Post by jag11 on Dec 14, 2008 20:33:26 GMT -5
411's Tony Farinella sits down with Eric Braeden of the Young and the Restless for an revealing interview about life, family, sports, and a whole lot more!
Eric Braeden has been on the Young and The Restless as Victor Newman since February 4th, 1980. That's a long time for any actor to play one character on one show. Yet, Eric tells me in our interview that he is still interested in the character and still finds ways to keep him relevant and interesting. And I think that's true for his career as well, because he is still a force in Hollywood. In my interview with Eric Braeden, we discussed a number of complex topics that range from Hollywood to divorce. Eric is not shy about voicing his opinions, and you have to take what he says seriously, because he's seen a lot in his storied career. Eric's new film, The Man Who Came Back, is now available on DVD, and also stars George Kennedy, Billy Zane, and Armand Assante.
TONY: Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time you've done a film in quite some time. What was it like returning to the film world?
Eric Braeden: I loved it. I loved it, primarily in my position as a producer as well. So, I wore various hats, and I must say I enjoyed it enormously.
TONY: Why has it been so long since your last film role?
Eric Braeden: I would have probably done what I did now with Man Who Came Back earlier had I found a script that I really liked. Secondly, when you do what I do, you're sort of out of the film world loop. I need to do films that I control myself, simply because I can then tell them ahead of time when I will be gone. In other words, I cannot put myself on the market for a quick role here and there, because it will really throw a wrench in the works over here because they need to know way ahead of time in order to start writing for me or start writing appropriate storylines for when I'm gone. Do you understand what I'm saying? Most films are cast within two weeks, three weeks, and that's too little of a lead time to tell the writers here when I'll be gone.
TONY: How did you end up finding this script in the first place?
Eric Braeden: A friend of mine who was on the 1976 Olympic Boxing team, Chuck Walker, the only white guy on the boxing team put together with Sugar Ray Leonard and the Spinks brothers, came to me some time ago with that story, and I said it's an interesting story, but I wanted the story context. So that is why I had the post Civil War continuation, perpetuation, really, of the system of inequality in the south. That's part of it. Then we happened to find out about a labor strike, the second bloodiest labor strike in American labor history occurred in Louisiana in 1887. And I said put that in, in a microcosmic way, but put it in. So that is how we slowly evolved the script to the point where George Kennedy, Billy Zane, Armand Assante liked it and I obviously liked it, so we could come to the end that they were more than cooperative and believed in the subject matter.
TONY: Speaking of the cast, what was it like working with so many talented, veteran actors?
Eric Braeden: I've been around, except for George Kennedy, longer than any of them. So that was nothing new to me. But for George Kennedy, I just have such enormous respect. But Billy and I worked on Titanic together, and Armand Assante was brought in by the director, Glen Pitre, and Sean Young I knew. Kenny Norton, I knew. Peter Jason, I knew. So a lot of this had to do with my personal contacts.
TONY: You mentioned earlier in this interview that you were also a producer on this film. What was it like wearing so many hats on set, and how did you balance everything?
Eric Braeden: I loved it. I think just acting would no longer interest me. I need to do both. It is more encompassing; one knows more about the whole process than I realized, because I've been in the business for a long time. I enjoyed it all very, very much, I must say. But it could not have been done, obviously, without a very good director and wonderful actors. The other actors were just wonderful, from Sean Young to George Kennedy to Billy Zane to Armand Assante. They were all so cooperative and so helpful, I will never forget it.
TONY: What do you get out of acting today compared to when you first started out? What do you get out of it today that maybe you didn't get when you were younger?
Eric Braeden: Well, that's an interesting question. I know, having done what I'm doing now for the last twenty-eight years, I realize more by having been in this medium, and how it affects people, because I think we are cmeany to our fans in this medium than people in films are. So you realize the value of entertaining people, of giving an honest performance. There's a certain responsibility where you don't want to cheat the audience. You just realize what essentially we do is to entertain. And I would say when I started out in the sixties and seventies; I wanted to be part of pictures or stories that meant something politically or socially. Well, there's nothing wrong with just entertaining. It makes people happy. And I've never realized that as much as I have in doing what I've been doing for twenty-eight years.
TONY: You have had quite an interesting journey in your life and in your career. Throughout this journey, what have you learned about yourself as an actor and as a person?
