>> charlie: welcome to the program. we begin this evening with common and his oscar-nominated song from the movie "selma" called "glory." >> i just wanted to put love into the song and create something saying love is not always sitting back being passive. love is standing up for what you believe in too. so that's what i wanted to put in the song. i actually, you know, jog legend's vocal which is the first vocal before i wrote my part was his vocal andñi piano so it kind of led me somewhere too. so it was really the spirit. i wanted to carry the spirit of of dr. king and the people of the civil rights movement. >> charlie: we conclude with actor ethan hawke from "boyhood."ñr >> linklater came to me 13, 14 years ago struggling wanting to

make a movie about childhood but even theñr best ones take 400 blows, pick any of your favorite coming of age movies that have this inherpt lie that you come of age in one moment whereas, when you think about your childhood, it's a series of moments that come to feel like one, but it doesn't happen in one moment. he was talking about tolstoy's childhood boy hood and youth which is a wonderful book and said what if we could do that on film. >> charlie: common and ethan hawke when we continue. >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide.

captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> charlie: common is here. he is a grammy award-winning hip-hop artist an actor, plays civil rights leader james bevel in "selma," his song "glory" is nominated for an academy award. ♪ one day when the glory comes ♪ ♪ it will be ours ♪ ♪ itñi will be ours ♪ ♪ oh, one day, one when the war is won ♪ ♪ we will be sure ♪ ♪ we will be here sure ♪ ♪ oh glory, glory ♪ ♪ oh, glory, glory ♪

♪ hands to the heavens ♪ ♪ no man, no weapon ♪ ♪ formed against, yes glory is destined ♪ ♪ everyday women and men become legends ♪ ♪ sins that go against cor skin become blessings ♪ ♪ the movement is a rhythm to us ♪ ♪ freedom is like religion toñi us ♪ ♪ justice is juxtaposition in us ♪ ♪ justice for all ain't just specific enough ♪ ♪ one son died, his spirit is revisiting us ♪ ♪ truant living living in us, resistance is us ♪ ♪ that's why rosa sat on the bus ♪çó ♪ that's why we walk through ferguson with our hands up ♪ ♪ when it go down we woman and man up ♪ ♪ they say stay down and we stand up ♪ ♪ shots, we on the ground the camera panned up ♪ ♪ king pointed to the mountain top and we ran up ♪ ♪ one day when the glory comes ♪ ♪ it will be ours ♪ ♪ it will be ours ♪

♪ oh, glory ♪ >> charlie: common released his tenth album last coupler called nobody is smiling nominated for two grammys and best album. glad to have him at the table far the first time welcome. >> thank you for having me, mr. rose. >> charlie: oh, you make me seem so rose. >> no, just a matter of respect. >> charlie: tell me what "selma," being part of this film, you know, this song which has been so praised and nominated, what does it mean for you? >> it's a life-changing experience for me. from the first day we sat at rehearsal and ambassador an andrew young talked to us after we did like, our table read, he started talking to us about the philosophies of the sclc and the people to have the civil rights movement. >> charlie: southern christian leadership conference. >> yes sir. and one of the things he said

that really was it for me is he said, what are you willing to die for? you know, all of us are thinking, what will i die for? and he said, live for that. so that was their whole philosophy, what are you willing to die for? live for that. so it made me, every day, think about, like, what am i doing with my life? what do i really want my purpose to be and what is my purpose? and through these experiences, you know, obviously, the people of the civil rights movement were willing to die for justice and for freedom. so it made me examine myself and just really, honestly, getting to experience a film that was -- i'm really connected to the civil rights movement because i always wanted to be able to help people improve lives and dr. king was a hero of mine but to get to learn about the people of "selma" and what happened to "selma" and even to study that

and live that really enriched me as a human being. >> charlie: was your father a hero for you? >> yes, he definitely was a hero. my father was a hero because he was one to have the most authentic human beings i've ever been around. he would tell me the problems he had with drugs. he would talk to me about spirituality. i could call him up and say, man, i'm nervous about this audition. i remember going on my first day filming the movie. he was, like, just go kick ass. you know, those simple things sometimes. but then he would talk to me about the bible and the qur'an and my ancestors. he was a really balanced human being. he was a gemini so he was a special guy. >> charlie: his last words were. >> my father's last words were he said, you will feel the arms of the angel wrapped around your neck. that's what he told me.

