Harvey Brownstone Interviews Renowned Actor, Michael Nouri

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're excited to announce the upcoming release of Harvey's Memoir, without prejudice my life as a gay judge on May 26th, 2026.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can pre-order the book on Amazon or wherever you buy books.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and even more exciting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A Hollywood feature film starring David Arquette, Rob Maze, David Mazuz, Joe Lando, Rachelle Fave, and directed by the St. Purb Shane Stanley, revealing Harvey's riveting story of going from social outcast to Candle's first openly gay judge.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then reinventing himself as a celebrity interviewer, will be released in the fall of 2026.
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[SPEAKER_00]: More to come as we get closer to the release date,
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[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, everyone.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Harvey Brownstone, and today's guest is a renowned actor who's brought us dozens of memorable performances in a prodigious career spanning almost six decades on the big screen.
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[SPEAKER_02]: He's appeared in numerous blockbuster movies, including flash dance, the image maker, finding forester, the terminal.
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[SPEAKER_02]: point in beach club last holiday, invincible, the proposal.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, the popular cult film, The Hidden, which earned him numerous prestigious film Festival Awards.
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[SPEAKER_02]: On television, we remember him as Tom Conway in Somerset, Count Dracula in the Curse of Dracula,
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[SPEAKER_02]: Elliott Hampton in the Young and the Restless Dr. Neil Roberts in the O.C.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Phil Gray in damages Caleb Cortland in all my children Bob Schwartz in Yellowstone and believe me on just scratching the surface.
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[SPEAKER_02]: He's appeared in dozens of iconic TV series including Law and Order, touched by an angel, the West Wing, Star Trek Enterprise, CSI New York,
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[SPEAKER_02]: law and order criminal intent, and CIS, the slap, and most recently, he can be seen in the current season of everybody's favorite new TV show, The Pit.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And for his performance as Steve Caslow in search for tomorrow, he received an Emmy nomination for outstanding actor in a daytime drama series.
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[SPEAKER_02]: He's also appeared in some great TV movies and many series, including the
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[SPEAKER_02]: Quiet victory, the Charlie Weedermir story, shattered dreams, two rich, the secret life of Doris Duke, the assassination of Gianni Versace and many more, and he's had an illustrious stage career as well.
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[SPEAKER_02]: On Broadway, he appeared in 40 carrots, opposite Julie Harris, and he co-starred in Victor Victoria alongside Julie Andrews, and he also co-starred in the National Touring
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[SPEAKER_02]: His other stage credits include Can Can, Opposite Paddy La Pone, and Camille Quadel with Linda Eder.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And beyond all of that, our guest has a long record of community service.
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[SPEAKER_02]: He's an ambassador for seeds of peace and the multiple sclerosis society and the national summit to advance education about Africa.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And for many years, he's found time to mentor inner city youth who want to become actors.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm delighted and honored to welcome Michael Nuri to our show.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Michael, thank you so much for being here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey, thank you so much for that lovely, lovely introduction.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It makes me say, wow, I think, wow.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've been around for a while, haven't I?
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[SPEAKER_02]: You sure have, and like I said, I was only scratching the surface.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Now, Michael, you don't come from a theatrical family, and I read that your father wanted you to work with him in the insurance business.
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[SPEAKER_02]: How did your parents react to your decision to pursue acting?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, my mom Harvey was all for it, because she worked in amateur theater.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She was a wonderful actor.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My dad, on the other hand, was a businessman.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He was very poetic in his sensibility, but he turned his life into the direction of business and life insurance in order to support his family, three kids.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He was very,
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[SPEAKER_01]: the voted to his family and to providing the best educations for his three kids.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He was very practical.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted what was best for all three of us.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And being the eldest of three, he really wanted me to move into his business, his life insurance agency.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to groom me to take over his business, which would have been lucrative, stable, and boring.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you Harvey, thank you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was looking for that word.
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[SPEAKER_02]: My U were only 23 years old, Michael, and you were already appearing on Broadway in 40 carrots with Julie Harris, and over the course of the run of that show, she was replaced by Jaja Gabor, June Allison, and Joan Fontaine.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Did you get to work with all of those women?
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[SPEAKER_01]: not with Joan Fontaine.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember Joan Fontaine being part of that mix, but the others, yes, I work with.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Also, I want to mention that that is what I first met Lillia Schala, who played Julie Harris's mom, and Nancy Marshawn, the wonderful Nancy Marshawn, and Lillia Schala, they were both harbing my
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[SPEAKER_01]: people ask me who I studied with, what teachers I've studied with, and I have to say my greatest teachers have been the actors that I've worked with.
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[SPEAKER_01]: By count among them, Lilia Skala, Nancy Marshan, Julie Harris, Julie Andrews,
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[SPEAKER_01]: Sean Connery many years later, Al Pacino on the occasion that he has invited me to do table readings with him.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I have worked with legendary acting teachers, such as Lee Strasburg and Stella Adler, but my greatest teachers have been my fellow actors.
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[SPEAKER_02]: what a list of mentors.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And not only that in 1977, you were in a TV movie called Contract on Sherry Street starring Frank Sinatra.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Did you get to know him at all?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I did.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I became very fond of Mr. Sinatra during the course of that project,
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[SPEAKER_01]: the day before we were just start shooting in New York City downtown and little Italy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I asked her if I might invite my mom, Gloria, to the set to meet one of her childhood heroes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She was a Bobby Soxer winner.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She was in her teens.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So Renee said, yes, absolutely.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Bring your mom to this set.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure the prank would be delighted to meet her.
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[SPEAKER_01]: My mom was
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[SPEAKER_01]: She made Grinola, and she called it Graniola.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So she made a jar of Graniola, and with a message on the top of the jar, saying for Francis Albert, with love from Grandma Gloria.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There she was.
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[SPEAKER_01]: On the set, with Frank Sinatra, I said, Mr. Sinatra, this is my mom, Gloria, without missing a beat, he gave her a big hug, and he said, what a joy to meet you, Gloria.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She'd better emotional, and she said, I'd like to give you something that I made for you, and it's my granola.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you enjoy it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And he chuckled, and he said, Gloria,
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[SPEAKER_01]: I have to tell you that in my many, many decades of performing and meeting hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of people, fans and receiving countless numbers of gifts from people, I have never, ever been given a jar of granola.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I wonder if he ate it.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We will never know what a nice man to do that, though.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what a sweetheart.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And one of the things about you, I think you're just fearless in the roles you've taken on.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Right from the beginning, I remember in 1979, you played Count Dracula in the curse of Dracula.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Was it scary knowing that everybody would be comparing you to Bella Legosi?
