When Tony Roberts was at summer camp as a child, he found himself in the boxing ring with a huge bully intent on doing him damage. In defense, he ran around the ring, stumbling and wobbling with exaggeration, and for his pains elicited ringside laughter. It was an empowering revelation, one that led him to a long and successful acting career that he recaps in his new and entertaining memoir, “Do You Know Me?”Born into a Manhattan show-business family — his father, Ken, was a radio and television announcer — Roberts grew up around such legendary comics as Milton Berle, Carl Reiner, and Mel Brooks. He also studied the classics with Alvina Krause, the legendary acting teacher, lessons which he poured into nearly two dozen Broadway plays and musicals, numerous television appearances, and several films, including the Woody Allen classics, “Play It Again, Sam” (1972), “Hannah and Her Two Sisters” (1986), and “Annie Hall” (1977). Indeed, Roberts is such a well-known New York fixture that he was asked to play himself by the comedian and writer Brett Gelman on an episode of the Adult Swim series, “Dinner with Family.” In the sketch, he and Patti LuPone played Gelman’s “parents” in a Pirandello-esque tribute that quickly ran amok. “We were Brett Gelman’s parents but as played by two celebrities — ourselves,” Roberts says of the show, which has recently been chosen to be a part of the Sundance Festival later this month. “Patti and I talked about how much of ourselves we should be. It was crazy.” Roberts recently spoke with ARTINFO about the self in the pages of his memoir — the deep-seated insecurities of his profession, the sheer joy of “riding on the velvet” of audience laughter, and his “towel-snapping” friendship with Woody Allen.In your memoir, you quote Carol Channing, “As soon as an actor becomes aware of a quality in his personality — it’s gone.” How does that apply to you?Wow, that’s a tough one. Scene-stealing! [laughs] I think when you hear a laugh you want to get that laugh again so you try to repeat what you did to get that laugh. And then it’s gone. It’s the innocence that created the circumstance that got the laugh. It’s the old story of the Lunts when they were in a play. Alfred said to his wife Lynn Fontanne, “Why aren’t I getting the laugh when I ask for the tea?” And she said, “Because you’re not asking for the tea. You’re asking for the laugh.”You write in your book that an actor spends the first half of a career learning how to act and the second half learning how not to. What do you mean?The worst thing you can say about an actor is that you saw him “acting.” Early in your career you’re deliberately acting to fulfill the playwright’s vision. As you get older and more accustomed, you’re better when you don’t act. You listen to the other actor and react. Acting is more reacting than anything else.You have a reputation as disciplined and highly professional. What happens when your co-stars don’t measure up?You go to the stage manager with any complaints. There is an unspoken rule that you never, never approach another player with a critical remark. If you do, it destroys the bond of faith and trust and everything else. In long runs, actors tend to add things so you rely on a director to whip things back into shape. As George Abbott said once, “There’ll be a rehearsal tomorrow to take out the ‘improvements.’”Do you read reviews of your work?I do, even though a cruel remark can hurt very deeply and change your view of yourself or your ego. But how else do you know your value if you haven’t read your raves or pans? It affects how you approach your next offer. It’s like you’re the owner of a store and don’t know how your sales are going.You mention in the book that although you were big, brash, and confident as a child, the character you most identified with was Stuart Little, this little mouse on a sailboat. Why? Gee, I don’t know. I’ve had lots of analysis and I guess it’s because I empathized with him so. Maybe it was the heroic aspect or the fact that he was in love with this little bird Marigold who disappeared and he sets off to find her. Maybe it has to do with my longing for intimacy.How has that worked out for you?I was married to the same woman twice in a huge ceremony at the Marble Arch synagogue. I was in “Promises, Promises” in London [in 1969] and she was an English dancer in the company. I proposed to her five days after our first date, I was that smitten. We were as happy as two people could be for the first six months then we woke up one day a bit of strangers to each other. We tried to work things out and it was the most difficult period of my life. After we divorced, she had opportunity to come to the States in ‘A Chorus Line’ so we remarried so she’d get her green card and dual citizenship. She’s a terrific person and we have a wonderful daughter. I loved being a father but not being married.Why do you avoid going into your personal life in the memoir?I avoided the subject in the book primarily to protect my daughter’s sensibilities. She’s a wonderful woman who knows that I always had a roving eye. I had a reputation as a roué. I can’t deny that I did. I’m happy to say that I was in love with a lot of wonderful women and a lot of wonderful women were in love with me.The love of beautiful women is something you share with Woody Allen. Is that part of the special chemistry you’ve shared with him onstage and on film?Yes. We both liked pretty girls. We’re both from New York, he from Brooklyn, me from Manhattan. We both went to public schools. We both liked baseball. I guess we maybe had a rhythm together. After we did our first movie together, “Play It Again, Sam,” he said to me, “We need to do more with each other because people like our schmoozing.” That came as a wonderful surprise and I credit that to his ability to put stuff up there that rings true.Is it also that, for both of you, humor comes out of pain?It certainly did with me. When I was in the [boxing] ring at camp and my opponent was this big bully, I knew I wasn’t going to come out so well. And when the laughs started coming from ringside that was a revelation. That meant that if I could make people laugh, I was in control. I had the power. And Woody once said to me, “I want to make people laugh so hard that they would beg me to stop.” Because if you possess them, you have your will over them. It was a question of control. What makes Woody Allen a good director?So many things. He casts his films properly and brings out the best in his actors. He’s not like Elia Kazan, getting inside of people’s heads. He’s more like Sinatra. He’s a natural. Sinatra couldn’t do anything that didn’t ring true and Woody is the same way.Has he read the book?Yes. He was so anxious to read it that he sent his chauffeur over to pick up a copy. He said, “Don’t inscribe it to me. I may want to re-gift it.” I said, “I will inscribe it and you’ll get more money for it.” I didn’t hear from him for about a week and half and I thought, “Omigod, it’s terrible.” So I called him and I said, “Did you close the iron door?” And he said that he enjoyed the book, particularly the chapters about himself. What is it that the public doesn’t know or understand about Woody Allen?Well I believe that he is completely innocent of any misbehavior having to do with his daughter [Dylan]. I think he has gone to appropriate lengths to disavow and speak about it in public. And I take his word for it as I have since the whole situation was rumored. I have not had conversations about it with him except that after four or five decades of knowing him, I understand his character, his concern for his children, his own, mine, and others. He has a great love for his family and he’s a wonderful husband and father. It’s absurd to see his name slandered for reasons beyond my comprehension.What is most striking to you about him as an artist, arguably one of the greatest of his time?I agree with you. And yet, in his own perception, he falls very sort of what he’d like to accomplish. He has the humility of a really great artist. He doesn’t believe that he has created something as great as he’d like; that frustrates him. When you’re with him, it’s a matter of knowing that he’s functioning on different levels of thought with his neurons travelling at warp speed. He’s really in two or three different realities, all of which are funny, legitimate, or insightful. It’s challenging to keep up with him.
↧