angeles. tonight, a conversation with oscar-winning actor richter dreyfus. in addition to his latest film, "the lightkeepers," he aims to>n your side ♪

açby>> and by contributions to r pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: i am pleased to welcome richard dreyfuss to this program. he is the driving force behind the dreyfuss initiative. he also stars in a new film called "the lightkeepers." here is a scene from "the lightkeepers." exit it is simple enough. you just boil him in hot water until he is done. the water has to be boiling

before you put him in. the water is boiling, and then you douse him. >> how do you know when he is done? >> well, when he looks done, he is done, generally speaking. >> any child could follow those instructions. >> you have to be very careful with these lobsters. that is why use the debt net. tavis: i will come back to "the lightkeepers" in just a second. it almost did notw-l8 happen, gn your being kicked out of acting class way back when. [laughter] do you want to tell the story about how you got kicked out of acting class? >> i was in my freshman year at california state college at

northridge, which yzyp later, tony randall said oh, that is an agricultural school. he thought was going to be a farmer. i was in the back row, and the teacher was talking. she said marlon brando, mumbled , and julius caesar. >> i raised my hand and said excusepdí me, julius caesar is playing at that the it right now. i bet you $100 you will apologizeghk to this class. she sent me out of the room and kick me out of school. >> marlon brando gave what robert schaub later told me%

laurence harvey. they looked up and looked at one another and realized that this american had achieved perfection, because he not only played it with emotion, he played with rhythm, poetry -- it was the perfectsú synthesis of everything anyone had ever wanted. tavis: so that is brando. why was dreyfuss in that class? how did you know that with your gift? what convinced you that you belong to there? >> i have opinions about everything on earth. when i have that rare occasion when i do not have an opinion, it is like a blessing. i don't have any idea, but i know that when i was eighth, i said to my mom, i want to be an actor. she said, don't just talk about it. i went down to the jewish center

never stopped. i could not tell you why. i just knew that it was a fact, '7llike a nuclear pellets in my heart. i had no doubt of my success at all. frenzies to take me out and say, you are going to get -- friends used to take me out and say you are going to get blacklisted. i used to take two-line parts. i said i am in this for a life. i said if i turn down a two-line part, they will say let's see what he will do when we offer him this. that is just what happened. they offered mev' better and better parts. >tavis: because so many of us

know you as an activist, how has the acting aided and abetted, or gotten in the way or hampered your activism? >> first of all, actors acting is an art form. it exists for a reason. art exists for reason. that reason basically is that life itself is so chaotic that the only way to really see it is by connecting got. that is called art. you can do it through musings, are riding, are acting. acting is the basic observation of human behavior. it is the only art form that is it is thit(áq" on deception. is it is all a lie. you pretend upload your wearing are yours. you pretend the words are yours. you pretend there is no camera

man over there are no cameraman out there. the audience pretends that are not watching actors, they are watching real life. z-.nwhat they are really doing a holding hands and watching the human race. that is what actors do. when a person walks up to an actor on the street and says thank you, they do not say that to their neurosurgeons, their divorce lawyers, or their ministers. they say to actors. because actors give people relief from sorrow. when i do a comedy, i always ask that the lights be raised a little bit so i can see the audience. because when you make people laugh, you are giving them a gift, and they know it. tavis: that reality has helped to or ever do it in your activism in what way?

>> in no way at all. there is a celebrity problem, but not an acting problem. that is a myth. celebrity is good, because you can never have to wait in line for tables at restaurants. other than that, it's up. you have no private life. people think you belong to them, and you cannot walk down the street crying if you had a fight with your wife. it is an invasion. most actors who achieve the top level spend most of their lives never leaving their homes. it is a hk4ojjip @ actingu(hs&l open any door in te world. i can get a meeting with putin.

