Playboy Interview: George C. Scott

When you think of George C. Scott, the images that come to mind most quickly are those of the volatile, half-cocked Patton; the impulsive, wise-ass reactionary general, Buck Turgidson, in "Dr. Strangelove"; the menacing loan shark Bert in "The Hustler." In 1977, Scott played a fictional Ernest Hemingway in "Islands in the Stream," a role not surprising for Scott, who himself is a man of Hemingwayesque proportions: a tough, outspoken, fearless, boozing, brawling, menacing, macho man with a weakness for women, a sensitivity for Shakespeare and Arthur Miller and a broad intelligence. He is a man other men tell stories about.

Such as the one a network executive heard during the making of "Patton." When it came time to shoot the scene in which a mule in the middle of a road causes an entire regiment to come to a halt, Scott actually shot the animal, as Patton was supposed to have done.

Scott denies that story, but it's indicative of the man that it's told, and often with great relish, for Scott may be among the last of a breed of men who claim to place their own freedom and independence above career moves when philosophical, emotional or political reasons intervene.

It's been 20 years since George Campbell Scott shook the movie industry when he informed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that he wanted nothing to do with the Oscar nomination he had received in the supporting-actor category for his demonic role in "The Hustler." It was the first time in the history of the Academy Awards that an actor had said if chosen, he would not accept. Scott didn't win that year, but he did win nine years later, for best actor, in his brilliant portrayal of "Patton." And, true to his word, he refused it. That same year, he received--and accepted--an Emmy award for his TV performance in Arthur Miller's "The Price." It was obvious that George C. Scott played by his own rules.

Scott learned his trade by acting in more than 125 plays between 1951 and 1957 in small. Midwestern theaters before breaking through in Joseph Papp's off-Broadway production of "Richard III." It was never easy for Scott. A heavy drinker with a short fuse, he was dubbed "The Wild Man of Broadway" after opening an artery by punching his hand through a mirror, tearing apart his dressing room and breaking three knuckles in frustration over a personality conflict with a co-star.

Nonetheless, his talent could not be denied, and in 1959 he went to Hollywood to appear in "The Hanging Tree" with Gary Cooper. Following that, Otto Preminger cast him as a prosecuting attorney in "Anatomy of a Murder."

Although he's most commonly recognized for his strong roles in "The Hustler," "Dr. Strangelove" and "Patton," Scott has also given some extremely subtle and often eloquently funny performances, such as the wise and lovable traveling Flim-Flam Man and the mad judge turned modern-day supersleuth in "They Might Be Giants."

He's willing to put himself out on a limb if he believes in the message of a film, as he did in Paddy Chayef sky's "The Hospital" and in the poorly received "Hardcore"; but he has also been willing to take the money and run, as in such innocuous fare as "Bank Shot," "The New Centurions," "Movie Movie" and "The Changeling."

Yet, while the public knows him mostly for his movies and television dramas ("The Price," "The Power and the Glory," "Jane Eyre," "Fear on Trial," "Beauty and the Beast"), Scott's finest acting has occurred on the stage. He has electrified audiences in such plays as "Desire Under the Elms," "The Little Foxes," "Plaza Suite," "Uncle Vanya" and "Sly Fox." His portrayal of Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" (which he also directed) stunned the critics.

Scott was born in 1927 in Wise, Virginia. His mother died when he was eight and his family life was unsettled until he left home to join the Marines in 1945. He had visions of raising hell in the Pacific, but he never got there. He spent most of his four enlisted years teaching a correspondence course in creative writing and performing ceremonial burials at Arlington National Cemetery.

When he got out, he enrolled in the University of Missouri School of Journalism. One course away from graduating, he left school to become a staff actor for the Stephens College Playhouse in Columbia, Missouri. Acting came naturally to him. During the summer of 1951, he met and married Carolyn Hughes, an actress, with whom he had a daughter. He held various jobs for the next six years but couldn't get the theater out of his blood. By 1957, he was in New York with wife number two, actress Pat Reed, and the lead in "Richard III."

Scott's search for comfort and compatibility has led him to take marriage vows five times. He had had two sons with his second wife when he fell in love with his co-star in "Children of Darkness," Colleen Dewhurst, who was also married at the time. They divorced, married each other and had two children (altogether, Scott is the father of six). Frustrated by the lock hold of New York impresarios, they decided to form their own Theater of Michigan, investing a considerable amount of their own money and failing after only two productions. Then, during the making of John Huston's "The Bible," Scott met and apparently fell in love with Ava Gardner, whom he pursued to London and to Beverly Hills, and to whom he reportedly proposed marriage. He wound up with egg on his face, as his marriage to Colleen dissolved and the movie industry turned, a cold shoulder to him.

Eventually, he and Colleen remarried; but when Scott went to Spain for his role in "The Last Run," he met a young actress named Trish Van Devere. Once again, he was stricken. Once again, he and Colleen divorced; and Scott married Trish in 1972.

Although their eight-year marriage has often been turbulent, Scott and Trish are still together. They have appeared in six films, none of which has been particularls successful, and are currently starring on Broadway in "Tricks of the Trade." Their most notable venture was taking on the movie-distribution system for "The Savage Is Loose," which Scott produced, directed and acted in and which he sold outright to theater owners. It was a critical and box-office disaster in which the Scotts had invested millions.

George and Trish live in Greenwich, Connecticut, on 14 acres of rolling, verdant land, where they have four horses, two dogs and two Jaguars in the garage. They also recently purchased a home in Beverly Hills.

To find out about this tempestuous, formidable man, Playboy sent Contributing EditorLawrence Grobel (who had previously taken on Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Barbra Streisand for us) first to Beverly Hills and then to Connecticut. Grobel's report:

"When Scott answered the door to his Beverly Hills home, he was wearing glasses, an old beige sweater pushed up past the elbows and herringbone slacks and brown boots. I noticed that he had been drinking and there was a look of angry impatience in his eyes, like that of a man who had consented to talk and now felt trapped.

"We sat outside at a redwood table. He put on his tape recorder, I, mine, and we began immediately. Scott was all business and no small talk. In five hours, he consumed a pitcher of bloody marys, a few shots of hard liquor and two beer chasers. His initial answers were brief and guarded and I felt a wide gap between emotion and response, though he did flare up when I suggested that his behavior might once have adversely affected two coworkers. Mostly, though, he spoke in a soft, polite voice. I knew that if I were to gain any insight into him, I'd have to get him in more familiar surroundings; so I arranged to fly to his home in Connecticut the following week to resume the interview.

"Scott's Greenwich home is only 45 minutes from Manhattan. There is a stone gate and a bridge at the entrance and a long driveway to the house. We sat in a room off the living room, with a magnificent view of the blooming azaleas, blossoming trees and green grounds. We spoke and drank for five hours, taking only one break to go for a walk.

"Trish was at home most of the time I was there, but she never joined us during our talks. Once, she interrupted us to show me a bird nesting in a tree outside the kitchen window. She seemed friendly and cheery.

"Our last session took place two months later, back in Beverly Hills. Scott looked much better--he had lost ten pounds, given up booze and red meat and was taking vitamin pills from the dozen bottles on the coffee table. He was in a good mood, which, I suspected, had something to do with the fact that it was our last taping."

[Q] Playboy: Why are people so afraid of you?

[A] Scott: I have no idea.

[Q] Playboy: But are you aware that they are?

[A] Scott: I've heard that said.

[Q] Playboy: Mike Nichols said it to calm Maureen Stapleton, who admitted her terror of you during rehearsals of Plaza Suite. "My dear," he said, "the whole world is frightened by George."

[A] Scott: Mike Nichols is a funny guy.

[Q] Playboy: Julie Christie also was reportedly on edge before acting with you in Uncle Vanya.

[A] Scott: Adored her. I worked with her in the theater and in film and I tried to get her into The Formula, for Christ's sake. I love her.

[Q] Playboy: But why do they have such fear? Is it because they know you only through acting, which is often volcanic?

[A] Scott: What is that favorite word they use for me, besides bombastic? Bravura. I've been called a bravura actor all my life. I assume that is one notch below a scenery chewer. I think I'm as subtle an actor as anyone around, but you get labeled. A couple of plays I did years ago got it started. I played sick people, psychopaths, and it helped create an aura that isn't any more true about me than anything else that has ever been written about me.

[Q] Playboy: Such as the writer who watched you toss chairs in a hotel bar in Granada and said you looked like a killer?

[A] Scott: Tossed chairs in Granada? I once threw a writer's boyfriend out of a bar in Granada; I remember that. The son of a bitch was a pig and I threw him out of the bar.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you also once punch out a press agent named Thurston?

[A] Scott: Wait a minute. I didn't know the guy was a PR guy. Was he PR?

[Q] Playboy: Apparently. You had to be handcuffed by the police and taken to jail. Do you remember that?

[A] Scott: Oh, yeah, I remember I hit a guy one night and went to jail. Sure.

[Q] Playboy: Do you remember why you hit him?

[A] Scott: No, I have no idea.

[Q] Playboy: How does it feel to be told of such things and have no memory of them?

[A] Scott: Scary. I'm very careful now.

[Q] Playboy: Do you ever think that in any of your past rages you might have really hurt someone?

[A] Scott: Yes. I've thought about it a lot. I really have.

[Q] Playboy: Was it safer to have been so drunk, that you don't remember those times?

[A] Scott: That's a very safe way to be. It can hurt a lot less. That was a long time ago. I don't do that sort of thing now. Very little; very little. I've got more sense. Also, I'm 53 years old. I'd get the shit kicked out of me.

[Q] Playboy: How many times have you had your nose broken?

[A] Scott: Four or five.

[Q] Playboy: Then we'll ask these questions gently. How do you feel about being asked questions?

[A] Scott: I find it unpleasant. It's very often difficult to express one's real feelings. Sometimes you don't even have a desire to and you try to be as honest as you can, but there are a lot of subjects you don't want to go into or won't go into. So often you find yourself dealing with scandalmongers. I doubt very much that I'll read this interview.

[Q] Playboy: That's hard to believe.

[A] Scott: I don't know what can come out of it. It's like reading a notice. I don't see that you can come out too good. You're going to be disappointed, you're going to be hurt, you're going to feel that you've been lucked. You have to; it's a natural thing. And you're going to hate the guy who wrote it.

[Q] Playboy: What a way to start--

[A] Scott: It's just going to be bad feelings all the way around. So why put yourself in that position?

[Q] Playboy: We're forewarned. However, you do understand that there are some areas that may be uncomfortable to you but that we'd like to discuss.

[A] Scott: I'm used to that. I don't promise I'll answer them.

[Q] Playboy: Your wife said that when you do interviews, she doesn't know who you are. She said you lose the person you are and become a bombastic caricature. Do you feel that way?

[A] Scott: That's true. I don't think I'm myself. One becomes very wary over a period of years. I've been misquoted a lot.

[Q] Playboy: You've got a home in Beverly Hills and an estate in Connecticut, expensive cars in both garages, a stable of horses, all of which you've earned from acting, and yet you have an image as an unstable, angry actor. You even discourage young people from entering the profession. Why?

[A] Scott: Because it can be a very, very psychologically damaging way to make a living. The rewards are very high and the drawbacks are extreme.

[Q] Playboy: Would you elaborate on the psychological damages?

[A] Scott: Some people think, for various reasons, they're in on a pass and they don't deserve to be there. It leads to tremendous psychological disturbances. We've all had 'em to certain degrees. The ones who have suffered and died from them are the ones who have had them so acutely that they couldn't cope. Those are the really sad cases. There's a high mortality rate in this business. Literally. It's always been one of the sad things about it.

[Q] Playboy: Do such feelings lead to guilt or regret about being an actor?

[A] Scott: I have no incrimination or guilt or regret about my professional career. None whatsoever. I don't feel I owe anybody a fucking thing. I've worked very hard all my life. I don't owe anybody.

[Q] Playboy: You don't feel, as Mike Nichols does, that acting brings out the childishness in actors?

[A] Scott: I don't think there is anything childish about acting. It's an extremely adult profession. I've always disputed the fact that actors are little children and have to be coddled. I don't agree with that at all.

[Q] Playboy: You once said that actors belong to the oldest racial minority.

[A] Scott: [Laughs] Yeah, that sounds like me. It's true, we are a dreadful minority. Racial is a misconnotation, but for hundreds of years, actors were no better than gypsies or mountebanks. You know, one cut above whores, and sometimes not even that big a cut. It's very easy to understand the plight of ethnic minorities, having been an actor.

[Q] Playboy: And yet you've often said that if you hadn't been an actor, you'd have been a madman.

