judge judge judge judge >> rose: welcome to the program. tonight an encore presentation of my rare conversation with bill murray whowhose career ranged from "saturday night life" to "boston translation" and now "monuments men" directed by george clooney. >> the best i am is when i'm working. you know, if you talk about being present, and because it's going to be on screen, i'm going to get to see myself failing to be alert and aware. so it really is such a strong, powerful reminder to work at it, you know, and to be there. so i like it. i enjoy it. when you get together with a bunch of people and for a couple

of months, and then you scatter, and you may never see these people again. >> rose: bill murray for the hour, again. captioning sponsored by captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> come in, ray. >> i saw it!

i saw it! i saw it! >> it's right here, ray. it's looking at me. >> he's an ugly little spud, isn't he? >> i think he can hear you, ray. >> don't move. it won't hurt you. >> aarrgghh! arrgghh! >> what happened? are you okay? >> he slimed me. >> that's great! actual physical contact. you can move? >> ray, ray, come in, please. >> i feel so funky. >> rose: bill murray has had a remarkable career, starting with the improv at second city in chicago. he won an emmy award in 1977 for "saturday night live." he starred in many popular films include "caddyshack" "stripes" and then "lost in translation." he can currently be seen in

george clooney's "monuments men." >> what's going on? this could be a bit of a problem. >> a bit? >> here's a thought-- we put down our guns. you go your way. we go our way. no hard feelings. he doesn't speak any english. >> not a word. >> okay. >> you're just going to sit down? >> yeah, why don't we all just sit down for a second. >> rose: later this among he appears in the "grand boud fest hotel." he is a pop culture icon and has

been called by the "new yorker" one of the world's most appealing hipsters. i spoke with him recently, and we talked about many things, including the life that he lives. what was the attraction of "monuments men" for you? >> well, the story is a story that most people had never heard, the story of a-- like a core of-- like a clique of a platoon of guys going out to hunt down the stolen art. >> rose: who are artists rather than soldiers? >> who are artists rather than soldiers, mature men, not enlistees, or draftees, but guys past the warrior soldier stage asked to join the effort and dp on this hunt. >> rose: we forget in times like this in war that one of the casualties of war is cultural treasures. >> right. well, iraq was a big one, right? >> rose: exactly. >> where we sort of cleaned house in iraq.

we won the war in 95 minutes or something but their museums were looted and robbed and i don'tñ6& know if that stuff has ever been tracked down. >> rose: a lot of it has, i think. >> but that's something that really goes. and things disappeared. and with the-- you know, with the systematic looting of the western europe museums by hitler and his people, they really took a lot of stuff, as you know, there was a story just a few months ago, they're still finding it. what did they say that was worth, $1.5 billion one guy. >> rose: yeah, one guy had done that. so there's the story. it's a greatistic based on a book by robert edcell, i think. did you read the book? >> yes. >> rose: did you read the book before you accepted the role? >> no, george told me the story of the movie a year before while eating, you know, pasta and salad. and i just went, "oh, god, this sounds so good." but then, you know, i thought, i wish george would have asked me to be in that movie it sounded

so good. and nine months later he said, "are you busy?" >> rose: and you said? >> i'm not busy. i'm busy but i'm not that biz gle did you like the character? >> yeah, it was great. it was sort a composite. we didn't use anyone's name. it was a hand gull of men. the character was written by grant hezlot of, and it was a wonderful character. every actor in the movie has great stuff to do. every actor is given a couple of home rub swings throughout the film. so it's really made for you to have great turns, great scenes while you're telling a story. an interesting story. >> rose: and how does george work as a director? >> george is extremely well prepared. george comes to work in a great mood every day, you know. it's the lightest set i've ever been on, really. i usually feel like i have to be the one that keeps things light. you know, i'm always trying to

