Rod Steiger

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety nine, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:32

My castaway this week is an actor. His versatility is enormous, his devotion to his craft profound. He first came to international prominence in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront, an actor's film if ever there was one, and followed up this success with a long list of distinguished performances, most memorably in The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo.

Presenter0:53

Through a long career and four marriages he's known both great success and deep depression. But his love of his work has kept him going. If I was in a room with nothing but an automatic camera and the studio cat, he says, I'd worry that the cat was being entertained. He is Rod Steiger. So it it's a kind of fear, is it, that keeps you on your metal, uh a kind of fear of not doing the job properly.

Rod Steiger1:17

Well, the fear of failure is a very good source of energy.

Rod Steiger1:21

If you can conquer the terror, the fear of failure in any profession, it gives you more strength for your performance. I think the main thing in my case, it's a psychological thing. Of course, that word's worn out. But what I'm trying to say is my family was laughed at and joked about because of alcohol, my mother especially, and I had to go and get her out of pubs and stuff when I was about eight, nine years of age. And people laughed and said things, and the children were terrible.

Rod Steiger1:52

And I didn't realize until I got a Lifetime Achievement Award in Chicago. By the way, Lifetime Achievement Awards are saying it's nice to know you're on the way out.

Rod Steiger2:02

Anyway, I said, Well, I think one of the reasons I work so hard is I don't want anybody to laugh at the name of Steiger again. You want respect. That's it. That's a big thing with me because of the lack of respect for my family when I was a young child.

Presenter2:17

But it obviously goes back to the beginning of your career as well. It's always been there, because I know you've talked before now about fear when you were acting with Marlon Brandouin on the waterfront, in that scene that everybody remembers, the two of you sitting in the back of the cab.

Rod Steiger2:29

Well, that's a that uh that was an ordinary fear, the fear of failure, the fear of disappointing. I mean, mister Brando at that time I had just seen him in a streetcar named Desire, and he was magnificent. And uh

Rod Steiger2:44

Between your ego and yourself, you didn't want to disappoint them, but you wanted to keep up.

Presenter2:48

But there was a kind of chemistry between you therefore, wasn't there?

Rod Steiger2:50

Well, I think it's uh was best described by uh

Rod Steiger2:55

The director was Elia Kazan, whose I heard him say.

Rod Steiger3:00

This is like watching the two young bulls lock home.

Presenter3:05

But is that why it's such a memorable scene, do you think? Because it's not a good idea.

Rod Steiger3:08

Oh, I have no idea about that. I I am amazed about that scene because uh

Rod Steiger3:16

Well, first place, it wouldn't have come about

Rod Steiger3:19

If uh Sam Spiegel, the man at Purdue's waterfront, didn't try to cheat on the budget. What happened is when we came in to shoot it, Kazan was screaming at Spiegel, What are you doing? and Spiegel had the Russian acts of gadget, you have to understand it's only a small scene, doesn't it? He says, I can't move my camera to shoot through the side of the cab. It was a big closet.

Rod Steiger3:41

So he was forced to go in on the actors.

Rod Steiger3:44

and stay there. So if the actors weren't any good

Rod Steiger3:49

we're in a lot of trouble. And somehow that tension, the competition between myself and mister Brando on a healthy professional competitive level and also the confines

Rod Steiger4:02

It focused things, I think, for the audience much sharper than if he had done all over shot. How long did it take? Key to shoot.

Presenter4:08

Yeah.

Rod Steiger4:08

That's

Presenter4:08

It's what a four-minute scene, I would think, something like that is.

Rod Steiger4:11

Well, it's a peculiar sur it took about eleven hours.

Presenter4:14

Why did it take a while?

Rod Steiger4:14

Well, uh he started improvising.

Rod Steiger4:18

which is fine with me, because I do that all the time.

Rod Steiger4:22

And we both came from the same way of acting the actor's studio now.

