![]() And people have to be discussing, well, I don't know, is he handsome enough for this role? GROSS: Well, I figure there's some things casting directors discuss in front of you and said that they don't, but things that you find out anyway - that they discuss it in front of you or not. My wife and my daughter would talk about, is he fat or what? No, he's not. Have you ever overheard anything about your wife? Yes, I did overhear the other day. Have you ever overheard anything about the money you have? No, I've never overheard anything about that. GRODIN: What do you mean? I go to overhear conversations about my looks - are they having them somewhere? Maybe - would you put that a different way? But it's hard to get in there to overhear them. You know, like even today, if I'm out in Hollywood, I try to get around the back door of a studio to see if I can overhear some conversations about my looks. ![]() GRODIN: You know, I try to get into these rooms where they're having these meetings so I can overhear what they're saying. GROSS: Have you ever heard - overheard conversations about your looks in terms of whether you would have made it as a good leading man? You could never really express what you - all this frustration. We were so shut out all the time that you - and you could only say when they didn't want you, thank you very much. GRODIN: And the one thing that all the young actors could do was play rage and menace because that's what they felt. By that time, I had so much rejection in show business, I was very good at being menacing. GRODIN: Well, you know, after - this was in 1966, '67. TERRY GROSS: Were you good at being menacing? She asked him about his early career, when he was often cast in TV westerns as the villain. And I have this terrible pain right now.īIANCULLI: Terry Gross spoke to Charles Grodin in 1989. Is there anything in the world you actually care about?ĬARSON: My health. ![]() But, you know, given that we're all healthy and happy. GRODIN: I mean, we hope the show goes on forever. GRODIN: What do you care about? I mean, in life. JOHNNY CARSON: Absolutely, that's why I'm asking, yes. GRODIN: No, I'm more interested in knowing what you really are - are you interested in anything at all? (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW") And Grodin spent several decades visiting Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," almost always showing up with nothing to plug or being unwilling to plug it. That same year, he won an Emmy for writing the Paul Simon special, in which he also appeared on camera playing that shows unbelievably obnoxious producer. He hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 1977 and spent the show pretending not to comprehend that the show was being broadcast live. Many years before Larry David portrayed at exaggeratedly abrasive version of himself on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Charles Grodin pulled a similar stunt almost any time he showed up on TV. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Oh, what an original way of putting it.īIANCULLI: Charles Grodin appeared often on television. You don't know what a pleasure it is to sit down in this day and age and eat food that you can believe in. There's no insincerity in those potatoes. Corcoran doesn't really care for fancy food, though I imagine you've tried just about every kind of exotic dish in New York. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Thank you, Leonard. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE HEARTBREAK KID")ĬHARLES GRODIN: (As Lenny Cantrow) I don't mind saying that this is one of the finest meals that I've ever had. In this scene, he visits her parents and is at the dinner table trying to impress them. On his honeymoon, he meets and falls in love with another woman, played by Cybill Shepherd. In that film, he plays Lenny, a young man with spectacularly bad timing. ![]() He constantly irritated Robert De Niro's character in the classic comedy "Midnight Run." He had featured roles in "Heaven Can Wait" and "Rosemary's Baby." And his big break came as the star of "The Heartbreak Kid," written by Elaine May. Grodin's specialty was deadpan humor - the slow double-take, the droll delivery, the ability to embody and embrace the most unlikable of characters, yet somehow make them very likable and very funny on film. Actor and comedian Charles Grodin, who made his mark in the movies and on TV, died Tuesday. I'm David Bianculli, professor of television studies at Rowan University in New Jersey, sitting in for Terry Gross. ![]()
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