Eric Braeden: That's a very good question. As an actor, I have explored areas in me that, as an actor, I would not have been able to explore had I done nighttime or film. You get to exercise your craft every day, and for that, I am enormously grateful. As a person, I would say I have been strengthened and conscious of what has always driven me, and that is a basic sense of optimism about life and a basic sense that one can tackle and solve problems. But l always was that way, but never knew it, really. I've been conscious of it as I've grown older. And that really comes from the world of sports. Sports have taught me a lot. I was German Youth Champion with my team in Discus, Javelin and Shot put and then over here in America, I won the U.S. Championship in soccer. But sports have always taught me to never rest on your laurels, to always try to improve, to take defeat and learn from it and try to improve upon it. That is one of the best lessons to learn from sports. And that's a very good lesson to learn.
TONY: Speaking of sports, talk to me a little bit about how important it is to be a role model when you're a professional athlete. Why do you think so many athletes get into so much trouble?
Eric Braeden: Well, that's a good question and very difficult to answer. You must know that a lot of these people come out of very impoverished conditions and grew up in ghettos and tough circumstances. They grew up in a culture that celebrates guns and gun death and all that stuff. Look, let's call a spade a spade; no country in the world has more guns than America. But a lot of these people come from questionable backgrounds and suddenly are thrust into the limelight. One of the most difficult things to handle is success and sudden success is so much more difficult to handle. I mean, let me ask you. Put yourself in the position. How do you suddenly come from abject poverty and you suddenly are given millions of dollars? How do you deal with that? It's unimaginable. And people on the outside forget how hard that is to deal with. So I personally think that and I'm sure they have already instituted programs in the NBA and NFL and the actors who do the same thing and the singers who do the same thing, they should have mentors who take them aside and say, ‘Look, this is what will happen when you suddenly become successful.' It's very difficult to deal with. Sudden success and sudden money is very difficult to deal with, believe it or not. Most people who don't have it will laugh and say, ‘Oh my god, I wish I had that problem.' No, you don't. It's a tough thing to deal with, because you have no relationship to it. Think of Mike Tyson, who is the best example of that. How do you deal with that? 20 million, 15 million a fight. Some of those NBA stars and football stars, how do you think you can deal with that kind of money all of a sudden? It's unimaginable, and no one prepares them for it. No one. That's the mistake. That's a huge mistake. They should be taken by their mentors or someone who says, ‘Come here, now let me tell you what to expect. You will feel lonely, you will feel that everyone envies you, you will feel that everyone now suddenly becomes friends with you, because you're successful and because you've made money, and you don't trust anyone anymore.' It's a very, very difficult thing to deal with. It is as if the bottom has been taken away from you. You swim. You don't know where you belong, because you don't trust anyone anymore. Let's not just look at the excesses of this, but let's look at the cause of it. I mean, these guys are paid insane, obscene amounts of money. What are they going to do with it? I tell you, I experienced it in the late sixties, early seventies when I started in films. I suddenly said, ‘Whoa, the discrepancy between where you're from and where you came from and what you suddenly are, where everyone is blowing smoke up your ass, that's a difficult discrepancy to deal with.' Believe me.
TONY: You also mentioned earlier in this interview that you have been able to work at your craft and improve as an actor. What's it like going to work every day on a show like The Young and the Restless? How do you keep this character interesting after so many years?
Eric Braeden: First of all, I feel enormously loyal to the show that has given me an enormous opportunity to exercise my craft every day, and I love it. What challenges me is to make something real within a set of very artificial parameters. You have a huge crew around you, you do last minute, you do last minute adjustments, yet you need to focus. And it's taught me to focus and make something real. That still challenges me, and I still like that. It still does not bore me.
TONY: What has it been like watching your son in Hollywood?
Eric Braeden: Well, he is a very level-headed fellow and I made sure that he grew up in the world of sports as much as he could. He has no delusions or disillusions about this business, believe me. He has seen it all, he has seen me gone through it all, friends of mine have been through the ups and downs in this business, and it doesn't hold anything romantic. What he learned early on is to like the stuff that is enduring about the business, and that is to be true to yourself and to be true to your creative, authentic self. He has learned to respect and hold dear those things that are enduring in this business. And that is good work and honest work.