[A] Scott: Yeah, it helped me in certain ways. Hurt me in others. It rescued me from myself to a large extent. I have a lot of self-hatred. Acting didn't cause it. Acting is, in some sense, a relief of that pressure.

[Q] Playboy: But you've never felt that acting has been a form of self-expression for you, have you?

[A] Scott: No, not for me. It's a form of release. That's as far as I can go.

[Q] Playboy: Marlon Brando boiled it all down to money. Are you as cynical as he in that regard?

[A] Scott: I don't know how cynical he is. I don't know how much he puts people on. I have a feeling, like so many of us, the old tongue is in the old cheek there. I can't believe that he's nearly as cynical as he'd like us to believe. As for me, I won't do something for money that I can't reasonably live with, because it's agony.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think actors are respected now, or are they still second-class citizens?

[A] Scott: They're worshiped and adored and held in awe, but I don't think necessarily respected, no.

[Q] Playboy: Are these the reasons you've had for discouraging your own children from becoming actors?

[A] Scott: I did for a while. I gave that up.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you have a falling out with your daughter Devon after she made the decision to be an actress?

[A] Scott: She's the one I had the great difficulty with, yeah. It became so severe that we didn't speak for a year and a half. It was a very, very unfortunate occurrence. Finally, we came to our senses and stopped that nonsense. I said, "Do what you want to do, I quit." I got off her case.

[Q] Playboy: Is she still acting?

[A] Scott: She's not in it right now. My younger son Campbell and my older son Matthew are interested. But, happily, they're both still in college.

[Q] Playboy: Will you help either of them if their interest continues after they graduate?

[A] Scott: No.

[Q] Playboy: Not at all?

[A] Scott: No.

[Q] Playboy: Not even a contact? A phone call?

[A] Scott: No. Nothing. No.

[Q] Playboy: Your publicist's phone number?

[A] Scott: Absolutely not. No.

[Q] Playboy: Isn't that a bit cruel?

[A] Scott: No, it doesn't seem cruel at all to me.

[Q] Playboy: You want them to take their own knocks?

[A] Scott: The quicker the better. I have a deep resentment of those who do help their children. Maybe that's unfair, but I do. That's the way I am.

[Q] Playboy: Are you close to all your children?

[A] Scott: I haven't been from time to time, but all six of them I'm close to. They're all damn near grown-up people now. The youngest is 19.

[Q] Playboy: Did you instill your values in them?

[A] Scott: Over a period of time, having gone through so many marriages and deserted so many children over a period of years, we sort of happily/unhappily missed that kind of thing. I am probably the luckiest and most undeserving father who ever lived. I've always provided very well for my children economically, but that's about all.

[Q] Playboy: So your children's attitudes differ from your own?

[A] Scott: Oh, my God, they are profoundly different, all of them.

[Q] Playboy: How difficult is it, do you think, being the children of George C. Scott?

[A] Scott: I'm sure it's been bloody uncomfortable for all of them for a number of years. I've discussed it at some brevity with two of them at different times and they don't like to talk about it too much. But I can see that it has not been easy for them at all. Even when they were small children.

[Q] Playboy: Did they get into many fights?

[A] Scott: One of them does a lot. But that's his nature, see. He doesn't take shit from anybody. It's caused him a great deal of difficulty.

[Q] Playboy: There are some children of stars who seem to have grown up sanely, but do you feel that most of those who attempt to follow in the footsteps of a famous parent get screwed up along the way?

[A] Scott: I think they do. The scale is balanced a little on that side. It isn't a question of success or nonsuccess. It's a question of how much scar tissue is involved. Look in their heart, in the way they look at life, at their personal lives. That's what I'm talking about. You can be the biggest star in the world and be very successful and blow your brains out tomorrow night. What's the best example that you can think of in recent show-business history?

[Q] Playboy: Probably Elvis Presley.

[A] Scott: They literally murdered the man. The poor bastard. He had guns, shot the television set, dropped this and that. You shouldn't die on your bathroom floor at the age of 42. He was murdered. That's why, when you hear me talk, sometimes I sound depressive about the business. Look at Gig Young. I loved him. Not a sweeter man would you ever want to meet in this world. Blew his fucking wife's brains out and his brains out. There's so many others. Marilyn is one of the classics. Torn, mad, tortured, confused, fucked-up little lady--had no more business being a film star than I have being shah of Saudi Arabia, for Christ's sake. No way is that fragile psyche going to be able to hold that. The assault is too extreme. It's the curse of the actor to continue to question how important he really is outside his own narrow scope.

[Q] Playboy: It's also the actor's curse to worry about whether or not he's any good, isn't it?

[A] Scott: Certainly, actors worry about that. They worry about losing their memory. They worry about losing their looks. You, worry about getting older. Everybody worries about these things, though it may be slightly accentuated in the actor. If you become psychotic about it so you can't function, then you're in trouble.

[Q] Playboy: Do you also suffer from a fear of failure?

[A] Scott: I think fear of failure is a terrible thing. It dogs us all. The fear of being rejected or misunderstood is something that we all suffer from. I'm no different. I have a favorite joke I say to myself: I could have been a respectable stonemason. That's half joking and half serious. A lot of the things I say are half joking and half serious. A lot of them are dumb, too, but there's generally a core of truth somewhere in them.

[Q] Playboy: Would you have suffered as much as a stonemason?

[A] Scott: Not if I had the same ability as a stonemason that I have as an actor. I think I would have suffered considerably less.

[Q] Playboy: Arthur Hiller, who directed The Hospital, has said that if you had your way, you'd like to be the world's greatest character actor and be relatively anonymous.

[A] Scott: I certainly subscribe to as much anonymity as possible. I have never had any great burning desire to reveal myself to the world through acting. I have a decided interest in revealing the audience to itself through character. I think that's the essence of art. I'm not interested in being the world's greatest anything. I'm certainly not interested in being the world's greatest asshole. I would like to have been, let's say, a very good actor. I've always been a character actor, even when I was young. I was never a leading-man type, never. So that's been my lot.

[Q] Playboy: According to Tammy Grimes, who was at the Stephens College Playhouse in Missouri with you in the early Fifties, you always knew you'd be a great actor. Is that true?

[A] Scott: I had a great sense of confidence about it. Always have, from the minute I started. The best way to describe it is if you're turning a safe combination lock and the tumblers click and you say, "Oh, yeah, the safe is going to open."

[Q] Playboy: Is that feeling still with you?

[A] Scott: I would say it has been dulled. Yeah, dulled.

[Q] Playboy: Why?

[A] Scott: I don't think those fires burn in me as they once did. I attribute that to middle age.

[Q] Playboy: Where you feel the tensions of both ends of the cycle?

[A] Scott: It has more pluses than minuses.

[Q] Playboy: Have you made a kind of peace with yourself?

[A] Scott: Much more so. You're in agony only ten hours a day instead of 22.

[Q] Playboy: Let's go back to that agony of youth, when you first decided to become an actor. You were in journalism school at the time and had only two hours to complete to graduate, right?

[A] Scott: That's true. One semester, one course.

[Q] Playboy: Which you never completed. Why?

[A] Scott: I got interested in theater. I never looked back. I realized that I wasn't a very good journalist. I rejected intruding myself on other people's lives. I found it very distasteful. It was painful.

[Q] Playboy: How many plays would you estimate you were in before you got your break in Joe Papp's Richard III?

[A] Scott: Between 1951 and 1957, I did something like 125 plays.

[Q] Playboy: Were any of them memorable?

[A] Scott:All of them were garbage.

[Q] Playboy: Yet you did win an award in 1954 that brought you to Hollywood for the first time, didn't you?

[A] Scott: That was when I won the famous East of Eden award, which, of course, turned out to be nothing. [Laughs] Solly Baiano was, at that time, head casting man for Warner Bros, and he made some half-asked tour of stock companies, giving out this award that had no substance to it. For some reason, I won it. On the strength of that, I beat it out to Hollywood and they didn't know who the fuck I was. I didn't get in the door. So I hung around there for about six months.

[Q] Playboy: Bitter experience?

[A] Scott: It was unpleasant. I was a little pissed.

[Q] Playboy: So, after a seven-year apprenticeship, you finally got your shot: in Papp's production of Richard III in 1957. Al Pacino was 17 when he saw you in that and he said he never saw anything like it. Is Shakespeare more difficult for an actor than contemporary playwrights?

[A] Scott: Many actors get incredibly self-conscious doing Shakespeare, but I've found that it's the easiest stuff in the world to act, because it's so supportive. All you've got to do is get on the train and ride. All you're trying to do is make it human and natural and not stagy or pretentious. Make it real. Jesus, the rest of the game is all over--you've got to win. The guy's so fantastic that the material will literally carry you.

[Q] Playboy: What's your favorite Shakespearean role?

[A] Scott: I very much enjoyed doing Shylock. It's an extremely cleanly written part. There's no fat at all. Very beautifully written. And it's so progressive.

[Q] Playboy: Are there any roles you'd like to do today--Lear, Othello ... ?

[A] Scott: I've never had any interest in Lear but have been asked a number of times to do it. Or Othello. The only thing I'd like to do is Macbeth, before I get too old to do it. I may be too old now. It takes an enormous amount of energy and strength to do it.

[Q] Playboy: Who are some of the more contemporary playwrights you like?

[A] Scott: I was very fond of Giraudoux and of Anouilh. They could turn a phrase or two. Miller I've always admired.

[Q] Playboy: Tennessee Williams?

[A] Scott: He's a beautiful writer, a great poet of the theater. Whether he still has anything to say, I don't know.

[Q] Playboy: Your first film break was being cast in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder, wasn't it?

[A] Scott: That was the biggest break I ever got. And it was followed by The Hustler, so it was a kind of very good one-two combination that helped my career enormously.

[Q] Playboy: You were nominated for an Oscar for your performance in Anatomy. Would you have accepted it had you won?

[A] Scott: Yes, I really wanted it. I became anxious and I didn't like that in myself. It wasn't that I didn't win. I felt that way before. When it was over, I said, I'm never going to allow myself to be put in that position again, of wanting something like that, just for what it was.

[Q] Playboy: Still, the accolades did come.

[A] Scott: That's one thing; but wanting them is something else. Wanting them is a whole different ball game. And being uptight and miserable because somebody else got a part that I wanted--shit, a couple of years of that and you're in the loony bin. It's no way to live.

[Q] Playboy: You were nominated again for your role in The Hustler. Do you consider that one of your better performances?

[A] Scott: Not particularly, no. I thought the work was certainly acceptable. It was so well directed by Bob Rossen and so well edited by Dede Allen, who is about the best editor alive, that I thought it was a very well-put-together film.

[Q] Playboy: When you talked earlier about being a subtle actor, did you have in mind your role in The Hustler?

[A] Scott: That was the whole idea. To under do it. Restrained.

[Q] Playboy: You never raised your voice until the end--

[A] Scott: That one line.

[Q] Playboy:"You owe me money!" A frightening moment. Is it true that Rossen wanted you to whisper it?

[A] Scott: That's correct. We argued about it for a couple of days. He wanted me to play it both ways and I wouldn't. I knew he wouldn't print it. He would print it his way and not my way and I refused. He got very angry with me.

[Q] Playboy: Why did you want to shout it?

[A] Scott: I just had a feeling. The scene had flattened out and was going to be dead and it was the most important scene in the film, because it was the climax, and I just hung in there. He finally gave up and did it my way. I don't think he ever regretted it, frankly.

[Q] Playboy: What did you think of Paul Newman's performance?

[A] Scott: I thought it was perfectly average. I hope he doesn't race his car down here and kill me: but I didn't think it was a particularly unusual performance. I've never thought that Paul was a particularly good actor. He's one of the sweet people of the world, an excellent producer. But I've never been a Paul Newman fan as far as acting goes. The only thing Paul's ever done I really thought was first class was Hud. It was a superb piece of acting, one of the very few times he played an out-and-out heavy, and he was marvelous. There was nothing of the old manneristic Paul Newman in there. Paul should have won the Academy Award for Hud. It was a world-class performance.

[Q] Playboy: That's what many people felt about your work in The Hustler. How trivial is it for you to discuss the Oscars?

[A] Scott: Just as trivial as any of the rest of those horrible old clichés.

[Q] Playboy: Well, we could move on to something else and come back to it later--sort of sneak up on you.

[A] Scott: Ask me now. Get it over with, for Christ's sake!

[Q] Playboy: All right. Were you surprised to get the Oscar for Patton after announcing you wouldn't accept it?

[A] Scott: I was very surprised. Very surprised. I never thought it would happen.

[Q] Playboy: Your beef against the award was that it required wheeling and dealing, advertising, solicitation, phone calls, telegrams, threats and bribes. But you proved yourself wrong, didn't you?