calm people down or loosen them up. george was just -- and grant, they were both hilarious all the time. and you put all those people in one place, we got more tall tales and lies and stories to tell, as john says it -- >> the making of the movie is-- >> you know, you'd stop. you'd shoot a scene and then you'd stop and balderdash for 25 minutes and just laugh and really you laughed until you hurt because people were throwing out their best stories and throw them over the of the previous one. >> rose: you can't top this, can you? >> you could. and people really did top them. it was really fun. >> rose: he's a prankster, too. >> he's famous for playing a lot of pranks. and he didn't do so much on this one. he had one good one on matt damon. matt damon was going to renew the vows of his wife, and george told the seamstresses on the film to take in his pants a quarter of an inch every two weeks. so he'd go away and come back

and put pants on and all of us knew, but everyone was-- you know... dead faced. dead panning looking at him. and you see just the look on his fairfax like-- it was -- >> the location was good, too. >> well, berlin's pretty great. i don't know if you spent any time there. but it's really nice. it's really a bubbling place. it's an artist colony, and very unique even in germany. sort of like lost in texas is very different from texas. berlin is very different than the rest of germany. expawlt artists of europe flee there. it's inexpensive. it's very reasonable to live. people live sort of like socialists. there are the squatters and so forth. i know an american guy who was like a socialist here who moved to berlin and he rent outs his sort of little place and he squats somewhere else. >> rose: i know a lot of architects have done buildings there. there was a sense of great--

almost-- one of the great talents for architecture anywhere, because after the reunification and everything they were really building and had opportunities to build great things. >> yeah, there's a lot of new stuff. and the old stuff it's funny thing is even tho i would think berlin would be a wreck. they bombed the heck out of it. it's a fairly pretty good sized city, and what they didn't bomb is completely intact because on the east german pat of town nothing changed. no buildings changed. nothing was built. so all apartment buildings are beautiful. you say my gosh, look at this. you see a row of town houses in new york and say what a great street. there are lots of streets like that in berlin. the night life is night and day life. they go hard. the germans would say, "we're going to dance night." and dance night lasts 41 hours. they go out and go for a day and a half it lasts.

>> rose: how do you decide if you want to make a movie or not. >> sometimes the people involved. >> rose: like george. >> or wes anderson. he says, "do you want to do the job? i say sure, what time. >> rose: if wes called you'd be there? >> yes. >> rose: if jorm called again, you'd be there. >> all of us would be there with george. it was wonderful to be that well taken care of. >> rose: does it make it difficult if he's also one of the stars of the movie because he's acting and directing? >> well -- >> and in this case he wrote the screen play. >> in that case you would think that would be a problem and with another actor it might be a problem but what george does with a movie is selfless. he does the grunt work. he does the plot line. he's telling the facts. he does all that stuff. those aren't really huge, emotional moments he's got. it's like selfless, serving

stuff, and he gives us all the merry-go-round stuff. we all have the great stuff and he's doing the service work. >> rose: do you want to direct? >> i codirected one with howard franklin, a movie called "quick change" and i thought i would do it every year for rest of my life but then life changed. but i'd like to do it. i think if you can direct a movie you should direct a movie if you're able to. i'll probably do it again when life slows down a little bit, has a little more space. >> rose: your life is interesting. it's not a carefully thought-out, well-planned life. >> what a nice way of saying that. i never heard anyone be so compassionate towards me. that's really nice. >> rose: well, it's true. it has the additional advantage of being true. >> yeah. >> rose: you know? >> well, i'm a little bit-- i'm a little bit seat of my pants. i try to be just alert, you know, and available.

i try to -- >> see that's a good point-- be available so that you're not so on the tread nil that you don't see or take advantage of something. >> yes. and i mean more than just for work. i mean available for work. but available just for life to happen to you. you know, that-- we're living this life. we're in this life. and if you're not available, sort of ordinary time goes past and you didn't live it. the day passes and you didn't live it. but if you're available, then life-- you jump up dimensions. life becomes much more full, and you're really living it. >> rose: i mean, it's that old maxim about half the game is being in the arena, by saying yes and being in the arena, you can experience so much more. >> well yeah. and-- yes to life. it's like, yes, this is-- this is not easy for me to pay attention. this is not easy life, you know, and it's not easy to really