Rod Steiger4:26

And uh

Rod Steiger4:28

We get in the first time for the first tick, and I'm a nervous wreck, but you don't look like it, of course,'cause you don't want anybody to know you're scared.

Rod Steiger4:35

And uh he said uh

Rod Steiger4:38

How's mom?

Rod Steiger4:40

And that's not in the script.

Rod Steiger4:41

But I figured well, he's looking for something. I said, She's fine, as far as I know. He said, I was worried about her.

Rod Steiger4:47

I said, what's wrong with you? You're talking about mother. You have a phone number. I have a phone number. You put 10 cents in the machine. You call up and say, hello, Ma, how are you? So we cut.

Rod Steiger4:57

And we start again, and he says to me

Rod Steiger5:01

What do you think of the Yankees?

Rod Steiger5:03

I said, What's wrong with you? The Yankees we come from Brooklyn, remember? Our father used to drag our rear ends to the Dodgers, and we used to see so many of the cheap hotcores we used to get sick and you're asking me about the Yankees? We're Dodger fans. Anyway, gradually we got through it. And the only thing I didn't like was acting is basically reacting. And they did the two shot, which means he and I together. Then they did him alone, me off camera. You act your nut off when you're off camera.

Presenter5:35

True.

Rod Steiger5:36

Go crazy just to help the other actor.

Speaker 35:36

Uh

Presenter5:36

Uh

Rod Steiger5:38

And when it came my turn, he wasn't there.

Presenter5:41

So you did it for him, but he didn't do it for you.

Rod Steiger5:42

She went home.

Presenter5:45

Tell me about your first record.

Rod Steiger5:46

Christopherson and helped me through the night. I know Christopherson is a friend of mine, my best friend.

Rod Steiger5:52

And uh

Rod Steiger5:55

Nothing is as frightening.

Rod Steiger6:01

Alone and psychologically not quite in command, you think.

Rod Steiger6:06

And you wake up

Rod Steiger6:08

In a strange room that you can't'identify quick enough because it's a hotel room, in some place you've never been, going somewhere you don't know what.

Rod Steiger6:18

That's what that song comes out.

Rod Steiger6:21

And one begins to evaluate themselves in the dark sometimes like that as being a failure or frightened. And and you get to a point where you're perspiring. I know this from my depression. And you know you're what you're really saying is whatever God you believe in, please.

Rod Steiger6:39

Just get me through to night, will you? Just get me through it, and I'll be all right to morrow morning.

Speaker 36:43

Come and lay down by my side.

Speaker 36:49

Till the early morning light

Speaker 36:55

All I'm taking is your time.

Speaker 37:01

Help me make it through the night.

Presenter7:07

Chris Christofferson and Helped Me Make It Through the Night. The film for which you might have won an Oscar but you didn't was of course the pawnbroker, Sol Nazerman, who survived a Nazi concentration camp and hadn't been able to look the world in the eye ever since. Do you think that was one of your best performances?

Rod Steiger7:24

I think that might be my best.

Rod Steiger7:26

I knew what isolation meant from my childhood and that.

Speaker 37:30

Hmm.

Rod Steiger7:31

And that to me was a f I cut one third of all my lines. And they said, What are you cutting? I said, Well, if I'm trying to hide for the world, I don't want to speak unless I have to because if you speak, people look to see who's talking.

Presenter7:45

But the most memorable scene, of course, the one that everybody remembers is when Naziman puts his hand on the bottom of the corner.

Rod Steiger7:52

where he flagellates himself out of guilt.

Presenter7:54

The pawnbroker's not a good idea.

Rod Steiger7:55

Yeah, that's what he's doing. He's punishing himself still. Well, that's a funny thing that happened because I was at home practicing. I had a thing I bought with a spike, and I'd press as far as I could go, so I got a sense of pain.

Presenter7:56

But you

Rod Steiger8:08

And I practised and I practised and I practised. I felt pretty good by it. And I came in, and there it was. The camera starts to roll, and I I start to press down, and all of a sudden my voice said, You jackass

Rod Steiger8:22

You never practice taking it off.