staying in the room and having a good meeting depends on my own brains. tavis: to your formulation, to your understanding, to the experience you have lived, given celebrity you have from your acting, has it been worth it? has it been worth giving up the freedom, giving up being able to walk down the street? >> the simple answer is yes. i live a blessed life. i was able to do for 50 years something i adored it doing, and i was rewarded and praised for it. and then, when it ceased being as intense a love affair, and as the bible says, for everything there is a season, when i got older and i stopped being given the highest salaries and the best parts, i also was not allowed to have my opinions

heard. and that made me quit. i said to myself, what i had promised myself and i was 12. when i was 12, i said you are going to be an actor and a star, your going to go into politics, and then you are going to teach history. so when i was 56, i quit being an actor, meaning i quit developing, i quit trying to raise projects up and all that. and i went to oxford for four years, and i knew cassandra's curse. she had the ability to see the future, and nobody would believe her. i wrote a piece for the san diego "tribune" and i said i have not been able to find the words that would make you feel

the dread that i feel about the future of this country, and i would ask you, when you think about the future of america, the have a sense of ease and comfort and relaxation, or do you sense some unease and something wrong, even if you cannot name in it? tavis: i feel the same thing you feel. the question i would respond with common name for me a time in history when a significant portion of the population did not feel that same unease that you and i feel today? >> i cannot. -- i can, until the 1960's. it was never perfect, but our egos is built on the myth that we americans on the future. even the depression and world war ii and every other

catastrophe, we were just practicing on how to run the world. and then the future was taken away from us, somehow. i made my first speech about this in 1991. i said, did we just when a political victory of some kind? didn't the wall come down somewhere? where are the parades'? chris the sense of ownership? where is the american social momentum that was the most famous and ferocious in the world? now there are articles on the front page of "the new york times" that say we cannot fix the bridges over manhattan. írñsomething had happened to us. what it was was that we had stopped teaching who we were, and who we are, and why we are who we are. tc[eñit is not taught, so that s today not only do not know civics, they do not know the

basics. they do not know how to hammer a nail, balance a checkbook, cook, sew, and it is like we are practicing for the 21st century being a fred astaire0> there are two things that will make me lose my sense of humor. when someone says you have no right to that flag, or when they say if you are against the policy, you or against the troops. those things get me really angry, because i am an

american, and i love america more than i can possibly tell you. i think that america is the finest answers to a question that has been asked for 13,000 years. that is, how can people live together with some sense of decency and mobility andynod freedom and a chance of opportunity? so far, we are the best answer. we have forgotten that there is a substance to patriotism, and we should not love our country just because we ourselves of canada. that is what i want to teach, because i wanted to believe back into the culture, so that parents know what to say to the kids, and ministers know whatp÷o say, and journalists know what to say. journalists have rolled over. they do not ask impolite questions because they lose their privileges. nobody says to the president or anyone else, i don't work for

you, you work for me, answer the question. until they do, they have lost what is fun about being an american. that is the fun part. io?vtavis: can you instill that notion of patriotism in people again, and not let it bleed into nationalism or fanaticism in the world where there are so many fanatics? where people are gripped by fear. there are rogue nations popping up all of the place. americans tend to become nativists. >> i spoke to 160,000 people so far in person. the first group was 1000 republican right wing women who gave me a standing ovation, which surprised me. it turns out that they have been waiting --

tavis: they thought you were the cheney, and not richard dreyfuss. >> they had endured months of being called idiots. qlatñwomen said they came thereo walk out on me, and they agreed with every single thing i said, because patriotism means that people can understand that this country, uniquely, has an inherent meaning. most countries are just accidents of history. this country was intended for something. if we had tried it in europe, they would have killed us to the last man. it was only the atlantic ocean that protected as. but we have a meaning. what is it? is that we put the bill of rights of on a wall so that everyone could see, every time we failed, and every time we succeeded.

we had the guts and 90 and arrogance and cockiness to say this is our picture of our moral future. that is an act unequaled in history. we said that it thought were gold, we announce it now. every time we failed, it was headlines. every time we succeed, it is commonplace. it is what makes america completely unique in the story of nations. tavis: so the mission statement of the dreyfuss initiative is what? >> it is this. we are the only nation down by ideas only. we have a common ancestry, a common religion, a common military victory or defeat, no common crime that binds us.