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, I think it was more scary to be compared to Franklin Jella, who is one of my
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[SPEAKER_01]: acting heroes who was playing Dracula on Broadway at the time, the most daunting part about playing Dracula was that we filmed only at night.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I went from being thrilled to get this series and then I looked at the call sheet and I realized report to set at 5 p.m. and we would wrap it 5 a.m. other than that it was a wonderful experience.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's a small price to pay to get to play directed, I think.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Even though you did a lot of TV in the first 10 or 12 years of your career, I think the movie that really made you an international movie star was Flash Dance in 1983, and I'm wondering if you could tell when you were making that movie, did you know, did you have a sense that it would become such a phenomenal success?
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[SPEAKER_01]: That is the question that I am most frequently asked, and the answer is, no, none of us had any idea.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was a studio movie for Paramount, but it really had the budget of an independent movie.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We had a little known director, Adrian Lyne, who had done a movie called Little Foxes before an unknown actress named Jennifer Beals.
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, we did not know.
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[SPEAKER_01]: we had no idea at all.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The success that it was going to enjoy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I read this script.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I had the enviable dilemma of having to choose between flash dance and the movie that was being directed by Sam Peck and Paul, who was one of my idols.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Sam flew me out to California from New York, where I was doing an off-off Broadway play for, I don't know, 200 bucks a week.
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[SPEAKER_01]: To meet with him, and I met with him at his,
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[SPEAKER_01]: office on 20th Century Fox.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He said, you don't need to audition for me or read for me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love you to do this part in my movie if you would like to.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was blown away.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I thought, well, absolutely.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That afternoon, my agent sent me a script with the
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[SPEAKER_01]: In the magnetic title across the title page flash dance read this Michael, we need to get back to them for a meeting tomorrow Friday.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If you're interested, I read it that night.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I liked it a lot.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I liked it better than the Peck and Pa script.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I went to meet with Adrian Line at Paramount Studios.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Adrian said, I'd like you to be in my movie.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I had to choose between Peck and Pa and flash dance.
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[SPEAKER_01]: an iconic director, an unknown director, and I just went with my gut.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to story your flash dance, and the rest of history.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Did you ever get to work with Sam Peckin' Pa after that?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I wish I had, he died within a couple of years after that, but I had the opportunity to tell them that he was one of my heroes.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think you made the right choice.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I think the whole world feels that way.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But I've heard you say in other interviews, Michael, that despite the huge success of Flash Dance, you didn't get a lot of great movie offers after that film.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So you went back to doing television.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Was that a bit of a disappointment?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there was a disappointment, yes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But the fact is that I was...
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[SPEAKER_01]: offered a wonderful big starring role in a movie called C trial that Billy Freedkin was going to direct at 20th Century Fox.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And that was to have followed flash dance.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What happened was that Fox studios went into what they called turnaround ownership leadership.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I think Barry
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[SPEAKER_01]: And as is the case when there is a turnaround, a lot of projects get shelved.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And C Wolf or C trial was one of those projects.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So the momentum that was generated by flash dance was lost in that turnaround.
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[SPEAKER_01]: At that time, I was in Japan.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was in Tokyo doing press for flash dance.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We learned that C trial was not going to happen.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I got a call from my agent saying, I want to introduce you to Stephen Batchko, who wants you to star in his new series called Bay City Blues, which is about a baseball team.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I said, great, I'd love to talk to them.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I did, he hired me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and that was my segue into out of doing flash dance and the promise of another feature film into doing, into working with a pre-eminent television producer, creator, who was at the top of the game at that time.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it was very fortuitous.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It certainly led to a lot of work.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's interesting to me that flash dance was something you didn't anticipate would be so big.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And when I look at your body of work, I would say that the hidden, your 1987 sci-fi movie, The Hidden, is another one of those movies where I think it turned out to be more successful than anybody would have thought.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, there you are playing a detective, hunting and alien.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Are you surprised the movies become such a cult classic?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Not really, am I wait a minute, let me think about that for a second.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm delighted that it has become such a cult iconic movie.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I am not really surprised because it had no.
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[SPEAKER_01]: all of the elements of a successful, long-legged hit show.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I love that show.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of my favorite movies, one of my favorite projects that I've ever worked on.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I had the wonderful opportunity to work with my friend Kyle McLaughlin.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We were both waiting to go into meet Jack Scholder and the producers and we were in the outside room.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we said to each other,
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'll do this if you do it when he said I'll do it if you do it and we walk in together and said we'll do it and that's how that came about.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I think that movie is so successful partially because of the use of humor.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Don't you think?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Now, when I look at your long list of credits on IMDB, Michael, I think it might be easy for some people to assume that because of the volume of work you've done, that you haven't had to deal with a lot of rejection, but you have had your share of rejection and disappointments, haven't you?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Oreo.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Those don't show up in the resume, but they are there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There is a very, very long list of best opportunities or I will call them rejections.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Things that just didn't come to fruition.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Disappointments, many, many disappointments.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But I am forever grateful for the ones that did come to fruition.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Did you have a kind of a philosophy or a mindset
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I've been meditating for 15, 54 years and I owe meditation to the any kind of equanimity I have any sense of perspective that I have.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I have a wonderful teacher who I've been with for all of those all of that time, who has been a source of great wisdom and common sense.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I have many spiritual teachers, I a long list of wonderful.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I've been drawn to spirituality and spiritual teachers since I was in my late teens early 20s and I have to attribute these wonderful teachers with my ability to balance out negotiate my ability to deal with missed opportunities and to be able to frame them and contextualize them as missed opportunities rather than rejection.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Having said that emotionally, it feels like rejection.
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[SPEAKER_01]: When you invest a lot into auditioning, and you put everything into showing up, and they go another way, yeah, it's tough.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think meditation has helped you deal with fame as well, with being a celebrity?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, absolutely.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It has preserved me from the curse of being a legend in my own mind.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Interesting because you're well known to be very humble, you focus on the work more than all of the other perks that go along with fame and I don't know if you're aware of this, but I'm a retired criminal and family court judge, did you know that?
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[SPEAKER_02]: No, yeah.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I spent 26 years on the bench before I retire to do this show.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And the reason I mention it is because one of my all-time favorite legal shows is damages.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And you played Glenn closest husband on that show.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And you also worked with Glenn close in the Ryan Murphy series all's fair.
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[SPEAKER_02]: What was it like working with her?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you're on her.
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[SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm retired.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just Harvey now.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you're on her.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We're tired, Harvey.