Rod Steiger8:26

I was so involved getting it right, putting it in, that way. And the only thing that saved me, I happen to remember, at times when you're in terrible pain, and that is uh oh, trying to hold your breath. So I went

Rod Steiger8:43

And when I finally took it off, I went to the

Rod Steiger8:49

Nobody knew what I was going through, you know.

Presenter8:51

What about Gillespie, the the redneck police chief in the heat of the night?

Rod Steiger8:56

Well, that's a different thing. That was Sidney Porchet was a friend of mine for many years before we did that.

Presenter9:02

He was the homicide detective in it who had a lot of money. Yes, he was the black detective. He was the.

Rod Steiger9:03

Yeah, he was the black guy, he was the detective, and we were friends long before we did the picture, so that kind of fell into the picture. But the real story of that picture is you have to think of two great gunfighters from the West. One is like Wyatt Earp, the other is Wild Bill Hickcock, and they meet.

Rod Steiger9:24

And of course, like good gunfighters, they're watching every b the each other's move and they're very aware of each other, and as their relationship goes on,

Rod Steiger9:34

Not what they say convinces them that the other one's really a man, but how they do things.

Rod Steiger9:42

And these two guys from different races are watching each other all of a sudden they're beginning to say, I don't care what his color is, this is a man.

Rod Steiger9:49

This is a man and Gillespie

Rod Steiger9:54

recognized that, and so also did Sidney's character.

Rod Steiger9:58

You're no

Presenter9:59

So mister Poitier was easier to um act with than mister Brando, was he?

Rod Steiger10:04

I would say he was more cooperative, yes.

Presenter10:07

A huge range, of course. I mean, we can't talk about all the parts that you've played.

Rod Steiger10:11

Why not? Why not? We have a long night, my darling.

Presenter10:12

Yeah.

Presenter10:14

But I mean, from the Jewish pawnbroker to the police chief to Mussolini to Rudolf Hess to W. C. Fields. But they're all.

Presenter10:22

Characters, you've never really been a romantic hero. I wonder if that has ever rankled with you, that you were.

Rod Steiger10:28

No, because if I wanted to be a romantic hero.

Rod Steiger10:33

I would have to give up my wine and my food. Let us face it, my dear, there is no role in the world.

Presenter10:36

Let it

Rod Steiger10:41

That fits a good dinner as far as I'm concerned.

Presenter10:43

Well, you say you'd have to lose weight to be the romantic hero, you mean?

Rod Steiger10:45

Oh, yeah, yeah. In first place, I wouldn't want to be a romantic leader. They're the dullest parts in the world, right?

Presenter10:53

Tell me about your second record.

Rod Steiger10:54

Sinatra I knew mister Sinatra I knew

Rod Steiger11:00

And

Rod Steiger11:02

Maybe'cause I delivered ice to pubs.

Rod Steiger11:05

And I used to sometimes come in the pub at four in the morning

Rod Steiger11:11

And there is a loneliness and a smell.

Rod Steiger11:15

That you'd rather not participate in.

Rod Steiger11:18

It's as if like the agony of everybody there left some kind of a scent behind.

Rod Steiger11:24

And also

Rod Steiger11:26

I have gone in and had that particular lonely drink.

Rod Steiger11:31

that I didn't want to have, but I didn't know what the hell else to do.

Rod Steiger11:36

And this song touches me for that and other reasons.

Speaker 311:41

So make it one for my baby

Speaker 311:45

One more for the room.

Speaker 311:50

Let long, long

Presenter12:04

Frank Sinatra and one for my baby. So, Rod Stager, your childhood, from everything you said about it, sounded pretty unhappy.

Rod Steiger12:12

Yeah, I guess so.

Presenter12:13

Fishing your mother out of pubs.

Rod Steiger12:15

Well yeah.