TONY: You have mentioned in previous interviews that you hate divorce and you hate the way that it affects children. How have you kept your marriage alive after all these years? What's the secret formula?
Eric Braeden: Well, it's tough. There's no secret formula. It's tough. You got to be willing to make compromises; you got to have a very understanding wife who also makes compromises. Unless you're at each other's throats all day along, you should be very considerate of what a divorce, what damage it causes amongst kids. If you have children, think very hard about it. And you have to have a great sense of forgiveness and you have to have an understanding wife. It's tough. It's not easy. It's not always easy. Not at all. I remember when I coached my son's team for years and years, and I always knew, within ten minutes, I could tell which kids came from a divorced home when they came to soccer practice. I knew it. There's an enormous sense of loss somewhere. And I don't give a d**n what therapists say, I don't give a d**n what lawyers say, it is very destructive. Divorce is very destructive.
TONY: What was it like being honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? What did that mean to you, personally?
Eric Braeden: It was arguably one of the greatest feelings I've ever had. It moved me deeply, because you juxtapose how it was when you came to this town with nothing in my pocket practically and washing dishes and parking cars and moving furniture. It was tough. This can be a very lonely town, I got to tell you. So when you juxtapose that with getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it's an enormous sense of accomplishment and deep gratitude to having been so lucky.
TONY: Finally, you just talked about some of your early struggles as an actor, so I have to ask you, what's the best advice you can give a struggling actor on how to keep going and stay positive when times are tough?
Eric Braeden: Oh boy, that is such a tough question. I would say there has to be a moment, obviously, where there has to be a reckoning. It depends on the situation. It depends on if you're married and have children, because you have the responsibility to provide for your family. So then you say, ‘Listen, I need to do something else on the side in order to put food on the table.' It depends on how old you are. God, that is such a specific question. In other words, a question that really is relevant to each person in a different way. I would say, oh god, there's nothing I can say about that. You just hang by your nails sometimes. You hang on and try to do as many plays as you can, try to do theater as much as you can. Beyond that, it depends on where you are in life. Do you have a family? Do you need food on the table? Then you got to get another job probably. That's a tough question to answer. It really is. I cannot give you a good answer.
TONY: Thank you so much for your time, Eric. I really enjoyed speaking with you.
Eric Braeden: I enjoyed it very much.
Eric Braeden has been on the Young and The Restless as Victor Newman since February 4th, 1980. That's a long time for any actor to play one character on one show. Yet, Eric tells me in our interview that he is still interested in the character and still finds ways to keep him relevant and interesting. And I think that's true for his career as well, because he is still a force in Hollywood. In my interview with Eric Braeden, we discussed a number of complex topics that range from Hollywood to divorce. Eric is not shy about voicing his opinions, and you have to take what he says seriously, because he's seen a lot in his storied career. Eric's new film, The Man Who Came Back, is now available on DVD, and also stars George Kennedy, Billy Zane, and Armand Assante.
TONY: Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time you've done a film in quite some time. What was it like returning to the film world?
Eric Braeden: I loved it. I loved it, primarily in my position as a producer as well. So, I wore various hats, and I must say I enjoyed it enormously.
TONY: Why has it been so long since your last film role?
Eric Braeden: I would have probably done what I did now with Man Who Came Back earlier had I found a script that I really liked. Secondly, when you do what I do, you're sort of out of the film world loop. I need to do films that I control myself, simply because I can then tell them ahead of time when I will be gone. In other words, I cannot put myself on the market for a quick role here and there, because it will really throw a wrench in the works over here because they need to know way ahead of time in order to start writing for me or start writing appropriate storylines for when I'm gone. Do you understand what I'm saying? Most films are cast within two weeks, three weeks, and that's too little of a lead time to tell the writers here when I'll be gone.
TONY: How did you end up finding this script in the first place?
Eric Braeden: A friend of mine who was on the 1976 Olympic Boxing team, Chuck Walker, the only white guy on the boxing team put together with Sugar Ray Leonard and the Spinks brothers, came to me some time ago with that story, and I said it's an interesting story, but I wanted the story context. So that is why I had the post Civil War continuation, perpetuation, really, of the system of inequality in the south. That's part of it. Then we happened to find out about a labor strike, the second bloodiest labor strike in American labor history occurred in Louisiana in 1887. And I said put that in, in a microcosmic way, but put it in. So that is how we slowly evolved the script to the point where George Kennedy, Billy Zane, Armand Assante liked it and I obviously liked it, so we could come to the end that they were more than cooperative and believed in the subject matter.