>> charlie: i'm not going to be here but you will feel an angel wrapped around your neck. >> yeah. and, i mean, obviously he knew he wasn't going to be here. i knew he was very sick with cancer, and i was on my way to do a performance to stand up for cancer, performing the song that i wrote to him, and i called him to tell him to watch it burks at that time each time, you know, because it was recently during the later part of last year, the summer we found out that it could be, you know, he could be leaving us at anytime, every time i would see him, i would feel like this could be the last time. when he said those words i was, like, if that's the last time that i speak to him, i feel at peace. >> charlie: take a look at this. this is you playing james bevel in "selma." here it is. (singing)

>> nice. mr. bevel? "selma"'s the place. a lot of groundwork's already been made by the people here, and they're ready. >> charlie: this is when king was saying they're going to take a stand in "selma." >> yes and james bevel being part of the southern christian leadership conference was one of the great strategists and a brilliant human being really the person who was the salt of the earth type of gentleman. that's why you see him wearing the overalls and the yamaka. he was a unique individual. i really was honored to play this person and just to be a part of this -- >> charlie: because he was who he was? >> yeah, it was because he was

who he was, and i felt really like these people have contributed so much to american history that it's an honor to be able to carry their tradition and express who these human beings were. >> charlie: how did you get this role? >> ava dove nay who directed the film had a film at sundance called middle of nowhere, at the same time i was in a film called love and both our films were directed and she ended up winning best director for the competition. she saw my work. i knew this film was happening but i didn't know i was in the running. we died a skype meeting and she told me the character she wanted me to play, the person she wanted me to be and what type of vision she had for the film.

as soon as i got off the call, i started finding out information. james bevel lived in chicago, where i was from. he was from mississippi but moved to chicago. twoint something called the -- i went to something called the million man march in 1995, and he was one of the speakers there, and i kind of remembered it was like something in my subconscious that knew james bevel, but i didn't know where. >> charlie: who organized the million man march? >> james bevel along with minister farrakhan. >> charlie: louis farrakhan. yeah. it was called a day of reconciliation in which a lot of men from across the country were coming to be like hey, let's forget the things we put up to separate ourselves and come together. >> charlie: acting gives you another outlet for your own creative expression. >> yes. >> charlie: what does it do for you? >> it makes me search inside

myself and find out things about me that i sometimes am afraid to go to, afraid to be and express, maybe because of the way i was raised, maybe because of my own fears. >> charlie: how were you raised? >> i was raised to be very respectful, to be loving which is great. but i also was raised in the midwest, traditional way where i wasn't, like, around a lot of arts, and my mom didn't play a lot of music. my mother was, like go to school, do well. she was an educator. >> charlie: right. do well and i'm going to make sure you have the things that you need. she worked very hard. but i'm saying, some of the going outside of the box was not really part of my home and i think acting allows me to go places that i wouldn't go as a human being and also relate to other human beings because once i get the opportunity to walk in the shoes of any character that

i play, i have a new-found compassion for people that come from that walk of life. >> charlie: how did you come to write the song for "selma"? >> well, as you know, i experienced "selma" as an actor so it touched my life. one day i was on the phone, specifically monday, i was laying in the bed talking to my manager and i said, ava had already talked to me about doing the song. she said, we want you to contribute a song. but they were busy editing. so i said, i don't want them to ask and tell me what to do at the last minute, so i was thinking, like, i need to call john legend and we need to create a song for "selma." and i told my manager i'm going to call you back. and i texted john legend and said, i'm going to call you in a few minutes. he was in london. we had our conversation and from that point i sent him three titles and one was glory

that was the third title, and he got inspired by the title and we just created the song from there. >> charlie: it's done well, hasn't it? >> it's been an incredible blessing, i'm going to tell you. i've had 8-year-old white kids to 64-year-old men adult black men come up to me and say i really love that song. so -- >> charlie: what were you thinking when you wrote it? where did the inspiration come from? >> well, i was thinking, how can i be an extension of dr. king and the people of the civil rights movement now? how can i really be a voice for them? and from what i see going on. and how can i really say something that's inspirational,