engage all the time. it's so much easier to zone, you know, do-- to get distracted, to daydream, to do something. but to be available and to be there, then things-- because things are happening all the time to us, and if you're not aware, you miss them. you know -- >> but you seem to be a guy who resident a lot, too. i mean, you're really aware. in reading about you i was struck by the point that someone asked you who you'd really like to meet and you said einstein and gregory mendel-- all the stuff about about genealogy. so these are two scientists. >> i get excited about science stuff because they're sort of laws. they're laws of nature. and if they're laws of nature, they're sort of like heavenly laws and they're sort of laws inside of you, too. so if you could get someone to tell you, explain a little bit and crack your head-- just turn your skull a plilt bit so you

heard something a little differently. it just came in your ear differently and landed differently, you'd understand something more. life. >> rose: where do you live? >> right now i live in south carolina. >> rose: why? >> well, life took me there. life took me there, and so that's where my sons are, and that's where i am. >> rose: you like south carolina? >> yes, i really do like south carolina. i didn't choose to go there, and i kind of-- i went-- but i love it there now. i really like it there. the people are kind, and the place is beautiful. >> rose: a good place to be a parent. >> yes. there is-- it's easier. it's easier than being a parent in new york was. being a parent in new york was quite a bit harder. >> rose: because i read somewhere that when you're in l.a., you bunk at george's house. >> well, i've done that, but no, bunking at george's house-- wherever george's house is, is always a pretty good place to be.

it's easy. it's easy. yeah. but where you are-- you know, i like to go-- i like to go around america. i like it. we're going to go on this little trip now. we're going to go to berlin. we're going to do a press junket. we're going to berlin, milan, london and paris. and you tell people i have a week, and i've got to go to work. that's my job. >> rose: you told me george allowed you to fly in and do the movie and then fly out. so you had-- >> it was spectacular. they allowed me to go back and forth from berlin to south carolina every two weeks so i could keep my house together, keep the guys rolling, keep the place spinning, keep those guys going and still do the job. he made it for everyone. mine was maybe the most difficult, but he-- i never had anyone do that for me. >> rose: do you look for-- when you look at what you're going to do next, i mean, are you actually out there letting

people know that i'd really like to be making movies? >> no. no. no. you know, and i quit every once in a while. i sort of retire. >> rose: or you vow you're going to quit after certain movies because you think one is really great and how could i ever top that? >> i made a movie called "broken flowers" and i thought i can't do anything better than that. he wrote a beautiful script. he directed it beautifully. he edited all my lousy stuff out. it was perfect. i just thought i gotta stop. i should stop right now. i should get out like john elway and get out. and i thought now i'll look for that other career and i looked around. and i have no other skills, charlie. >> rose: that's tough. >> i can't do anything else. this is it. >> rose: i've interviewed some people-- boxers, for example, sugar ray leonard. i said, "why are you coming back?" because he had made a lot of money and managed it well. he had all the money, had no problem. you know what he said to me, "it's what i do.

it's what i know, that's why." >> i remember having the conversation with him the night he first made $30 million. and i sad, "man, you should quit. you look good. i can understand you. don't box again." and he came back twice more after that. >> rose: i know, i know. because that's what he knew. >> that's right. i don't have-- i don't-- i don't think i can quit now. and i really like doing it. >> rose: i don't think i can quit now because you love doing it? >> i really like the acting-- the action of it. i like-- how i-- i have to be myself to do it correctly. i have to really work at-- it's the best i am is when i'm working because it's-- you know, you talk about being present and talk about being alert, aware, and everything, but i know that-- because it's going to be on screen, i'm going to get to see myself failing to be alert and aware. so it really is such a strong, powerful reminder to work at it, you know, to really be just in the game, to be there.