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[SPEAKER_01]: working with Glenn was a part from working with one of my heroes, what a wonderful human being, what a wonderful person, a great sense of humor, goofy, most people wouldn't know that about her, but she's a goofball and there was something very validating about being hired to work with her and to play her husband.
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[SPEAKER_01]: as insecure as any other factor.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We all are insecure, we have our insecurities.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So when I was hired to play Glenn's husband by the Kessler Brothers for damages, I had been in the business for 45 years.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I had worked with Julie Harris, I had worked with Julie Andrews, I had worked with Sean Connery, and still when I was hired to work with Glenn, I thought, oh my God, I must know what I'm doing.
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[SPEAKER_02]: you really felt validating to you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It absolutely felt validating as it did with all of the affirmations people.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm glad about that because you actually know that you really are as good as we all believe you are and know you to be.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's all about doing a good job.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's about showing up.
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[SPEAKER_01]: doing a good job.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I have to say that doing a good job has everything to do with your partner.
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[SPEAKER_01]: When you are working with the likes of those that we have talked about, you bring your A-game.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I always, I like to think that I always bring my A-game, no matter who I'm working with, whether they are iconic and legendary or not.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If they're unknown people, it's mandatory that I bring
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[SPEAKER_01]: So working with Glenn Clows would be like the doll playing against Fetterer, although we are not playing against each other, we're playing with each other.
19:39.751 --> 19:41.553
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a joy.
19:42.254 --> 19:52.266
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I have to say in that regard, if I may just give a shout out for my greatest acting partner hero is Julie Andrews.
19:53.167 --> 19:54.889
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I was gonna get to her, go ahead.
19:55.250 --> 19:56.151
[SPEAKER_01]: And I go there now.
19:56.283 --> 19:57.225
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
19:57.385 --> 20:00.130
[SPEAKER_02]: I absolutely loved Victor Victoria.
20:00.250 --> 20:01.853
[SPEAKER_02]: I got to see the two of you in it.
20:01.873 --> 20:04.758
[SPEAKER_02]: That was Broadway magic.
20:05.179 --> 20:10.548
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not surprised to hear you say that because it was magic for me eight times a week for two years.
20:11.169 --> 20:13.413
[SPEAKER_01]: Summer August of 1993.
20:13.774 --> 20:18.342
[SPEAKER_01]: I was doing a production of South Pacific with Sandy Duncan.
20:18.322 --> 20:19.344
[SPEAKER_01]: here in Los Angeles.
20:19.844 --> 20:21.327
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a Wednesday afternoon.
20:21.828 --> 20:24.051
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a matinee in Long Beach.
20:24.652 --> 20:30.362
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to stop off at my favorite Italian place and pick up a eggplant parmesan sandwich on my weight of the theater.
20:30.842 --> 20:37.213
[SPEAKER_01]: I stopped off at my place, ordered my sandwich, was waiting and I was approached by a gentleman, introduced himself.
20:37.754 --> 20:39.857
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael, my name is Tony Adams.
20:39.837 --> 20:45.149
[SPEAKER_01]: I work with Blake Edwards if you ever met him and I said, no, no, no, but I mean, he's one of my heroes.
20:45.710 --> 20:46.512
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you like to meet him?
20:46.953 --> 20:47.915
[SPEAKER_01]: I said absolutely.
20:48.416 --> 20:48.897
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow me.
20:49.619 --> 20:51.423
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to the table where Blake was sitting.
20:51.704 --> 20:54.790
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't stand up, but he extended his hand and he said, it's good to meet you.
20:55.091 --> 20:55.973
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you sing?
20:56.493 --> 21:00.619
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, does your dog bite, quoting Cluzot?
21:00.880 --> 21:04.005
[SPEAKER_01]: He chockled, he said, I'll tell you why I asked.
21:04.025 --> 21:05.787
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you seen my movie Victor Victoria?
21:06.208 --> 21:09.153
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, yes, he said, we're going to take it to Broadway.
21:09.333 --> 21:11.997
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you be willing to sink for me to audition for me?
21:12.658 --> 21:24.897
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said in a heartbeat, however, I would like to tell you that I am doing a full-blown production of South Pacific with Sandy Duncan an hour from here, or 45 minutes from here.
21:24.877 --> 21:35.016
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would love to invite you and I think that that would probably serve both of us rather than being in a rehearsal hall with an upright piano and all the self-consciousness and all that.
21:35.918 --> 21:37.982
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, well, let me get back to you about that.
21:38.343 --> 21:41.349
[SPEAKER_01]: Great to meet you and I said it was a honor for me to meet you.
21:42.070 --> 21:47.340
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for all of the Crusoe's, all of the Pink Panthers, breakfast at Tiffany's.
21:47.320 --> 21:50.704
[SPEAKER_01]: everything that you have gifted us with.
21:50.985 --> 21:59.015
[SPEAKER_01]: I got my eggplant primers on sandwich, went off to do the matinee told Sandy Duncan, guess who I just met and who I invited to come to our show.
21:59.395 --> 22:01.218
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, oh my god, do you think you'll come?
22:01.238 --> 22:03.180
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, I don't know, I'll let you know.
22:03.420 --> 22:11.691
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was Wednesday, Thursday morning the next morning, phone rings, Michael, yes, this is so and so, like Edward's assistant.
22:11.992 --> 22:16.959
[SPEAKER_01]: Blake asked me to call you and tell you that he and his wife will be coming to your show tonight.
22:17.380 --> 22:18.001
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, really?
22:18.301 --> 22:18.922
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's say, yes.
22:19.964 --> 22:22.808
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, can I offer them transportation?
22:22.988 --> 22:25.472
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, I think they've got that covered Michael.
22:27.715 --> 22:30.259
[SPEAKER_01]: Blake Blake Edwards needs me to provide him with a car.
22:30.860 --> 22:31.761
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, God.
22:31.781 --> 22:33.343
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, all right.
22:33.523 --> 22:41.475
[SPEAKER_01]: So I tell Sandy at the top of the show,
22:42.552 --> 22:46.738
[SPEAKER_01]: And Julie, no, really, yeah, really.
22:47.359 --> 22:57.694
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm thinking, well, they might duck out at the intermission, but no, curtain comes down, backstage, we're all huddled together.
22:58.114 --> 23:01.239
[SPEAKER_01]: There's Blake and Julie Andrews, they come backstage.
23:02.000 --> 23:06.166
[SPEAKER_01]: Blake walks over to me, puts his hand out and he says, let's go to Broadway kid.
23:06.426 --> 23:07.868
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's how you got the part.