we are bound only by the ideas áenlightenment, reason, logic, clarity of thought, critical analysis. if we do not teach every new generation of americans those ideas, because there is no genetic advantage, if we do not teach our kids those ideas with wit and rigor, every generation , we are not bound, and we are coming apart. as we are, you cannot deny that we are a picture of a country that is like after the big bang, everything is going this way. when you do not hold people accountable, and when you allow illegal wars and you cannot define the party principles because the win is more important than the principles, in you know you are in trouble. we have got to take a patient

stop and look around and say, what do we owe our country's future? are we connected only to america at this moment, or do we have any obligation to america after we are dead? i have said this. if, in your secret heart, you really do not give a damn about america after you are dead, then leave now. i have nothing to say to you. but if you are feeling an obligation to the american dream, stick around. you'll hear some good things. tavis: i assume that you are hopeful. why are you hopeful? >> because i believe, first of all, that individuals make history. i do not believe it happens by itself. i believe america is hard, and it takes manus, and you cannot forget that you have to get your car retakes maintenance. you have to get your car into

o6@?the shop every six months d lube it up. >> you cannot take for granted the complexity of republican democracy. republican democracy actually says that the citizenry is as important as any other sector in the government. so why do not teach those kids how to run the country? we teach our kids what we want them to know. we do not teach them what we don't want them to know. so someone is saying that. by the way, if all of the news information in history is owned by one guy]qf÷, that is a subjet for discussion. [laughter] if his name happens to be, of rupert murdoch, he has five

passports, and one of them is chinese. so when he whispers into a president's ear, who is he talking for? and you have a right to ask that. you have an obligation. ñvtavis: if this is done right, this makesb:ia you a light keep. how is that for a seguey]- >> that was the same way that made me do the movie. i thought, this is a movie about a guy who has made an oath to keep the light on. that means no matter what, the light never goes off. if the light goes off, people will die. that is the oath that all light keepers took. that is as clear a metaphor about this country as you can get, because the darkness, which is the overwhelming history of mankind, has come back.

we live in a senseless, alice in wonderland world, where nothing is logical, where no one is punished, where people who are rewarded are only rewarded because they were born to it, and now the supreme court has actually, by saying that corporations are unfettered -- you know what that really is? that is closing the circle. we came here to get away from that. and now our own supreme court has brought it back, a caste and class system that says money is the only counter, and if you do not have a, you are out. that is actually bringing history back to where it began, at the birth of this country. tavis: gwyneth paltrow's mom and

meryl streep's daughter are in the cast with you. >> both of them are not only gorgeous, but as talented as their mothers and daughters. i have known blythe for 45 years. i can remember the day i heard she was married. [laughter] she acts like me. she is very spontaneous, and she never repeats herself. so there are two moments that i will not tell you about, where she pulled something off on me in the scene, that had i been called upon to say anything, i would not have been able to, because i had fallen in love with her. she touches my cheek at one point and i just -- tavis: you mentioned earlier

that you went from having a love affair with being a thespian for 45 years to just having a friendship with acting. how do you decide what it is that you want to do these days? >> i knew when i was 12, i was in love with america. i was a man who -- i read every book>çirw howard fast ever wrot. he loved america so much, he would make you weep when you read about it. i was going to go into that when i stopped acting. -- i knew i was going to go into that when i stopped acting. that was being ignored. like the 100 years after the civil war and people lynched at the rate of 90 a month. we forget and think those were the golden years. we are hypnotized in the same way. we don't teach the basics, and

we think everything is just fine. the@6á÷ basics have to be taughr this country will disappear. tavis: richard dreyfusss new film is "the lightkeepers." we will see you monday night. until then, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org

your side ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- /q >> we are pbs. /q >> we are pbs.

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