Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor who starred in Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, won an Oscar for The Goodbye Girl, and later made a comeback in Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
Itzhak Perlman, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim
All of the things that I had heard about through various people all of my life, in my involvement with classical music, in my family's or in friendship which had never penetrated me before. All All came clear that night.
When I hear ragtime played slowly, I cry, when I hear ragtime played quickly, I smile.
I used to think I was the only person in the country who knew this song. I have since been proven wrong.
I heard this song when I was nineteen or eighteen. And I wept. And I s and I it speaks to everything in me. I love history. And I love America. And And this is a mythology about those two things.
Why Don't We Do It in the Road?
The reality is, if I went to a desert island, I would take oodles of Beatles. But if I wanted to choose one as a kind of signal, I would say the White Album...
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Prelude)
I've always thought that the Ghost in Mrs. Muir's music was the most romantic, the most mysterious and romantic score I'd ever heard.
I taught these songs to my children. And to listen to my family singing is a price it's completely priceless.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral' (4th Movement: Thunderstorm)
New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
I could no more take one Beethoven than I could shake a stick in the face. So this is a stand-in for all of the symphonies of Beethoven, which do me very nicely, thank you.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:22Why was it so special to be on the British stage now you've turned fifty?
I grew up with a fantasy about doing the theatre in the West End. having that experience. You know, come in, say hello to the stage door guy and go to your dressing room, which John Gilgood was in, and and do this thing, have this experience. And I must say, every time I come to the theater, And I walk in to the backstage area and see my name on the dressing-room. I want to go out and come back in again.
Presenter asks
6:25Did you actually go down in the cage to fight the great white shark in Jaws?
I did part of it. I was lowered down, certainly. Then they quickly replaced me with an idiot who r really wanted to be there with the shark, which I said no to.
Presenter asks
7:25Why did you want to be in Close Encounters so much?
Because I thought of it as a truly noble endeavour. And and at the time it was Really the first. Film ever to say looking up and at the stars and seeing something. is not necessarily a frightening experience. It's not something to be feared. It's not something that can provoke terror. It could be friendly and loving and amiable, which is a lea huge leap in the culture to get to that point.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Books delivered on a regular basis
I want books delivered to the island on a regular basis.
Presenter asks
11:12How did you know from very early on that you wanted to be an actor?
Well, I don't know. I I've never been able to answer the real beginnings of this. I just knew when I was nine that that's what I wanted to be and I started doing it.
Presenter asks
12:53Do you regret not having formal training?
I don't feel that way about Shakespeare. About Shakespeare if someone walked up to me and said, God, you do that better than anyone I've ever heard, I would say, Thank you. I I know that. And if someone walked up to me and said, You should never do Shakespeare, that's really a bad thing you're doing, I would say, You're right, I'm leaving. Goodbye. I I don't have the same feeling of n knowledge and security. in the classics and in like that. And I would have liked that.
Presenter asks
21:59Why did waking up underneath your car after the accident in 1982 end your drug taking?
I woke up underneath the car. I I had blacked out. I don't remember the The actual impact. And I knew you know, there's a moment in everyone's life, many of them, That moment when you sprain your ankle. You know, or you walk outside and the door closes and you realize you've left the keys inside. And you just for a second think, oh, if I could just go back one second, and I'll be okay. When I When I woke up underneath that car. I knew there was no going back. I knew my life was irreparably changed.
“My relationship with my work was probably more important than any relationship I might have had with any people.”
“I've been a prince for a long time. I was a prince even before I was famous, but then certainly after that, you know, I s I spent a long time being a prince. And I am reflexively. Selfish and insensitive and thoughtless.”
“I was a film star. I was famous. I was rich. And what else do you got? And I still was shy, I still felt like an outsider.”
“Ever since I was a little boy, I've every time there was a shooting star or Or a candle to be blown out, or something. I've and someone says make a wish. I've always wished for the same thing. Even when I was a little boy, eight, seven. Inner SERENITY I don't ha I I don't believe it will ever happen, but that's what I always wish for.”