20 Questions: Frank Langella

Marjorie Rosen, a New York-based writer, met with Frank Langella on an appropriately bleak day. They talked while Langella drank his fill of Tab.

1.

[Q] Playboy: In seduction, Dracula starts at the neck. Where do you start?

[A] Langella: (Laughing) That's none of your business.

2.

[Q] Playboy: Why is Dracula so appealing these days?

[A] Langella: I think sexuality and immortality are probably two good reasons why he's having a revival right now. Sex and eternal life--they're an unbeatable combination. Also, Dracula deals with a character who's larger than life. After all, he is the quintessential needer and quintessential survivor. Each of us needs something--food, liquor, pot, whatever-- to help us survive. Dracula needs blood. He must have it. But once he's gotten his fill of it, he has ten or twelve remaining hours of evening in which to live. He's perfectly able to socialize, to have a conversation as you and I are having now, to find humor in things.

3.

[Q] Playboy: Then he's the perfect party guest?

[A] Langella: Yes, the nice extra man. But what fascinated me when I began working on him was the thought, Why can't he get what he needs for a night and then have an interesting time in other ways? Why can't he be vulnerable? Why can't he fall in love?

4.

[Q] Playboy: What is the nature of Dracula's sexuality?

[A] Langella: Vampires are sexy to a woman perhaps because the fantasy is similar to that of the man on the white horse sweeping her off to paradise. It's interesting to fantasize having a man sink his teeth into your neck for sustenance, knowing that it isn't going to be terribly painful but rather very exciting. The way to a woman's heart is through her veins, through her neck. Certainly, in mortal lovemaking, kissing the neck, being close to the neck, kissing the ear are very exciting. So why shouldn't the woman take the fantasy of that sensation one step further--to penetration?

5.

[Q] Playboy: Is penetration of the neck the extent of Dracula's lovemaking?

[A] Langella: That's up to the woman's imagination. But in my mind, he's a man: lie's a man first.

6.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think there's any connection between the attraction of Dracula today and the kind of kinkiness that exists in people's attitudes toward sex?

[A] Langella: None at all. Dracula is the antithesis of kinky to me. By kinky I presume you mean using whips and chains and lots of dope and hanging from shower curtains, and that you would include people who need all kinds of special gear. But Dracula represents just the opposite. He's pure sex, one-on-one sex, the kind of sex that most people in their heart of hearts really want. Which is why people are so attracted to him. With Dracula, there are no accouterments. He wants one thing, and he goes about getting it in one particular way. He doesn't need special lights: he doesn't need vibrators or any other paraphernalia. Dracula suggests the most romantic kind of sex.

7.

[Q] Playboy: But you said he represented pure sex. Do you consider that the same as romantic sex?

[A] Langella: Oh, it's the best sex, absolutely the best. By pure I mean that the ideal kind of sex--to my way of thinking and, I believe, to Dracula's--is that kind of sex in which a man and a woman are totally connected to each other, aware of each other, have all their senses about them and are sharing each other's bodies without what you might call those "kinky" extra attractions. As for Dracula, perhaps romantic is a better word for him than pure, but in the 80-odd years since he was created, and especially in recent time, I think that he has been kinkisized. We've seen Dracula's cousin and Dracula's dog, Dracula this and Dracula that. I wanted to restore the character as a pure, romantic, dignified and elegant man, one who really does want to find one special woman, just as most men want to find one special woman. And as most women want to find one special man. Perhaps my thinking is contrary to the current mode, but none of that extracurricular stuff--mé-nages à trois, bisexuality, homosexuality, etc.--is anywhere near as good as sex with one person. Basically, what every human being wants is a partner he can love and share with on every possible level. And if you're lucky enough ever to have that in your life, you realize how much better it is than anything else.

8.

[Q] Playboy: You married about two years ago, relatively late in life for a first marriage. Was that a conscious decision?

[A] Langella: I'd always felt a man should marry later in life. Actually, I didn't expect to marry until I was into my 40s. So I married earlier than I'd planned to--at 37. But I didn't marry until I wanted to.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Why do so many people have trouble finding that special relationship?

[A] Langella: Because they're conditioned to believe that somebody, something, some object better than what they've got is waiting around the corner. And that extraordinary numbers of bed partners and bedroom techniques are more exciting than the togetherness of two people. But I firmly believe that you can't be emotionally free until you're emotionally committed. And I have a sense that today people are beginning to rediscover the joys of a relationship with one person.

10.

[Q] Playboy: Some people have suggested that in this era of random bed-hopping, kinky sex is a way of trying to establish instant intimacy and trust between strangers. How do you feel about that?