Presenter12:16

Yeah, all the rest of it.

Rod Steiger12:16

Well, she pulled herself out in the last eleven years of her life she joined Alcoholics Anonymous and sh you know, I learned to love her again, which at one time I didn't at all.

Presenter12:26

What about your father?

Rod Steiger12:27

Never known'em, I don't know, you know.

Presenter12:29

He went.

Rod Steiger12:29

He's probably long gone now.

Presenter12:32

What about school?

Rod Steiger12:34

Well, I went I had one year of high school.

Presenter12:37

One year.

Rod Steiger12:37

Yeah, and I was uh

Rod Steiger12:39

Living with some neighbors because I was kinda on my own on and off since I was about twelve.

Rod Steiger12:45

And I found my mother in a lousy, terrible rooming house and I made her actually physically forced her to sign a paper. I remember we both were crying to sign a paper that says I was seventeen so I could get in the Navy.

Presenter13:00

And you therefore must have seen action because this was what was going on.

Rod Steiger13:02

Oh yeah, but in in the Navy it's different. I was on destroyers, so I never went through the terror and all that of what an infantryman went through.

Presenter13:12

So you never saw the enemy, really? I mean, you know, no, I saw.

Rod Steiger13:15

No, I saw

Rod Steiger13:17

The only we sank a submarine.

Rod Steiger13:20

And uh the all I saw was all of a sudden the bow of the submarine came straight up, you know, like a big fish, and then just slid back down.

Presenter13:29

What about people or civilians? Did you ever

Rod Steiger13:31

Oh, well that was another thing. Yeah, we I was on the first with the first group, uh General Doolittle, when he attacked uh Tokyo. And as we approached there were these sandpans and there would be the children and the mother and the father.

Presenter13:31

Yeah.

Rod Steiger13:49

and we were ordered to shoot em and sink em.

Rod Steiger13:52

And you'd be firing a twenty millimeter at something about a hundred yards away.

Rod Steiger13:58

with children running and screaming and people jumping.

Rod Steiger14:01

Because they carried radios.

Rod Steiger14:05

And we had to get rid of the radios because the Japanese didn't know we were doing this.

Rod Steiger14:11

And I'll never forget that.

Rod Steiger14:14

There is not even an unmanly grief about there there seems to be an animalistic horror connected to that.

Presenter14:22

Tell me about your third record.

Rod Steiger14:24

This is Idith Piaf singing La Vienrose. I don't understand half the words she's singing, but her ability to put her emotions and herself personally in your heart is proven by such records.

Speaker 314:39

Does you keep all this?

Speaker 314:41

A real disappearance of one of the portraits of a tour

Speaker 314:48

Dol Marquel, la Palpia.

Presenter15:00

The voice la Vion

Presenter15:04

Edith Piaff and La Vie Henrose.

Presenter15:07

So out of the navy, into civilian life, you were twenty one. You hadn't thought seriously about being an actor before then, had you? So what what happened?

Rod Steiger15:15

No.

Rod Steiger15:17

Well, what happened? I went to work in civil service.

Rod Steiger15:20

And we noticed that all the attractive girls were busy on Thursday night. And somebody said, Well, that's because this was a building a whole block square with about eight thousand employees, civil service. They had organized a theater group.

Rod Steiger15:34

So, needless to say, we descended like vultures on the theater group because we wanted to get lucky with the girls. And the woman saw us coming through the door and was so relieved because they had no men. And I did one or two things, and she said to me, You know, I think her name was Palfrey, yes, Mrs. Poffrey said, You ought to take this serious. I said, You've got to be out of your mind. What do you mean? I mean, if I when I was a kid, if I washed the dishes or dried them and took out the garbage, I got ten cents. I went to see these golden people on the screen. But I never th

Rod Steiger16:05

Oh, she said you should I said I can't I said for well, she said you should study I said I don't have the money. And now I must take time to point out one of the most brilliant things the government ever did, if they ever do any.