[A] Scott: That's right. That's why I was surprised. You know, the Academy Awards used to be a lovely occasion. Everybody would meet and have dinner and a few drinks around a few tables and that was that. It was an affair socially within the industry and, hell, there's nothing wrong with that. It's when they get so fired up and pyrotechnical about it. And it's that whole thing of someone better than somebody else. It's all ridiculous. I've been nominated four times, and I've always been very proud that I've been nominated. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the bullshit that starts from then on that's so awful. It throws colleagues into competitiveness. I really dislike that. People advertise and bullshit and it goes on for months and months. It's like the Presidential candidacy. It's endless.

[Q] Playboy: Since Patton was released a year before the nominations, why did you wait until after the nominations to announce you wanted no part of them?

[A] Scott: I didn't say anything, in fact. I didn't say anything when I was nominated the year after that for The Hospital. I stopped saying anything.

[Q] Playboy: You mean you didn't say you would refuse it if you got it?

[A] Scott: No. When I was nominated, I immediately sent my 32B form telegram to the Academy: "Gentlemen, I understand da-di-da, in the words of Sam Goldwyn, include me the fuck out, very cordially yours, George C. Asshole." That's what I said the first time, that's what I said the last time.

[Q] Playboy: But they apparently decided to include you in.

[A] Scott: That's their problem, not mine. It's their ball game. I just wrote the note. I didn't do what Marlon did. I didn't wait until I won the fucking thing and tell them to jam it up their ass, which I think is rude. As much as I like Marlon. I still think it was rude.

[Q] Playboy: Brando did have a motive behind his actions, though: He wanted to put an Indian before the world's largest TV audience.

[A] Scott: I think he was wrong. The important thing is, once I got the nomination, I made it perfectly clear that should I win the award, I would not accept it. I thought that was the honorable way to go. I don't think it's right to lurk around in the background and go through the song and dance and then, after they've given the fucking thing to you, tell them to stick it up their ass. That's bloody rude. I didn't think I was rude. I put it out very carefully in a telegram, and only to the Academy. I never put it in the papers, I never called the press, I never did any of that horseshit.

[Q] Playboy: Did you watch it on television?

[A] Scott: Sure, I watched it.

[Q] Playboy: Do your feelings toward the Academy Awards extend to all awards?

[A] Scott: By and large, all awards are unnecessary. I also think birthday cakes are unnecessary. I dislike empty ceremony. Ok, specifically: I dislike the campaigning, the advertising, the jockeying for position, the sweating on the aisle and all of that horseshit. I find it undignified, immature and self-aggrandizing. Now, that's the plainest I can fucking put it. And I hope nobody ever asks me again!

[Q] Playboy: The same year you turned down the Oscar, you accepted the Emmy for The Price. Since that was also a televised event, why did you accept?

[A] Scott: I caused so much static about the Academy Award, Jesus Christ, I couldn't go anywhere, I couldn't say anything, everybody was talking. I just said to myself, Just keep your fucking mouth shut, stay out of it. So I said to Jack Cassidy, who was one of my dearest friends, who was also nominated for an Emmy. "I'm not going to the fucking banquet. I know you and Shirley are going. If I should win one of the fucking things, accept it for me, will you, as graciously as possible, and get the fuck off." He says, "I hope you don't win it, you prick, I hope I win it." I said, "Fine, I hope you win it, too." I directed him in [a remake of] The Andersonville Trial and that's what he was nominated for. So, of course, I won. He got up and made a marvelous speech. He said, "Here I am, accepting for the schmuck, and I wish I was up here for myself." It was a lovely speech. The loss of Jack was a terrible blow to me. We were quite close.

[Q] Playboy: Well, now that we've gotten the Oscars out of the way, let's talk about the picture that created the situation in the first place. Is it true you were disappointed with Patton?

[A] Scott: Miserable doing it.

[Q] Playboy: You've said it was a dreadful misapprehension of who Patton was, that he was badly used.

[A] Scott: Yes, I still feel that. I don't think he should have been characterized as the insane show-off that 20th Century-Fox wanted to make him--which I resisted down the line. They went for the "obv." There is a comedy phrase, Never go for the obv. Well, they did. There was a lot of sweat and tears to get what humanity we could into the damn thing. I tried desperately to get away from the two-gun, shoot-'em-up, kill-kill-kill image, because there was more to the man than that. That was only one aspect of the man. They seemed to love the bullshit. They kept wanting to go for the buffoon. I kept trying to pull back.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you threaten to walk out on one of the rewritten scripts?

[A] Scott: I did walk on one script. They came back with a revision and I said, "I won't do it." Essentially, we got back to Coppola.

[Q] Playboy: Did you add much to the script yourself?

[A] Scott: God knows, I tried. [Laughs] I remember sending out 11 pages and submitting them and they were rejected. Certain scenes were flatly miswritten. I wrote a whole treatise on this one time for a book on war pictures. The writer gave me his word that whatever I wrote would be quoted in the book in its entirety. Of course, he didn't do it. He just chopped it up and took out certain things. I must have written several thousand words on the making of that movie. Someday I'm going to get it published somewhere. It says everything I had to say about the making of that picture.

[Q] Playboy: Did you identify much with Patton?

[A] Scott: No. I liked him, but I did not identify personally with the man at all. I think I know him as well as anybody. I never met him, obviously. I feel that I have a personal relationship. Politically, he was rather naïve, to say the best. Tactically, he was first class. Strategically, he was neglected by his superiors and should have been allowed to make his own decisions. He was not imbalanced in that area. It's a sad thing that those unfortunate things happened to him and his voice was not heard as crisply as it should have been. Diplomatic, he was not.

[Q] Playboy: His voice, through you in that remarkable opening scene, was certainly heard 25 years later.

[A] Scott: It's amazing how much that speech is played as a motivational film. People have told me they use that for executive sales meetings or sales teams; college coaches use it, high school coaches. It's insane, but they really dig it.

[Q] Playboy: It was a risky decision to open the film that way, just you and a screen-filling American flag behind you.

[A] Scott: Very risky for them and I've always admired the company for not taking it out. It was a composite of a number of speeches made over the years. It was well done by Coppola and it worked. Worked like hell. It still works.

[Q] Playboy: How many takes were made?

[A] Scott: We did it in two takes and all we did was shift camera angle. I was very prepared.

[Q] Playboy: Were you unhappy with Karl Malden's portrayal of General Bradley?

[A] Scott: Yes. He never really did anything but smile. Here are these marvelous moments where we were losing casualties all over the fucking place and there was old Smiley. I never said it to Karl, because I admire him. But I thought something should have been done.

[Q] Playboy: Considering the world situation today, would you like to see Patton around now?

[A] Scott: Given the fact that we could take 30 years off of him, Patton would be an inspiration today.

[Q] Playboy: He certainly seemed to have been to Nixon, who reportedly reran the movie quite often before making his decision to bomb Cambodia. What did you think when you heard about that?

[A] Scott: I'm always happy when anybody sees any of my pictures. I had no feeling about it one way or the other.

[Q] Playboy: Had Patton gotten his way regarding the Russians, how much different would the world be today?

[A] Scott: A lot different.

[Q] Playboy: Better?

[A] Scott: Sure, no question about it. The Cold War may not ever have ensued. And the Cold War was the beginning of everything we're sitting in the middle of now.

[Q] Playboy: What did you most admire about Patton?

[A] Scott: Many admirable qualities: duty, honor, country, and so forth, were instilled in those men. The most admirable quality about him was--I have to be so precise in wording this--disapproval of taking casualties. Almost fanatical disapproval. And coupled with that, his intense desire to inflict casualties on the enemy, which, brought down to the most functional level, is the only reason any soldier should exist, in my estimation. For instance, he once said, "The first son of a bitch who ever said 'Hit the dirt!' is responsible for more death than any other guy who ever lived." You see the thinking. Now, you may not approve of it. I may not approve of it. But I'm speaking of a professional soldier's outlook. His whole attitude toward mobile warfare is so profound and so advanced. If you don't believe me, read Goddari, read Rommel, read anybody he admired. Go back to Alexander the Great: Mobility! The ability to strike and keep moving, to keep the enemy off balance, to not become a target yourself, is absolutely, irrefutably profound in the science of military warfare! Few people have that quality. And he had it with such a passion. With regard to his personal attributes. I think he was a man of honor, dignity, and so forth, and those are admirable qualities.

[Q] Playboy: What about the things you hated about him?

[A] Scott: I didn't hate anything about him. I disapproved and disliked his flamboyance and his need to cultivate personal publicity. He actually curried it. There was nothing he wouldn't do to get his name in the fucking paper, to suck after his superiors to get medals or anything. He was blatant about that. But the combination in the man was so interesting. He had such myriad qualities. All I wanted to do was as rounded a portrayal as I possibly could.

[Q] Playboy: If you were to classify your film performances, would you consider Patton one of those for which you'll be most remembered?

[A] Scott: I don't know. I don't know how much I served the man himself or what he stood for. I really don't.

[Q] Playboy: You do consider it a good movie, though?

[A] Scott: It certainly seemed acceptable, I'll go that far.

[Q] Playboy: Are there any military men today whom you admire?

[A] Scott: I was always an admirer of Elmo Zumwalt, who I think is a brilliant man.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of politics, what is your opinion of Carter?

[A] Scott: He's a very nice man, but, Jesus, it's been a history of ineffectuality. I was in Hawaii, making Islands in the Stream, five years ago. David Hemmings, my British friend, said, "You know who's going to be the next President? Jimmy Garter. "I said, "Who?" He said, "It's all fixed, pal." I said, "Get out a here, you limey fuck." I had literally never heard of Jimmy Carter and I accounted myself some sort of half-assed aware creature. And, sure as smoke, on he came. Consumed the Democratic Party, consumed the primaries, consumed the convention ... and the Presidency! To this day, I don't know how he did it. He didn't even have the prominence of George Wallace. Unreal. I don't believe he has been capable. He has the best interest at heart, but ability is not measured by good intentions. He made deplorable mistakes.

[Q] Playboy: This interview will come out just as the voters are going to the polls, so there's no way of knowing now whether or not John Anderson has had any effect and thrown the election into the House of Representatives. Do you have an opinion on that scenario?

[A] Scott: Ok, he throws it to the House of Representatives. It goes back to the Democrats, doesn't it? We're all stroking the same click here. It's crazy. It doesn't make sense. I probably would have voted for Mr. Anderson had he not pulled that number appearing with Kennedy.

[A] That leaves Reagan. His record as governor of California was not such a bad one. My feeling is that he would really attack the problem that is killing us today, and that's inflation. Mr. Carter doesn't seem to be able to handle it at all. If we get to the point where the almighty dollar is worth the almighty nickel, we might as well cash in the whole thing anyway, because nothing's going to last. Inflation is the strongest and most ominous enemy we have. Licking the energy problem is the second one and maintaining some sort of credibility and strength in the world is the third.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever actively campaigned for or endorsed a candidate?

[A] Scott: I've always had a terrible ranting within myself about that sort of thing. Many people disagree with me, many of my colleagues feel that you're a citizen and should stand up and be counted. I've always had very strange feelings about that, that it's an exploitation of a kind of celebrity. I don't approve of it and, therefore, I can't bring myself to do it. I think it's a misuse of funds--a misappropriation of funds. You're getting sudden nourishment from the public and you're channeling it in a direction that may not be moral. Every time I get close to doing something like that, I say, You know you're not going to be able to do that, you're going to get a very uneasy feeling in your lower back and it's going to stink and you'll be embarrassed and you're going to feel self-contempt and pass. Who the hell am I to be telling whomever whom to vote for? I've no business telling anybody that.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you once vote for Nixon?

[A] Scott: Just the first time, not the second.

[Q] Playboy: Would you like to see him handling foreign policy today?

[A] Scott: His foreign policy was as close to being A-plus as anybody's we've had in a long time. He certainly could cook with those turkeys. Our problem with Mr. Carter is that he can't cook.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think Reagan would be tougher with the Russians than Carter?

[A] Scott: I don't think there's anybody who couldn't be. I have no brief against the Soviet Union, as long as they don't want to dominate everything, for Christ's sake. I believe in détente, in getting along, in not destroying the world with thermonuclear warfare. On the other hand, I think there's a point beyond which no one can be pushed. Not even us. I don't want to see the world destroyed, my children destroyed, grandchildren unborn destroyed. I couldn't give a shit about myself, I've had a nice life. I'm concerned about young people, about their future. I'm concerned for the Third World, about people starving to death. I think you're crazy if you're not concerned about that; but I'm also concerned about the United States. It's important that we cannot and do not allow ourselves to become so weakened and so strung out that none of our allies wish to be our allies anymore and that the world is slowly omnivorated by the Soviet Union.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think the arms race should continue to escalate, even if both sides have more than enough power to wipe each other out?