so i like it. and i enjoy-- i like the whole gypsy mentality of the movie business where you get together with a bush of people. you live very intimately for a couple of months and then you scatter and you may never see these people again but in that short time -- >> the intensity of the experience. >> absolutely. >> rose: while you're there. >> very intense, very close, people just really slave. there's no limit to how hard you can work on a film. i used to really think that about not only film. i realize it's like that about parenting, too. you can work so hard on a movie. there's no limit to how hard you can go, and you get in this harness with other people that are working hard, and it's exciting. you know, like with these guys here, they all know that. so it was like, cool. you'd see someone-- you know, they made a big thing about we're in the snow and working in the mountains, something like that. cut. we have to go to the next scene. and john goodman and i pick up sandbags and boxes and start walking. "what are they doing?"

we're going to the next site. we're all in this together and this is what we do, how we do it. >> rose: are you still learning? >> i had never been in a movie with a bunch of movie stars before. it was very different to see that, to see how you go. with george you do one or two takes, good actors, you got it pretty much. but it was interesting how the spacing-- there's sort of a different spacing. everyone's-- everyone's tempo is just a little bit slower, a little-- it's like we were talking about professional golfers. their tempo is slower and smoother. and that's like real big-time actors, their tempo is slow and smooth, and to be in a group where everyone is slow and smooth like that. it was different to have everyone -- >> you're watching. you're absorbing. >> yes, you're always getting something. it's fun to watch someone like jon jean goodman who is such a

natural actor, and yet it takes work. people say, "he's not acting. he's just being himself." well, it's hard to be yourself. it's hard to be yourself. show me-- you know, it's impossible. it's the hardest job there is. it's harder than anything to just be yourself. it's so hard. >> rose: when i did that little small part with george he said, "you know, you do a great charlie rose." and i thought that's maybe a compliment. >> it is a compliment, it is a complim-n%. and i'm sure he meant it that way. it's kind-- it's a joyous thing to-- it's fun to be here, but it's fun to work with people that are enjoying their jobs. you enjoy your job. i don't know how many years you've done this job, but you know -- >> more than 25. >> okay, and yet for tu, you light up when the camera turns on. >> it's as fresh as it was when i first started doing it. and the excitement and the interest and all of that, and

because it's unpredictable, too. you don't know where it's going to do. >> yes, and you get to meet a huge range of people, an enormous section -- >section-- if you don't learn -- >> if you don't learn something doing what i do, there's something wrong with you. >> you're lucky-- you're luckier than hell. >> rose: thank you very much. i'll say my prayers tonight. >> yeah. >> rose: so you made your mark in "second city." >> uh-huh. >> rose: improvisational. i assume that's great training for what you have done with your life. that was a perfect foundation. >> yes. i would-- i've been really lucky. people say, "how can i make it in show business?" i say, "i'm only the luckiest guy in the world. i'm not the right person to ask." i was really lucky. my brother, brian, was in

"second city" ahead of me. i got to watch he and harold ramos, and joe flaherty and john belushi ahead of me, and i was just hiding so i didn't get in trouble in my house and went to theater to watch these guys with no intention of ever doing it myself. >> rose: no intention of doing it yourself? >> no, no. >> rose: what did you think you wanted food? >> i wanted to be a doctor at one time but you had to study and that wasn't going to happen. i didn't know what i was going to go. i had trouble holding jobs because they wanted you there on time. that wasn't going to work. >> rose: they want you to play by the rules. >> this acting, working in the theater. we didn't have to get to work until 9:00 at night. >> rose: that's right. >> so i learned a lot just watching those guys. and when i finally did begin to try it myself, i'd learned so much just by observing and feeling what they were doing, i wasn't-- i didn't really peak at the second city. i was just learning it.

i was sort of the new guy for a while and, you know, i was just-- i was just getting-- i was just getting kind of good. and then i got this "is the night live" job. and it was another ensemble group, working with not only talented actors but writers this time, too. so you got to use your writing skills and your acting skills. and this was-- it was a great secondary education. i mean i started at "second city" and then i went to "saturday night live." if you did "saturday night live" for five years, you were able to do asking. you learned a lot. and all those pros, all those guys on the set, when we knot that job, all those guys had done "your show of shows" "sid caesar," all these things. they'd seen it all. they'd done it all. we were just kids, and they would tell you something and it was an amazing education. >> rose: timing is important, i assume.

