THI Sadler edit 2
[00:00:00] Conal: [00:00:00] Please be advised. Some of the movie dialogue in this episode contains mature language. The Hollywood Interview, William Sadler.
[00:00:48]Alex: [00:00:48] Blessed with one of those, "I know that guy!" faces, but whose name you can never quite place. William Sadler has become one of his genera on's great chameleons, which some would argue is the mark of a true actor. [00:01:00] The Buffalo New York na ve has amassed close to a hundred television and film credits since the late 1970s.
[00:01:05] But didn't really arrive as a recognizable face un l 1990s Diehard 2 playing a Nixonian ex-army officer whose nefarious plans to seize control of DC's Dulles Airport has only Bruce Willis as John McClain standing between him and a giant ransom from their Sadler, delighted gen X fans, and the hilarious sequel Bill and Ted's bogus journey in a very clever hat p to Bergman's Seventh Seal. Playing a Swedish accented Grim Reaper, but it was his appearance as the stu ering prison lifer Haywood in the Shawshank Redemp on that truly brought Sadler into the interna onal lexicon of recognizable character actors.
[00:01:43] Since then he's brought his stage trained skill set to a wealth of characters from doctors to lawyers, cops, and criminals, saints, and sinners.
[00:01:50] In In writer, director, Ryan Bliss' new indie feature. Alice Fades Away. Sadler plays a vengeful father grieving the death of his son and vowing to payback his [00:02:00] daughter-in-law for her involvement in his demise.
[00:02:03] William Sadler sat down with us recently via zoom from his East coast living room to muse on his remarkable career. Here's what followed.
[00:02:10] So let's start with Alice Fades Away I thought it was a very interes ng film. What drew you to it? Because your part is really pre y small, although significant
[00:02:19] William Sadler: [00:02:19] What I was a racted to was that character was the idea of a man who's wealthy and powerful and used to ge ng what he wants. without any ques ons, he's moved through life that way for decades. And all of a sudden he's confronted with something that he can't fix. He can't buy his way out of this. He can't. And, yeah, I just, I found that, interes ng. I found that dichotomy in a character, there's a humanity there that, as evil as, as much of a Dick as he is, I love it when a character has, there's a crack in them and you can see, you know, oh, look at that. There is a heart [00:03:00] there somewhere, So I th I don't know, I felt I could do something with it.
[00:03:03] [00:04:00]Alex: [00:04:50] You were born and raised in Buffalo, New York, What did your parents do? And more significantly, was either of them affiliated with the arts at all.
[00:04:58] William Sadler: [00:04:58] My dad was a milkman [00:05:00] and my mom was a mom un l my father got fired. And then she went to work at an egg candling factory and We all pitched in. My dad started a water bo ling company and we all worked nights at the water bo ling company and a older brother, younger sister and a younger brother.
[00:05:19] Alex: [00:05:19] So you were a working class kid. [00:05:21] William Sadler: [00:05:21] Oh yeah. very, we didn't go to restaurants much. We didn't go. We didn't go to the movies. We went to the drive in, remember we all pile in the sta on wagon and go see Liberty Valance,
[00:05:32] Alex: [00:05:32] you know,
[00:05:32] William Sadler: [00:05:32] or some. big, Ben Hur, there was some must-see movie that my mom would drag us all to. I think my only my dad was much of a was much into the arts.
[00:05:44] He liked music, which was great. And I got I got my love of music, I think from my father, but my mother really. A er they got divorced. And I started showing an interest in ac ng. My mom [00:06:00] said, do you want to go see a play up at the Shaw fes val in Niagara, on the Lake, right across the peace bridge, we would drive up and see plays.
