Actor Interview With Stacy Keach

Stacy Keach is a great actor. He’s been in front of the camera for well over fifty years. He’s performed in the all-time highs of Shakespearean dramas, as well as the lowbrow humor of Cheech and Chong. He’s made mistakes in his past and paid for those mistakes respectfully. He’s worked for some of the greats, including directors John Huston and Robert Altman, as well as playwright Arthur Miller. His charity work garners his full attention. He’s also kept his feet loosely planted in genre pictures. Three of my favorite cult films feature Stacy Keach in leading roles.

In 1980, he and brother James co-wrote, produced, and stared in Walter Hill’s The Long Riders. That film was the fast-paced and violent tale of The Younger-James Gang and it was brilliantly cast, filmed and directed. I was introduced to a lot of things from repeatedly viewing The Long Riders in my youth, among them, the western genre in itself, which wasn’t exactly popular at the time. I also discovered the guitar and scoring talents of Ry Cooder and the fact that actors had brothers from that film. Over time, The Long Riders has become a classic western, but when first released, it was considered a cult film to fans and critics alike.

The very same year, Keach was cast in the lead role for writer/director William Peter Blatty’s The Ninth Configuration; a bizarre little film that blew me away and excelled in great dialogue, outstanding locations and brilliant casting decisions. Keach portrayed Kane, the new psychiatrist with controversial methods for dealing with psychosis. The setting was a massive gothic castle hidden among the thick forests of the Pacific Northwest. But what’s the deal with Keach’s character? And which of the soldiers/patients are truly mentally ill and which are simply faking it? Blatty’s script is funny, smart, and suspenseful. You never know for sure what’s going to happen next. He was lucky enough to be able to surround Keach with some of the greatest character actors working at that time. Scott Wilson, Jason Miller, Ed Flanders and Robert Loggia are a few of the actors rounding out the cast. The Ninth Configuration always seemed an under-appreciated masterpiece that lived on through fans of The Exorcist and cult movie aficionados.

In 1981, he took on one of my favorite Keach characters to date, that of Quid from Richard Franklin’s Road Games. There’s nothing to dislike about the character of Quid. He’s funny, intelligent, brave, and vulnerable. Keach’s physical appearance for this film is noteworthy. His chiseled chin and broad shoulders give the similarity to that of an NFL quarterback at peak form and popularity. When he brandishes fan blades and tire irons to use as weapons, you believe he could do some major damage. Quid is a truck driver hauling meat from Melbourne to Perth down Australia’s desolate outback. He passes the time and retains his sanity by playing a series of road games with his silent sidekick, Boswell the pet dingo. There’s a murderer of young women sharing the same stretch of highway and Quid suspects the owner of a van he can’t seem to shake. Road Games co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis and was released on a special edition DVD through Anchor Bay recently.

In 2000, a whole new generation of fans, much younger than I, discovered Stacy Keach on Fox television’s sitcom Titus. He portrayed Ken Titus– the real-life father of comic Christopher Titus. Every week Keach got to tear it up as an alcoholic whipping post with a bleak philosophy on life. When the real Ken Titus passed away, Keach was honored to give his eulogy. A few years later, Keach returned to the Fox Network appearing as Henry Pope; the blunt, yet fair warden at The Fox River State Penitentiary on the hit series Prison Break.

While at his office, busy at work, Stacy Keach was gracious enough to set aside a few minutes and answer some of my questions about the past and future of his remarkable acting career and during this time, I never forgot what a privilege it was to be speaking with him.

Bryan Layne: Do you have some new things coming out your fans can look for?

Stacy Keach: I just finished a movie in San Francisco called Imbued. It was a small, independent film written and directed by Rob Nilsson. He wrote Northern Lights, a wonderful film that came out many, many years ago. He’s sort of this astonishing, artistic, guerrilla filmmaker that lives out in San Francisco. I also wrote the theme song for that film. I’m very excited about that. On April 24th, I’m going off to Pittsburgh to do a weekend of readings for Elizabeth and Robert Browning’s poetry. It’s sort of an esoteric way to spend a weekend in Pittsburgh (laughing). Nevertheless, I’m looking very forward to it. Then, I’m off to New York to do a cameo as Merlin in The New York Philharmonic’s presentation of Camelot with Gabriel Byrne and Christopher Lloyd. In mid-May, I’ll be back in Los Angeles to do a movie called The Assistance, another small, independent film. So, I’m busy.

BL: You seem to stay quite busy and never appear to be out of work.

SK: Well, that’s true, but in an actor’s life there are those moments where you wish the phone were ringing a little more. I’m on the other end of the spectrum, at the moment, and I’m very grateful and happy about that. When the fall season comes around, I’ll be touring the United States in Peter Morgan’s Tony award-winning play Frost/Nixon as Richard Nixon. In June of 2009, I’m going back to Washington, D.C. to reprise King Lear, which I did at the Goodman Theater in 2006. Robert Falls directed this assembly and we’re going to reprise that production for The Shakespeare Theater at the new Harman Canter for the Arts in Washington, D.C. for 2009. Then, I’m going to take a long vacation.

