In the movie,Rush plays Judge Stefan Mortensen, the newest addition to a New Zealand retirement home.
John Lithgow Voiced Yoda, and Its All Thanks to Sesame Street
Impatient is he?
I am wearing my Stanley Kubrick T-shirt.
Image via Lucasfilm
For both of you, do you have a favorite Stanley Kubrick film?
JOHN LITHGOW:Dr. Strangelovefor me.
LITHGOW: He is amazing.
Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Are you a particular fan of Kubrick’s, Steven?
I am a huge fan of Kubrick.
But the proper answer for the best film is there is none because they’re all amazing.
Image via Shudder
RUSH: That’s correct.
LITHGOW: Yeah, theyre all amazing.
I’m not surprised you’re a big fan.
I think it’s because he didn’t overdo it.
He was very particular with what he directed.
Do you remember voicing Yoda?
Image via IFC Films
LITHGOW: Oh, yes.
And I got the role like that!
Now I am getting further.
Image by Jefferson Chacon
RUSH: kindly don’t go and do any Buckaroo Bonzai impersonations, okay?
LITHGOW: [Laughs] No, don’t get me started.
I appreciate you indulging me and demonstrating the voice.
Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow Both Began on Stage
I was instantly a campus star.
For both of you, everyone starts somewhere.
When did you both realize or think that you could pay your rent by just being an actor?
Image via IFC Films
RUSH: I started acting in plays in grade school.
I did comedy sketches.
I want you to do the news for three minutes.
I want you to do the weather for three minutes.
And, Geoffrey, you’re going to do the commercial.
I would do a parody of whatever was on, Heinz Meanz Beanz, or something like that.
Then, I went into high school.
I wasn’t a sporty guy at all.
I loved getting up into the library on Wednesday afternoons when the Sevens were playing the rugged Australian League.
Then, all of the teachers that nurtured us through these plays got married or went off.
They’re all female.
They’re all fantastic nurturers of people who wanted to do plays.
Then that went into a varsity period when I was at university.
There was a lot of theatrical activity on campus.
Then, I got seen by a director from a newly formed professional state theater company.
So, it sort of unfurled at a really glorious rate for me.
LITHGOW: I grew up in a theater family.
My father produced regional theater, mostly classical Shakespeare festivals in Ohio.
I didn’t want to be an actor.
I was in lots and lots of his plays.
But I was much more interested in being an artist.
I’d become a much more experienced actor than anybody else.
The handwriting is on the wall.
RUSH: I would love to have seen your Moth inLoves Labours Lost.
Did you do Moth?
LITHGOW: No, I didn’t play Moth, but I did play Mustardseed inA Midsummer Nights Dream.
RUSH: That’s a killer of a role.
LITHGOW: In fact, I did it in two different productions.
I played all the one-syllable rolesPinch, Froth…
LITHGOW: I finally moved up to Guildenstern and Hortensio.
Jumping into why I get to talk to you guys,The Rule of Jenny Pen.
I’m sure both of you read a lot of scripts.
What was it about this one that said, Yes, I need to make this?
RUSH: The scene on page three.
The scene on page three just grabbed me.
LITHGOW: Geoffrey was persuaded immediately.
I was scared to death of the script.
It scared me so much.
It seemed so extreme.
He spoke so beautifully about it, and he convinced me of his serious intent.
Clearly, he had a great intelligence and a very compassionate heart.
He had created this monstrous character of Dave Crealy.
[Laughs]
“John’s probably more of a Joan Crawford to my Bette Davis.”
The reason I wanted to watch it was the two of you, and you both do not disappoint.
You guys are fantastic together going against one another.
Geoffrey, everyone at the rest home has sort of given up on fighting Dave.
RUSH: That’s a very quintessential thought.
He said, I’m going to invite all my mentors when I started drama school.
All the older actors I worked with when I was 20, and that’s who we had.
They were such a bunch.
There were levels of eccentricity.
