February 11, 2023
Today's The Guardian had the following interview with Bruce Dern by Michael Segalov.
You may recall from an earlier blog post in 2014, we noted that Dern was an accomplished runner at the University of Pennsylvania until his coach thought his hair was too long and told him to cut it or leave the team. Bruce chose the latter. The coach was miffed because some fans in the late 50's at an indoor meet were yelling "Go, Elvis, Go" as he was rounding the track. In his film bio he acted in a picture about the famous Dipsea run in California.
Dern also ran ultras! Jay Birmingham
Here is the link to that earlier post.
Two Actors Who Kicked Butt on the Track and on the Stage
Today's The Guardian reporting:
Bruce Dern: ‘If you want to succeed in any craft, you have to be patient’
The actor, 86, on resilience, honing his skills, the impossibility of retirement, losing a child and going running every day
Ours was a family that got shit done. My grandfather was America’s Secretary of War, previously the governor of Utah. My dad’s law partner – my godfather – ran for the presidency, twice. Every week important people joined us at dinner. What I saw put me off politics for life.
At 14, my parents sent me to a boarding school in New England. My protest was the longest conversation I ever had with my father, and it only lasted 20 minutes. Later, I realised they just wanted me out of the way.
I’ve been a runner since the age of 11. For 17 years I ran without ever missing a single day. It was an addiction, really: seven to 10 miles, come rain or shine.
I quit college after two years in 1956 and started going to the movies almost daily. I realised how profoundly the people I watched were touching me. God, I thought, I’d like to learn how to do that. I packed my things and headed to New York.
I spent my first year learning to act in silence, focusing on character and expression without uttering a word. It taught me that acting is the ability to be publicly private. Jack Nicholson calls it a “Dernsy” when actors add material that’s not on the page; Quentin [Tarantino] says on screen I’m always “in the now”.
I’ve never had a drink or smoked a cigarette. My parents were what I’d describe as social alcoholics; it put me off. In the 90s, however, I got hooked on Vicodin – a prescription painkiller. For five years I was popping 27 pills a day.
Awards never bothered me much. That changed the year my daughter Laura was nominated for her first Oscar in 1992. Her mother – Diane Ladd, my ex-wife – received a nomination for the same movie [Rambling Rose]. I was incredibly proud of them.
Endurance has been key to my longevity in the industry. If you want to succeed in any craft, you have to be patient. Only conventional people make it early. The rest of us have to work hard to create a space for ourselves.
Laura and I just shot a series, Mrs American Pie, where I play her father. We didn’t write the dialogue, but it was exposing. In front of the camera, we confronted real life.
Diane and I had a child who drowned in 1962. It was horrific. Ten years later, when I was driving Laura, she said: “Daddy, I miss my sister.” Her sister had died five years before she was born.
Retirement is impossible. Acting is what I do and who I am. I’ll keep at it as long as I can. I can’t remember lines as well as I used to, but I’m good enough.
He ran ultras too. Jay Birmingham
I remember that article about Bruce Dern. His battle with his coach about long hair resulted in his leaving the team, but resulted in a much more reasonable approach to hair in all aspects of life for many who followed him. Strangely, even at a school like Penn there was a hair controversy. Not so much today. Although hair has diminished in how people choose sides, other things like political affiliation, church membership, home residency, and opinions on hot-button topics have taken its place. There will always be a way in which people divide themselves. Bill Schnier
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