>> i'm not going to make the joke. >> rose: okay. on the flip side of that. it would seem to me if you do comedy, you develop a higher sense of time, than if you simply had nothing but dramatic experience. that's a serious question. >> yes, and a fair one. it seems like-- you know, at "second city" we didn't call ourselves comedians even though we were funny. >> rose: exactly. >> we were actors. >> rose: exactly, comedic actors-- or not even comedic. >> being funny you have to be able to play straight to be funny, which sounds like a paradox but it's not. you have to be able to play straight to play funny. if you can play straight to play funny, playing straight is not a big thing at all. like lots so-called funny people can be very good in a dramatic

role. i mean, i started making comedies because i came out of "saturday night live" and those are the jobs i would get asked to do. and after a while people asked me to play straighter parts and now i play straight parts and people say, "you made a change in your life. of no this is what i get asked to do. i only do the ones i like, and lately people have been asking me to do straight things or straight things that have a little humor to them. >> rose: do you wish they'd ask you to do comedy. >> i don't wish that. but sometimes i feel like i want to do something really funny. i feel like i'm going to do something funny soon. and usually when i think that way, it comes. >> rose: see that's a great thing to have. you can just wish something and it will happen. >> well, it starts with a wish, doesn't it? >> rose: yes. >> i had a wish i could do a movie that was sort of romaptic,

and then i was asked to do "lost? translation" which is sort of a romantic movie. it's about love. even though i wasn't in love with scarlet johannsen she was in love and struggling and i was in love and struggling and so it was really about love. >> rose: nominated for an oscar. >> you thought you were going to win it. >> i really did think. i won all the prizes on the way to it. >> rose: you were the guy. >> i had some funny things i was going to say. i was ready to go. >> what were you going to say? >> i was going to say, "qhi heard i was nominated with--" and i'd name these other people-- "i thought i really had a pretty good chance." you know, i thought no one had ever give than speech. and people-- you know, it was great because i didn't-- you know, i didn't have agents. i didn't have managers. i didn't have any of that stuff.

so i wouldn't have to give an ordinary speech of thanking everyone. i could just entertain things. if you're on a show with a billion people, show up and do something. give those people in bomb bay -- >> this is my moment to speak to a billion people on the plan the. >> i'm going to thank my hair dresser? what? what! my personal trainer. >> rose: i want to thank, somebody else, i can't remember who it is. >> and then they forget and they're reading it off a note. an actor reading his line off a piece of paper. >> rose: how disappointed were you at the moment? >> well, i was just sort of surprised. i was surprised-- you thought you waited-- >> i was really surprised. >> rose: because you had heard it before. >> i wasn't angry or anything. i was just like, "what?" and i well, that's the academy. they do thiks funny sometimes. but i found later, about six months later, i realized that i

had come down with something. i sort of, like, that prize-winning stuff, about the prizes, that i'd sort of had, like, a low-grade infection of liking winning the prize, andmenting to win the prize. and i thought oh, good, because i awb see-- and i'm sure you do-- when people win the prize, and then the next couple of years they really struggle because they're sort of stuck like, "hey, i'm an academy award winner, baby." so now what i do do? >> . >> rose: i was to see an academy award-winning script. >> then they think they have to find a script that's an academy award-winning scriment. that possibly could have happened to me. it was months later where i went look at me. that happened to me. >> rose: are you a confident

guy who says when you saw that script, saw that opportunity, i can nail this, within me is the capacity with this script to do an academy award-winning performance. >> i didn't think of it as award winning but i knew i was going to nail that character. >> rose: how did you know? >> you are not man, charlie. you are boy. when you are a man you know. sofia-- i found her just charming, just wonderful, and self-assured, and i thought okay i'll throwing in with her and she me the script and it was clean. it was only about 95 payments, 94 pages something like that.