There was one great actress there called Jeanette MacDonald, and I went, NottheGinette McDonald?
He said, No,aGinette McDonald.
[Laughs] They were great anecdotalists.
We would all get together for cocktails at the end of the tougher days.
It was great to be around that again.
She’s second generation.
The physical therapists who deal with Judge Mortensen’s character are actual physical therapists.
He’s a compassionate man with a good heart and a wild sense of humor.
It was marvelous the way he really knew how to direct a film.
He’s fairly new to filmmaking, and yet he’s already a young master.
It’s a quest if you think of it in classical heroic terms of drama.
John, I do have to ask you an individual question.
Im a big Harry Potter fan, and I know that youre going to be playing Dumbledore.
I have to wonder, Im assuming youre gonna do like an English accent?
Like how have you, are you already starting to think about how youre gonna play the role?
LITHGOW: Not a lot, but hes certainly an Englishman.
In fact, theres a good deal of controversy that an American has been hired to play him.
Hes such an icon.
RUSH: Even us from the colonies down south never got a look in.
No one was allowed in.
LITHGOW: [Laughs] Im half-English, you know?
Ive just played Roald Dahl.
Ive played Winston Churchill.
Ill spend some time with a dialect coach.
Dont worry about that.
But no, Dumbledore couldnt possibly be anything other than English.
I just have to do my best.
The wonderful thing is I was welcomed by every English actor I worked with onThe Crown.
They had far more confidence in me and my Englishness than I did myself.
I love the idea of you playing the role.
I know this is a really big project for Max and HBO.
Were you excited to sign on to something that you could be playing for the next 710 years?
Is it something thats a little daunting?
What goes through your head when youre signing on to, honestly, a pretty iconic role like this?
LITHGOW: Its pretty scary, but its certainly not anything I would dream of saying no to.
Look, Im about to turn 80 next year.
Ill be 86 or 87 at the wrap party for this one.
Its a wonderful winding down role.
Thats how I see it.
I know that Ill be working at the very top of the food chain.
These are superb people.
I will be working among the best English-speaking actors in the world.
The talent pool right there in London is at their disposal.
Im really excited about it and revisiting Harry Potter in depth these days.
I just want to do it justice.
Do you know when you start filming?
Is it this summer?
Have they told you?
LITHGOW: I doGiant, the Roald Dahl play, right up until August 2.
John Lithgow is now reportedly attached to the upcoming series.
RUSH: It’s a good premise to state that.
LITHGOW: That’s true.
Neither of us have children.
We just have each other.
They’re respected in a great way.
I don’t know [about] many other cultures.
Of what I know of Japan, that’s also another culture that’s hardwired into family structure.
And it is important.
I thought, That’s really ancient.
There weren’t many.
RUSH: Yeah, the culture surrounds the film in the caretakers.
They were just elevated by music and ritual.
People spoke of their 5,000-year-old heritage.
Australia is only just to the left.
Their oceanic knowledge and geographic discoveries are phenomenal.
I’m fascinated by how actors get ready for that first day of filming.
LITHGOW: We had a wonderful luxury.
In other words, he circumnavigated.
James was in on it.
Geoffrey and I knew each other from before.
We had worked together before we were friends, and we were both equally excited about working on these.
Meantime, I was doing my teeth.
I was doing my eyes.
I was already anticipating my dialect coach.
So, I wanted to understand the orchestration of the storytelling in as much detail as possible.
We’ve both done Lear recently, and I spent months in learning preparation for that.
Lears not the biggest role in the world.
You know what I mean?
It’s 900 lines, I think.
It takes a long time now.
I have a great, long speech toward the end of the film.
I don’t think a spoiler alert is required, but I do talk for a long time.
I started learning that during the pre-shoot period, and it was a wonderful thing to have.
It was my way of getting to know Dave, really.
The Rule of Jenny Penopens in theaters on March 7.
Your Rating
Your comment has not been saved
Cast
Get Tickets