23:08.405 --> 23:12.313
[SPEAKER_01]: Julie came over to me gave me a hug and said darling I am so you're wonderful.
23:12.835 --> 23:15.921
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't wait to do this with you on Broadway.
23:16.422 --> 23:16.803
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?
23:17.264 --> 23:18.266
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Thursday night.
23:18.787 --> 23:20.010
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what planet I'm on.
23:21.112 --> 23:22.836
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember how I got home.
23:22.985 --> 23:24.727
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I had to drive an hour to get home.
23:25.447 --> 23:26.809
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I slept that night.
23:27.269 --> 23:29.131
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that Friday morning the phone rang.
23:29.592 --> 23:32.074
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael, yeah, this is Hank Mancini.
23:32.475 --> 23:35.037
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, get the F out of here.
23:35.177 --> 23:35.778
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is this?
23:36.118 --> 23:38.140
[SPEAKER_01]: No, this is Hank Mancini, Julian.
23:39.021 --> 23:40.243
[SPEAKER_01]: And Blake saw you last night.
23:40.263 --> 23:45.888
[SPEAKER_01]: They told me how much they'd love you and how delighted they are and thrilled that they are, that you're going to join us on Broadway.
23:46.809 --> 23:51.574
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, I've stammered.
23:51.740 --> 23:54.003
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, are you a baritone?
23:54.063 --> 23:54.924
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you a tenor?
23:54.944 --> 23:57.908
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, uh, I don't know.
23:58.068 --> 23:59.110
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, what do you mean you don't know?
23:59.150 --> 23:59.650
[SPEAKER_01]: You're a singer.
24:00.031 --> 24:00.972
[SPEAKER_01]: How long have you been singing?
24:01.032 --> 24:01.973
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, oh, my whole life.
24:02.254 --> 24:06.119
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know if you're a baritone or you said, no, I just sing.
24:06.980 --> 24:08.802
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, do you read music?
24:09.523 --> 24:15.030
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, no, he said, no, and he said, how the f did you get this job?
24:15.010 --> 24:19.515
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, Hank, Mr. Mancini, I'll tell you how I get this job.
24:19.915 --> 24:22.498
[SPEAKER_01]: I stopped to get an eggplant parmesan sandwich.
24:22.879 --> 24:24.540
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, that's what you call destiny.
24:25.121 --> 24:31.388
[SPEAKER_02]: And the great thing about Victor Victoria for everybody is that they filmed it for a TV special.
24:31.408 --> 24:36.514
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is one of the very few times where you could actually see one of your own stage performances.
24:36.614 --> 24:37.795
[SPEAKER_02]: How did that feel?
24:37.893 --> 24:40.219
[SPEAKER_01]: ecstatic, ecstatic.
24:40.240 --> 24:52.273
[SPEAKER_01]: I am so glad and grateful that I'd say the happiest time of my career was recorded that I have that documented for posterity.
24:53.114 --> 24:58.841
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it was a Broadway show that we all knew was never going to happen again.
24:58.861 --> 25:09.333
[SPEAKER_02]: It was unlikely that Julie Andrews would ever put herself through that again, and this chance to see the two of you on stage was so magical.
25:09.793 --> 25:15.460
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so glad to hear that you had as much fun as it looked like you were having, that that was real.
25:15.440 --> 25:16.762
[SPEAKER_01]: It was absolutely real.
25:17.142 --> 25:21.028
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no downside at all, at all.
25:21.208 --> 25:29.260
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, in the course of two years, which is including out of town triads, to be able to say that there was not one glitch.
25:29.340 --> 25:31.182
[SPEAKER_01]: There was not one bad day.
25:31.262 --> 25:32.965
[SPEAKER_01]: There was not one mediocre day.
25:32.985 --> 25:39.775
[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta tell you, Blake was a comedic genius working with him was in a realm of its own.
25:40.896 --> 25:45.042
[SPEAKER_01]: Working with
25:48.532 --> 25:49.413
[SPEAKER_02]: Not bad.
25:49.433 --> 25:52.896
[SPEAKER_02]: You're kissing Maria von Trapp and Mary Poppins.
25:54.038 --> 25:55.779
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it just doesn't get better than that.
25:56.400 --> 26:03.467
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, I'm sure you know that my viewers would tar and feather me if I didn't ask you about Yellowstone because it was so popular.
26:03.507 --> 26:05.649
[SPEAKER_02]: You were in the first four seasons.
26:05.689 --> 26:09.373
[SPEAKER_02]: You played Bob Schwartz, the CEO at the bank where Beth Dutton worked.
26:09.793 --> 26:14.138
[SPEAKER_02]: There's been so much said about all the trouble behind the scenes with Kevin Costner.
26:14.558 --> 26:16.480
[SPEAKER_02]: What was your experience on the set?
26:16.915 --> 26:27.567
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I had nothing but good experiences on the set from my first day on the set where Kevin was there with Taylor Sheridan and a scene that we were shooting I was spared
26:27.901 --> 26:28.722
[SPEAKER_01]: any of the drama.
26:29.083 --> 26:30.485
[SPEAKER_01]: I had no knowledge of any of that.
26:30.665 --> 26:36.273
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'd like to think that if I were exposed to it that I would just kind of let it be like Teflon.
26:36.673 --> 26:48.930
[SPEAKER_01]: Just, you know, not my business, not my concern, I had a good relationship with Taylor, had a lovely connection with Kevin and with one of my favorite actors, Kelly Riley.
26:49.096 --> 26:50.517
[SPEAKER_02]: excellent, excellent actor.
26:50.538 --> 26:51.679
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm glad to hear that.
26:51.759 --> 26:55.363
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you've worked with so many amazing people.
26:55.483 --> 26:59.807
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to mention a few of the directors, Steven Spielberg in the terminal.
27:00.068 --> 27:01.549
[SPEAKER_02]: What was your experience working with him?
27:01.789 --> 27:03.731
[SPEAKER_01]: He has nothing but great things to say about me.
27:04.132 --> 27:05.593
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and that's true of everyone.
27:06.054 --> 27:10.258
[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, while I crack myself up, it was wonderful to work with him.
27:10.298 --> 27:16.605
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember sitting in a director's chair next to him as they were filming a scene with Katherine
27:16.585 --> 27:21.192
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, lean over to me and he said, look at her, look how still she is.
27:21.252 --> 27:25.018
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was an acting lesson right there coming from one of the greats.
27:25.599 --> 27:28.564
[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't telling me that that's how I should be.