Rod Steiger16:19

It was a GI Bill of Rights, which meant if you went

Rod Steiger16:22

After the war for four years, you could pick any school if you qualify.

Rod Steiger16:27

And go for four years. You went for three years, you go so I figured, what the hell, I might as well pretend I'm going to be an actor. It's better than working in civil service. And then within two months, I became fanatic. They used to call me the the the theatrical library'cause I had one of these cases that the pilots on the airplane carry on. And then it was the history of theater and the history of it was Bolosovsky, Stanislav, Ivektangov, Reinhold, all the stories and biographies of great people of the theater. And it became for me.

Rod Steiger16:58

And this is the accident that worked for me.

Rod Steiger17:01

I realize now

Rod Steiger17:04

An exciting avenue

Rod Steiger17:07

in which to pursue respect.

Presenter17:10

You mentioned Stanislavski and of course you took to what's become known as the method. I know you don't like the term, but how would you define it in the way that you have a message?

Rod Steiger17:20

Well, I defined it very simply. Up until about nineteen thirty five

Rod Steiger17:24

Or forty, the actor generally did what he thought the character would do.

Rod Steiger17:31

And he'd always talk about what was happening to the character.

Rod Steiger17:36

And came along this idea, they said, no, no, no, no.

Rod Steiger17:40

It says in the script his mother died.

Rod Steiger17:44

It's no longer his, it's your mother.

Rod Steiger17:47

Let's see what happened.

Rod Steiger17:49

Anyway, between the fifties and sixties the actors changed the acting of the world.

Rod Steiger17:54

Now, today acting is more personal. When I used to work, I used to get condemned in the beginning for overacting.

Rod Steiger18:02

Because I came in, my daughter was dead, and I broke down. I said, What do you want me to do? I tap dance.

Presenter18:08

Record number four.

Rod Steiger18:10

All right, the next record is that magnificent lady Judy Garland singing The Man That Got Away.

Presenter18:18

And why do you want that?

Rod Steiger18:20

Because I knew her, I liked her, she was a great artist, and when she's happy she sang better than anybody who ever sang.

Speaker 318:28

The night is bitter, the stars have lost their glitter, the winds grow colder, suddenly you're older, and all because of the man that got a world.

Presenter18:52

Judy Garland and the man that got away

Presenter18:55

Part of the method is also the development of the ability to improvise, which is fine, of course, when directors like it, like Sydney.

Rod Steiger19:03

Well, the ability to improvise depends upon everything. Let's forget about method, schmeth, anything else.

Presenter19:08

Uh

Rod Steiger19:08

I don't care if you use the Menostanoslavski, Poloslavsky, I don't care what you use, Radhashmata, Central School, Actors' Studio, if you don't have imagination and nobody can teach you that, forget it.

Presenter19:21

But it didn't happen like that with David Lean in Doctor Givago, did it?

Rod Steiger19:24

Uh well with David Lean.

Rod Steiger19:28

On the first day I made my mistake with him.

Rod Steiger19:31

We're shooting a scene where we're coming back from the ballroom, Julie Christie, a lovely, wonderful, talented lady, and my par uh, my character Kamarovsky. And we come around and we as we pass the camera,

Rod Steiger19:47

I'm supposed to suddenly kiss her and shock her.

Rod Steiger19:51

And we're coming on, we're doing it, and for some reason or other, Julie's anticipating it, it don't know it, anticipating it, and don't know it.

Rod Steiger20:00

Sure.

Rod Steiger20:01

I said Mr Lynn, could I talk to you for a moment?

Rod Steiger20:06

About what?

Rod Steiger20:08

Suitor.

Rod Steiger20:10

With the cigarette holder.

Rod Steiger20:12

I said I'd like to talk to you about Oh, the scene! Oh, you wanna discuss the scene, do you?

Rod Steiger20:17

Now don't forget he and Rabbit Bull had worked for three centuries on that.