that's truthful, and that's, like all-encompassing because obviously, dr. king 's message and to my understanding, it stakes all of us to improve -- it takes all of us to improve things. it takes black white latino asian, native american, people from different religious background it takes people just putting love into the pot. so i just wanted to put love into the song and create something saying love is not always just sitting back being, like passive. love is, like, standing up for what you believe in, too. so that's what i wanted to put in the song, and i actually -- you know, john legend's vocal which was the first vocal before i wrote my part which was his vocal and piano so it kind of led me, too. it was the spirit. i wanted to carry the spirit of dr. king and the people of the civil rights movement. >> charlie: that's what's important about the performance,

that david oyelowo does. i talked to andy young about it. we were together at the last broadcast of colbert and andy was there. >> oh, yeah. >> charlie: and he said, it's not dr. king , but it's his spirit. >> yeah. >> charlie: that's what's important. he said, you felt that david caught the spirit of martin luther king. >> that's what the film carries, is the spirit. >> charlie: it's not an imitation. it's the spirit. >> it's the spirit. as ambassador young told you he's not emulating dr. king he's just carrying what the energy is and what the spirit brought across. that spirit brought across a lot of great things from love forgiveness, courage, belief in the oneness and also just i think the humanity of him, of

things that existed in dr. king that weren't perfect obviously, david was able to bring that and ava did a wonderful job in showing all these people were people. and that inspired me because that was one of the things -- >> charlie: that none of them were perfect. >> nobody in the whole film was perfect. that was likely inspirational because it made me say, look somewhere we got dr. king in us. you know it could be a young lady, a 10-year-old girl who has dr. king in her. we all have some of that, meaning the good and the bad and we can achieve that greatness. >> charlie: yeah, some people -- you've got to make sure that you give greatness an opportunity to come forward. >> yes. one of my favorite words is "greatness." when i do and i speak at different colleges or high schools, i talk about greatness

because i really learned there's a period in my life where i was happy with being good and then i was, like i want to be great. >> charlie: how was it to sing at the edmont pettus bridge? >> that was one of the greatest moments in my life because i didn't get to go to filming the moving because of scheduling things, i couldn't film the march across the bridge when they filmed it and that was one of the most hurtful things in my artistic career because we had been through this journey together as people and actors because, mind you while we were filming this, dr. myia angelou passed ruby d. passed, and all of these moments we were experiencing together, and there was a certain bond we had and because i couldn't be on the bridge during the filming to be able to go back i had never been to selma to be able to go to selma and perform a song that

i never even knew would be created while we were filming the movie and to look across and see all these people of the town just being inspired and to see my mother and oprah winfrey and my daughter and just all these people i love, it was one of the greatest moment. the sun was setting behind us. it was, like, i couldn't have wrote a better story and setting. >> charlie: you just released your tenth album. >> yes. >> charlie: it's called nobody's smiling. >> yeah. that, as i said i'm from chicago, so there is been a lot of violence and a lot of just things happening that people are in need there. i was around kids because i have a foundation, a common ground foundation and i was realizing these kids are missing something from my generation. we haven't reached out the way

we could. so i just looked at the situation, and i looked at and entitled my nobody's smiling to describe the situation but not for us to stay there but to really just give a voice for the people who are there and hopefully offer some hope and solutions. to me, it's like the way marvin gay said, what's going on and miles did an album describing what he saw. i think for me in music and art, if you talk about a problem you want to offer a solution too. i do my best to offer solutions. i don't have all the answer also. >> charlie: you and kanya what's the relationship? >> brotherhood friendship. he's someone i learned from as an artist. he produced some of my greatest music. the album i did called "be." and "finding forever." i met kanye when he was 19 and i