screen writes can be-- i thought this is it. it's all there. eg is there upon and i can bring a little bit more to this, too and i know what she's talking about here. i know what she's talking about. >> rose: what was she talking about? >> she was talking about emotional intelligence and what it means to really be in love, to really love someone, and to be torn with the idea of being faithful to it and struggling with that and seeing yourself in that moment. because you're in front of that moment of life. how am i-- it's like st. peter deny the jesus. st. feature of a pretty solid guy, but even st. peter chickened pout. yes, he it. any man or woman can chick ken

out in the face of pressure. and here were people with pressure and how can they dole with it? so instead of lets the-- they threw their feelings at each other without demand or responsibility to congress each other's route. >> rose: what did you whisper in her ear? >> i told someone once, i told someone the true once, and they didn't believe me. have you thought about it since then or has she told you? >> has who told me? >> well, i whisper it in her ear but moment happened. this it actual low happened, i was micrs, and ava cabrera, who is the script supervisor, and

sofia had this moment where they look at her and said you don't have to say anything. you don't have to hear anything at the same moment and i had the same feeling from 60 yards away. it doesn't marry what i gay. it a wonderful mystery. those two really-- and then i heard them say it, and i was like, that's right. this is how it's going to roll. >> rose: when people want to hire you, what do you think they're hiring? what do you think they're looking for--

>> finish that one. i'm hanging around for that one. >> rose: i certainly hope so. rch the experience and craft and talent. is there-- i mean, is there a-- something within you and your persona and they say, "i need that persona in my film?" >> well, i think i get some work now because one thing i tried to do is not be sentimental, is try to really just squeeze all the schmaltz out of everything. i try not to allow it. i've been relatively successful doing that. so if someone has a script that walks a tightrope of sentimentality, they can ask me, i will be committed to not falling into that pit.

i think-- that's one thing. i feel like when they hire me they get the whole thing which includes goofing around on the set. >> rose: you're trying to leaven it up or that's who you are? i've heard stories about you that are-- you'll be walking by where they're doing a pickup basketball game or stick ball or something else, and you just want to go over there and get in their face and say, "let me play." >> that's true. i can jump in. that's the available thing i talked about. >> rose: how about being available to life's experiences. i'm the same way. just a sense of being able to know i can get inside of whatever kind of experience, whatever they're doing and make them feel it's perfectly natural

for you to be there. >> the jobs-- it also looks like i'm game, like i'll try some stuff, and the sort of range of the movies i've done has moved around a little bit. i have tried some different things. and they know i've come from an improv area. i can do that. you upon, it's-- i'm a maturabilitiomatureactor now-- u don't embarrass yourself or make a fool of yourself later on, people will contact you later. >> like they're younger directors, and i've done casting myself and you say, "there's

so-and-so, "he did that thocial... and you cite some movie that should be set fire to. if you don't make those movies s that can be burned-- he hasn't sold himself, sold his soul for money and fame sphwhr. >> i think for whatever it works, there's at some sense of integrity in the core-- you get a since there's something very real of that. the man who, as you said, squeezed all the schmaltz out of it. and i>> i've learned something. living. and it works all the time, it works in life. people say how did you get in

there. i can get from this side of the street to the other. i don't get in trouble. >> rose: you into into a place where you're not invited but you're able to look them in the face and say, "i believe. >> if you are there to share and contribute, people will let you go. it's like that feeling-- last night we went to the movie prenear, and then there's a big party afterwards and a the lo of noises and alcohol. then you want to go out and get a bite to eat. and it was a thing where you looked and saw there were a handful of people in there.

the guy driving me the car said do you want me to go in and check it. i say the let me try. i walked in and looked at the maitre d', and the look was like, oh, there's this guy. and i said, "hello. i was just wondering if you're still open. that's a couple of us, and we were thinking about, we were wondering if you had any food. >> any food, it's a restaurant, right. >> and he already sent two people away so don't count on your-- on that. it was just great. that was kind of fun. they could have good-bye home, but they were like maybe this will be fun. it ended up poog a lot of fun. every week clouded around and we

had fun with poo with the cooksd waitresses. that fun thing of getting in, it's like there's no limit to how much munand how much you can go, and how much you can play. you can play with somebody and they will open up and then you can maybe them a hero and they'll love that. there were-- our propects were not that good at midnight trying to find. what is it. ification qnl. >> i got a lot of pressure to do rushmore. i had agents down-- lot of people. and i kept getting copies of

