, okay you know the drill it’s time for the later list. You’ve done this before so you know how to play.

LS: I didn’t do so good last time I am glad that you’re giving me a second chance.

CG: You did fantastic last time.

LS: I did?

CG: Yes, you did.

LS: Ask me the same questions then.

CG: Okay, well see if you get better. All right so let’s see we’ll grab a couple from the later list here.

CG: What’s the strangest thing that you’ve ever done to impress a woman?

LS: These aren’t the same questions as last time.

CG: now Liev we have to ask a question

LS: The strangest thing that I ever did to impress a woman? I think act.

CG: Ah

LS: I think act.

CG: Is that the first time that you ever got attention from a girl was acting?

LS: Yea, it wasn’t until I acted. In high school I did “A Midsummer Nights Dream”. I played Nick Bottom whose as many of you may know is magically transformed by the fairy queen into a man with the head of a jackass, and I was good at that and I impressed Lita Moore who I kinda of had crush on.

CG: Ah

LS: That’s about the strangest thing that I have ever done.

CG: That’s a sweet story.

LS: That I can talk about

CG: That you talk about.

CG: If you could have any other name what would it be?

LS: Ah, you know what when I first started they wanted me to change my name. Because they thought that it was too ethnic you know. That was an acting thing, your afraid, well people are going to think that you are Jewish. I am half Jewish. Well I said I am Jewish. Well why should I change me name to something that’s not Jewish. Because as an actor particularly in film you tend to express things within you range of experience. Theater is different. But to me that is a part of my experience and it is a part of who I am and I am very proud of it so I don’t think that I would ever change it.

CG: Okay, not even to W. Hortese.

LS: That I hadn’t thought of. That I hadn’t thought of. But then the whole waxing thing has come back and I’m not prepared for that.

CG: Okay, well let your dates do the waxing.

LS: Okay

CG: After you win the Emmy they are really going to wax. We have to take another break we’ll be right back.. Don’t go away.

CG: Welcome back, Welcome back, I would like to thank my quest tonight Liev Schreiber. Because I love you.

LS: Thank You.

SC: You're Fantastic

CG: You can catch Liev at the Emmy awards Sunday night September 10^th. Look okay frankly this is what I have to say to whoever hands out these awards if he leaves empty handed you have me to deal with. Not that that is anything but in case it is, I’m Cynthia Garrett I gotta go and I have made a fool out of myself and him. I’ll catch you later.

Interview transcribed by Cami Lipman.

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