Rod Steiger20:21

And they were slightly overprotective, right? I said, yes, could I too?

Rod Steiger20:27

I said, I said, Private. All right, of course. What is it? I said, Well, you see, we come around the corner.

Rod Steiger20:31

And we get to the camera, we kiss, and Julie knows that. So what if we come around the corner, put a little track on your camera, I'll kiss her, she'll think the scene is over, then I'll put my tongue down her throat about a yard and a half on, and you'll get what you want, right?

Rod Steiger20:48

We did it in one take.

Rod Steiger20:50

He never thanked me?

Rod Steiger20:52

He never forgave me.

Presenter20:55

But when it so, you know, when it works, it's wonderfully effective. Uh uh tell me about you in No Way to Treat a Lady, because I think that's one of your favorite films as well.

Rod Steiger21:02

Yeah, and I loved it because it was uh

Rod Steiger21:06

One of the few times, even though it was very black comedy, I got to do anything that was in any way comedic, you know.

Presenter21:11

Were you a homosexual hairdresser?

Rod Steiger21:14

I had this I was playing this homosexual hairdresser, and he had sold these wigs to these women, telling them they get him free if they win the contest, and they read the lines that small print it turns out they don't get anything, they still have to pay something. So they're throwing him out of their house and one of them shouts Homo

Rod Steiger21:34

And I said it takes one to get one.

Rod Steiger21:37

It takes one to know one. That would be better. It takes one to get one. I should have thought of that. Takes one to know one. They said cut print. And I said to the director, who was very nice, Jack Smite, I said, no, we're not going to do that. He said, what do you mean? I said, that's a cliche line. That line's been around for 50,000 years. So I go to dinner that night, and there's a guy who's very gay and a good friend of mine.

Rod Steiger22:02

And we used to kid each other. He said, Hi, darling, how are you? I said, I'm fine, sweetheart, how are you?

Rod Steiger22:08

Isa, you look like you're flying I said, don't talk flying to me, darling. You haven't touched ground in years. You've got your own squadron.

Rod Steiger22:17

And he says it doesn't mean you're a bad person.

Rod Steiger22:24

So everything stopped we got serious. I said Charlie he said what?

Rod Steiger22:29

What wine do you like? He says, What the hell are you talking? I said, Wa if you could have a case of wine.

Rod Steiger22:34

What wine could you have if you could have any? he said, like Audrey on forty nine. I got it for him.

Rod Steiger22:41

Now I come in the next day and they're waiting.

Rod Steiger22:43

And of course I'm playing games. I won't tell him. Jack, the pr come on, Rod Jack saying the director. I didn't know. I said, when I hit the doorknob, you just say homo. So I hit the doorknob, I go to turn it and he says homo. I says, well it doesn't mean you're a bad person. Well we we ruined the first four takes. I mean we n we had a finally the fifth take we could control ourselves. So you never know where something's coming from.

Presenter23:08

Record number five. Tell me about that.

Rod Steiger23:12

Send in the clowns.

Rod Steiger23:15

It has a sweet sadness that we all kind of feel at times.

Rod Steiger23:19

And who are we calling for? We're calling for ourselves.

Rod Steiger23:23

Send in the clowns. I am a clown. I know how that is. I've been there.

Speaker 323:28

Sandy.

Speaker 323:31

The club.

Speaker 323:45

Presented bleed.

Presenter23:54

Sarah Vaughan and the Count Basi Orchestra with Send in the Clowns.

Presenter23:58

Four marriages, Rod's Tiger, and the one of course we British know best was to Clare Bloom, with whom you had a daughter, Anna, who's an opera singer.

Rod Steiger24:05

That's true, yeah.

Presenter24:07

And now you have a son who's six.

Rod Steiger24:09

My son Michael is sixth, Joe.

Presenter24:10

Yeah.

Presenter24:11

He's from your fourth marriage.

Rod Steiger24:12

He's from Paula, Saigo, yo.