27:28.604 --> 27:34.453
[SPEAKER_01]: He was just sharing with me one of the greatest secrets to filmmaking.
27:34.834 --> 27:35.935
[SPEAKER_01]: Look how still she is.
27:35.955 --> 27:38.239
[SPEAKER_01]: And I took that with me.
27:38.219 --> 27:47.374
[SPEAKER_01]: That was one of my greatest takeaways from working with Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks, who was a dream, Katherine Zeta Jones is a dream.
27:47.394 --> 27:50.479
[SPEAKER_01]: Ah, there's a scene which you will remember.
27:50.679 --> 27:53.603
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm at the top of an escalator, and she's coming up the escalator.
27:53.884 --> 27:56.789
[SPEAKER_01]: My assignment is to pick her up and kiss her.
27:57.109 --> 28:00.635
[SPEAKER_01]: She comes up the escalator, and Steven says, action, she comes up the escalator.
28:01.176 --> 28:01.776
[SPEAKER_01]: I pick her up.
28:01.937 --> 28:02.758
[SPEAKER_01]: I might have
28:02.738 --> 28:09.885
[SPEAKER_01]: turned her around, gave her a kiss, Steven says, good, print, I said, Steven, I think I can do it better.
28:13.469 --> 28:16.392
[SPEAKER_01]: It said, oh, Nuri, all right, and we'll give you another one.
28:17.313 --> 28:18.314
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, gave me another one.
28:18.334 --> 28:22.959
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a chance to plant another one on that gorgeous woman's mouth.
28:23.399 --> 28:25.521
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll bet you didn't get any complaints from her.
28:27.123 --> 28:28.324
[SPEAKER_01]: She's very gracious.
28:29.114 --> 28:32.299
[SPEAKER_02]: another director, Billy Crystal in 61.
28:33.301 --> 28:34.663
[SPEAKER_02]: What's he like as a director?
28:35.164 --> 28:36.866
[SPEAKER_01]: Or have you done your homework?
28:37.988 --> 28:39.911
[SPEAKER_01]: You're bringing up things that I forgot in about.
28:39.931 --> 28:41.594
[SPEAKER_01]: He was wonderful to work with.
28:42.135 --> 28:44.459
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he had worked with De Niro.
28:44.819 --> 28:49.086
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm sure he leaned a lot from working with Mr. De Niro.
28:49.687 --> 28:51.210
[SPEAKER_01]: He was wonderful.
28:51.931 --> 28:53.333
[SPEAKER_01]: He was terrific.
28:53.819 --> 28:57.743
[SPEAKER_01]: And he knew, Damazio, he had met Damazio.
28:58.524 --> 29:01.087
[SPEAKER_01]: He did not have kind things to say about Damazio.
29:01.748 --> 29:05.052
[SPEAKER_01]: Damazio was irascible and could be downright rude.
29:05.592 --> 29:10.678
[SPEAKER_01]: That was just a piece of information that he shared with me about when he met Damazio.
29:11.079 --> 29:16.885
[SPEAKER_01]: But I was, as far as I know, I'm the only actor who has ever portrayed Joe Damazio.
29:17.466 --> 29:19.208
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a thrill.
29:19.768 --> 29:21.210
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was a great experience.
29:21.342 --> 29:43.067
[SPEAKER_02]: While you've actually portrayed a number of real people over the years besides Demagio in 61, you played Lucky Luciano in gangster wars and the gangster chronicles, you played Charlie Weedamire in Quiet Victory, you played Doris Duke's scoundrel of a husband in the Doris Duke mini series, see I really did do my homework to sure did.
29:43.467 --> 29:47.772
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you prepare when you're portraying
29:47.903 --> 30:06.802
[SPEAKER_01]: In the instance of Charlie Weedamire for quiet victory, my dear friend and his family who are dear friends to this day, to play Charlie Weedamire for your audience who may not know who he was and the beautiful spirit that he continues to be after his passing.
30:07.162 --> 30:12.167
[SPEAKER_01]: Charlie Weedamire was an all-American football player at the University of Michigan.
30:12.608 --> 30:13.689
[SPEAKER_01]: And he grew up in Hawaii.
30:14.209 --> 30:16.071
[SPEAKER_01]: He came down with ALS.
30:16.405 --> 30:21.474
[SPEAKER_01]: which is a tragic disease for which there is no cure.
30:21.955 --> 30:23.698
[SPEAKER_01]: I was hired to play him.
30:24.218 --> 30:30.830
[SPEAKER_01]: First thing I did was request a meeting with him at his home in Las Gatos, California.
30:31.230 --> 30:37.401
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to meet the man who was in a hospital bed in his home with his beautiful wife Lucy.
30:37.381 --> 30:55.790
[SPEAKER_01]: his children and his 24-7 caregiver and he was not a ventilator, he couldn't speak, he had lost his voice in an operation as if having ALS was not bad enough, they did an operation and took away his ability to speak.
30:56.130 --> 31:00.857
[SPEAKER_01]: He could only communicate Harvey by moving his lips ever so softly.
31:01.458 --> 31:05.785
[SPEAKER_01]: I learned
31:06.170 --> 31:10.194
[SPEAKER_01]: through my relationship with Charlie.
31:11.355 --> 31:14.839
[SPEAKER_01]: The communication is 99% intention.
31:15.640 --> 31:18.342
[SPEAKER_01]: One percent of it is noise, sounds.
31:19.303 --> 31:30.895
[SPEAKER_01]: When we focus on somebody's intention to communicate, even though their ability to communicate is miniscule, we get their intention of what they're intending to say, what they're intending to communicate.
31:30.875 --> 31:43.023
[SPEAKER_01]: He would do that with a curl of the lip, a blink of his eye, and in the course of knowing Charlie, I got to a point that I thought was unreachable of being able to communicate with him and understand him.
31:43.845 --> 31:49.238
[SPEAKER_01]: My point is, in order to prepare, then I prepared physically by losing
31:49.454 --> 31:52.882
[SPEAKER_01]: a fair amount of weight and spending as much time as I could with him.
31:53.344 --> 32:03.589
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will never forget the day I asked him what is the hardest part the biggest challenge about this disease for you and he said not being able to hug my family.
32:04.090 --> 32:04.932
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that says it all.
32:05.854 --> 32:06.496
[SPEAKER_01]: That's true.
32:06.676 --> 32:07.378
[SPEAKER_02]: It says it all.
32:07.713 --> 32:23.950
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, when you talk about intention, it seems to me that you just demonstrated the importance of stillness of the meditation you've done all these years that you can pick up on someone's energy by being still and receptive.