was 23, 24, and i was out with albums in chicago and i was kind of like the chicago guy, and kanye, he would come around and want to battle me. you know, but he was really still -- >> charlie: wanting to battle you? >> battle me. it's like -- >> charlie: take it to you? yeah, he wanted to take it to me on a hip-hop level. >> charlie: yeah. on a rap level because that was part of the art of hip-hop was like boxing like i'm going to win. >> charlie: i mean, we shouldn't even try to square this sort of larger-than-life sort of ego and personality with the music. are they one and the same, or is one simply a performance thing and the other is a creative genius? >> i think it's both things as far as creative genius and the ego of wanting to be the greatest, wanting to -- never

wanting to be less than great. and i think a lot of us possess that ego. but he expresses his in the way that he does. i can say he has it honest because i got to see his grandfather once and i was, like, this guy has this type of confidence. when i met him when he was 19 years old, kanye was the same type really confident and i honestly appreciate it. i always called it -- i call it the muhammad ali philosophy. sometimes you've just got to speak greatness into existence and really claim it. that doesn't mean you knock over anybody else in life. you don't have to knock over people to do it, to sea, hey i'm great and let your light shine. but it's okay with saying that. that's what i was telling you when i was saying fears, like sometimes the fear of being like, i'm a great artist and actor, you have to claim it.

>> charlie: because of ferguson and new york and other places, we've had focus here on conflict between the african-american community and police. >> yes. >> charlie: what are your thoughts on that? i bring up the song you know -- >> yeah, well, i think the history of the police force and dealing with black people has been a conflict there for a long time, and that history, it goes for generations, so the experience isex -- the experiences the police have had with black people and the experiences black people have had with the police have made us automatically be, like, okay, they aren't going to treat us well, and probably has created a sense of the police like i think black people will be

violent towards me. so i think it's the history that we have to get past and say, okay, we have had instances where black people were wrongfully shot and killed and we have had instances where police officers' lives were threatened by black people. so it's like, really getting to that place of understanding where we can't just judge a person just by the way they look, their skin, and we can't just judge a person because they're in uniform. >> charlie: could a song for asata be as interpreted as promoting violence against police? >> no, because when i read asada's book which likely influenced me and was a beautiful book, you know, her being a black panther, i never believed she killed a police officer. i never believed she killed a state trooper. you know, i believed what she said happened. so that's why, you know, i was

standing up for somebody i feel was wrongfully accused. >> charlie: what's next for you? >> well, i want to keep creating, keep putting out love in the world doing some, you know, art that means something. i am -- i do have my foundation, which is very important to me common ground foundation. but along with that, you know, i'm working on new music and new films. i haven't solidified a new film project i'm going to do, but i want to continue to grow and be out there as an actor, keep creating music. >> charlie: stop back and see us. >> i will. thank you for having me. >> charlie: pleasure. back in a moment. stay with us. >> charlie: ethan hawke is here. his performance in richard linklater's "boyhood" earned him an o o oscarñi nomination.

he directed seymourçó an introduction. great to have you. >> thank you for having me. >> charlie: tell me when they approached you about "boyhood." >> about this time of the year, linklater came to me aboutñi 13, 14 years ago. my son was about to be born, and rick had been -- you know, we made three or four movies together and he was struggling with the idea of wanting to make a movie about childhood but even the best ones take 400 whose or pick añyr one of your favorite coming of age movies, they have this inherent lie to them that you come of age at one moment whereas when you really think about your childhood, it's these series of moments that come to feel like one, but it doesn't happen at one moment. he was talking about tolstoy's childhood boy hood and youth, which is a really wonderful book. he said, what if we could do

that on film where we cast a 6-year-old actor and we'll just shoot a little bit every year and, you know, you will play the dad, and we'll do the grid of the american life, 1st through 12th grade, the time period we're all in prison, you know and the end of the movie, we'll be released from prison. i said, are you asking me theo do this? he said, well, no, this is very rick, he's very cagey. he said, no, i would want you to with you but you would never commit to something like that. i say why wouldn't i? he said, you will be wanting to do other things and be super busy. i said i'll be there. that's how it happened. >> charlie: it worked out amazingly well. everything could have gone wrong over a 12-year period. >> a movie is a strange act of fate. hen it first started, i have to admit, i don't think i ever thought it would come out. i thought it would be something that 35 years from now i would be at the film festival and talk

