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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1982)
PUTS UP NEWMAN HIS DUKES "It's me," says Haul Newman, flashing a sardonic smirk as he strolls onto a soundstage at Universal Studios. "One of the duped and manipulated!” Wearing a white tee-shirt emblazoned with "Team Newman," his newly-formed racing team scheduled to debut at the 1983 Indy 500 race, Newman is here to tape a commercial for the Nuclear Freeze movement. These days only two sub jects can compel Newman to meet the press — anti-nukes and his up coming movie, The Verdict Universal Studios, a debt-free company rolling in money (much of it courtesy of E T.), is an incongruous choice to tape an anti-nuke commer cial. The studio is headed by Lew Wasserman, a powerful supporter of Reagan and the status quo But the studio is also the home base of Em bassy Pictures, headed by a some what less powerful but nevertheless formidable producer, Norman Lear, an avid supporter of liberal causes. It's Lear who has put together the talent for this commercial, and it’s Lear who is calling the shots. Be sides, as one executive put it, money’s money; the studio will rent to anyone When Newman comes onto the soundstage, General William Fair borne, retired, is talking into a cam era, telling us all that nuclear escala tion is ‘ madness.’’ He's not an expert actor, and he's called upon to repeat his lines so many times the General finally jokes in embarrassment, "This is just like training recruits — ’Hey, you knucklehead"’ He is referring to himself. Newman confers briefly with Lear He wants it made perfectly clear that General William Fairborne, retired, is a former military man. For close to thirty years Paul Newman has proved himself to be not only an indispensible actor and bonafide movie star, but an outspo ken and thoughtful supporter of causes — all liberal. Newman, who was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a one-time Quaker community, says he was raised to use his mind. (That training ttxik him to Kenyon College in Ohio and to Yale University for his MA.) Newman has followed his convic tions away from Hollywood. Last year he served as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament and this year he is devoting much of his free time to that same cause He knows people listen to him because of his name, his movies. He knows that while he talks arms, treaties and alternatives, they’re thinking about Butch Cassidy and Hud, or they're looking at his slightly thinning close-cropped gray hair and thinking how well he’s held up, or they're try ing not to stare into those famous blue eyes. He knows this and has made the trade-i — the same trade-off evt celebrity faces when deciding to go public on issues. Newman is not a brilliant talker; he does not have the gift of gab to seduce the unwilling, and he’s the first to admit it. Even those who think he's doing a pretty gtxxi job on the anti-nuke issue have been tripped up by his insistence that the United States and the Soviet Union are about equal in terms of treaty violations. The public reaction included charges that Newman was "duped and manipulated." "Civil defense in this country is an absurdity,” he starts off, munching an apple, the only food he says he’s eaten in almost eight hours. “I’ve been up since 6:30,” he adds, digres sing from the issue, "and I’m starved." His voice trails off as if he’d rather think about something other than what he’s talking about When he picks up the conversation again, he speaks slowly, deliberately, choosing his words with care. "For one thing, civil defense requires a very cooperative enemy. To evacuate a city takes at least seven days — is the enemy going to announce seven days in advance what they're going to do? Also," he adds, “let's say you start to evacuate a city and the bus drivers who get out with the first load of people refuse to go back for another, or the subway shuttle con ductors take one run and then say Enough, I want to be safe Newman is not naive Thirty years of political activism have taught him that nothing is final "The freeze in itiative,” he says in response to a question about small steps and great issues, "is not the answer But it is a beginning. Salt II took seven years. Do you know how many weapons both sides will build in another seven years? We have to create a cli mate where cooperation Is possible." Newman, who will be S8 In Janu ary, grew up in a time when movie heroes played by the rules. Tracy, didn't cross Warner, Mayer and Zanuck, not about politics and not about lifestyles. It took Newman’s generation to change all that. A couple of his compatriots from the Actors Studio in New York made their marks before Newman did — Marlon Brandt) and James Dean. By the mid Fifties they were well on their way to creating a screen image we now take for granted — the anti hero with a heart Newman’s distrust for Hollywood (enct)uraged by Brando and Dean) was not without justification Jack Warner was not gtxxf to Newman The actor’s first film was a laughable Biblical drama called The SUver Chalice It sent Newman fleeing back to New York and live television. Eventually he returned to Hol lywood and the roles got better. He did a fine job as the original Rocky — Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me and scored even more strongly in The Long Hoi Summer, loosely based on short stories by William Faulkner Summer earned Newman his first Oscar nomination anti brought him recog nition