[A] Scott: What is interesting about the nuclear-arms race is that the Russians have managed to eat up half the world and haven't dropped a fucking bomb yet. We're the only ones who ever dropped a bomb on anybody. They don't have to. The horrible thing about the national revulsion against military power and preparedness that resulted in this country at the end of the Vietnamese crisis is that it has so weakened us tactically and geopolitically that they don't have to get into a thermonuclear war to get what they damn please! It's apparent in Afghanistan. Can you imagine the Russian embassy anywhere being taken over by somebody? Name it. There'd be 500 fucking tanks in there tomorrow. You know it and I know it and nobody would do a fucking thing about it! They don't kid around, the Russians. Certainly, we must all realize that now. They don't fuck around. They go and get what they damn well want to get and they protect what's their own.

[Q] Playboy: Do you seriously believe we will soon be in a world war?

[A] Scott: I think we're going to be involved in war sooner or later anyway, sir. There is no question in my mind about that and hasn't been for the past five years. It's almost unavoidable.

[Q] Playboy: With Russia? In the Middle East?

[A] Scott: I'm talking about global thermonuclear warfare. And I'm concerned about less powerful nations getting the atomic capability, such as Iraq. Those are very frightening things to contemplate, because the bomb is a big equalizer. One can only hope, to use that old cliché, that cooler heads can prevail. And that the war, when it comes--if it comes--will be limited to conventional weapons. I understand the Russians have a great capability of chemical warfare now. And we have none. We're scrambling. It's going to take us five years. But we have deliberately gotten ourselves into this situation for whatever reason.

[Q] Playboy: When the hostages were taken in Iran, do you think we immediately should have gone in militarily?

[A] Scott: My opinion was in 72 hours. It was the kind of thing that could not and should not have been prolonged. It had to be dealt with immediately. We, like so many other peoples, are not adverse to sacrificing people for what we believe. What the Iranian fanatics have done to us is beyond anything that has ever happened in the history of civilized man. All because of one senile zealot, who took the protection of France--which hasn't opened its collective yap--for 15 years. I see nothing Turgid-sonian--what a good word!--about going in and releasing the American hostages. At whatever cost.

[Q] Playboy: And your opinion of the Ayatollah Khomeini?

[A] Scott: President Sadat characterized him perfectly: Lunatic. Also, the man is 80 years old and ill and doesn't give a shit. What is he going to care? It's over. He comes out and waves his hand like a senile old fool, and that's the story.

[Q] Playboy: And yet he seems to have the people behind him, demonstrating at his will.

[A] Scott: My friend, if you had the situation he's got, you'd do anything to keep them from realizing they don't have any jobs or food. I'd keep them in the streets all the time and make all the effigies I could make, get all the TV cameras and the still photographers I could get, wouldn't you? Otherwise, they're gonna sit around the cafés there and they're gonna say, "Wait a minute ... who is that asshole with the beard here? Let's get him." And that's exactly what will happen. I hope he doesn't have the grace that the shah had. I hope he is turned up by the heels, as Mussolini was turned, and burned alive! That's my express hope. Now, unlike Miss Lillian, I wouldn't hire a hit man to get him. I hope his own people will turn on him, because he's done them a massive disservice.

[Q] Playboy: Among actors, are you alone in your outspoken opinions?

[A] Scott: Are most actors Democrats, is that what you're asking? Now that the Duke is gone? [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: Do your friends agree or disagree with your views?

[A] Scott: Seldom agree.

[Q] Playboy: And when someone does?

[A] Scott: I'm highly suspicious. [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: Given the perception abroad that U. S. power has dwindled, do you believe the military should have been allowed to win in Vietnam at any cost?

[A] Scott: I'm afraid that I think that's true, yes. It may not be a very popular opinion, but I held it at the time and I hold it now. I don't believe in fighting wars that you don't want to win. I didn't believe in Korea and I didn't believe in Vietnam.

[Q] Playboy: How would you have won in Vietnam? By blowing up all of North Vietnam?

[A] Scott: Yes. I would have attacked North Vietnam and I really would have attacked it! Of course, President Nixon couldn't do it, because he was under such incredible fire at home that he mined Haiphong and bombed only selected targets. Popular opinion had turned against the entire war effort. He literally could not win and he had no choice but to get us out of there. The military claimed then and I assume they claim to this day that they could have won it.

[Q] Playboy: Would you say that the soldier's death is the most honorable of deaths?

[A] Scott: I see no dishonor in it, let me tell you that. To skip the country and go to Canada I find dishonorable. To run out on your country and beg to get back in I thought was dishonorable at the time and I think it's dishonorable now.

[Q] Playboy: What about Hitler's Germany? Would it have been dishonorable for the German soldiers to have refused to fight?

[A] Scott: Not to try at all, not to go and see, is dishonorable. Many people disagree with me, but that doesn't make me right and it doesn't make me wrong.

[Q] Playboy: Surely, the parents of the 55,000 boys killed in Vietnam feel very bitter about what happened there.

[A] Scott: You're lumping and it's a had mistake. Don't lump. Many people are very proud that their sons died.

[Q] Playboy: Often, they have to be proud, since they have to live with that and no one likes to feel he's living with a mistake.

[A] Scott: I couldn't disagree with you more. Not being able to look at the truth, you're in big psychological trouble. There's the wellspring of neurosis right there that leads into much worse things.

[Q] Playboy: It's not necessarily neurotic to disagree about the truth of Vietnam--

[A] Scott: Let's look at what's happened, which is about the worst of about 12 alternatives, in my estimation. We got out. The disgrace that has occurred since we left the fucking place is far more traumatic and pervasive than any disgrace that we may have endured at the time. I firmly believe that. I sound like Duke Wayne, but I'm sorry.

[Q] Playboy: You're not fully taking into account what was going on here at the time; this country was going to pieces from within. Vietnam was--

[A] Scott: The Vietnam war was a direct, evolutionary reaction to the Korean War. That's something people don't seem to understand and some of our most brilliant political analysts refuse to write about. Our country started to go to shit in the Korean War, not in the Vietnamese war. The Vietnamese war was a unilateral continuation of a concerted effort that failed in the Korean War! And every one of our allies is equally responsible as we were. No one likes to look at the Korean War. It's the hidden war. The Vietnamese war is the degenerate war, because we had the Sixties and the upheaval. All our young people said, "Enough!" and went on drugs. The world went on drugs! I submit to you, the result of what happened in the Sixties may become, if history gives us long enough to view it, the darkest, most dismal hour in this nation's history. Not because we were fighting a war on far-flung shores, necessarily; we've done that before with other nations and come out better. The trauma of the Sixties, which is looked upon and idealized by people of your generation, of my wife's generation, as such a grand time, when we threw off the yoke of establishmentarianism and everybody let it all hang out and we tuned out and flipped out and fucked off and everything else, may be the darkest decade of our history, because that's when the country really started going downhill!

[Q] Playboy: So you think the blame goes back to Eisenhower, who promised to go to--

[A] Scott: No! I'm sorry. No. No. Blame Harry Truman, if you have to blame one guy, which isn't possible. But if you want to blame somebody, blame Harry and his fucking police action! Blame Harry and the MacArthur problem! Didn't let the son of a bitch fight the war. We've got 30,000 soldiers over there today as we're sitting here! They've been there for 35 years! What the hell is that? We don't have any troops in Vietnam, we still have them in Korea. Figure that one out for me sometime! It's a madness. Either get them the fuck out or ... you know. The dogface in Korea, expending his life, bleeding away for nothing over that crappy peninsula called Korea, did something to the American fighting man that has never been done before. Everything I've ever read, everyone I've ever talked to speaks about the inanity, the cruelty, the stupidity, the indifference and the frustration of being placed in a position that our fighting people are placed in, ostensibly surrounded by allies, and of being castrated politically, which is what they were--it was the worst single thing you could do to a soldier, and that's what we did. That's what Harry Truman did. His reputation and his soul, if there is such a thing, are going to have to bear the brunt of that!

[Q] Playboy: A lot of what you have to say is pretty gung-ho Marine. Are you proud of having been a Marine?

[A] Scott: Yes, I'm very happy I was in the Marine Corps. Yes, absolutely.

[Q] Playboy: You left home at 17 to join the Marines, but you missed fighting overseas. Did you feel, as General Patton did, that they stole the war from you?

[A] Scott: Yeah. Darn. Darn. As a matter of fact, I was lucky. I missed two wars. I felt very cheated when they dropped the bomb. I thought, Ah, shit, we can't invade Japan, darn. Which, of course, was dumb.

[Q] Playboy: Weren't you assigned to the graves detail at Arlington?

[A] Scott: I did ceremonial burials three or four times a week. The flag, the three rounds, the whole thing.

[Q] Playboy: Was it depressing?

[A] Scott: It was very depressing.

[Q] Playboy: Besides burials, what else did you do in the Marine Corps?

[A] Scott: Other kinds of ceremonial details. I remember I went on a trip one time across the country, guarding the eternal flame from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris. Just me and another noncom. Our job was to keep the flame from going out night and day.

[Q] Playboy: Did you get into many fights in the Marines?

[A] Scott: Yeah, doesn't everybody? When you're very young, you feel you have to uphold the honor of the Corps and that kind of shit, so if anybody says anything, you go pop! That's why I was always getting beat up.

[Q] Playboy: Did you know what you wanted to be when you left the Marines?

[A] Scott: I definitely wanted to be a writer.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you teach a correspondence course in writing while you were in the Service?

[A] Scott: I taught creative writing--about which I knew nothing except that I had taken the course and passed it--to Marines all over the world who would write in.

[Q] Playboy: Who were some of the writers who impressed you at that time?

[A] Scott: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner.

[Q] Playboy: What war novels did you enjoy?

[A] Scott: I liked From Here to Eternity, The Naked and the Dead, The Young Lions.

[Q] Playboy: Probably didn't care much for Catch-22.

[A] Scott: Not particularly.

[Q] Playboy: What did you think of Brando and Montgomery Clift in the movie The Young Lions?

[A] Scott: Clift reached his zenith in the picture The Young Lions. It was sad that those two young actors couldn't have had a great actor with them in that.

[Q] Playboy: You're referring to the part Dean Martin played.

[A] Scott: Yeah. It's a damn shame it couldn't have been a really first-class actor; then the picture would have been unbeatable. I'm not knocking Dean, I don't think he thinks he's a first-class actor.

[Q] Playboy: Do you still believe America's three greatest actors were Brando, Clift and Barrymore?

[A] Scott: Yes, I really do. It was sad about a Monty, that he wasn't able to fulfill that enormous potential he had. But I would still hold to that.

[Q] Playboy: Other than Clift, who died young, would you say that Brando and Barrymore wasted a good deal of their talent?

[A] Scott: Barrymore certainly did. Marlon may have. Only because his talent is so colossal. One would be hard put to evaluate how consistently one could keep up to that talent.

[Q] Playboy: You'll be appearing for the first time with Brando in the forthcoming movie The Formula, about a secret synthetic fuel developed by the Germans before World War Two. What was it about The Formula that so interested you?

[A] Scott: Well, the subject was so stunning and so timely and, apparently, from everything I can understand, extremely well authenticated. I went over the document material myself and there is no doubt historically that the German war machine was run on synthetic fuel because they had no oil. All they had was coal. Also, historically, there was no doubt that a pilot hydrogenation plant was set up in this country in 1945 in Brownsville, Texas, using German scientists, and ran until 1956, at which time it was closed permanently and the scientists returned to Germany. They were producing synthetic fuel at that plant.

[Q] Playboy: Then there is no doubt in your mind that the technology to make synthetic fuel is available and it's the oil companies that are stopping it?

[A] Scott: There's absolutely no doubt in my mind. I'm told that there are 300,000 pages of documents in German dealing with the subject at Texas A & M that have never been translated. Captured German documents! There's certainly enough room for a large-scale investigation.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think that will happen?

[A] Scott: I hope the picture will help spark some sort of bloody investigation.

[Q] Playboy: What you're saying is that big business--in this case, the major oil companies--has conspired in some way to keep the formula for the production of synthetic fuel out of the market place; is that correct?

[A] Scott: There has been so much revelation in the past decade or so I hesitate to grab a brush and start tarring everybody. All I can say to you is that I think there is not only room but reason for some sort of curious look into the thing and I would like to see that happen.

[Q] Playboy: If that is true, the reason for it would have to be profit motivated, wouldn't it?