32:23.930 --> 32:25.772
[SPEAKER_02]: that's what I pick up from that.
32:26.453 --> 32:31.761
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, many of the characters you've played over the years have been villains or at least morally ambiguous.
32:32.321 --> 32:36.507
[SPEAKER_02]: I've heard you say it's impossible to portray a character if you're going to judge them.
32:37.008 --> 32:43.997
[SPEAKER_02]: So how do you find the humanity in a villain or a character whose values are so completely opposite to your own?
32:44.602 --> 32:46.728
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a great question, and it's true.
32:47.610 --> 32:51.179
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot portray a character if you have any judgment about him.
32:51.821 --> 32:54.127
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to find their morality.
32:54.588 --> 32:56.012
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to find...
32:56.228 --> 32:57.530
[SPEAKER_01]: their moral compass.
32:58.192 --> 33:00.576
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to find their value system.
33:01.117 --> 33:04.063
[SPEAKER_01]: And they have to feel 100% justified.
33:04.604 --> 33:05.666
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll give you an example.
33:06.187 --> 33:16.887
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a project that I did with Lindsey Wagger called Shatter Dreams, where I was playing the head of the Securities Exchange Commission named John Fetters.
33:16.867 --> 33:22.805
[SPEAKER_01]: who was famous for brutally attacking and abusing his wife.
33:23.447 --> 33:24.751
[SPEAKER_01]: How did I play that?
33:24.791 --> 33:25.934
[SPEAKER_01]: How did I get to that part?
33:25.954 --> 33:30.167
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll tell you, it affected my heart emotionally.
33:30.282 --> 33:31.123
[SPEAKER_01]: to play this guy.
33:31.203 --> 33:34.969
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a scene where I had to humble Lindsey Wagger.
33:35.250 --> 33:37.934
[SPEAKER_01]: I had to beat her up, and it was very emotional for me.
33:38.535 --> 33:47.008
[SPEAKER_01]: After I had to do it, and I became very emotional after we finished shooting the scene, because it is so anathema to me.
33:46.988 --> 34:03.686
[SPEAKER_01]: to do that, that kind of behavior, but I had to perform that in order to communicate the horror of that behavior, which translates into something that could be healing for the audience.
34:04.207 --> 34:06.212
[SPEAKER_01]: The result of that program,
34:06.833 --> 34:20.393
[SPEAKER_01]: was that hundreds of women who are inclined to excuse that behavior and excuse their abusive partners came out of the woods and sought help.
34:21.114 --> 34:22.916
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a huge reward for me.
34:23.557 --> 34:29.466
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, have you ever played a character that stayed with you inside your head even after the show was over?
34:29.716 --> 34:43.451
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Charlie Weedamar, the spirituality of Charlie and his family, the humility of that man, the courage of that man and of his family, stay with me.
34:43.752 --> 34:53.603
[SPEAKER_02]: And it sounds like he taught you even more about appreciating life, that just the ability to hug your loved ones is something you should never take for granted.
34:54.183 --> 34:54.764
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
34:54.804 --> 34:59.149
[SPEAKER_01]: The very recent passing of Eric Dane, a wonderful actor.
35:00.057 --> 35:03.602
[SPEAKER_01]: of ALS resonates with me.
35:04.343 --> 35:11.654
[SPEAKER_01]: I am part of a group of fellow actors who are together in raising funds for ALS research.
35:12.155 --> 35:19.605
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, Charlie's legacy lives on in me and in like-minded people.
35:20.106 --> 35:26.335
[SPEAKER_02]: Of all the roles you've played, is there one that you feel most closely resembles the real
35:26.450 --> 35:27.914
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think Charlie Weedamler.
35:27.974 --> 35:30.220
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that's very significant to me.
35:30.641 --> 35:33.227
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the character that stayed in your head the most.
35:34.009 --> 35:38.721
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's the character that resonates with you the most because you identify with him.
35:39.005 --> 35:40.106
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, why?
35:40.146 --> 35:54.886
[SPEAKER_01]: Because being given the honor of playing Charlie Weedamire, somebody who was a hero, a physical hero with physical prowess, who was reduced to life support.
35:55.426 --> 36:06.801
[SPEAKER_01]: The courage that was required for that man, he was the longest surviving patient with ALS along with Hawkins.
36:06.916 --> 36:10.503
[SPEAKER_01]: Stephen Hawkins, 20 some years with ALS.
36:11.285 --> 36:20.203
[SPEAKER_01]: The vast majority of patients with ALS do not have the, I can't, I can't judge anybody with that disease.
36:20.644 --> 36:27.979
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no judgment at all about anybody who has that disease, but I will say that for Charlie,
36:27.959 --> 36:43.791
[SPEAKER_01]: and Hawkins to survive that long speaks to a very particular, in Charlie's case, his spirituality, he was all about spirit, he was all about in his faith about Jesus and about his Christianity.
36:44.952 --> 36:46.314
[SPEAKER_01]: and about his service.
36:46.734 --> 36:49.417
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the key element.
36:49.437 --> 36:53.321
[SPEAKER_01]: He traveled around the world with all of the paraphernalia that he had.
36:53.722 --> 36:58.607
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a guest speaker around the world to give inspirational talks to people.
36:59.028 --> 37:07.517
[SPEAKER_01]: In my lifetime Harvey, I have come to realize and appreciate that my purpose in this life is to be of service.
37:08.628 --> 37:10.190
[SPEAKER_01]: is to somehow be a servant.
37:10.431 --> 37:19.865
[SPEAKER_01]: I question, is what I do for a living really have any validity in terms or legitimacy in terms of being of service?
37:20.266 --> 37:33.606
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am reminded by my fellow conscious actors, teachers, specifically teachers, Stella Adler being one, who used to say, I remember in class, the theater is a church,
37:33.957 --> 37:37.874
[SPEAKER_01]: and actors are priests and priestesses in the church.
37:38.577 --> 37:43.579
[SPEAKER_01]: And you are here to project and to reflect humanity.
37:43.762 --> 37:53.874
[SPEAKER_02]: And you mentioned healing in the movie shattered dreams that that movie was a vehicle for healing for so many victims of domestic violence.
37:53.914 --> 38:00.943
[SPEAKER_02]: So I would say that in addition to being of service, you also participate in projects that are very healing.
38:00.963 --> 38:05.889
[SPEAKER_02]: And I want to tell you, there was a moment that I got to witness you on stage.
38:06.490 --> 38:09.313
[SPEAKER_02]: You were, I think it was 2001,
38:09.293 --> 38:18.527
[SPEAKER_02]: you had been on the road, I think for seven months in the National Tour of Self-Pacific, right after 9-11.