BL: What got you into acting? Would it have been your father, Stacy Sr.?

SK: Yes, I think dad had a lot to do with that decision. He, of course, didn’t want the acting business for either my brother James or myself. He was determined that we would be doctors or lawyers. He wanted us to do something that had some financial security, but it was not to be. I think, even though he tried to disguise his passion and his love for theater and films, it was impossible. You know, it was contagious. I think it was the same for my brother James. Dad was our inspiration.

BL: Do you remember an early role in a film that gave you the feeling you could accomplish something with a career in acting?

SK: I think it started in high school. A group of us got together and we made our own little film with a 16mm camera called Strange Reflection. We put this together and we showed it to the students. There was such an overwhelming response to the film afterward that I said, “Wow, this is good. I like this.” Sometime later, I guess– into my early professional career– you remember those first movies you did. Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, I certainly remember. That was a very important film for me because I learned so much. It was my first time in front of a movie camera and that whole environment. I came from the theater, so it was a huge shock at first, being in front of those cameras.

BL: Let’s talk about The Long Riders. How was that experience?

SK: We worked for nine years to get that one into production. My brother and I had just portrayed the Wright brothers; Jimmy played Orville and I played Wilbur. We were trying to think of another project for both of us. We said, “We’ve played the Wright brothers, how about doing the wrong brothers?” It was just out of a pun and then we began to take it seriously. What about outlaws? What about brothers portraying brothers in something like Frank and Jesse James? That’s what really got the ball rolling.

Originally, that film was penned as a musical and was done in New York off-Broadway in the early seventies. It took us a very long time to get that one started. We received a lot of yellow lights and got close to green light, but we’d never get a full go-ahead on that film. My brother went to do a film titled Hurricane and Tim Zinneman was a producer on that one. He suggested we find a director for The Long Riders because he felt we really had something there and could put the film together. So, we got Walter Hill and that’s what launched the movie. In order to get Walter, we had to prove that we could get all of the brothers together in one location.

We took a photograph to prove to the studios that it was possible. In that photograph, it’s a rare and special photograph, it contains Jimmy and I, the Carradine boys– David, Keith, and Bobby– and the Bridges brothers, Jeff and Beau. The Bridges brothers were originally cast to do the movie, but they both got busy doing other things. So, we got Randy and Dennis Quaid. The Long Riders was one of Dennis’ first movies, if not his first.

BL: How was Walter Hill as a director? I love his films.

SK: It was fabulous. He’s simply a great director. He was cut in the same mold as Sam Peckinpah. A lot of people do not realize it, but Walter was originally a continuity person for Sam Peckinpah on The Getaway.

BL: That’s interesting because I’ve always compared him to Peckinpah. He’s always involved with these testosterone-filled, male-driven movies.

SK: That’s correct. That’s exactly right.

BL: One of my favorite films of all time featured you in the leading role and that was William Peter Blatty’s The Ninth Configuration.

SK: Oh yes, that’s one of my favorites as well.

BL: It always seemed that film was a hit with critics, but audiences stayed away.

SK: The Ninth Configuration was not a box office success… AT ALL. I think the story itself was so strange and bizarre that audiences were afraid of it. It was one of my favorite pictures I was attached to and one of my favorite characters to portray, as well. That film had a great cast and, while it was full of creepy, mysterious plot developments, it also contained a lot of humor. You had Jason Miller in that film holding auditions for his adaptation of Hamlet for canines; stuff like that was just so much fun.

BL: Jason Miller was a favorite of mine. Did you spend a lot of time with him?

SK: I spent a lot of time with Jason, God Bless him. I miss Jason. As a matter of fact, I was thinking about him just the other day. I acted in That Championship Season with another great guy, Robert Mitchum, who played the coach. Bruce Dern, Marty Sheen, Paul Sorvino and myself were on the basketball team. Jason directed that film. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for the original play he adapted into the film.

BL: Was the castle in The Ninth Configuration a true, existing location?

SK: Well, strangely enough, that film took on many locations. It was, of course, set in Northern California, but that castle doesn’t exist in California. The long shots of the castle were in Germany. The courtyard was in Vienna. Every single interior shot was done in Budapest, Hungary, during the communist regime. That film was financed by part of the Pepsi-Cola Company, oddly enough.

BL: I love the character you played in Road Games, Patrick Quid. You seemed to be having a blast making that movie.

SK: I loved Road Games. I had so much fun. I loved being in Australia and it was great working with Jamie Lee Curtis. There was this crazy stuntman, Grant Page, and it was a kick being around him. He also played Mr. Smith/Mr. Jones, the bad guy that drove the van just ahead of me in the truck. Richard Franklin was a marvelous director. He knew everything there was about Alfred Hitchcock. He knew every single frame of every title Hitchcock put to film and he made his movies very much in that vein, particularly that one.