as a sex symbol. As Pauline Kael put it, Paul Newman did more for removing a shirt than any actor since Clark Gable (she would later point out that the same could not be said of Rolx-rt Redford). Along the way, Newman became rich and famous He divorced his first wife and mother of his three oldest children and married act rev. Joanne Woodward Together they hail three other children — all girls — anil together they made some ter rible movies, such as Hally Houttd the Flag, Boys and A \eu< Kind of hove (In which Newman actually mis takes Woodward for a man) For an acclaimed movie star, Newman made a surprising nutnlier of clunkers But when Newman was good ami the material lit him, he had no rival He excelled at creating a certain type of character — laconic, stoic, cynical. He played that role to perfection in The Hus tier, a taut, crackling drama where he traded pool shots with Min nesota. Fats (Jackie Gleason) and learned about guts from Piper Laurie and George C. Scott; in Hud, where his cynical, amoral cattleman who believed in nothing still stands as a landmark petfor mance; and in Cool Hand l.uke, which introduced 'what we have here is a failure to com municate" to the American language. He also took some chances, turn ing to directing with a movie called Rachel, Rachel, starring Joanne Woodward as a thirty-five-year-old virgin looking for love That certainly wasn't the sort of subject matter any one thought fitted Newman’s on screen personality. He also made money with pictures like hutch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and The Towering In ferno. He spent a lot of time on the racing circuit and waited. By 1979, Newman was at that awkward age, no longer quite able to get away with playing the young hero, but still too juicy to play the voice of wisdom He had gone beyond being Richard Gere but he wasn’t yet ready to be Melvyn Douglas. In the last three years he’s made three controversial films that have made money and earned him per sonal honors The first was Fort Apache, the Bronx, about cops in the South Bronx trying to do what's right in a very wrong place a kind of big screen Hill Street Blues The film was uneven and damned by resi dents of the South Bronx as racist, but Newman emerged unscathed, creating a very sympathetic charac ter, an over the hill cop still trying to do the right thing Next came Ah sence of Malice in which Newman, the son of a Mafioso, was tarred by an over/ealous reporter, Sally Field The film was a slap in the face to journalists and women, but as critic Andrew Sarris (xrinted out, women accepted from Newman lines they’d never accept from, say, Clint Fast wood Newman earned his tilth Oscar nomination for Malhe Newman is almost certain to gel another Oscar nomination for The Verdict Directed by Sidney Lumet, who has made films such as Dog Day Afternoon and FYincv of the ('it}’, The Verdhl tleals with issues and morality, tight and wrong It was originally ilevclojicd for Rotten Red ford, but lie pulled out of the project due to "erealive differences" For a while, the role was actively sought hy just about rvety .Mot lietwren the ages of 50 and AO Die main charac ter is the son actors dream of play ing: showy, multi dimensional and ultimately heroic. In The Verdict, Newman is Frank Galvin, a washed-up, alcoholic attor ney who takes on a malpractice suit that pits him against the finest law firm in Boston, a reputable hospital run by the Catholic Church, public opinion, and even his own sense of himself. “It’s a story about the redemption of a human being," says Newman of The Verdict “It's not an attack on the legal system or the Catholic Church or hospitals. Those institutions are springboards for the development of his character. They’re metaphors for what seem to be insurmountable ob stacles all around him.’’ The Verdict is a different sort of role for Newman. “It’s a very inter esting character for me because he’s not cool or collected. He’s fright ened. He’s living on the edge and he's panicked. There are people who really do find their lives in a sham bles, and they decide they don't like it Some just continue to degenerate and some, like Galvin, can pick themselves up. “Every person is vulnerable in cer tain ways, at certain times in their lives," There are many ways in which Newman Is not now vulnerable. He is not vulnerable when it comes to his career or his financial security In other areas his defense is shakier. Two years ago his only son, Scott, died from an overdose of drugs Newman is still coming to terms with that tragedy He was teaching an act Ing and directing seminar at Kenyon College when he got the news his son had died, He does not talk pub lidy about what happened, but he has poured money, time and influ encc into the Scott Newman Founda tlon, which hinds projects directed at drug rehabilitation In the early Seventies Newman tolil a reporter, "Kids, it s a fantastic time to lx- young In some wavs they have levs imposed upon them than my generation did ihcy’rv levs ac quisitlve, property no longer has such Importance and they're levs in hibited "Yet they have other tilings im posed on them that are harsher than anything we Itad to fair Things are IX) longei clearly defined In black and white, good and had There’s this acceleration of change, things are moving too fast, it’s enough to drive them all crazy " Madness of one sort or another seems to he a recurring Newman concern, one he shares with his pub lie on political tames. Not personal ones »t Jacxmu Atlas