[00:06:09] And we would go to the Stra ord Ontario and see the Shakespeare uh, When I went away to college undergraduate school at Geneseo, my dad insisted that I study that I get a teaching cer ficate so that I have something to fall back on was it was probably very prudent um, because it's a terrible. It's a terrible business to try to make a living in, he didn't want to spend all spend money on college and then have, Oh, you can't even get a job. which and fortunately I've never had to use my teaching my teaching degree, but my mom was always like, no, he's, I think Billy's got the, got the thing, So she said a er the first, most, the second play that I did was the subject was roses, [00:07:00] Pulitzer prize, winning drama. And I was 17 or 18 years old playing this, kid returning from the army.
[00:07:08] Alex: [00:07:08] Ah, so you play the Mar n Sheen role.
[00:07:10] William Sadler: [00:07:10] Exactly. and it blew me away. It just blew me away. I've I was. all of a sudden everything else I'd been doing was so much less interes ng, because the wri ng was so good, it just, I don't know how to describe it. I was learning things that I needed to learn as a man, as a person, as As a human in this world, the play was teaching me things that I wasn't ge ng a home and I wasn't ge ng at school or from my friends who worked on cars.
[00:07:41] And, you know, went hun ng for squirrels, it was like, it was , there was this door opened and. and I couldn't get through the door fast enough. I was, I just fell in love with everything about it from then on it was, Shakespeare and Chekov and Moliere and you know, one a er another,
[00:07:59] Alex: [00:07:59] Was there [00:08:00] one sort of epiphany moment you had as a kid where you knew you were an actor or was it more of a slow progression?
[00:08:05] William Sadler: [00:08:05] I think it dawned on me slowly. I was cast as in 1973, I was cast as Hamlet at the Colorado Shakespeare fes val. And there are very few rehearsals, like 20 rehearsals or something, and then it goes up and they pay you 500 bucks for the whole summer. And there's no air in Boulder, Colorado by the way. And I smoked. So that was that, And there was one performance where I had felt like I was carrying this play. I was carrying these huge monologues and, you know, soliloquy is out to the audience and it took so much energy and so much work. I felt like I was pushing this thing up a Hill un l one night. [00:08:49]In the middle of the play within the play, the scene, right a er that with Rosencrantz. And Guildenstern all of a sudden I let go of all of it. [00:09:00] and the language, the language just started coming faster and faster. he was like a, he's like a fencer and he's be er at this than anyone else in the room.
[00:09:09]And the language was filling me with this energy and this emo on that I was in turn abled. I was pu ng back into the language and the thing just started snowballing. play li ed off the page. I was hurdled into the next scene and then into the next scene. And by the, at the end of the play, it was like two minutes had gone by. And I realized what it, I mean, there was sort of this lesson, this lesson learned, you know, no one wants to see work.
[00:09:42] Alex: [00:09:42] So you were in the zone, as they say.
[00:09:44] William Sadler: [00:09:44] Yeah. It was the first me. It was really the first me that I was ever, I had given myself over to the words and the words were so good that they will just take you, they will launch you. And it was an [00:10:00] extraordinary ride and it was exci ng for me and it was exci ng for the cast and the audience. so I guess, I don't know if that's the moment that I decided I was an actor. it was one of the moments that stood out as a lesson.
[00:10:14] Alex: [00:10:14] Well, I think you've spoken about it very well. The movie, most people I think really took no ce of you in was diehard 2 that was the thing that sort of bumped you up to the next level. But as I was looking through your credits, I no ced you've been working for over a decade prior to that film. And actually remember you from a terrific TV show that was on when I was in college called Private Eye. that, Tony Jurkovich did. I thought it was terrific. and Tony Jurkovich and Michael Mann had that one, two punch with Miami vice and crime story. Then they tried to do a fi ies Neo Noir And for whatever reason it didn't take, I think maybe it was too intelligent for a lot of people.
[00:10:51] William Sadler: [00:10:51] That was part of it. I think Michael Woods was a central figure in it. he didn't come across [00:11:00] as magne c as engaging as, as you wanted them, as, a Bogart sort of character, the, the usual. but it was, it was great fun to do, and it was. Was it Josh Brolin? I think it was one of his first parts And it was the role that got me and brought me out to Los Angeles.