about this movie we once tried to make. >> charlie: almost orson wells like. >> yeah, it would be this thing where we would get three or four years into it and it would fall apart just by virtue somebody would lose interest. because you can't contract anybody to do something more than 7 years legally so it was all on a handshake deal. and the idea the film company didn't go out of business. the thing that miramax doesn't exist advantage doesn't exist, focus doesn't exist but i.f.c. is still trucking and may this happen for us. >> charlie: it doesn't have a plot. >> it substitutes time for plot. it's really interest. it's an architecture i get a huge kick out of because, as an actor people always think, oh some actor isçó brilliant and i

always take the opposite thing that actually what's really hard, it'sñi hard to be good on an episode of matlock because when an actor has a tremendous amount of plot to sell is when you see bad acting. in 14 minutes the russians will be here and if we don't turn off the bomb then the whole world will -- and that's when acting looks bad. what rick does is he tripped the whole -- stripped the whole movie of plot. in acting class and stuff, peel talk about the real -- people talk about the real goal is not to act at all. the real goal is toñi actually be present and be creative on screen, on stage, whatever it is. what makes that so hard is plot because, in real life we don't really have a ploí moment. >> yeah. there's this huge thing of artifice over the finest movies made. but rick has taken it away and

substituted time which makes the movie not boring. itñr makes it interesting to watch. cinema is 24 frames per second. as an art formñi it's about time. so we just kind of harness our horses to -- >> charlie: were you informed by your fatherhood? >> well definitely. i mean i'm a child of divorce, i'm a parent in a divorce situation. so rick gave me the opportunity to do that. it's kind of the lion in my psyche. >> charlie: the lion in your psyche? >> it is for any young person when you're seeing yourself -- you know, you get told you're from a broken home or the product of a failed marriage of

that you're -- it creates this feeling in you that maybe there is something wrong that you're the only one harboring secret pains, you know. and as you get older you start to see that that's not true. one of the things that i'm so proud of about this movie, i'm proud of it from my own kids because i've had to walk them through the same thing i've went through which is obviously something i swore i would never do, but life is mysterious. but getting to make a movie that looks square in the eyes that i hope normalizes that none of us have a normal family. you know, my wife her parents love each other and have been together for 30-something years and they're a beautiful couple, but their family isn't normal, you know. they have their own, you know, their own stuff. >> charlie: what about the kid

who is cast. >> eller coltrane? >> charlie: yes, who i med at cbs this morning. >> he's a miracle. when meme say, you lucky or how did it turn out, well it would have been an experiment, a cool exercise in cinema, right, except for eller turned out to be james dean, you know. >> charlie: yeah. he infuses the movie with his on artistry from a very young age but particularly adolescence-forward. he's a special young man. you know, lorelai in the beginning, the movie is built on the backs of childhood, the beautiful spirit is creative play young people have.

rick, in a way put us in a disadvantaged situation in that we're professional actors and we're having to do the scenes with young people and do the long takes and -- you know, it was a workshop situation that we made the movie and these kids aren't acting at all so if you start acting you look like a real idiot. so it was a dangerous situation. >> charlie: you said what i love about "boyhood" is in spanning the 12 years you see the character at the end of movie are so obviously different than they were at the beginning, yet still clearly the same people, which gets at the essential question of what part of ourselves is continuing. well said sir. >> well, thanks. >> charlie: but how does your character change and how is it a continuation? >> well, when we started this, this is what i really thought about. i thought about my own father when i was six years old. the movie's fun, mason, jr., six

years old staring at the sky. i thought about when i was that age, what did i think about my dad? what did he look like and feel like and sound like to me at my high school graduation? and they were two very different men both the same but very different. and all the changes that happened along the way seem inevitable in hindsight. you know, in the moment, sometimes you never know whether you're going to go left or right but four years later seems like you were always going to left could gotten any way but left that's the way life feels. >> charlie: looking back seems inevitable but looking forward seems mysterious. >> always. that's the process of life, right? >> charlie: the interesting thing about you two as i'm in my own world, you're a student of the world you live in, both to have the world around you that has nothing to do with you except you're an inhabitant of it, but also the world of your chosen profession. you think about acting as a