[A] Scott: I believe in profit. Hell, I'm a capitalist. There's never been a bigger one! I don't believe in suppression of anything and if it's true that that has been done, then I think that we should be apprised of it. This is a subject that is vital not only to America but to all of our allies.

[Q] Playboy: Actually, hasn't Congress recently passed a bill providing in effect 88 billion dollars to develop synthetic fuel, and didn't House Majority Leader Jim Wright say it was the most significant piece of legislation of the decade?

[A] Scott: The 88 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket. That's just what Marlon says in the picture, or what I say to him. Where does the money go? That's the key. Who the hell rides herd on it? Where are the contracts farmed out? It's too much money way too late, and it's going to feed into more money. They're going to nurse this one for a long time. The problem has just begun, as far as I'm concerned.

[Q] Playboy: Are you satisfied with your role in the film?

[A] Scott: Yeah. Very good part.

[Q] Playboy: Why has it taken this long for you and Brando to act together?

[A] Scott: I have no idea. It's a strange business in L.A.

[Q] Playboy: Did Brando agree to the film before or after you did?

[A] Scott: After. After.

[Q] Playboy: Were you surprised when he agreed?

[A] Scott: I was delighted, but I wasn't particularly surprised.

[Q] Playboy: Did he memorize any of his lines?

[A] Scott: I doubt it. Over a period of time, he just got it from osmosis. He has a theory that he doesn't care to do that. I don't necessarily subscribe to that. It's interesting to watch him work. He's an authentic genius in his field. No question in my mind about it.

[Q] Playboy: What makes him so formidable?

[A] Scott: The thing about his genius is the originality, the freshness that he brought to acting. Just overwhelming. Nobody had ever seen anything like that before. I never had. And certainly nobody else had. Brando is in a class by himself. Been there for years. I can't conceive of a man who has suffered through more disappointing experiences than he has professionally. I'm not the least bit surprised that he doesn't want to work or that he wants 80 zillion dollars to work. I mean, if I were him, I would have told them to go fuck themselves a long time ago. He's been through a great deal. I wish to God he would work on the stage again, but I doubt if it will ever happen. I doubt he has the interest or inclination. It's sad.

[Q] Playboy: What would you like to have seen him do on stage?

[A] Scott: That's a good question. I would like to have seen him do some Miller. Maybe All My Sons a few years ago. Or even Death of a Salesman. It would have been a fantastic performance. I'm not sure how good a classic actor Marlon would be. He tried only once and he was quite good.

[Q] Playboy: Did Brando influence you at all as an actor?

[A] Scott: No. We're different kinds of actors.

[Q] Playboy: He's Method, you're not?

[A] Scott: I'm a rather technical actor. I was never very good at improvisation; it has never been easy for me and I don't do it well. I was never trained that way. I'm an affect actor rather than an introspective one. I don't expose either myself or my soul. It has nothing to do with me. There is nothing about my acting that is visceral or emotional. It's not emotional. It's contrived. I don't do anything that I don't plan on doing. I do exactly what I intend to do.

[Q] Playboy: Since that description would put you in a small minority of the major actors working today, is it difficult for you to act with them?

[A] Scott: It can be more interesting, frankly. It's very nice to work with people who don't subscribe to your particular style or your approach. With Marlon. I wouldn't want to do an entire film with the little darling, because he would drive you crazy, but I find him a wonderful man with a magnificent sense of humor.

[Q] Playboy: How would he drive you crazy?

[A] Scott: He is dreadfully slow. He thinks about everything and does it over and over and over. Marlon would improve all the time. I'm not sure about the rest of us, but he's always working at it, discovering the part. It's amazing. I just don't work that way.

[Q] Playboy: Did you get a chance to know him personally?

[A] Scott: We played chess together, that's all. Two or three games a day. We did not socialize off the set.

[Q] Playboy: Who usually won?

[A] Scott: Me.

[Q] Playboy: We take it you don't like to lose.

[A] Scott: I don't like to lose. Even to a master, I don't like to lose.

[Q] Playboy: Brando was on the set for only two weeks, wasn't he?

[A] Scott: Ten days.

[Q] Playboy: Does it bother you that while you spent six times as much time on the picture, he's paid more and is given a higher percentage of the film than you?

[A] Scott: I'll tell the world: I couldn't agree more. [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: That it does bother you?

[A] Scott: No, it doesn't bother me. Shit, he's worth every dime of it. More power to him. Everybody used to bitch when Liz Taylor got $1,000,000 for a picture; remember that? Christ, she could have gotten $12,000,000, as far as I'm concerned. It's only the brass that call it highway robbery--those guys who are making all the money off the picture.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of that, you've been saying you're quitting acting for your own peace of mind for years now--

[A] Scott: I keep trying to quit.

[Q] Playboy: Will The Formula be your last picture?

[A] Scott: I don't see how it could be. I hope not. The reason, of course, is economic. Unless I can really get stronger into directing.

[Q] Playboy: Do you feel you've made your mark as an actor?

[A] Scott: I think I've done enough of it. I really do.

[Q] Playboy: You're satisfied with your body of work, then.

[A] Scott: I never set out to be a pillar of the theatrical, cinematic community.

[Q] Playboy: Yet you became one.

[A] Scott: I don't look at it that way. There's a certain amount of pretension there.

[Q] Playboy: Has acting been a job more than a passion for you?

[A] Scott: It's been a job. Or a profession. I don't have any idea what I would have been if it hadn't been for the theater, but I haven't been flamed about it since I was in my 20s, and that's a long time ago. When you get middle-aged, the priorities change and you look for other avenues, other forms of expression.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever hear John Huston's comment about you: "My opinion of him as an actor is much higher than my opinion of him as a man"?

[A] Scott: Yes, I've heard that.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have any idea why he said it?

[A] Scott: I have no idea, except that we've had certain falling outs.

[Q] Playboy: Huston was apparently upset with your behavior toward Ava Gardner during the making of The Bible. He claims you struck her and "damn near broke her nose."

[A] Scott: That's not true, and I never talk about Ava. It wasn't true.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that your first real fistfight in the Marines was with a drunken sergeant major in Washington over Ava's acting abilities?

[A] Scott: That's the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard in my life. But, again, I don't talk about her. Don't ask me anything about her.

[Q] Playboy: May we ask you about that time in your life, around 1965?

[A] Scott: Sure.

[Q] Playboy: It's often described as the blackest period of your life. The London Daily Express reported that you were thrown out of the Savoy Hotel in London after a fight with Ava, that you were arrested and fined in court one pound for being drunk. The columnists had a field day--they reported that you followed Ava to the Beverly Hills Hotel and created another scene. It was around that time that you and Colleen Dewhurst first separated. Were you out of control?

[A] Scott: I would say that was a very low point in my life. Very low.

[Q] Playboy: Was it more difficult for you in Hollywood after that incident?

[A] Scott: I was unemployed for a while, yeah.

[Q] Playboy: Ok, getting off the subject--

[A] Scott: Thank you.

[Q] Playboy: Wasn't it during that period that you went to London to appear in The Three Sisters and were booed by the audience?

[A] Scott: Oh, yes. That was a colossal booing. They booed as one person, as though on cue. It was hilarious. Of course, we were all very upset about it.

[Q] Playboy: Why did they boo?

[A] Scott: They hated the show! They hated the actors, they hated the whole production. The chemistry was wrong. We had some excellent people and we were all totally lost. One actress mumbled: Kim Stanley, who talked me into it, you couldn't hear; and I roared and paced like a chained lion. Obviously, the styles were certainly conflicting. The producer went to Rome the first night and we never saw her again. Our little psyches were wounded there. It was a hilarious experience in retrospect. We went out and got drunk.

[Q] Playboy: Lee Strasberg directed that, didn't he?

[A] Scott: You could call it that, yes. That's the only experience I ever had with him.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever consider studying at the Actors Studio when you were starting?

[A] Scott: No, it never occurred to me. As a matter of fact, I resisted it. It just wasn't my style.

[Q] Playboy: Returning to some of your publicized incidents, when the play Comes a Day closed in 1958, you supposedly cut open your hand in rage and had to perform the last scene wearing a rubber glove. True?

[A] Scott: I did tear up the dressing room during that production. There was some frustration going on; I can't even recall what it was. But the other time I badly hurt myself was in Children of Darkness. I hit a mirror that was thicker than I thought. It was a half inch instead of a quarter inch, and that was bad. I went through the bloody thing and hit an artery. It was like fountain time. They rushed and got me some bandages and a rubber glove and I played the third act with the glove on, filling up with blood. [Laughs] Nice little frustration.

[Q] Playboy: The show must go on?

[A] Scott: A matter of exigency. The people would have demanded their money back and the poor producers would have been up the creek; it was my responsibility.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you also break your hand hitting some scenery during The Wall because you couldn't tolerate your costar?

[A] Scott: That's true, I broke my hand.

[Q] Playboy: Who was your co-star?

[A] Scott: A British actress named Yvonne Mitchell.

[Q] Playboy: What was it about her that drove you crazy?

[A] Scott: Just a personality conflict. Those things happen sometimes, and rather than belt her, I hit the joint where the two two-by-fours come together. Broke that knuckle, broke that knuckle, really creamed this knuckle. The doctor said, "Jesus Christ, kid, what did you do?" I said, "I lost my temper." I haven't had any altercations with an actor since. I've had many with directors but never with an actors since. I've had many with directors but never with actors.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't William Wyler fire you from a film called How to Steal a Million?

[A] Scott: It's the only time I've ever been fired from a film, and I sued Fox and collected.

[Q] Playboy: Why were you fired?

[A] Scott: I don't know. He never did speak to me after that. He wouldn't talk to me on the phone. I think it was personality. He didn't care for me. I didn't say anything to him. No point in dwelling on those things. They happen all the time.

[Q] Playboy: Among other battles you've waged was the film you produced, directed, starred in--The Savage Is Loose. You tried to buck the distribution system, but the film failed at the box office. Do you still see that as the culmination of your career?

[A] Scott: I still do. Yeah.

[Q] Playboy: Did you lose a lot of your own money?

[A] Scott: Yes.

[Q] Playboy: How much?

[A] Scott: Oh, God, it would amount to, I would think, $500,000, plus maybe $1,500,000 that I normally would have been paid, and perhaps $150,000 for my wife. None of that was ever seen, of course.

[Q] Playboy: So altogether, roughly, it was about $2,500,000 you personally lost. Did you get any of it back?

[A] Scott: We got enough back to pay off the private investors.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you rent a theater in New York for a year to show it?

[A] Scott: Yeah, and it cost me $230,000. [Laughs]

[Q] Playboy: How was the business there?

[A] Scott: Business was execrable, to coin a phrase.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't your lawyer advise against the project, saying it couldn't be done?

[A] Scott: He certainly advised against it, I'll tell you that.

[Q] Playboy: And weren't you going against common wisdom to invest your own money?

[A] Scott:Common wisdom; isn't that a lovely phrase? Common is very good. Yeah, I'm sure I was, but it's not the first time and probably won't be the last. I believed in it. I still believe in it. Essentially, it was a very good picture. I still think so. It's a very delicate piece. The notices were mixed. It was not a critical disaster, by any means. That's what makes baseball.

[Q] Playboy: We'll spare you the comments of the critics we've read about the film, but looking back, would you make the same picture again?

[A] Scott: I would make some changes in it, sure. I would put in some things that I had edited out. The key to the failure of the film was the lack of promotional money. You have to have enough money to give the picture a shot, give it a chance. I didn't have enough money.

[Q] Playboy: So you still feel that bucking the distribution system can be done?

[A] Scott: It's a very viable idea and it should be done by other independents. The problem with marketing a film is that there are so many middlemen between the producer and the consumer that you can't make a product and get it to the people.

[Q] Playboy: Your wife Trish said she thought Savage was a good way to be able to stay and work together. Did you feel that?

[A] Scott: Well, we certainly pulled hard together on it. We pulled like hell. There was almost nothing we didn't do. In that sense, it was most satisfying.

[Q] Playboy: She also said that you need to learn how to create a better environment for the actor.

[A] Scott: Listen, she has her opinion and I have mine. Just like any other artist dealing one on one.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have people around you when you direct with whom you feel comfortable? Good assistant directors?

[A] Scott: I had a great A.D. on Rage. One of the best in the world. The poor man suffered a heart attack and had to retire. The man I had in Savage has since died. Liked them both.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think you might have had an effect on them? The strain of working with you?

[A] Scott: [Angry] That's a dreadful question! No, of course not. That's a very lousy question! People live and die, pal.

[Q] Playboy: Sorry. [Long, tense pause] Let's move to neutral ground. How do you see the role of the director?