[00:11:19] [00:12:00]Private EyeAlex: [00:12:16] And you were based in New York prior to that, right?
[00:12:19] William Sadler: [00:12:19] I had come out to the East village. We had an apartment and then they offered me this TV show. To be a regular on a TV show. And, I kept saying, no, I don't want to live in LA. I want to live in New York. And they kept doubling the money. I kept saying no, and the money kept going up. And then finally, I was like, I can't do this. I'd been. You know, living on $8,000 a year and off, off Broadway salaries. and we had a baby, we had a child by that me. And I I'm going to wonder for the rest of my life, what, [00:13:00] what might've happened. So we went out and did it, and I think it only. It only lasted like one season.
[00:13:07] Alex: [00:13:08] Well, Now we, have to talk about diehard too. What was it like working on your first big Hollywood blockbuster? [00:13:14] William Sadler: [00:13:14] it's a bit in mida ng, to be honest with you. I, I was a fan of the first diehard, that blew me away. Like it did everybody else and Alan Rickman. I thought Alan Rickman was phenomenal. you know, funny and greasy and cynical and just delicious, really evil mother. I actually did the tails, the first episode of tales from the crypt, and Joel silver, The producer of the diehard movies was a producer on that as well. a er I did that first episode of tales from the crypt, they called me, they called my agent and offered me the villain. would you mind, would you like to come in and meet with Bruce? [00:14:00] And, and Joel and I did, Yeah, it was, I guess it was a li le in mida ng.
[00:14:04] You know what I mean? I was clearly I would, I had stopped. I had stepped up to the big leagues and then the F and then to find out I had a nude scene on top of it all.
[00:14:13] Alex: [00:14:13] Yeah, that's right. That's how we meet you in the film doing naked Tai Chi.
[00:14:17] William Sadler: [00:14:17] There was no nude scene in the script. It just said a half naked man in a hotel room doing Tai Chi. And I got to the costume fi ng. And there was no costume for it. And the director was there and we tried on all the rest of the gear, and we finished and I said, what's it. What's he wearing in the hotel room scene? Because I thought it was going to be shorts or sweatpants or something. And Renny said, well, actually, bill, I thought maybe you would be nude I don't know. I don't know how long I paused, but I paused. And then I said, push that scene off to the end of the filming. And I'll get me in a gym with a trainer and I'll do it for [00:15:00] you. So it was good. I liked the ends up. It's a crazy way to meet somebody. it's sort of a striking introduc on to a character that you don't know.
[00:15:12] Everybody else reads the paper and has coffee. He fights with 10 invisible people and rips their nuts off and then gets dressed.
[00:16:00] [00:15:21]Alex: [00:16:16] And, how was it working with director Renny, Harlin and the great Bruce Willis.
[00:16:21] William Sadler: [00:16:21] that was terrific. they were great. Again. I think I only have one with Bruce. I have the fight on the wing and I have, we bumped into each other in the airport. that's the extent of, it's not like we had tons of scenes together, but was terrific. very much in command of the film. it was his, he had his hands around the whole, project and it was great and rainy. Rennie was having more fun than you're supposed to have it? He was like a kid with the biggest train set anybody had ever seen. We were out on frozen lakes in Moses Lake [00:17:00] Washington and, Breckenridge, Colorado three in the morning. And he had these giant lights that lit up the en re mountain side and dozens of trucks and equipment, And was just this massive circus of equipment and people and so on. We were all bundled up because it was freezing, freezing cold, and he's si ng there with his feet up, um, another chair he's in a director's chair and he just leaned over to me and said, It's pre y fun. Isn't it? Yeah. And Steve and Joel silver is ripping his hair out. Cause this is it's cos ng too much. And we're way over, we're over budget and we can't find the snow. And, we, I think we went to five or six different places looking for snow. Um, Sue Saint Marie, Michigan and Lake Tahoe. And Alpina Michigan. We kept piling into this plane that. Joel silver had [00:18:00] rented and painted was the plane we used in the movie. and he would fly us to, Denver, and then, you know, all over that it was impressive. It was, I was, I had to take deep breaths and to. Remind myself that this character has the gravitas to stand up in the wind. it would be easy to get in midated by all of that nonsense.