Presenter24:14

and that that marriage is now also over.

Rod Steiger24:17

Oh, it's over almost two years now, yeah.

Presenter24:19

Uh these things are very complicated, obviously and you can't sum them up easily, but how much do you blame the failures of your marriages on the need for you to be successful in the marriage?

Rod Steiger24:30

Oh, never, none of'em.

Rod Steiger24:33

None of them. When we were together, my family came with me wherever I worked,'cause I learned from watching my family what happens if you were separated too much. No, no, no. My career never had anything to do with any of them, thank God, you know. I think my last marriage, my wife, was thirty five years younger than I was.

Rod Steiger24:53

I had a uh

Rod Steiger24:55

clinical depression for eight and a half years which made

Rod Steiger24:59

A sexual life almost nonexistent.

Rod Steiger25:02

She began to approach forty. I think she got a little panicky. Was she still desirable? Was she wasn't? Meanwhile, I'm seventy, seventy one, seventy two.

Rod Steiger25:12

And uh

Rod Steiger25:14

That led to it. That's definitely the uh basis, I think.

Presenter25:19

And the depression went on that long, did it?

Rod Steiger25:21

Well, yeah. The problem with that was to find the right person to talk to and fight and find the uh the right chemical to adjust your chemical imbalance. See, there are various types of depression, but basically I categorize them, I'm not a medical expert, on what I call a social depression. You work for twenty years, you're going to get a pension, you come in at nineteen and a half years and they say you're fired.

Rod Steiger25:45

You could be depressed for a couple of months, you could be depressed for a year. But a chemical imbalance you can do nothing about.

Rod Steiger25:52

And I had a chemical balance, a clinical depression, and it just went on and on. Meanwhile I was looking for the right doctor and the right medicine. The right medicine means something I could take that would rebalance

Rod Steiger26:05

the incorrect balance that was making me depressed.

Presenter26:08

And how did because it became public knowledge, your depression, didn't it? How badly do you think it affected your career?

Rod Steiger26:14

Those years.

Rod Steiger26:17

Uh I don't know that phrase height of your powers, but those years when I might have been able to do some of my best work were gone. I never know, you know. I hardly worked at all.

Presenter26:28

And that's what that's the only thing that really

Rod Steiger26:28

And that's what that's the only thing that really bothers me.

Rod Steiger26:32

But then I know that the tomorrow can be a poison if you concentrate on it, so uh, you know, it's too late, there's nothing to do about it.

Presenter26:40

Record number six.

Rod Steiger26:41

Well, this man I think was one of the greatest lyricists and songwriters that ever Harry Nielsen that ever lived. And he has a looseness and a freedom and a poetic imagery in his lyrics which have always kind of astounded me and I always remembered him.

Speaker 326:56

She made perfume.

Speaker 326:59

In the back of her room Well me and my group Would sit out on the stoop And we'd play for her The songs she liked best to have us play

Speaker 327:16

On the

Presenter27:25

Harry Nielsen and Vine Street.

Presenter27:27

High profile careers are always picked over by people who analyze these things and moments are identified as being turning points or wrong moves.

Presenter27:36

What they say about you is you should have played Patton in nineteen sixty nine instead of George C. Scott, and that was a big mistake. Do you agree?

Rod Steiger27:43

What happened was I had just won the Academy Award and you know, whether we like it or not, the healthier you are mentally and physically, the stronger you are in anything, it means whatever.

Rod Steiger27:55

Crazy philosophy you be believing is very strong that day, that particular moment. So, what happened? I had won the award and I read Pat and I said, I'm not going to glorify war, I'm a pacifist, I'm not going I was a schmuck.

Rod Steiger28:09

I mean, it would have given me so much more power not to select what I want. See, that's the only thing.

Rod Steiger28:15

I ever was worried about.

Rod Steiger28:19

was to select or do what I really wanted and love, and I'm lucky I fell into acting.