[A] Scott: The whole process of directing, particularly for films, is to make the actors as comfortable as humanly possible. And to provide them with some sort of intelligence about what your plans are and how they fit in, and then let them alone, for Christ's sake. The less you mess with them, the better off everybody is.

[Q] Playboy: You've said that you've never been directed by a director.

[A] Scott: Directors are supposed to help the audience. Good directors don't direct actors. A director who messes too much with an actor is wasting everybody's time, his and the actor's.

[Q] Playboy: How much of your own acting suffers when you direct yourself?

[A] Scott: You've got to lose to a certain degree. The acting would be the first' to suffer, because your mind is not on the acting, it's on the shot.

[Q] Playboy: Are you more comfortable in front of the camera or behind it?

[A] Scott: I feel a great sense of relaxation behind the camera. There is a certain kind of friction that is necessary in front of it. I don't feel that pressure behind the camera.

[Q] Playboy: In the future, would you prefer to direct and not act?

[A] Scott: I certainly would, yeah.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you accuse Irvin Kershner of ruining The Flim-Flam Man in the cutting room, claiming "Some of these directors get Jehovah complexes"?

[A] Scott: That's my quote. You've got it. I believe that something happens to them. They sweat over that Moviola too long.

[Q] Playboy: Does that happen to you when you direct?

[A] Scott: I think it probably does. I certainly try to guard against it.

[Q] Playboy: Did you enjoy doing The Flim-Flam Man?

[A] Scott: I loved doing it. I enjoyed the character, loved the location. The picture didn't make any money, but it has become kind of a cult film.

[Q] Playboy: So has Petulia, which Richard Lester directed. What did you think of that one?

[A] Scott: I thought it was an intriguing project. I liked the character. He was a kind of off-the-wall guy. And she was certainly weird enough. I didn't particularly understand the film. Very often we didn't know what the hell we were doing. It was a very convoluted script. And Dickie doesn't talk about it, which is probably good. He has a terrific ability with a camera. I was kind of lost. I think Julie [Christie] was kind of lost. But Lester--now, there's a man who had enormous promise. And he hasn't done anything, except The Four Musketeers, that anybody's ever heard of since then.

[Q] Playboy: He also directed A Hard Day's Night.

[A] Scott: Yeah, like I said....

[Q] Playboy: You've half-jokingly claimed half credit for Dr. Strangelove because you rewrote half the script. True?

[A] Scott: We rewrote every day. I don't take any more credit than anybody else. Stanley Kubrick, of course, gets all the credit and Peter [Sellers] gets the rest. But Stanley is very meticulous and hates everything that he writes or has anything to do with. He's an incredibly, depressingly serious man, with this wild sense of humor. But paranoid. Every morning, we would all meet and practically rewrite the day's work. He's a perfectionist and he's always unhappy with anything that's set.

[Q] Playboy: Weren't you unhappy, as well, with the ending?

[A] Scott: It bothered me a lot, but there was a very bad problem there. Stanley was right.

[Q] Playboy: The original ending was to be a pie-throwing scene involving the President and all the top brass. What was the problem?

[A] Scott: The assassination of President Kennedy was the problem, and that was a bitch of a problem! Peter Sellers gets hit with a pie and he swoons in my arms and I say, "Gentlemen, our beloved President has been struck down at the prime of life." What the fuck, you couldn't use the line and you couldn't use the rest of it, either; there was nothing Stanley could do about it. He had to find some other way to end the movie. It would have been so distasteful.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you pattern General Buck Turgidson after a real person?

[A] Scott: Yes, a business acquaintance of my father's. He was like Buck exactly. Had he been in the Armed Forces, that's what he would have been. He was frightening. Those people are frightening, obviously. And to make them funny is a good thing, because they're scary people.

[Q] Playboy: Do you often pattern your characters after real people?

[A] Scott: I used to do it much more than I do it now. That's the loss of observation. Dickie Burton said it one time, too, and I noticed it to be very true. He said, "I can't observe as well as I used to." When you're so concerned about yourself being observed, you cannot observe. It robs the actor of one of his great tools, which is the nondescript personality that can observe. It's just like writers who listen to dialog. Actors do it, too. I did it for years. But I certainly don't do it very much anymore. I'm so self-conscious in public. I can't go anywhere and sit down in the corner of a barroom and listen to the guy talking for an hour; no way. That's one thing fame does for you.

[Q] Playboy: What does fame mean to you?

[A] Scott: Well, we were talking about Streisand and she made that incredible statement I couldn't agree with more. She said that she had a terrible dream. Maybe she told you about it.

[Q] Playboy: Yes, in her Playboy Interview.

[A] Scott: Where she dreams she's lying under a fucking truck, crushed, and a guy rushes up and says, "Can I have your fucking autograph?" I feel exactly that way. I know exactly what she meant when she said that. Why autographs? It's like they want some sort of piece of you, and how many pieces are there? I've always been relatively shy and what I find most offensive is that many people assume that they own you. They also assume that they can talk about anything and you're dying to talk about it. I've had the most incredible things said to me. Unbelievable.

[Q] Playboy: What are some examples?

[A] Scott: Comments about your private life, one's personality, one's physicality. I often say, "Well, look, I don't say that about you, why do you get off saying it to me?" And often that starts a fight. They become offensive and then they accuse you of being a sorehead, which maybe you are. At any rate, I find that I've always been surprised by it. I don't know why I should be, because it happens over and over and over.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you once say you could almost see the guy's talons coming out of his hand as you signed an autograph?

[A] Scott: Almost entirely with women, very seldom with men. I don't know what inspires it. It's antagonistic, definitely. My experience has been that women are really much worse at that sort of thing than men. Usually, the guy has had way too much to drink. Most men are very friendly to me. Of all ages, strangely.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever tried disguises?

[A] Scott: My favorite disguise is a camera around the neck. It works wonders. And some kind of baseball cap. You can go for quite a while and get away with it. I find that people trust tourists, for some reason.

[Q] Playboy: What about people who try to meet you; are they also a problem?

[A] Scott: You have no idea the whackos that try to contact you. There're a lot of sick fucking people out there. Holy God! I had a girl for two years would come and sleep at night in the fucking woods out there. I had the cops, I had my lawyers, it was unbelievable.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever meet her?

[A] Scott: No, man, no way. I was old enough to be her father, for Christ's sake. In the second place, she was so ill. I got letters from her, gifts; it was awful. It went on for two and a half years. I had her parents contacted. It was horrible.

[Q] Playboy: Is that the only time that's happened?

[A] Scott: To that extremity. Before, I've had a lot of idiots. I used to get telegrams, letters from a guy who kept chastising me for not meeting him. "I was there and I waited a half hour and you weren't there. What the hell is the story here?" That kind of thing. Two days later, I get a telegram: "I will be at so-and-so, outside NBC, in Hollywood, at 10:30 and we'll discuss what we talked about last week," signed whatever his dumb name was. That went on for a year! Now, that's spooky, it really is. It would never fail, the follow-up telegram: "Where were you?" The guy must have spent a fortune on telegrams. This guy was holding these fucking conversations with me and I never laid eyes on the man in my life! And, Christ, I'm not a rock star. What they get must be unbelievable.

[Q] Playboy: What about religious fanatics?

[A] Scott: Oh, yeah, I get those. Most want to save your soul. Huge tracts of Biblical pamphlets. They're going to save me. My God!

[Q] Playboy: You mean groups such as the Hare Krishnas?

[A] Scott: Yeah, they seem like idiots to me.

[Q] Playboy: What would you do if one of your children told you he'd joined the Krishnas?

[A] Scott: I'd say, "Don't do it around me, pal. Piss off, because I can't take it. You're free, but, Jesus, don't come around here with incense and that bullshit."

[Q] Playboy: What was your own religious upbringing?

[A] Scott: I came from very, very fundamentalist religious people. No card playing, no drinking, no smoking, no nothing in my grandmother's house. We've come a long way from there.

[Q] Playboy: You lost your mother when you were only eight, didn't you?

[A] Scott: I lost my mother when I was quite young. We moved to Detroit January 1, 1935. My mother died November fifty of that year. Like the guy who was going to get hanged, it concentrated my mind. It's a great void in your life, obviously, losing a parent like that. My father worked like a dog and tried to be everything. He couldn't. He was never the warmest creature who ever lived. He was so harried and so overworked for so many years that he just didn't have the time. So I did feel a little lonely. He was strict. It's only been in the past 15 years or so that my father and I have been close at all. He's a very fine man, my father. He's got one ear and one eye and one lung and he's hanging on. I got him a place in Florida. He's very happy.

[Q] Playboy: Do you now see qualities of your father in yourself? Do you ever hear your father's voice when you say things?

[A] Scott: Repeatedly. I wish I had his voice! Christ, I'd rule the world! He has a magnificent speaking voice. I've always had a raspy, shitty voice.

[Q] Playboy: But certainly distinctive.

[A] Scott: Distinctive, yeah, but it's not a good voice. He was an excellent speaker, which I'm not. I cannot speak in public extemporaneously. I'm a nervous wreck. When I get up, I shake all over like a dog shaking the water off. It's terrible when I have to make a speech. I really suffer. Even if I've memorized it. It's worse than 12 opening nights.

[Q] Playboy: But isn't giving a speech also acting?

[A] Scott: For some peoplé, but not for me, because there's nothing to hide behind. It's as simple as that.

[Q] Playboy: Perhaps you should give your speeches in character. As Patton, for example.

[A] Scott: Arf, arf, arf! Yeah. I could do that. [Laughs]

[From, the picture window framing their 14 acres of property, Scott sees Trish taking the thoroughbred horse through its paces]

[Aside] She looks great bopping around there, her little trot.

[Q] Playboy: Why do you prefer the East Coast to the West?

[A] Scott: I love the winter, I love the snow. It's one of the reasons I don't like Southern California. Nothing changes. Here, God, it's different.

[Q] Playboy: Over the past several years, you've acted mostly with your wife. Are you most comfortable acting with her?

[A] Scott: No.

[Q] Playboy: Is it more difficult acting with her?

[A] Scott: No. I've had the experience of acting with wives. No, it really doesn't have too much to do with it, actually.

[Q] Playboy: Is Trish sensitive to criticism that she shouldn't be acting with you because you overwhelm her?

[A] Scott: You have to ask her about that. I have no way of knowing.

[Q] Playboy: Of your six films together, which has been the most successful?

[A] Scott:The Changeling, by far.

[Q] Playboy: Aren't you on record as hating occult movies?

[A] Scott: Well, it was kind of a little murder mystery, sort of. It certainly didn't have any green vomit, nobody was jacking off with a crucifix or any of that garbage. I thought it was somewhat more tasteful than the others of that genre, but some of the critics criticized it for that very reason. It was mild and low key; we deliberately kept that other kind of thing out of the sketch--people blowing up schoolrooms with their eyeballs. I mean, come on. There's a little bit of a jack-off in there and I never wanted to be involved. The fact that it had to do with supernaturalism is not necessarily my cup of tea, but I thought the other parts of the story at least made some effort to make up for it.

[Q] Playboy: When the two of you look for parts, are you consciously looking for scripts in which you can act together?

[A] Scott: Not at all. I look for something that I can do for myself and she looks for what she can do for herself. If it's possible to work together, we do that.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't Trish once picket the Hospital set because there were no women doctors in the picture?

[A] Scott: Yes.

[Q] Playboy: How did you feel about that?

[A] Scott: I thought it was the tackiest fucking thing I ever heard of and told her so. I said, "Get off my case, go pick on somebody else." The worst arguments my wife and I have ever had have been over politics or some social tradition of thought.

[Q] Playboy: Do you find that the best way to solve that is not to talk politics at home?

[A] Scott: Yes, and then she calls me uncommunicative.

[Q] Playboy: How does it work privately with you both? You're not really getting away from the office, so to speak, when you go home.

[A] Scott: It has caused problems from time to time; you're quite right. You're locked into the professional situation in the domestic situation. It can be bothersome. We think that if you can say something constructive at home, it's Ok to say it. Critiques at home don't go over too good. It's better to leave that on the other side. I certainly don't ever say to her, "Now, why do you do that?" I'm too smart for that, for Christ's sake, because that just leads to trouble, man. And she doesn't do that to me, either. We've dealt with it as responsibly as possible. We fight.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever seek professional counseling?

[A] Scott: Yes, we went to a marriage counselor three or four years ago. It was not my idea. I resisted it, but I was glad that I'd done it, glad we'd done it. He was a big help to both of us.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever feel that if your marriage didn't work out this time, it might be your fault? That it's something in your personality that's not going to let you live with one woman for any length of time?