bottle rockets. i have the largest single direct of boft roarer may, okay we were going to set up a meeting with you and lewis. alan said well twrng i think you should. that's okay. i don't have to meet with them. i have read the script, and he knows exactly what he wants to do. ♪ ♪ ♪ there's nothing this this world to stop me worrying with my girl ♪ ♪ i found out i was wrong

i found out i was wrong ♪ she just get out lying. >> i'd never seen that before in a script. the script was so specific he knew exactly what he was going to do. >> wait until you see the next one, the "grand budapest "hotel. this is like a time scare bill board -- >> he's coming into up to soon. >> yeah. and he's just great fun. i mean, we've become great friend, and i really love him. i love him. and he makes the meg namovies his life. he really makes the living --

>> and he has his own style, his own personal style. >> yeah, he has his own fashion sense, and he tries to dress us that way. everyone's cuffs are this short. the pants' cutses never. >> rose: what about the life of having all these people work for you, agents and the like, that you said oh, no, that's what i'll do-- have a phone, and if i want to call you back, i'll take it back and i don't need it seriously. i remember hearing ellen bir sten say i was having a dream i was involved in a lot. and i realized it was a froofd

people. i'd be in my home and the phone would ring and it would ring and ring, like, 30 times, 40 times. and then it would stop and you'd go who in the hell was there. three minute later the phone would cringe and it to be 20 or sml thing. "who is this this?" "hello, is he there for michael." "you have to get another job." their job was to let the phone ring 6,000 times in the home -- >> if somebody says call in three minute, they'll call everywhere. >> rose: you decide you to had all that. i had michael oweaps remember

the greatest agent, and he was my monster. he was great. he's a famous character but he's my character, and when he's on your side, life-- he's a weapon and he's really something. i loved him and i was great. >> rose: he became an executive. >> he became all kind of things. so it just changed, and the other people were lovely people and it isn't the same them i started looking at it upon more closely and realize what they want to do is cror at yuck, you know, i i don't know. >> rose: today if they want to reach you, they know there's a number-- >> some people get frustrated

they can't get in all that i really wanted. but it's just-- it's just cheen your life out per i'd rather choose my own distraction than have anyone else. >> rose: you're in charge of your own life in a big way. >> rose: more than most. >> rose: you have been the sense. >> i'm getting there. >> what's not there that you want to get to. iti'd like to wake up better. >> rose: waking up is hard. >> i had a recommendation to look at your eye in the world and see how good it is chec-- id

hear a good thing one day. i go to the soulful black church, the catholic church in charlston sometimes -- >> where the music is fine. >> wh where music is better. and the preaching can be kind of good. and we had a best bn l, what do you want me to do. that he was a great feeling, i think, what do you want me to do. so when you look at where you are and hom dee today. caddy chaking. and there's this wonderful thing about it. there was a guy named warren cousins, "editor offe offed is

review" and he had a life threpg threat thing news and he would put up smingz that caddyshack does as a therapeutic experience experience. >> i guess i can tell the story. you know who stevie nicks is from my house. i like hir lawrd, and she saspjñ was going have hard time once and i watched that movie and watched it for a week or something. i just kept watching that movie and it cheered meuch so much. and i thought if i did that to someone is off an important people.

that's what he did. and he healed himself. laughter is the best immediate. isn't that what it said? >> rose: when you think about movies like that and "ghost busters" are those movie of a different era than today and nobody is going to make them? has comedy and comedic movie gone to a different place? >> if i could be sort of constructively critical. >> rose: of me. >> no, not of you. of what i feel about the funny ones. i feel like some of the premises are so unrealistic in a way, you know, that it doesn't hold a whole-- you know, you have to be able to engage with the characters. and if the premises are so big and so-- such a heavy load, you can't hang them on a character. you can't hang them on a person so you don't really react and respond to the character any longer. it's just the gags and the