TONY: Speaking of the cast, what was it like working with so many talented, veteran actors?
Eric Braeden: I've been around, except for George Kennedy, longer than any of them. So that was nothing new to me. But for George Kennedy, I just have such enormous respect. But Billy and I worked on Titanic together, and Armand Assante was brought in by the director, Glen Pitre, and Sean Young I knew. Kenny Norton, I knew. Peter Jason, I knew. So a lot of this had to do with my personal contacts.
TONY: You mentioned earlier in this interview that you were also a producer on this film. What was it like wearing so many hats on set, and how did you balance everything?
Eric Braeden: I loved it. I think just acting would no longer interest me. I need to do both. It is more encompassing; one knows more about the whole process than I realized, because I've been in the business for a long time. I enjoyed it all very, very much, I must say. But it could not have been done, obviously, without a very good director and wonderful actors. The other actors were just wonderful, from Sean Young to George Kennedy to Billy Zane to Armand Assante. They were all so cooperative and so helpful, I will never forget it.
TONY: What do you get out of acting today compared to when you first started out? What do you get out of it today that maybe you didn't get when you were younger?
Eric Braeden: Well, that's an interesting question. I know, having done what I'm doing now for the last twenty-eight years, I realize more by having been in this medium, and how it affects people, because I think we are cmeany to our fans in this medium than people in films are. So you realize the value of entertaining people, of giving an honest performance. There's a certain responsibility where you don't want to cheat the audience. You just realize what essentially we do is to entertain. And I would say when I started out in the sixties and seventies; I wanted to be part of pictures or stories that meant something politically or socially. Well, there's nothing wrong with just entertaining. It makes people happy. And I've never realized that as much as I have in doing what I've been doing for twenty-eight years.
TONY: You have had quite an interesting journey in your life and in your career. Throughout this journey, what have you learned about yourself as an actor and as a person?
Eric Braeden: That's a very good question. As an actor, I have explored areas in me that, as an actor, I would not have been able to explore had I done nighttime or film. You get to exercise your craft every day, and for that, I am enormously grateful. As a person, I would say I have been strengthened and conscious of what has always driven me, and that is a basic sense of optimism about life and a basic sense that one can tackle and solve problems. But l always was that way, but never knew it, really. I've been conscious of it as I've grown older. And that really comes from the world of sports. Sports have taught me a lot. I was German Youth Champion with my team in Discus, Javelin and Shot put and then over here in America, I won the U.S. Championship in soccer. But sports have always taught me to never rest on your laurels, to always try to improve, to take defeat and learn from it and try to improve upon it. That is one of the best lessons to learn from sports. And that's a very good lesson to learn.
TONY: Speaking of sports, talk to me a little bit about how important it is to be a role model when you're a professional athlete. Why do you think so many athletes get into so much trouble?
Eric Braeden: Well, that's a good question and very difficult to answer. You must know that a lot of these people come out of very impoverished conditions and grew up in ghettos and tough circumstances. They grew up in a culture that celebrates guns and gun death and all that stuff. Look, let's call a spade a spade; no country in the world has more guns than America. But a lot of these people come from questionable backgrounds and suddenly are thrust into the limelight. One of the most difficult things to handle is success and sudden success is so much more difficult to handle. I mean, let me ask you. Put yourself in the position. How do you suddenly come from abject poverty and you suddenly are given millions of dollars? How do you deal with that? It's unimaginable. And people on the outside forget how hard that is to deal with. So I personally think that and I'm sure they have already instituted programs in the NBA and NFL and the actors who do the same thing and the singers who do the same thing, they should have mentors who take them aside and say, ‘Look, this is what will happen when you suddenly become successful.' It's very difficult to deal with. Sudden success and sudden money is very difficult to deal with, believe it or not. Most people who don't have it will laugh and say, ‘Oh my god, I wish I had that problem.' No, you don't. It's a tough thing to deal with, because you have no relationship to it. Think of Mike Tyson, who is the best example of that. How do you deal with that? 20 million, 15 million a fight. Some of those NBA stars and football stars, how do you think you can deal with that kind of money all of a sudden? It's unimaginable, and no one prepares them for it. No one. That's the mistake. That's a huge mistake. They should be taken by their mentors or someone who says, ‘Come here, now let me tell you what to expect. You will feel lonely, you will feel that everyone envies you, you will feel that everyone now suddenly becomes friends with you, because you're successful and because you've made money, and you don't trust anyone anymore.' It's a very, very difficult thing to deal with. It is as if the bottom has been taken away from you. You swim. You don't know where you belong, because you don't trust anyone anymore. Let's not just look at the excesses of this, but let's look at the cause of it. I mean, these guys are paid insane, obscene amounts of money. What are they going to do with it? I tell you, I experienced it in the late sixties, early seventies when I started in films. I suddenly said, ‘Whoa, the discrepancy between where you're from and where you came from and what you suddenly are, where everyone is blowing smoke up your ass, that's a difficult discrepancy to deal with.' Believe me.