[A] Langella: The best kind of kinky sex is to have kinky sex with your wife or husband, the person you love. Yes, you're right in that sense, because it does establish an intimacy between two people who decide to trust each other and love each other in that way. There are no taboos in bed, and there shouldn't be any taboos in bed. But how much better if it's all between you and one other person with whom you're already intimate.

11.

[Q] Playboy: There are women who would probably sacrifice their homes and husbands for one night with you. Have women ever swooned over you? Do they scream and try to tear your clothes off?

[A] Langella: Yes, if you mean at the stage door. That can be a very heady experience. I don't really mind very much, as long as I don't ever begin to believe any of it. Actually, people are very good with me. Even the mobs outside the theater for Dracula never exuded anything but warmth and love. And I liked it. I always signed (concluded on page 195) Frank Langella (continued from page 157) autographs when I could and always stayed and chatted with them when I could.

12.

[Q] Playboy: How do yon say no to a proposition if you aren't interested?

[A] Langella: I say, "No." I'm a firm believer in absolute honesty.

13.

[Q] Playboy: What do you find sexy in someone else?

[A] Langella: Intelligence is enormously sexy. And so is a sense of humor. Physical qualities don't really matter much. I'm not saying it doesn't matter if a person has three heads and four legs. It matters a lot. It's nice that the person you're with is attractive and has a beautiful body, but if the mind and the humor aren't there, the attraction is going lo wear thin.

14.

[Q] Playboy: Some people have remarked that you are carrying on the tradition of the ambisexual male star that was started by Laurence Harvey and Montgomery Clift. Has that helped or hindered you?

[A] Langella: Probably both. Because if you do represent someone who has such a duality of persona, it's probably bound to be appealing to some and offensive to others. But I am aware of that quality; and I've never been frightened to display any emotion required for a character, even if it meant calling upon those feelings, sensitivities and emotions that one would normally regard as feminine. As an actor, you must be willing to display every element of yourself, so it would never occur to me to hide any part of myself. However, I don't by any means suggest that I'm always playing myself. As a matter of fact, I rarely ever play myself.

15.

[Q] Playboy: If you could play a public figure in the world today, who would it be?

[A] Langella: Elvis Presley, because I'm intrigued by the man's life, by his plight and by the obvious manipulation of his life by others. The sadness of the man, the unrealized brilliance of his talent fascinates me. I don't know enough about him to know how or why his talent was never developed. But it was obvious that he had that magic, that indefinable magnetism, long before anyone else--long before the Jaggers or the Travoltas. But it never grew. I would love to try to play Presley to find out just why. I probably wouldn't find out why, but he'd be an interesting character to work on.

16.

[Q] Playboy: What made you want to become an actor?

[A] Langella: Somebody asked me the other day why there are suddenly so many Italian-American actors enjoying success. I think it had something to do with the combined passions of the kitchen table and the Catholic Church. I grew up in a household where everybody lived at the top of his lungs. Plus being hustled off to church every Sunday morning, where the rituals were so impressive: I'd see the incense being burned, hear beautiful organ music and be mesmerized by the priests in all their robes. To a young mind, the combination of those experiences is so incredibly exciting. So it's no surprise that I always had a great love of majesty and size, heroism and grandeur. The first thing I wanted to be was an opera singer; I was five then, and opera was playing in our house all the time. But I was drawn to it; my brother, on the other hand, was drawn to baseball. Then, for a hot three or four weeks, I wanted to be a concert pianist. But when I was seven or eight, I did my first little piece of acting. And that was it.

17.

[Q] Playboy: It could be argued that James Dean, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift have male fans who are just as rabid and involved with their fantasy images as the female fans are. Do men find you as attractive as women do?

[A] Langella: I hope not. but there's no way of knowing, because my female fans are more vocal. And, also, it's something 1 don't much want to explore.

18.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever been turned down by a woman; and, if so, how did you feel about it?

[A] Langella: Oh, sure, and you feel differently when you're turned down at 17 than when you're turned down at 30. Rejected, that's how you feel. And it certainly makes you more sensitive and aware of what it's like when you turn somebody down.

19.

[Q] Playboy: What's the most romantic thing a woman can do for a man?

[A] Langella: Listen to him. And I don't mean obey, I mean to listen--to hear what he says.

20.

[Q] Playboy: What does one have to do to make romance happen these days? To create that warm and terrific feeling for someone else?

[A] Langella: All you have to do is give your partner as much as you're capable of giving, and as generously as you can, and it will all come back to you.

"Intelligence is enormously sexy. So is a sense of humor. Physical qualities don't matter that much."