situations. you don't really get the characters so much. you don't feel like they're driving it. that they're pulling you into the stuff. but there is-- like "bridesmaids" i thought was a wonderfully funny movie. i thought the premise was so good, bridesmaid, right, a powerful premise but the characters were so good. like kristin wigg trying to be in love with the cop. that was so really, you committed, you gauges. lb you can't make me believe this didn't happen. >> rose: have you ever turned down movies you wished you'd made. >> no, i turned down movie they knew were going to be

successful. >> rose: because they had all increedients-- like "airplane ." i thought this is going to work, i just didn't-- you know, and there have been things i knew someone-- there are a lot of movies that they have passed on and people have made and had great success but they weren't for me. >> rose: tell me what it is that you want that you don't have. >> i'd like-- i'd like to be more consistently here, you know. i'd like to really get on-- i'd like to just-- and i know it's not probably ever maybe possible, but because it's so improbable and so impossible, i would just like to really see how long i could last as being really here, you know, really in it, really alive in the moment. and you see people-- i would

like to live to be old. so i think i have a chance. that would be my only chance. it's like-- you know, a golfer wants to shoot his age. i better live to be 100 because that's my only shot. >> rose: oh, no. that's one of my great dreams, too. but go ahead. >> i'd like to be more here all the time and i'd like to see what i could get done, what i could do if i really didn't cloud myself with automatic know-- if i were able to is no t distracted, to not change channels in my mind and body. so i would just-- you know, i'm my only channel, you know, just really here and always with you. you could look at me and go, "okay, he's there. there's someone there." and i coul could-- you know howu look in the mirror, you don't think about it. you could look in the mirror and oh, there's that guy.

and you would catch yourself, the state you were in when you looked in the mirror and you could make a face and toughen yourself up, or sand human yourself up, or whatever you do. when you catch yourself in that mirror, you see the state you're in. are you happy? are you sad? are you confident? are you rosy? are you beleaguered? are you here? and most of the time you're not. you're just like-- "oh, oh." it's almost like you want to look away. it's like that's not me there. that's what i'm doing right now but it's not necessarily me. >> rose: what is necessary for you to get there? >> well... it's all contained in your body. everything you've got. your mind. your spirit. your soul. your emotions. it's all contained in your body. all the prospects. all the chances you ever had. i keep thinking of the clint

eastwood mind, "you kill a man and you kill every opportunity he ever had. >> rose: i often think about lives and say what might have happened if that person had lived. >> right. like think about-- i mean, belushi. >> rose: exactly. >> just a week ago, he's been dead as long as he's been alive now. he's been dead now as long as he's been alive. and you think that's a funny sand dial to put in front of yourself. you flip that thing over, and-- it's done. it's that-- it's that wish to-- you know, it's a wish, right? it's really a wish. you ghoata-- you gotta dream-- not dream but you gotta wish big. you gotta wish big. and i'd like to go-- i'd like to see what i could do. i got sort of a drunken phone

call from a friend of mine's sister who i really like. she's really funny and she drinks alone. she calls you in the middle of the night and i was like oh, boy. you ever get a call from somebody who is not their best. and she was show charlie and so lovely. and she said, "you have no idea how much you could do, billed. you could do so much." i never had anyone talk like that. it was funny. it was a drunken phone call in the middle of the night and i l . to her for 40 minutes or so, 45 minutes-- i i was sound asleep. but it was really like it came from the other side, you know. it felt like it. it was sort of a voice that was sort of intoxicated, like one of the-- one of the visionaries, i visionary speaking to you? the night coming to you in your dream. and i, you know, i hope to remember that kind of thing.

you just try to remember those things, that encouragement, you know. >> rose: i suspect you know whatever she was saying to you, you knew it somewhere pup do be thatted in of you. >> it resonated. it rang a bell inside of me, a bell that rings a lot that says, "remember, bill, come back. remember. this is your life. this is the only one you've got. as we always say to my one brother, "this is not a dress rehearsal. this is your life. this is not a dress rehearsal. this is your life." >> rose: thank you for coming. >> oh, i've enjoyed it. >> it's a pleasure. >> rose: thanks for asking me. captioning sponsored by rose communications

captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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