[00:18:24]Alex: [00:18:24] Not long a er that you got to work with one of my heroes, Dennis Hopper, on The Hotspot. How was it working with Dennis
[00:18:30] William Sadler: [00:18:30] he was a great, it was great for an actor. he took me under his wing, and he kept asking, Hey, my homework for, from him was to watch giant. Over and over again, watch James Dean in giant for your character. and so I did, for the accent for the, the way he moved, the way he dealt with people. jet, what was his name?
[00:18:57] Alex: [00:18:57] And
[00:18:57] William Sadler: [00:18:57] he was fantas c. there was a [00:19:00] moment when, Don Johnson. And Dennis started to bu heads because Dennis wanted to Dennis kept wan ng to shoot these long, long, long, long takes 10 minute takes. Where the car pulls in and we racked to the girl and the car comes around. Then we swing around to the door and I come in the door and we do the whole scene and we haven't cut yet. We haven't cut yet. and then I leave and get in the car and drive away and we s ll haven't cut that wasn't how he wanted to work. he wanted to be able to get scissors in there and, to shoot master media, medium closeup we're out of here, you know, cause these big long things take a lot of rehearsal, including the fights, by the way, these long, huge fights where I would take the hit and fall behind the couch and, or the stuntman and fall behind the couch. And I would stand up from behind the couch, as if I had just been hit, And carry on the fight, the [00:20:00] incredibly deep, complicated li le dances and they, so they bu ed heads about it.
[00:20:04] And finally, at one point they stopped talking to each other. I mean huge, huge fights. I remember hearing, I remember hearing Dennis screaming in the dead of night. I was back in my trailer and I heard Dennis say fine. Let's just make some fucking television.
[00:20:24]Hotspot
[00:20:24] [00:21:00]Alex: [00:21:10] I got to be friendly with the director, John Frankenheimer toward the end of his life. And he had a very tough me with Don Johnson on a film they did called dead bang and said almost exactly what you're saying.
[00:21:22] William Sadler: [00:21:22] I had a scene with Don and Don. He stopped talking to Dennis and then he stopped talking to everybody, me, everybody. And then we had a scene in a car. I had a gun. I had a gun on him or something and was a er the big fight. and I got in the car and before we started filming, we're both wired by the way, we both miked. And, uh, Dennis was si ng there listening to all this and I got in the car and said, good morning, Don, and nothing. I said, Yeah. Do you want to run the words or [00:22:00] nothing? And Don Johnson's a big actor, that's the biggest he ever it's the biggest he has ever been. I think coming off of a Miami vice and this went on and I was like, fuck, this isn't going well. and I had to be the one who was. in his face with the gun. And Dennis took me aside and said, bill, you have the gun in your hand, you have the upper hand here. I was, and that's all I needed. and we did the scene. and they, in those days they would take the dailies and send them to Los Angeles. And they would be developed and they'd make a print and send it back to Texas. [00:22:47] And Dennis insisted that the actors watch the dailies. he felt, this is your cra . You should, you should see what your, you should be aware of what you're doing. So I watched the scene, there's Dennis and, Don and Watch the [00:23:00] scene and it was finished and I thought, okay. And I le and as I'm walking out, Dennis said, good job. And Don said, good job. And that was it. I le , and got went back to the hotel and, a few minutes later, Dennis came running up from the parking garage. just wanted to tell you, you were fucking great in that scene. You were great. You made him look like a fucking piece of wood. I couldn't say anything because I'm si ng next to a God damn television star.
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[00:24:18]And now back to the Hollywood interview.