38:19.199 --> 38:26.288
[SPEAKER_02]: in the show that I saw at the end of the show, the audience and the cast saying God bless America.
38:27.009 --> 38:30.734
[SPEAKER_02]: And I learned from one of the ushers that that happened every single night.
38:30.974 --> 38:34.659
[SPEAKER_02]: After every single performance, you saying God bless America.
38:35.160 --> 38:37.483
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that's something healing.
38:37.543 --> 38:40.026
[SPEAKER_02]: It must have been incredibly moving for you, Michael.
38:40.225 --> 38:48.014
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, thank you for bringing that up because it was one of the most alongside Victor Victoria.
38:48.455 --> 39:06.537
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd say that that was emotionally the most rewarding production that I have ever done because I asked the producers if we might sing God Bless America at the end of each performance and they consented.
39:06.517 --> 39:20.631
[SPEAKER_01]: And I asked if we might take contributions from the audience, go out into the lobby with sea bags, and take collections for the victims of 9-11, and they said yes.
39:21.031 --> 39:22.956
[SPEAKER_01]: And we did that for...
39:23.155 --> 39:26.019
[SPEAKER_01]: whatever the law that the run of the production was.
39:26.880 --> 39:31.207
[SPEAKER_01]: And we traveled through the United States doing that.
39:31.968 --> 39:33.070
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was emotional.
39:33.550 --> 39:42.323
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember the first time we did it at the University of Indiana University, which was a week after the attack 911.
39:42.764 --> 39:43.946
[SPEAKER_01]: The audience rose.
39:43.986 --> 39:46.670
[SPEAKER_01]: They had their arms around each other.
39:46.690 --> 39:48.192
[SPEAKER_01]: There were tears.
39:49.013 --> 39:51.036
[SPEAKER_01]: There were tears on the stage.
39:51.370 --> 39:52.851
[SPEAKER_01]: with the cast.
39:53.592 --> 39:56.835
[SPEAKER_01]: I have never experienced anything more rewarding.
39:57.396 --> 40:00.139
[SPEAKER_01]: And as we traveled, I remember we were in New Orleans.
40:00.519 --> 40:05.084
[SPEAKER_01]: New Orleans fire department sent their fire engines to New York.
40:05.564 --> 40:11.670
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember saying to the audience, I said, we want to thank you for your fire trucks.
40:12.311 --> 40:14.393
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very moving.
40:14.813 --> 40:18.357
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, moving, cathartic, redemptive.
40:18.488 --> 40:19.449
[SPEAKER_02]: healing.
40:20.129 --> 40:23.973
[SPEAKER_02]: Now you've had a six-decade career, no sign of stopping.
40:24.413 --> 40:29.498
[SPEAKER_02]: What would you say is the most important reason that you've had such longevity in this business?
40:29.938 --> 40:31.179
[SPEAKER_01]: It's another good question.
40:31.700 --> 40:33.641
[SPEAKER_01]: All of your questions are good by the way, Harvey.
40:34.062 --> 40:34.542
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
40:34.962 --> 40:39.266
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to say this is up there with the best interviews I have ever done.
40:39.306 --> 40:41.068
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Michael.
40:41.148 --> 40:41.928
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Michael.
40:42.909 --> 40:47.213
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Michael.
40:47.193 --> 40:48.455
[SPEAKER_02]: reinvented yourself.
40:48.475 --> 40:53.060
[SPEAKER_02]: You've transitioned from being a leading man, heartthrob, character actor.
40:53.080 --> 40:57.046
[SPEAKER_02]: You've played fathers, grandfather, senior professionals, politicians.
40:57.506 --> 41:00.570
[SPEAKER_02]: You've never been typecast because you're so versatile.
41:01.111 --> 41:03.954
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that the key to your longevity, the versatility?
41:04.575 --> 41:06.197
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to give you an easy answer.
41:06.277 --> 41:15.529
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to give you a truthful answer,
41:15.509 --> 41:25.163
[SPEAKER_01]: The phone still rings gratitude for representatives for my agent, from my manager, who has been with me Joni Burstein.
41:25.944 --> 41:27.406
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been together for 40 years.
41:28.428 --> 41:29.069
[SPEAKER_01]: God bless her.
41:29.630 --> 41:36.640
[SPEAKER_01]: So gratitude, I think, is the operative element to stay in gratitude.
41:36.890 --> 41:42.299
[SPEAKER_01]: And every morning, I have a list of things that I'm grateful for.
41:42.339 --> 41:47.928
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's what keeps my true north and focus.
41:48.569 --> 41:53.016
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen so many changes in the industry over the years.
41:53.096 --> 41:56.181
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, not just the way movies and TV shows are made.
41:56.161 --> 42:09.000
[SPEAKER_02]: But the ways the public accesses those shows and of course in the way that the internet and social media have impacted the lives of celebrities are you having as much fun in the industry as you did in the old days.
42:09.922 --> 42:15.570
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I have delighted whenever I have an opportunity to work most recently.
42:16.023 --> 42:19.427
[SPEAKER_01]: my friend Noah Wiley invited me to be on the pit.
42:20.008 --> 42:29.318
[SPEAKER_01]: The number one show on television to wander through the ER, all's wearing a hospital gown, flirting with the nurses and the doctors.
42:30.460 --> 42:31.481
[SPEAKER_01]: What a joy.
42:31.501 --> 42:38.829
[SPEAKER_01]: I am just so grateful whenever I have an opportunity to show up.
42:39.470 --> 42:40.892
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a dog named Charlie.
42:41.693 --> 42:43.735
[SPEAKER_02]: We've seen the dog behind you there.
42:44.238 --> 42:46.781
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you can see Charlie.
42:46.841 --> 42:48.643
[SPEAKER_02]: We've seen Charlie a few times.
42:48.744 --> 42:49.244
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi Charlie.
42:49.264 --> 42:53.489
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, Uncle Harvey and your viewers.
42:54.110 --> 42:55.151
[SPEAKER_01]: I forgot where I was.
42:55.352 --> 43:00.058
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you were talking about gratitude and joy and every morning you wake up.
43:00.078 --> 43:01.379
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and being healthy.
43:01.900 --> 43:03.662
[SPEAKER_01]: Who most important things to me in life?
43:04.143 --> 43:07.046
[SPEAKER_01]: Good health and peace of mind and family.
43:07.687 --> 43:09.449
[SPEAKER_01]: But good health and peace of mind.