profession. >> i do. >> charlie: and you think about the creative side and what goes into it and who said what about it and what can you learn from all of them to be better at it. >> there's a kind of talent myth in this country, this idea that bob dylan sits down and marlon brando and he's so beautiful and agenous, and that relinquishes us from the need to work harksd you know, i'm not as talented as them. but if you want to focus on the profession of acting, there's a cultish personality that follows actors, isn't george clooney and jack nicolson amazing and they dee fythe personality. but if we look at the tiny country of england across the sea there, if you look at the history of the academy awards, for example, how many british

people, irish people, welsh people are nominated for oscars? >> charlie: two this year. every year, it's a tiny population, and they are constantly creating great actors. part of it has to do there's a relationship to crafts there and there isn't the same talent and personality worship. and young actresses can look to judi dench and others and see a room that they're not in, a room that is not about looks it's not about being clever making money, advertising campaigns, it's about having something to to say and having harnessed your own talent and education and such to use it. our country is not provided with that. you know, we treat the whole thing like it's some competition about making money and everything. and i just -- i feel for -- i'm old enough now to look at young actors and want to say this out

loud on television. >> charlie: like you just did? like i just did. >> charlie: speaking of that, you said to me as we sat down that you're in for best supporting actor. michael keaton, benedict cumberbatch, and i admire both greatly. letgreatly. >> i admire both greatly. there's no secret dig there. i have tremendous respect for them. >> charlie: bradley cooper. bradley cooper. you know, and bradley cooper's an interesting actor too, because he's on stage now in the elephant man and somebody who is clearly taking his crafts very seriously, and i find that really exciting. you know, as a student -- >> charlie: and cumberbatch going back to -- >> the brits are always doing

that. there are so many american actors that do not get the education and encouragement to work on their craft. what we were talking about earlier is michael keaton does something this year i think none of the rest of us do which is, when i was younger, richard linklater gave me this book called "a life" by kazan. and kazan people say great performances from brady, marlon brando, a list of great performances in this movie. and if you read this book, the way he talks about acting, i've never heard anyone talk about acting that way to me. the respect he has for it. it's really exciting. one of the things he talks about, saying brando on the waterfront and james dean east of eden these performances that are still revered as changing acting he talks about they had something personal at stake in the character. and i feel like -- >> charlie: almost connected to their life in some unique

way? >> that was the secret to them. >> charlie: right. that on that celluloid, they were going through something personal and whether or not it's true or not they create the feeling that you are not watching -- you're not eating a reheated meal you're watching creativity in action. you're watching true spontaneity. and michael keaton's always done that better than anybody. in this performance, people like to make it like it's about -- i'm not talking about birdman as batman. obviously, the character is different than himself. the before trilogy people think it is me. none of our experiences is unique. everybody struggles with their ego. that's what the movie birdman is about. and how hard it is. what are the right ways to to mature? i think michael keaton puts that id on screen. >> charlie: you also made a document ri. >> i have. >> charlie: what's it about?

a piano teacher that you saw? >> i was invited to a dinner party a few years ago, and i really didn't want to go. it was on a monday night. i was doing a play. >> charlie: monday night is your night off. >> yeah, monday night is my night off. i was having this terrible bout of stage fright, and i started acting really young and it was coming at me as a real surprise. i was in a really state of crisis, for myself. you know if you love something and you feel it being taken away from you it's really scary. i was about to turn 40, and i think i was -- i had always been the youngest person i knew. you know, dead poet society came out and i was the youngest person in my job and all of a sudden that was no longer true and i think i felt the earth coming out from under me. i got seated to this 85-year-old

piano teacher who looked me in the eyes and said what's bothering you? and it started this long conversation. >> charlie: that night? that night. i was really moved by him, and he kind of said more to help me than anybody in my own profession had. and it was just a silly dinner conversation. i told my wife all about it started googling him and telling her that somebody needs to make a document riabout this guy, he's amazing. she said, why don't you do it? i don't have time to do this. she said, i'll help you. so we set out to do it together. >> charlie: here's a clip from seymour: an introduction. >> seymour hasn't played in front of people 35 years and i'll make him wait longer while i tell a really long story. i decided to confide with him my most terrifying secret, which was that i'd been, for the last five years or so, performing with a sometimes really crippling stage fright.