[00:24:21]
[00:24:21] Alex: [00:24:21] We have to talk now about bill and Ted's bogus journey because none of our gen X listeners will ever forgive me. If I don't, I actually went in expec ng to hate it. and I was blown away because it was even be er and funnier than the original. They obviously realized people who really loved the first one were smart people who appreciate sa re. And the fact that you played your part as death from the seventh seal by Bergman, I was like, Oh my God, this is genius.
[00:24:45] William Sadler: [00:24:45] I had played villain a er villain a er villain, and it was a chance to be funny, it was the chance to be silly, genuinely silly and create this larger than life, character. Uh, and it was kind of a great [00:25:00] transi on because he starts out being a scary dude. when you first see him, he's like, Oh, you know, Oh shit, That's, that's, they're dead, they've been murdered. they're in trouble. And then of course he falls apart and becomes his petulant, spoiled, sore loser, all the rest of those great colors. I said, plum, and then it's really, it's a really nice, nicely wri en arc too, by the end of it, he just wants to be one of the guys, you know, he's just, uh, he's sort of needy and what about my, but, no, I had a ball with, I just had a ball with that one.
[00:25:40]Bill And Ted's Bogus journey
[00:25:40]
[00:25:40] [00:27:00] [00:26:00]Alex: [00:27:04] I know the Swedish actor who played death bent . And I'm really apologize if I mispronounced that had died by the me that film came out. but do you know, did Bergmann or max von CDOT ever see the film? [00:27:17] William Sadler: [00:27:17] no, I don't know. I don't hope so. That would be nice to think that they might've go en a giggle out of that. If they had.
[00:27:28] Alex: [00:27:28] Now we come to Shawshank redemp on. I remember reading the Stephen King novella in college and thinking that man, this would make a great movie. And then when I saw the Frank Darabont, who I think his only previous credit was a nightmare on Elm street movie was doing a film adapta on. I thought, Oh God, they're going to screw it up. Like so many adapta ons are especially King adapta ons, but then frank's work exceeded Stephen King's already. Great. And avella did you guys all know that you were doing something special while you were shoo ng it?
[00:27:58] William Sadler: [00:27:58] I think we all knew how [00:28:00] this was a really strong story. This was a really strong, a great story, a great ride. I don't, I honestly don't think any of us realized at the me that it was gonna, people said to me, a er we, a er it opened, I said, wow, that's a classic. and I said, no, not yet. 20 years. let's give it a few years and sure enough, it just keeps, uh, Frank said to me, one me we've only talked about it a few mes. It was an summer. It was like 11 weeks. It took us to film that. and he feels like he caught lightning in a bo le. that there was so many, you can plan and draw, you know, screen, you know, make all the plans and prepara on and what have you that you want. the second you get out there on the [00:29:00] set, things change, the sun goes behind the clouds and this actor is doing it that way. And, Haywood has a Haywood has a slight stu er that wasn't in the
[00:29:14] Alex: [00:29:14] Well, now that's really interes ng. Was that your idea or was that Frank's ?
[00:29:17] William Sadler: [00:29:17] No, that was mine. In fact, he asked me not to, I wanted to so en him just a li le, I thought it, Well, my, my view of the character was that he wasn't the brightest tool on the bench. I just, I thought it so ened him. I thought it humanized him. it made him a li le more human. He gets, He makes the bet that gets fat ass killed. And then he's apparently, you know, Tim Robbins says, we, you know, what was his name? He said, who the fuck cares? What his name was?
[00:29:48] Shawshank: [00:29:48] as that horse doing anyway, did pre y good. Doc had already gone home for the night for fast lead there to this moment. [00:30:00] I didn't have it. Wasn't nothing we could do.
[00:30:09] What was his name?
[00:30:14] What'd you say? I was just wondering if anyone knew his name. Fuck. Do you care? New fish? Then fucking ma er what his name was. He's dead.
[00:30:28]William Sadler: [00:30:28] It's a cold, cold. response, and I decided to play it that he didn't mean to get the guy killed, and that defensive, who the fuck cares what his name was, he's dead.