BL: It seemed that Quid might have mirrored your true personality, is that correct or am I way off?

SK: Yeah, I guess so. I know I felt very comfortable in his skin. I don’t know…that was then and now is now. It’s hard to know, but at the time, maybe so.

BL: I imagine you knew Mickey Spillane quite well, right?

SK: I spent a lot of time with Mickey and I loved just being around him. I’m still spending time with Mickey in spirit, as well as reality because we are getting ready to do a radio series with the Mike Hammer character. We are designing it with Carl Amari in Chicago. I host The Twilight Zone, which is taking the old television series and making radio shows out of them. I also did another project with him called The Word of Promise and it was an audio version of The New Testament. It was done with this amazing audio. It truly does sounds like you’re listening to it over the soundtrack for a movie. There’s wall-to-wall music and sound effects that support the text. When we completed that one, Carl asked me about doing radio shows of Mike Hammer. Jane Spillane, Mickey’s widow, made a deal and it looks like we’re going to do it.

BL: Where can we look for that?

SK: I think it will be at least six months before we get things completed, but I believe you’ll be able to purchase CD’s and it may be available on Sirius radio, also.

BL: How was working on Escape from L.A. with director John Carpenter?

SK: Well, it was fantastic to work with Kurt Russell and John on Escape from L.A., but I honestly enjoyed this crazy little movie I did with John before Escape from L.A. called Hair. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it was for his Body Bags anthology. In it, David Warner plays this demented frontman for a hair restoration clinic and he convinces me to buy all this stuff he’s selling to cure baldness. The resolution at the end is a disturbing one where it turns out I’m harvesting aliens in my body from this stuff he gave me. It’s a great study of vanity. The character is going bald and he just hates it. I identified with that because in my early career I wore a lot of hairpieces. John has a very macabre personality.

BL: I’m familiar with Christopher Titus’ act, but I never had much time to catch many episodes of the Fox show…

SK: Oh, you can get them on DVD now. There is some funny stuff in there. It was a very well written show.

BL: How exaggerated were the things they wrote for your portrayal of Ken Titus, Christopher’s father?

SK: Well, that’s a very good question. I asked that question of both Ken and Christopher, but neither one of them would cop to it. He was exaggerated, of course. I met Ken and I dearly loved him. I asked him one time, how he could possibly allow his son to take him down the way he does every night. Ken simply said, “Just as long as it’s funny.” He was a loving father and I think they all had an understanding. I went to Ken’s funeral in Northern California when he passed away and Christopher, as well as the rest of his family, was just devastated. There was a lot of love there, even though he was a crazy guy and liked to live in the fast lane. The Titus show was probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing a main character. I had more fun playing Ken Titus than just about anything I’ve ever done for television, including Mike Hammer and Ernest Hemingway.

BL: Are we going to see Henry Pope back in action for Fox’s Prison Break?

SK: I don’t know for sure. I actually called the producers over at Prison Break and I said that the guys are all on the run again…What’s happening with Henry Pope? They said, “Stacy, as long as you’re breathing your character will still be available because we could always bring you back to kill you (laughing). I said to myself, “Well, that’s a refreshing thought.” It’s an unknown factor at this moment, but I’m still alive though.

BL: Did you realize that Prison Break was going to be as successful and popular as it turned out to be?

SK: I don’t think anybody really realized the extent of it all. I knew that Fox had high hopes for it because in the beginning they really, really got behind it. I think that was all because of Brett Ratner. He was the architect of that series and he made it all happen. I, myself, loved the first season– not because I was in it– but the intensity of the writing was so good. I felt that once they broke out of prison, the air came out of the tires, so to say.

BL: How about the fans getting behind three of the most despicable main characters to ever be featured on a series?

SK: I think part of that is because bad guys are always more fun, in every aspect than good guys. I think there might be a little bit of bad in everybody that can be expressed by vicarious identification with the Prison Break characters. Also, we love to hate our villains. We want the villains to really, really be bad so we can really hate them. It’s like taking a ride on a roller coaster. It’s the thrill of being scared. The great thing about a movie or a television show is that you are experiencing those feelings, but you are perfectly safe.

BL: How’s working with Bruce Campbell on Man with the Screaming Brain?

SK: Oh, Bruce (laughing). He’s a great guy and I love working with Bruce Campbell. He was excellent as a director. I always love working with good actors who decide to try their hands at directing. Generally speaking, they’re the best because they understand the process. He knew his way around the camera and he’s a great storyteller. Bruce is an extremely talented guy and I’m so very happy for all of his success.

BL: I think I have plenty to work with here, Mr. Keach and I look forward to all of your future work.

SK: Well, thank you very much. I’ve enjoyed this and I’d like to wish you good luck and continued success.

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