i mean, it was a longer conversation, but the bottom line of it was that most people should be a lot more nervous, he says to me, that a great many artists are not nervous enough. >> and you didn't tell them what i told you about nervousness and sarah bernhard. he went to her dressing room to dress for a performance and, in front of the door, there was a young actress with an autograph book with a trembling hand like this. she signed her autograph. the the young actress was just amazed at the trembling hand, and she said madam, i don't mean to be presumptuous, but i see that you're nervous. why is it that i never get nervous when i have to act? and sarah bernhard took her hand and said, oh, my poor dear! you will get nervous when you learn how to act. (laughter)

>> charlie: you know what it's about and what's good. it's often said the more you know about something, the more you realize how difficult it is to be really good at it. >> i had the luxury once of spending nine months in a rehearsal room with tom stoppard. we did a film about mid 19th 19th century russian radicals. i guess he was nearing his 70th birthday when we did that. the director is one of the great american theater directors jack o'brien who -- they're the same generation. they were clearly in a room that i was not in. i found it really exciting. >> charlie: meaning that they knew and understood things that you hadn't experienced. >> yeah. >> charlie: or come to appreciate. >> were made to feel quite often that wisdom is placed pretty low on the totem pole of things that

are interesting, right. and if you spend time with it and spend time with people who value it, it becomes very exciting. and i walked away from that experience, really looking forward to the rest of my life, as opposed to -- i mean there's a danger -- i'm sure there this is not news to you but you have ac have actors on this show a lot of time and there's a lot of hyperbole among young people in my profession and it is wonderful to be young and young people are very exciting but it can create a feeling of what am i doing? it's a little bit like being an athlete. there's a great profile in tom brady, but what was interesting to me as someone gearing up for oscar season, you watch the culture make a big deal about awards and they are wonderful it's a great thing, but they're asking him about the value of the super bowl and why not retire you know, and you get this clear sense that a lot of us don't know what we're doing

if we're not engaged in the game. what are we living for besides the superficial element? we know it's superficial but we don't know what isn't superficial. >> charlie: one other clip. take a look and let's talk about it. >> everything inside of him is worthless. embarrassing. isn't that right todd that's your worst fear? >> i think you're wrong. have something inside of you that's worth a great deal. >> i found my barbaric lop at the rooftop of the world. w-w--- >> charlie: uncle walt. again, for those of you who don't know, a yelp is a loud cry

or yell. i would like you to give us a demonstration of a barbaric yelp. common, you can't yelp sitting down! have to get in yelping stance! a barbaric yelp! >> yelp! >> charlie: come on, louder. yelp! >> charlie: come on. yelp! >> charlie: there yao see, you have a baher mohameden in you after all. what does he remind you of? >> a mad man. >> charlie: what kind? a crazy man. >> charlie: you can do better than that. free your mind, use your imagination. use whatever pops in your head. >> a saw toothed mad man! >> charlie: there's a poet in you after all! close your eyes and describe what you see.

>> i close my eyes. >> charlie: yes? a sweaty toothed mad man. excellent, make him do something. >> he's going to choke me. what's he saying. he's mumbling truth like a blanket that always leaves you feet cold. >> a blanket, tell me about the blanket! >> it will never be enough! kick at it, beat it, will never cover enough! from the home we answer crying and leave dying it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream. (applause) >> you won't forget. thisforget this.you remember that

in what did it mean to you? >> everything. i mean, i just turned 18 a couple of days before and i really wanted to be an actor. i don't know why. and i didn't really know what it was, you know. i read about it. my mother gave me a book on laurence olivier and i liked watching one flu over the cuckoo's nest and dog day afternoon. i thought they were really interesting. i had seen john malkovich on stage do a sam shepherd play and that struck me as something i'd never seen before or heard anything like that. and that was the first time i ever acted. you know i had posed before, or

i had imitated somebody. but, you know, we mentioned earlier, it's kind of a great celebration of self that goes around acting that's kind of toxic to the performer. and the real joy of acting is losing yourself. you hear athletes talk about it all the time. they don't remember the game. we had rehearsed enough and worked hard and talked enough and peter kind of -- peter weir was the director, he wanted to do a lot of that in one take. you have to understand that, at this moment in time, robin williams was -- i mean, first of all, i grew up on morning mork and mindy. he had just come back from vietnam. remember how great he was on