[00:30:42]I mean there's ways to play that. And then, and. I tried to make it that he didn't mean to kill him. And these are the, you know, he's not, he's not, uh, just a. completely dark character. [00:30:54] Alex: [00:30:54] And it came out in that moment when you said no, no, no, no. Shut up, shut up, shut up.
[00:30:58] William Sadler: [00:30:58] Exactly. I added that. [00:31:00] That's not in the script. I got him to squeal. I got a nose or whatever I say. And then he, he keeps on blubbering. And here comes Hedley and I, and I shut up, shut up, shut up, you know, like, come on, Shawshank - By a nose
[00:31:19]Shawshank: [00:31:19] Let's play this. Ain't so bad. Tell you what I'll introduce you around, make you feel right at home. I know a couple of big old bull queers and just loved to make your acquaintance. Firstly, that big white mushy buddies. I don't belong here. We have. Bad ass by a nose fierce to go home [00:32:00] while my mother, what that crisis is happy horse shit. And tell him, you'll be telling them about my bed tonight. Got a li le bit out of here. What is your mouth punching you? Fat barrel. A monkey spunk, please. It's supposed to be here. Not me. I ain't going to count to three. I'm not even going to count to one. You was shut up, fucked up or I'll sing you a lullaby.
[00:32:33] You don't understand.
[00:32:46]William Sadler: [00:32:46] I didn't mean to get him killed was the undercurrent, you know, I wanted to win all the cigare es. I didn't mean to get your head bashed in
[00:32:55] Alex: [00:32:55] And the other moment I was thinking is when the James Whitmore character brooks had [00:33:00] the sharpen screwdriver to your neck,
[00:33:01] William Sadler: [00:33:01] funding. You men oned that moment because the, uh, James Whitmore was terrified of. Hur ng me with that knife. He was, he, he didn't want to do it. He, he kept Frank wanted him to put the point against my skin and they put a li le fake blood there. And, and Whitmore was just in a, he, he didn't, he was in a panic about, I don't want to hurt him. I, I don't want to hurt him, but you know, he could get hurt doing this. I don't want, and the knife was, it was so Dell, you couldn't, you could saw yourself. [00:34:00]
[00:34:39] Alex: [00:34:39] tell us about working with Frank Darabont.
[00:34:41] William Sadler: [00:34:41] Frank Bond was an extraordinary talent and his, his knowledge of the history of Hollywood, the movies. he's one of, one of my favorite things that he did was he used to, he used to invite friends and [00:35:00] friends and families, people that he'd worked with, he would do screenings of great movies on big screens.
[00:35:07]My favorite one was he did sunset Boulevard. At the Egyp an theater, on Hollywood Boulevard and he invited, he was sent a car to bring Billy Wilder to the theater, to watch sunset Boulevard on the big screen with a big audience for the first me in, I don't know how many decades it had been, you know?
[00:35:32]And that was Frank that's, you know, he just has such a reverence and, uh, you know, just this abiding love for, for movies, for the movies. and I, and you can, you can feel it, you can, when you watch his films he's, uh, he explained to me one me when we're doing the mist, that Shawshank was sort of like an orchestra. every, the movement of the camera was all planned. the tracks were laid, every shot was planned. The blocking was done ahead [00:36:00] of me and so on. by the me he got to the mist, I guess I did the green mile between those two. Anyway, by the me he got to the mist, he had, he was doing jazz. He said,
[00:36:12] Alex: [00:36:12] That's very interes ng.
[00:36:13] William Sadler: [00:36:13] he had done some medicine episodes of the wire and he found these camera guys that could the two guys roaming around and grabbing shots and angles and interes ng, you know, uh, like the, conversa on was ge ng covered, But it wasn't, you know, nothing was planned and it all looked organic and, the movement of the camera gave it energy as well. and that's how, and that's how he had approached, the mist.