TONY: You also mentioned earlier in this interview that you have been able to work at your craft and improve as an actor. What's it like going to work every day on a show like The Young and the Restless? How do you keep this character interesting after so many years?
Eric Braeden: First of all, I feel enormously loyal to the show that has given me an enormous opportunity to exercise my craft every day, and I love it. What challenges me is to make something real within a set of very artificial parameters. You have a huge crew around you, you do last minute, you do last minute adjustments, yet you need to focus. And it's taught me to focus and make something real. That still challenges me, and I still like that. It still does not bore me.
TONY: What has it been like watching your son in Hollywood?
Eric Braeden: Well, he is a very level-headed fellow and I made sure that he grew up in the world of sports as much as he could. He has no delusions or disillusions about this business, believe me. He has seen it all, he has seen me gone through it all, friends of mine have been through the ups and downs in this business, and it doesn't hold anything romantic. What he learned early on is to like the stuff that is enduring about the business, and that is to be true to yourself and to be true to your creative, authentic self. He has learned to respect and hold dear those things that are enduring in this business. And that is good work and honest work.
TONY: You have mentioned in previous interviews that you hate divorce and you hate the way that it affects children. How have you kept your marriage alive after all these years? What's the secret formula?
Eric Braeden: Well, it's tough. There's no secret formula. It's tough. You got to be willing to make compromises; you got to have a very understanding wife who also makes compromises. Unless you're at each other's throats all day along, you should be very considerate of what a divorce, what damage it causes amongst kids. If you have children, think very hard about it. And you have to have a great sense of forgiveness and you have to have an understanding wife. It's tough. It's not easy. It's not always easy. Not at all. I remember when I coached my son's team for years and years, and I always knew, within ten minutes, I could tell which kids came from a divorced home when they came to soccer practice. I knew it. There's an enormous sense of loss somewhere. And I don't give a d**n what therapists say, I don't give a d**n what lawyers say, it is very destructive. Divorce is very destructive.
TONY: What was it like being honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? What did that mean to you, personally?
Eric Braeden: It was arguably one of the greatest feelings I've ever had. It moved me deeply, because you juxtapose how it was when you came to this town with nothing in my pocket practically and washing dishes and parking cars and moving furniture. It was tough. This can be a very lonely town, I got to tell you. So when you juxtapose that with getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it's an enormous sense of accomplishment and deep gratitude to having been so lucky.
TONY: Finally, you just talked about some of your early struggles as an actor, so I have to ask you, what's the best advice you can give a struggling actor on how to keep going and stay positive when times are tough?
Eric Braeden: Oh boy, that is such a tough question. I would say there has to be a moment, obviously, where there has to be a reckoning. It depends on the situation. It depends on if you're married and have children, because you have the responsibility to provide for your family. So then you say, ‘Listen, I need to do something else on the side in order to put food on the table.' It depends on how old you are. God, that is such a specific question. In other words, a question that really is relevant to each person in a different way. I would say, oh god, there's nothing I can say about that. You just hang by your nails sometimes. You hang on and try to do as many plays as you can, try to do theater as much as you can. Beyond that, it depends on where you are in life. Do you have a family? Do you need food on the table? Then you got to get another job probably. That's a tough question to answer. It really is. I cannot give you a good answer.
TONY: Thank you so much for your time, Eric. I really enjoyed speaking with you.
Eric Braeden: I enjoyed it very much.