garp. his focus was laser. mine was not. it's very difficult for me to stay concentrated and do all the things i wanted to do to be this person, you know and it happened. i felt this buzz of what it was like to act. you know, and he says, remember this -- and, you know, you know, time keeps changing and the memory is different now that he's gone. the memory changed. "remember this" has a power. of course it also is filled with how hard this profession is. two of the great talents of my life, two of the biggest in-- influences on me, robin williams and philip seymour hoffman both passed away last year. these are both very, very serious artists. they're not celebrities to me. you know, philip was one the

first of my generation to be a fully active artist. he had something to say with his theater company, his choices, the way he carried himself in the world. he was very serious. robin, too. depression is a real demon in the woods of a lot of creative people, you know. and it's part of what the documentary is about for me is finding balance, you know where the beauty that is attainable in the creative arts can be matched with the scratchy rough necessary of regular life. regular life sometimes doesn't have the grace that you can have when you're acting, you know. if you've ever watched which we all have, robin in a comic jag when it's flowing through him.

after that scene, you know, you go to the craft service table, you get a cup of coffee, you're sitting there, and robin williams is sitting by himself, totally depleted. i mean it didn't come for free, you know. i worked with philip seymour hoffman. it didn't come for free. i saw him in death of a salesman, and it didn't come for free. my other hero of a young man is river phoenix. my own private idaho was the bar for young men. he was the first one where it's very popular now to talk about gay rights and gay marriage something that i think is important but river did it when it was unpopular and he was 23. it was not cool when you're trying to get a career going for yourself. there wasn't anybody in the world who says, oh i have a good idea why don't you work

with that weird outlaw french artist van zandt and make a movie about a gay hustler? but river saw it as something else. but it's hard to grow up, you know, and it doesn't stop when you're 40, you know. look at robin, phil i mean, it's a tough row to hoe, you know, so... i don't know. did i answer your question? >> charlie: you said it well and brilliantly. i don't know what you've written before. you're making this documentary about seymour. you're also in predestination which is a film. do you write? >> i do. i've written two novels. you know i wrote them both when i was extremely young and one of the problems of getting ol'er older

is -- you know, i was an only child and thought i was brilliant. i wrote something and i thought, oh, this should be published! >> charlie: i'm on my way to becoming hemingway. (laughter) >> yeah, why not? as i became older and read more you know, i've held myself to a slightly higher bar, you know, which is not to say i'm not proud of the books, i am. it's i didn't -- i don't know. i didn't want -- i was so squared of -- i was so scared of fame in that it was going to take away a serious life in the arts. you know i've watched it happen over and over again. young people would just get pummeled! you're great brilliant! here's more money! set yourself on fire! we'll watch! i watched it happen over and over and i didn't want to do it.

a little bit is my mother, too because i dropped out of college and she was really disappointed so i started writing as a way of encouragement -- i don't know if it's encouragement. i was trying to take responsibility for my own education and, as an adult, i've written before sunset and before midnight. i've written some movies that haven't gotten made. i've written some novels that haven't been published now. it's something i always do. but i'm a little bit more patient than i was before. i mean, you know "boyhood" is a great example. you know the whole thing is an exercise in patience. some of the scenes, i would fly home and tell my wife i really think this is the best scenework i've ever done in my life. she would say, when do i get to see it? well, seven more years, you know. >> charlie: great to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> charlie: you should write about what you've just talked

about today. i mean, write about yourself and acting and, you know, that whole sense of the life that you've lived, not but an observational insight. >> that's a good idea. >> charlie: thanks for coming. thanks for having me. >> charlie: ethan hawke, nominated for best supporting actor because of his performance in "boyhood." thank you for joining us. see you next time. >> for more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide.

>> the following kqed production was browsed in high definition. >> it's all about licking your plate. >> i should be in psychoanalysis for the amount of money i spend in restaurants. >> i had a horrible experience. >> i don't even think we were at the same restaurant.