[00:36:41] Alex: [00:36:41] That's another one where I thought he took an already terrific story and opened it up and improved on it. How does he like to work with his actors to see a cast? Well, and get out of the way type director or does he like to talk,
[00:36:52] William Sadler: [00:36:52] he said he sets up the scenes and then gives you. All the room that you [00:37:00] need to go far and you'll go, you'll go a certain distance emo onally. And he'll say, well, let's, you know, let's. Let's let's take it a li le further. Let's, we'll play, let's play with that. Let's go a li le further. And, and my impression of it was that he, he wouldn't walk away from a scene un l he had rung every ounce of emo on out of the people in the scene, that could, you know, every, every moment, every drop of. Anything you could give him was going to get given and delivered and then he could, and then he would step away.
[00:37:39] But, but he casts, he casts well, he casts ensembles, which is that's what Shawshank was. There were, you know, you could aim the camera anywhere, anywhere on that table. You always felt like, everybody brought their a game And you're si ng across the table from Morgan Freeman. And Tim [00:38:00] Robbins is over there and James Whitmore is right next to you and say, no one wants to drop the ball. you're, you're also ac ng for all of these wonderful actors. You're listening with. You're listening with every fiber you have. and, and, and I think it shows, I think everybody, everybody played the whole game,
[00:38:20] Alex: [00:38:20] speaking of Shawshank, specifically your group of guys. You all seem to have this very easy kind of shorthand with one another where you could really feel these guys had each other's backs for a long me. Did you actually get to be close with the group? Did all of you form a bond?
[00:38:34] William Sadler: [00:38:34] we did funny, that's the only movie I've ever done. Where they brought us all together to rehearse on the set in the prison. And the reason they did that was because he wanted, he wanted those rela onships. He wanted all those li le threads going back and forth as if these guys had been together for 19 years [00:39:00] and all that, you know, all of that li le unspoken by play and winks and, And that's what, and, he asked for it he's he wanted it, he asked us for it and he brought us together deliberately to create it and he got it. we also shot it in sequence. Because mostly, I think because of the way everybody had to age at the same rate, everybody got older as the movie went on and, it was just easier than jumping back and forth, you know, jumping to the end and then going back and, Oh, wait a minute. Your hair was this way or but that li le bit byplay among the guys was deliberate and Frank insisted on it. [00:39:45] Alex: [00:39:45] I thought you were terrific in the pacific. It was an amazing mini series and it was also a Steven Spielberg led produc on. So, I mean, It must've been again, like being in a big Hollywood Epic feature in many ways.
[00:39:57]William Sadler: [00:39:57] Right. It was handled like a feature. and [00:40:00] again, they got the guys together. We all went through this sort of bootcamp thing, the way they did for band of brothers where you got. You lived in pup tents out in the jungle got up and did the exercises and ate the food and work the guns and broke down. You know, you get so that you can, you can unjam that 1941 machine gun. You can break it down, take it apart and put it back together in the dark. You're wearing the clothes that you're going to wear. So uniforms how you wear. So by the me you get around to shoo ng the scenes, you're already a band of brother. You've been, you feel like, you know, you've known each other forever. You've been through hell and all of that technical stuff. All of that. what do I do if my gun jams this? There's none of that. There's none of that. Those, every single guy in that, in the mortar patrol can break it down, fix it, unjam it, and put it back together in four seconds. and it just adds there's nothing le to [00:41:00] do, but the ac ng now. Cause you've removed all that stuff. It's now that stuff is all just automa c. I thought they handled it really well.
[00:41:09] Alex: [00:41:09] And you played one of the most iconic Marines of world war two chesty puller.
[00:41:13] William Sadler: [00:41:13] I did a lot of research on chesty. I had Marines coming up to me. Chesty puller is one of the most beloved. Marines that ever walk this planet? I think young Marines when they, they say, good night to chesty every night before they go to bed. I had Marines come up to me and say, don't fuck this up. [00:43:00] [00:42:00]and my, and I had my uncle was on Guadalcanal with Jesse Poland. My uncle knew chesty, uncle Jack was an intelligence officer on Guadalcanal. so, yeah, I did a lot of research on it, on the guy. I tried to bring as much of that to the screen as I could. The fact that he was from Virginia, the sort of, uh, Can do you know, in your face, fuck you spirit, that he apparently exuded the reason that his men loved him so much [00:44:00]you know, his headquarters was in the front damn line, right in the middle of the front line, not back on the beach, not a half mile behind, Then we'll do [00:45:00] dozens and dozens of chesty stories that. I became familiar with.