Presenter28:24

But as you look back across your career now, are you satisfied with it? Are you pleased with it? Or are you tormented by the things that might have been?

Rod Steiger28:33

For a fellow who was kind of on his own in his early teens and grew up in Newark, New Jersey with one year of high school, I am fortunate that I fell into a profession that gives me the false sense of freedom my romantic mind wishes I had and at the same time makes me monetarily independent enough to do almost what I want, when I want, where I want. And as long as everybody respects that accomplishment, I'm a happy bunny.

Rod Steiger29:03

Next record.

Rod Steiger29:10

And these songs anybody hears em millions of people have never forgotten. And the highest form of reward an artist can get is when he gives you something becomes part of your brain, part of your life, part of your memory, therefore part of you.

Speaker 329:26

Not if you care for me Stay little Valentine Stay Each day is Valentine's Day

Presenter29:55

Ella Fitzgerald and my funny Valentine. This is some casting away time. This is when we send you away to this desert island.

Speaker 330:02

Yeah.

Rod Steiger30:02

Yeah.

Speaker 330:02

Yeah.

Presenter30:02

Do you think you'll survive? Are you as tough as you look, or will you crumple?

Rod Steiger30:06

I'm not tough.

Rod Steiger30:09

I'm not tough at all. I think one of the things that saves me is uh

Rod Steiger30:13

I, you know, I kind of bend with things.

Rod Steiger30:17

I think I could cope physically for a while, but mentally I would be very, very, very sceptical and worried about it.

Presenter30:26

And obviously you'd miss people. I mean, it's the first thing we all think about, cast away into that kind of solitude. But people apart, what do you think you would miss most about your existence?

Rod Steiger30:39

You'd miss understanding,'cause you wouldn't have anybody to understand it with.

Presenter30:43

Would you miss an audience? You like an audience, don't you?

Rod Steiger30:46

No, not that I mean, not when we come down to the nitty-gritty, no.

Rod Steiger30:51

No.

Rod Steiger30:53

I mean, I if if a multicolored parrot landed on my tree and didn't give me any respect, I'd be outside.

Presenter31:04

Tell me about your last record.

Rod Steiger31:06

This is green sleeve now.

Rod Steiger31:08

You know, s people say, well, they're all cliché.

Rod Steiger31:12

When something lasts as long as this does in any form of art it must have something to it.

Rod Steiger31:19

This song is soft.

Rod Steiger31:22

Soothing

Rod Steiger31:23

Sentimental

Rod Steiger31:25

and nostalgic and another thing.

Rod Steiger31:28

It captures your attention immediately.

Presenter32:26

Greensleeves, played by the Elizabethan Consort, directed by Dennis Nesbitt. Now, if you could only take one of those eight records with you, Rod Steiger, which one would you take?

Rod Steiger32:38

It's a toss-up between Garland and Vaughan. I think send in the clowns,'cause it's a softer presentation.

Presenter32:45

Sarah Vaughan, and send in the clowns.

Rod Steiger32:46

And send in the

Presenter32:48

You're also allowed a book. We've got the Bible and we've got the complete works of Shakespeare waiting for you on the beach. What other one book of your choice would you?

Rod Steiger32:56

Can I replace this?

Rod Steiger32:59

All right, I will take uh

Rod Steiger33:03

The Poetry Complete Poetry of E. E. Cummings.

Presenter33:08

Why?

Rod Steiger33:09

Because he's one of my favorite poets, because I've been writing poetry since I'm nine, and it's really my best and deepest love.

Rod Steiger33:16

And most personal to me, poetry is basically like music in a way and visional.

Rod Steiger33:23

and touches me all the time every time I hear it.

Presenter33:28

And what about a luxury? We allow you one luxury.

Rod Steiger33:30

A self-contained

Rod Steiger33:33

Eternal

Rod Steiger33:35

Electric fan

Presenter33:37

Rod Steiger, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Rod Steiger33:41

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 133:49

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio four.