43:09.469 --> 43:11.832
[SPEAKER_01]: I lost my brother last year.
43:12.824 --> 43:13.645
[SPEAKER_01]: my younger brother.
43:14.105 --> 43:17.849
[SPEAKER_01]: My sister was diagnosed with leukemia several months ago.
43:18.470 --> 43:28.960
[SPEAKER_01]: I turned 80 in December, all of which to say it is in high relief right now, very sharp relief, my mortality.
43:29.761 --> 43:34.065
[SPEAKER_01]: I am in theatrical terms in my third act.
43:34.845 --> 43:37.288
[SPEAKER_01]: What is important to me?
43:37.348 --> 43:41.532
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the most important thing to me in life?
43:41.630 --> 44:01.909
[SPEAKER_01]: my friends, my health, peace of mind, peace of mind, and in this environment today on the planet, I'm not just saying in this country, which is in desperate need of redemption and spiritual awakening globally.
44:02.330 --> 44:06.133
[SPEAKER_01]: I think in terms of global, I don't think in terms of countries.
44:06.374 --> 44:10.017
[SPEAKER_01]: I think
44:10.418 --> 44:27.340
[SPEAKER_01]: And if there is some way and going back to what we were talking about a while ago, about what difference can we make, you Harvey, me, Michael, every one of your viewers, we may think, you know, I listened to Jane Goodall over and over again.
44:27.380 --> 44:30.064
[SPEAKER_01]: And she talks about
44:30.348 --> 44:32.513
[SPEAKER_01]: the difference that each one of us can make.
44:32.893 --> 44:40.269
[SPEAKER_01]: However small, however insignificant we may think we are, we are immeasurably significant.
44:40.630 --> 44:50.972
[SPEAKER_01]: If it is a simple act of kindness during the day, it matters and it has a cosmic resonance as she suggests.
44:50.952 --> 44:51.913
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes a difference.
44:52.614 --> 45:02.167
[SPEAKER_01]: This morning, I was sitting here with Charlie having my coffee, and there was a bird that was trapped in my window, and it was fluttering, and it couldn't get out.
45:02.807 --> 45:10.638
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought, oh my God, and I tried everything to get it out, and it was fluttering, and it was desperate, and it was helpless.
45:12.059 --> 45:18.748
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was thinking, oh my God, is it just going to die here in my window,
45:20.078 --> 45:32.651
[SPEAKER_01]: hoax it out somehow and I was able to do that and it left up long enough so that I could hold it in my hand and I stroked its little hand and I took it outside and it flew away.
45:32.711 --> 45:34.476
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a good day.
45:34.777 --> 45:47.051
[SPEAKER_02]: And what a beautiful thing you did and also what an analogy I want to express my condolences on the loss of your brother and please tell your sister that all of us will keep her in our prayers as well.
45:47.472 --> 45:56.682
[SPEAKER_02]: And I want to add something to Michael, I think I understand what you're seeing about gratitude and it's very clear that you have that and you're also very humble.
45:56.702 --> 46:02.809
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think you convey to me that you have a deep understanding that you're not defined by your work
46:02.789 --> 46:09.319
[SPEAKER_02]: that you have a life and an existence beyond your work and beyond your status as a star.
46:09.679 --> 46:10.440
[SPEAKER_02]: Does that make sense?
46:11.262 --> 46:16.730
[SPEAKER_01]: I thank you for that beautiful acknowledgement.
46:17.010 --> 46:19.053
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think it's time for you to write a memoir.
46:19.274 --> 46:20.816
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at the people you've worked with.
46:21.357 --> 46:23.500
[SPEAKER_02]: Isn't it time that you share all those stories?
46:24.101 --> 46:26.164
[SPEAKER_01]: I am in the process of doing that for everything.
46:26.482 --> 46:30.268
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you've got a promise, New Michael, that you'll come back on our show when the book is out.
46:30.768 --> 46:36.357
[SPEAKER_01]: I, I, the working title for at least one of the chapters, if not the memoir.
46:37.639 --> 46:39.622
[SPEAKER_01]: Is how the F did you get this job?
46:40.062 --> 46:49.857
[SPEAKER_02]: Quoting Henryman, how, quote, quoting Henryman, saying, Well, I hope you hurry get it then quickly because when that book comes out, I would love you to come and promote it on our show.
46:50.039 --> 46:51.622
[SPEAKER_01]: I would be delighted to do that.
46:51.722 --> 46:57.452
[SPEAKER_01]: Will you please stay in touch with me and a bug my whoever it is that you're with Jeff Sanderson?
46:57.512 --> 47:02.841
[SPEAKER_01]: And bug him and say I want Michael back because Harvey, I want to thank you.
47:03.542 --> 47:05.786
[SPEAKER_01]: I will tell you, and this is not blowing smoke.
47:06.467 --> 47:10.214
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been the most rewarding and enjoyable interview.
47:10.234 --> 47:11.676
[SPEAKER_01]: I have ever done.
47:12.027 --> 47:13.569
[SPEAKER_02]: Michael, you gave me goosebumps.
47:13.609 --> 47:15.452
[SPEAKER_02]: That means the world to me, thank you.
47:15.472 --> 47:20.259
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been a great pleasure having this opportunity to celebrate your amazing life and career.
47:20.720 --> 47:23.184
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for all the great performances over the years.
47:23.604 --> 47:27.430
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for all the healing energy that you provide without even trying.
47:27.450 --> 47:29.754
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for your intent.
47:29.774 --> 47:32.618
[SPEAKER_02]: And most of all, thank you for taking the time to appear on our show.
47:33.119 --> 47:36.043
[SPEAKER_01]: Your honor, thank you for giving up the bench to do what you're doing.
47:36.125 --> 47:37.650
[SPEAKER_02]: It means a lot, believe me.
47:37.951 --> 47:40.458
[SPEAKER_02]: Our guest has been the incomparable Michael Nurey.
47:40.699 --> 47:45.935
[SPEAKER_02]: For more information about Mr. Nurey, please visit his official website, MichaelNurey.com.
47:46.376 --> 47:47.500
[SPEAKER_02]: My name is Harvey Brownstone.
47:47.540 --> 47:48.563
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you all for joining us.
47:48.964 --> 47:49.847
[SPEAKER_02]: See you next time.
47:51.042 --> 48:18.501
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you to my producers Steve Silver, my managers Rick Marcelli and Robin Bragg Marcelli of the Marcelli Company in Hollywood, my director of programming Robert Monigan, my editor Isaiah Sheryl Ampettis, and my entire team at the XPTV1 Network in the UK.