[A] Scott: I'm very convinced it's probably true. I must be so difficult, so insensitive....Of course, I don't feel that I am, but with a track record like mine, something's wrong.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of your track record, do you feel it was a mistake to remarry Colleen Dewhurst?

[A] Scott: No, absolutely not. The fact that we didn't succeed, you know, it's like the President saying, "The fact that raid [on Iran] didn't go had nothing to do with my decision to make it."

[Q] Playboy: Are you still close to Colleen?

[A] Scott: Not as close as I'd like to be.

[Q] Playboy: With all that's been reported about your marital discord, does it disturb you to hear what people in your life say about you publicly?

[A] Scott: I find there is very little that can hurt me. I must have some sort of rhinoceros hide. Even inside, there is very little that can hurt me. And let me tell you something: That may be one of the reasons I'm not as good an actor as I was. Interesting, when you stop to think of it. A certain callousness has built up inside me as well as the tough hide you have to have just to get out and go. But even inside, I find I'm not hurt by the things I was hurt by 15 years ago. Not at all. I don't mean to imply that I'm a better person. I think I'm a less sensitive person, that's all. Simple as that. It would take a lot to hurt me now.

[Q] Playboy: Can that be turned around?

[A] Scott: I don't see any reason why there should come a turnaround. Usually, you keep walking, you're going to get calluses.

[Q] Playboy: But regarding your present marriage, do you feel you're easier to live with than in the past?

[A] Scott: Gee, I don't. We still have problems. It's not easy to be married.

[Q] Playboy: Can traditional marriages work?

[A] Scott: Traditional marriages do work. Unfortunately, they don't work as much as they did in my time. There is less a feeling of female imprisonment. It's probably a stronger feeling of male imprisonment in marriage. If there has been a liberation, it certainly has been for women.

[Q] Playboy: You've never been a proponent of women's lib, have you?

[A] Scott: I have never been a proponent of the cause of women's liberation to where it became a cause, no. If you're asking me if I believe that women should be free and equal, the answer is yes.

[Q] Playboy: Then you support the Equal Rights Amendment?

[A] Scott: I believe in equal rights. I've never known whether or not it was necessary to have a Constitutional amendment. I'm a little leery of that, frankly. If you can start amending the Constitution for everything, then it begins to lose some of its--

[Q] Playboy: But the Constitution's 200 years old; there are issues that need updating.

[A] Scott: I'm not gonna argue with you about it, I'm just trying to tell you my opinion. I think any document as sound as that document should be amended very, very circumspectly. Because if you're going to amend it over one thing, you're going to amend it over 25 other things. It should be very carefully done.

[Q] Playboy: What about the changing role of women in Hollywood? How do you feel about Sherry Lansing becoming the president of 20th Century-Fox?

[A] Scott: If they can cut it, why not? It certainly might cause a more humanistic approach to film making. Could be. It's like women in politics. Why not? As long as it's not Bella, or her ilk.

[Q] Playboy: You certainly have it in for certain people. What about David Begelman and the $10,000 check he had written in Cliff Robertson's name?

[A] Scott: Having done it to a fellow actor, he might as well have done it to me. He got off unbelievably easy, in my opinion.

[Q] Playboy: He's back now as the head of a studio.

[A] Scott: Certainly is. I just worked for him! I don't think he was properly punished for it. If it had been somebody else, he would have gone into the slammer over it.

[Q] Playboy: You had a few run-ins with the law in the early Fifties yourself, didn't you?

[A] Scott: I've spent some time in the old slammer, yes. Nothing very extreme. I never committed a crime. I never stole money or held anybody up. It was usually for fighting or being drunk.

[Q] Playboy: Do you remember those times?

[A] Scott: As little as possible, and I talk about it even less. I have no criminal record, you know.

[Q] Playboy: What about the time in 1954 when you didn't make an alimony payment and wound up in jail?

[A] Scott: My God, I'd forgotten about it! It's absolutely true. I remember I was sleeping on the stage and a deputy sheriff tapped me on the shoulder and we went to the pokey.

[Q] Playboy: With all your wild living, how has your body held up over the years?

[A] Scott: All I have is high blood pressure. I'm healthy as a hog, except for my eyes. I've never even had a swollen liver. All the booze I've drunk in my life, you'd think I'd die of cirrhosis. Never had a problem.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever been drunk before going on stage?

[A] Scott: I have gone on stage under the influence of alcohol. I'm not proud of it. Not very often. Usually after the play, I'd hit the bottle.

[Q] Playboy: You've given as your reason for drinking the expectation of failure.

[A] Scott: I've failed many times professionally, but that's not a reason to drink. There is no reason to drink.

[Q] Playboy: Doesn't an alcoholic usually have a problem even with one drink?

[A] Scott: There are all forms of alcoholism. I guess I've experienced every conceivable form. I stopped drinking for 16 months last year and came off again and I'm not happy about it. I'm much happier when I don't drink. But I've been drinking for a long, long time. It's a continual problem in my life. Maybe it'll kill me someday. I'm not particularly interested one way or the other. It's a compulsive situation. Maybe if I were out of a stress situation personally and professionally, I wouldn't need it as much. Maybe I'd need it more.

[Q] Playboy: Ever try drugs?

[A] Scott: Never. Never smoked pot. Never been a pill taker. I don't like to take aspirin. If you have an addictive personality, and I assume I do, booze is enough. I've had enough problems over the years with booze.

[Q] Playboy: You also smoke a great deal. Ever try giving that habit up?

[A] Scott: Eight months was the best I ever did and there wasn't a moment I didn't want to smoke. Asleep or awake.

[Q] Playboy: And always unfiltered cigarettes?

[A] Scott: I've smoked Lucky Strike for 37 years. I hate filtered cigarettes. I tear the filters off and the tobacco's so bad. At least you know you're going to get some kind of taste with a Lucky Strike, and that's not a commercial. I get so mad because nobody else smokes 'em but me. I went to the goddamn airport the other day and the girl's got 58 varieties of cigarettes--no Lucky Strikes. I really got pissed off. I said, "Horseshit!" [Pauses. Lights another cigarette] When can we wind up this lovely affair? We've got to stop meeting like this.

[Q] Playboy: We thought we were just getting started. We haven't even asked you your views on gun control.

[A] Scott: I believe in everyone's having the right to have a gun in one's home, to protect one's family. I couldn't agree more with the National Rifle Association. I do not see any reason why people should be preyed upon in the streets. I'm very propolice. I'm against police brutality and harassment. I believe in law and order and due process, but I honestly think that everyone should have a right to protect himself in his home. Particularly women who live alone. I'm tired of women being raped and beaten and murdered in the streets. Men don't seem to be able to defend women anymore. The American male finds himself castrated by a society. He cannot defend his own woman, let alone the women who belong to somebody else. It's a terrible thing. That sort of society is gone. Ok, then there should be other contingencies. The police, with all due respect, with all the best intentions in the world, cannot help the assault on women in every way. I'm certainly not a flag-waving feminist, but I don't see why any woman should have to go anywhere and feel frightened. So I evolved a system whereby the Government should sanction a weapon for all women who qualify. I don't care which company, as long as it makes a good weapon. It should be known as a feminist gun. The serial number should be the same as that of the female to whom it is registered. That weapon would be her responsibility just as her children are. It would never be fired except in a provable case of assault. If it is fired otherwise, she's prosecutable. Any people of bad character, such as hookers or whatever, people with a police record, would not be licensed to carry a gun, but every woman above a certain age should be able to apply for a weapon. It sounds rash. I'm sure there would be mistakes over a period of a year. Innocent men would be shot by women. Husbands would be shot by jealous wives. I just wonder what the ratio would be between the several thousand women who are raped, brutalized, cut up, chopped, stabbed and shot to the other way. I don't espouse vigilantism. I espouse somebody's having a right to protect himself or herself. If you're going to talk about whistles and the rest of that nonsense, Mace--we have to have a permit to carry Mace, which is damn near lethal--that's not going to do the job. It's got to stop. It's got to stop!

[Q] Playboy: And arming women will stop it?

[A] Scott: Make every woman a walking lethal weapon and it will stop. You'd be surprised how quickly it will stop! It may seem extremely primitive--

[Q] Playboy:Seem?

[A] Scott: But I tell you, 99 percent of the women in this country are responsible people. They're not flakes. They're not crazy. They're not drug addicts. I'll tell you what they are: They're terrified. Particularly in urban centers. Show me one politician who would have the balls to make such a presentation. He'd be thrown out of the party!

[Q] Playboy: Let's talk about the hard-core world of pornography that you recently helped bring to the screen. We've heard you felt that was your most difficult film.

[A] Scott: It was not an easy or pleasant film to make. Very depressing. Everybody got that way. The crew, we all got very down, because you can't spend that much time in that environment and come out smelling like Mary Poppins.

[Q] Playboy: Did you spend much time in porno shops, researching the picture?

[A] Scott: Only when I had to. I didn't hang out there looking at the dicks, if that's what you mean. That kind of voyeurism doesn't appeal to me.

[Q] Playboy: Did the film heighten and disturb your perceptions of that world?

[A] Scott: Yes. I'm still disturbed that those places exist and that that much money is being made. There's a great line that I thought summed up the whole sickness, said by the guy who played the porno producer. He said, "Look, you want to get into these movies, start small. Start with kiddie pictures. Kiddie porn." And he'd give it this with his hands, like measuring maybe a five-year-old child. To me, that was the epitome of this sickness. He was right, you see. And that summed the whole thing up.

[Q] Playboy: Were you satisfied with the results of the film?

[A] Scott: I had higher hopes for the film than materialized. Not only commercially, but I don't think it was received as well as it might have been critically. I liked the message. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe it had too much of a message and the message was too much on the nose. But the problem exists. Maybe it was too much lecture and not enough entertainment.

[Q] Playboy: What can we do about the problem? Can we legislate morality?

[A] Scott: It can be done and should be done only on the local community level. If you don't want to clean up your own back yard, then you don't deserve to have it cleaned up. Community groups and community efforts are the only way in which to do it.

[Q] Playboy: Should it be extended to the printed word as well?

[A] Scott: To the kind of literature that one sees in those places, yes. I'm afraid it should. I don't think the Federal Government should legislate against it, I do not approve of that. You can't deny anybody's right to write anything he chooses to write, but somehow I think life could be made so fucking miserable for the disseminators of this material that they would find some other way to turn a rotten dollar. You could really lean on them.

[Q] Playboy: What about a magazine such as Playboy, which is often sold in such places? Would you censor it as well?

[A] Scott: Oh, boy, you sure got me by the balls on that one! I'm not sure I approve of Playboy, and yet I'm sitting here doing this interview for you. I think it's gone too far. Every time you open a magazine and you see a girl with her finger up her cunt, I don't think that's terribly nice or healthful. I don't think it produces feelings of enjoyment of the beauty of the feminine body or anything else. I think they're hustling us, Mr. Hefner and the rest of them. There are other parts of the magazine I think are perfectly acceptable, but they press it too damn far. How much can we get away with? seems to be the philosophy, rather than, Let's make a terrific magazine that's got some beautiful-looking broads in it and stop somewhere already! I'm not even sure it's sexual. It can be very disturbing to young people.

[Q] Playboy: Do you see a difference between Playboy and any of the other men's magazines?

[A] Scott: Not much. Some of them are grosser and more extreme than the others.

[Q] Playboy: You made your own moral decision when you turned down the male lead in "10," didn't you?

[A] Scott: That's true. I didn't want to be in that kind of picture. It's done marvelous business and had very good notices, but I would have been uncomfortable in it; it would have been ugly with me doing it. I've been in a lot of pictures for various reasons. Some I wish to God I hadn't turned down, I'll tell you that!

[Q] Playboy: Was one of those The Poseidon Adventure?

[A] Scott: It was one of those dumb comments I make, like I should have done the fucking thing because I could have made a lot of money on it. But I'm just as happy that I didn't. I saw that picture.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that you turned down something like $8,000,000 to do Tai Pan, a two-picture deal with Steve McQueen?

[A] Scott: They came back to me the other day again, a year later! I said no thanks.

[Q] Playboy: But $8,000,000?

[A] Scott: But you know you're going to be miserable, it's not going to be a good experience; why do it? Life is too short.

[Q] Playboy: What other big pictures have you turned down?

[A] Scott:Godfather.

[Q] Playboy: You turned down The Godfather?

[A] Scott: I didn't want to play that old.

[Q] Playboy: What did you think of Brando's performance?

[A] Scott: He was remarkable in it.

[Q] Playboy: What else did you turn down?

[A] Scott:Dirty Harry. I thought it was too strong.

[Q] Playboy: And Eastwood's performance?