[00:45:03] But, yeah, that was, I felt quite a responsibility to get that right. My uncle who had passed, I didn't get a chance to see it. My mom, my dad who fought in the Philippines against the Japanese. Same, you know, did assault, landings got Barry, Barry got dinghy fever, got wounded twice, got a dis nguished service cross. My dad said you nailed it. That's what it looked like. That's what it. felt like. And you know, that was enough for me. That was cause I've heard. I've heard veterans of those of that war say there's never been, you know, it's not the John Wayne movies. I've heard them say they're never going to make a movie of what it's actually, you can't show that. no one would watch it. It's too [00:46:00] ugly. so I love that when my, I love that my father thought that was, we captured that. How crazy it was and how dangerous.
[00:46:08] Alex: [00:46:08] So tell us what you've been up to during the lockdown. How have you been spending your me [00:46:12] William Sadler: [00:46:12] Funny. You should ask, I've been wri ng songs and they're funny songs and they're sweet songs. And I've been wri ng for years and years. Dennis Hopper used to come and hear me play at coffee houses in LA kind of urban folk, I guess you'd call it. George Carlin, I gave him a casse e of one of my casse e. That was that long ago. And just like a year before he passed away, he called me. We hadn't spoken in. 15 years or something. he called me and said, bill, remember that casse e, you gave me, I wore it out. I need you to send me another one. I think I sent him a CD. By that me
[00:46:54] Alex: [00:46:54] since you men oned George Carlin earlier? How well did you guys get to know each other on bill and Ted.
[00:46:58] William Sadler: [00:46:58] we had a lot of [00:47:00] down me, on that set with, uh, bill and Ted and he's a lovely guy, as you might imagine, very bright, very intelligent and. When, when he's not on, you know, when he's not on Johnny Carson or something, when he's not performing, he's interested in everything he's interested. You know, we talk poli cs or talk health or talk, talk movies s ll. I can talk about anything. And he was just a lovely, really dear guy. genuinely sweet guy, healthier than most comics. I think, I mean, mentally, I think part of, part of the reason that we bonded sort of was he was not an actor. He was being asked to be an actor and, play this role Rufus. which I, I thought he did great, but he was in. He was in a world that was not familiar to him is [00:48:00] not stand up. You know, you had to learn these lines and say these lines and was that okay? And He was, He was a li le off as out of his comfort zone. and we, you know, and he liked, he loved what I was doing with the grim Reaper too.
[00:48:15] Alex: [00:48:15] And how was it going back for part three for bill and Ted face the music,
[00:48:20] William Sadler: [00:48:20] I forgot how heavy those robes are. It was, it was, it was amazing how easy it all came back, flooding back the character, and the accent. Then the, once I'm, once I'm in that character, I just can't. I just ad lib all over the place. I can't shut him up. and fortunately, you know, some of it ends up in the movie and some of it doesn't, [00:49:00]and when Alex and Kiano when [00:50:00] I got together again on set for the first me in 30 years, it was. It was amazing. It was like, it was like we had never le . We picked it up exactly where we le off.
[00:50:16] You can access more of this interview with William Sadler on our Patrion page at Patrion slash the Hollywood interview.
[00:50:25] please check William out in the new movie. Alice fades away available now on Amazon prime video.
[00:50:31] Alex: [00:50:31] My thanks also to sissy Cronin of Sicily publicity for coordina ng this interview.
[00:50:36] The Hollywood interview is produced by me, Alex Simon for wander produc ons, execu ve produced by Conal O'Herlihy for no one else, media.