[A] Scott: It was typical of where they wanted to go with it.

[Q] Playboy: What about Death Wish?

[A] Scott: It seems that was offered to me, too. I would have done it a lot differently. Although I admired what Charley [Bronson] did with it, I would have tried to get him to lean in a little different direction.

[Q] Playboy: Saul Braun, in his April 1971 Playboy profile on you [Great Scott!], said one of your pet peeves is the highly skilled actor who "pulls back at the end and lets himself be used by the system." The examples you gave were Lee Marvin and Richard Burton.

[A] Scott: I don't know where they get those quotes, man. I have bent over backward all my life to avoid making comments about colleagues of any nature except when they're good. I don't go around bad-mouthing colleagues. If I can't say something good about them, I don't say anything, usually. How the hell would I presume to understand Richard Burton or Lee Marvin, for Christ's sake? I barely know them. I've never worked with either one of them. I find that phenomenal. Jesus, if I said that, I must have had about nine drinks. Because I hate that kind of comment. Certainly, Burton, above all, has demonstrated an ability and a desire to risk himself. You don't go out in Hamlet at the age of 40 and not risk something.

[Q] Playboy: What are some of the risks you've taken in your career? How personally courageous have you been?

[A] Scott: [Laughs] Everything I did was a risk. I'm always disgusted with the lack of personal courage in myself. Always disgusted. You try to be a better person and courage is at the core of being a better person. I've done a lot of things that I'm not happy with and that's essentially lack of self-discipline and courage. I don't like to dwell on it.

[Q] Playboy: While you're still down on yourself, how do you react to Joseph E. Levine's blaming you for expensive delays during filming of The Day of the Dolphin?

[A] Scott: That asshole! Jesus Christ. I didn't delay his fucking picture. We had terrible weather. Ask Mike Nichols whether or not I delayed his picture. That old cunt! What a remarkable claim on his part.

[Q] Playboy: What went wrong with that film?

[A] Scott: We had script problems before it started. Trish and I met with Mike in Hollywood, I had a problem and I laid it out for him and Trish agreed with me. I was very interested in the film as long as it dealt with the dolphins and the communication problem and that incredible kind of metaphysical situation of man reaching to his past. Where the picture seemed to turn a corner for me that I didn't like was when we got into blowing up the President and all the rest of that melodramatic television crap. I thought it was two different movies. In essence, Levine said, You could be right, but there is nothing we can do about it at this juncture.

[Q] Playboy: Let's talk about acting for a while. You distinguish yourself from most other actors by being anti-Method, by saying you're a cold, technical, objective actor. Who, besides yourself, feels that way about acting?

[A] Scott: Someone I admire greatly and who is an external actor is Lawrence Olivier, always has been. He believes that in films and television, I don't know about the stage, the eyes are the most important thing, and if the eyes work, the rest is easy.

[Q] Playboy: Do you find that true?

[A] Scott: I certainly do for a man like him, and probably for me, too.

[Q] Playboy: Besides those already mentioned, who are some of your favorite actors?

[A] Scott: Anthony Hopkins is one of the better actors alive, in my estimation. Hopkins is the natural heir to Olivier. I don't see anybody in England who can come closer to Larry. If Tony Hopkins can keep his health and keep working, he will become the Olivier of the Eighties. I very much admire a couple of young men in this country, Jim Farentino, Peter Strauss. Martin Sheen is a favorite actor of mine. Of course, Bette Davis is my bloody idol. I admire her more than any film actor.

[Q] Playboy: What about someone more contemporary, such as Jane Fonda?

[A] Scott: Ah, gee, that's really hard. I don't know what to say. I have no comment on her.

[Q] Playboy: Turning to the men, do you have an opinion of Warren Beatty?

[A] Scott: That's another one with no comment.

[Q] Playboy: Robert Redford?

[A] Scott: I'm afraid he's been trapped: Mr. Pretty and this terrible sexual thing that women seem to have for him. It's hurt him badly. He's very socially aware and conscientious.

[Q] Playboy: Al Pacino?

[A] Scott: I admire Al. I think he's done some marvelous things. Pacino has every possible potential for being a really fine actor. He's had bad luck in choices and he probably knows that. I'm delighted to see him back on stage. I don't care if it's Richard III or what the fuck. I admire him for that and I believe he has the quality of being a very first-class actor.

[Q] Playboy: Jack Nicholson?

[A] Scott: He's eccentric but very interesting. A unique kind of approach. He shines because he's himself a rather interesting eccentric. A very fascinating actor, Nicholson.

[Q] Playboy: Robert De Niro?

[A] Scott: I find him rather sullen. I would like to see him do something a little away from the kind of thing I've seen him do. I think the jury's still out.

[Q] Playboy: Dustin Hoffman?

[A] Scott: I've always liked Dustin's work. He's an extremely gifted actor. He can get a little mannered at times, but that's the only criticism.

[Q] Playboy: What about some of the earlier actors, such as Bogart, Tracy, Cagney?

[A] Scott: I was never a great fan of Bogey's, never thought he was much of an actor. He was a hell of a personality. I was very fond of Tracy and his work; he was an extremely naturalistic actor and got away with it very well. I always admired Cagney. I think my favorite was Paul Muni of all of them of that era. I learned more from watching Paul Muni than anybody else, although we're not at all similar in type. I liked the kind of things he did, especially those biographies like Zola and Pasteur.

[Q] Playboy: Do you recall whom you've called the only true tough guy in film and on stage?

[A] Scott: Mitch. [Robert Mitchum] Mitch over the years was as tough as anybody who ever lived out here. He'd go with anybody. He didn't give a damn. Lovely man.

[Q] Playboy: What about Burt Reynolds?

[A] Scott: I admire him greatly. The man's paid his dues. He's been around a long time, longer than most people dreamed. He has ability. He has courage. I just hope they don't work him to fucking death doing their shit. I don't know him personally. I'd like to know him. He seems like the kind of guy you'd like to know. He's not superficially humble, none of that stuff. Also, I don't find him oppressingly egocentric, either. He has humor about himself, which is essential.

[Q] Playboy: What about your own sense of humor?

[A] Scott: I wish to God people would give me more credit. I love to laugh, I love having a good time, I love jokes, I love fucking around. I think I'm funny. I think I laugh all the fucking time. Not nearly enough of that is written or said about me. I'd appreciate it if you'd put that in; I'm so tired of being looked upon as some dreary sicko. It really is such a bore. Most of the work I've done has really been comedic. No one really realizes that. The large body of stage work I've done has been vastly comedic, but no one ever saw it. The two most memorable things comedically that I've done onstage were Plaza Suite and Sly Fox and they were separated by about ten years. People are awfully astonished that I do that.

[Q] Playboy: Probably because you've played such memorable heavies.

[A] Scott: Yeah, and I'm going to go back to them. I've been playing Mr. Nice Guy too much the past few years. It's dull. I want to go back to playing psychopaths. I did it well.

[Q] Playboy: You're a good psychopath. What about psychoanalysis?

[A] Scott: I saw a psychiatrist four times in my life. Four visits. I kept laughing; I couldn't really get serious. The average asshole like you or me, who is trying to function, get along, cope in life under the stresses and strains, most of us were so romanced into going that route that it became such a fad and such a scheme within itself that it became, to me, hilarious. If it helps you, it helps you. If standing on your head on a roof helps you, it helps you if you think so.

[Q] Playboy: Tell that to Woody Allen.

[A] Scott: I have never been a fan of Woody Allen's. I'm sorry. Somebody closed the door on me there. God knows, many people say he's the funniest in the world, but I've never been able to appreciate his humor. I find him neurotic. I know him only very casually. Played ball with him once or twice. I never found him a particularly pleasant person, but I'm sure he didn't walk away thinking I was King Shit, either. As far as the humor goes, I find it so neurotic that it's unappetizing.

[Q] Playboy: What about Mel Brooks?

[A] Scott: Terribly funny.

[Q] Playboy: Who else do you find funny?

[A] Scott: Art Carney destroys me. Red Buttons I love. I've always been very fond of Jackie Gleason. Bill Cosby's a genius. There's nobody who can touch him. The guy kills me. He's not dirty. There isn't a blue joke, a dirty word, he does people humor and it's sidesplitting.

[Q] Playboy: How about yourself? Are you happy very often?

[A] Scott: I never thought that happiness was a particularly attainable state and if it is, I'm not so sure that it's particularly desirable. We all have such problems and feel such personal inadequacies from time to time. You can't go to pieces and stop. You've got to find some way to cope and go on. If I've learned anything, I've learned that, because, God knows, I've survived up to now.

[Q] Playboy: Ok, we're almost done. Just a few last questions. What's your greatest fault?

[A] Scott: I'd say that the plate is so crowded with delicacies it would be hard to pick out my greatest fault. It's scrambled eggs or the bacon strip. Whatever, I certainly try to avoid thinking about it.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think anyone has ever really known you?

[A] Scott: I think so. A few friends.

[Q] Playboy: What occupies your thinking hours most these days?

[A] Scott: I'm trying to write a novel now, after 30 years. It's going to have eight or nine books in it. I've finished two of them. I've written 450 pages.

[Q] Playboy: It's going to be your Remembrance of Things Past?

[A] Scott: No, it has nothing to do with me.

[Q] Playboy: We meant Proust and his seven volumes.

[A] Scott: Oh.

[Q] Playboy: Is this the first time you've talked about it?

[A] Scott: Yes.

[Q] Playboy: How many hours a day do you write, when you're writing?

[A] Scott: About five hours a day. I get very fatigued if I go longer. When I write, I write every day. Discipline is what is difficult about it. Forcing oneself to do it when you don't feel like it. It's going to take some years. It looms as an insurmountable obstacle. It really does. Dorothy Parker said something like, I love having written, but I hate to write.

[Q] Playboy: What is it about?

[A] Scott: It's concerned with the Mexican-American War. I own more books about the Mexican war than any other person alive. I plan to go to Mexico and spend several months next year.

[Q] Playboy: Are you ready to publish anything yet?

[A] Scott: Oh, God, no.

[Q] Playboy: Have you had any interest from publishers?

[A] Scott: I have, a half dozen so far.

[Q] Playboy: Have they read anything yet?

[A] Scott: No. [A flying insect enters the room. Scott notices it] There's a wasp back there! It's not a wasp, it's a bee.

[Q] Playboy: It's under the paper.

[A] Scott: [Folds a magazine, approaches the bee menacingly] Sorry, babe. [Whacks it] Murder strikes again.

[Q] Playboy: Have you thought about death much?

[A] Scott: All artists think about that, if one calls himself an artist, which I don't like to do. One thinks more about it when he's young, because there's so much you want to try to do and you're so scared that something will happen and you'll be chopped off.

[Q] Playboy: Perhaps that was a young bee. Do you fear growing old?

[A] Scott: I have no fear of growing old or of being a has-been. If the public rejects me tonight, I've had a terrific ride, a hell of a time.

[Q] Playboy: How would you like to be remembered?

[A] Scott: I would like to be remembered positively by my friends and such family as would care to remember me. Friends and family are important. As far as how the world sees me, I can't think of anything less important. Unless a person is some sort of a leader. I'm not a leader. I've led nothing and nobody nowhere.

[Q] Playboy: Well, we've covered a lot of territory, been through some peaks and valleys of your life. Just one last question: With all you've said about global war and violence in our society, is there any hope? Are you at all optimistic?

[A] Scott: You have to be optimistic. It's too easy to be pessimistic. What is it Faulkner said? "Mankind will not only survive but endure."

[Q] Playboy: "Prevail."

[A] Scott: "Prevail," thank you. Otherwise, you know, you would blow your brains out.

"I've been called a bravura actor all my life. I assume that is one notch below a scenery chewer."

"They literally murdered Elvis Presley. The poor bastard. You shouldn't die on your bathroom floor at the age of 42."

"I thought Paul Newman's performance in 'The Hustler' was perfectly average. I hope he doesn't race his car down here and kill me."

"I don't believe in fighting wars that you don't want to win. I would have attacked North Vietnam and I really would have attacked it!"

"With Marlon, I wouldn't want to do an entire film with the little darling, because he would drive you crazy."

"Kubrick is an incredibly, depressingly serious man, with this wild sense of humor. But paranoid."

"I cannot speak in public extemporaneously. I'm a nervous wreck. I shake all over like a dog shaking the water off."

"I didn't hang out in porno shops, looking at the dicks, if that's what you mean."

"I'm always disgusted with the lack of personal courage in myself. You try to be a better person and courage is at the core of being a better person."

"I never thought that happiness was a particularly attainable state and if it is, I'm not so sure that it's particularly desirable."