>> rose: welcome to the program. as 2014 comes to a close, we take this time to look back at some of our favorite programs. tonight, a conversation with bill murray. >> i like the whole gypsy mentality of the movie business where you get together with a bunch of people you live very intimately for a couple of months. and then you scatter. you may never see these people again. >> an encore presentation of bill murray when we continue. funding for charlie rose is provided by the following:. additional funding provided by: and by bloomberg a

provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. >> from our studios in new york city, this is 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 can hear you ray. >> don't move. it won't hurt you. >> 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. >> bill murray has had a remarkable career. for more than 30 years he got his start doing improv at second city in chicago. he gained wide notice on "saturday night live" where he won an emmy award in 1977. bill murray starred in many popular films including caddy shack stripes and then lost in translation he can currently be seen in george clooney's the monument's men. >> what's going o on? >> this seems to be a bit of a problem. >> a bit. >> here's the thing. we put down our gun. you go your way. we go our way. no hard feelings.

he doesn't speak any english. >> not a word. >> okay. are you just going to sit down. >> yeah, i think why don't we all sit down for a second. >> rose: later this month he appears in the grand budapest hotel, the latest film by west anderson who is one of his closest collaborators. 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 never heard the story of like a core like a clique a plat on of guys going out to hunt down the stolen art. >> rose: who were artists rather than solders. >> who are artists rather than soldier, and mature men not warrior not enlistees and not not drafties but guys who were past the warrior soldier stage

asked to join the effort and go on this hunt. >> which we forget in times like this in war one of the casualties in war is cultural treasures. >> right, well iraq was a big one, right. >> exactly. >> where we sort of cleaned house in iraq. we sort of won the war in 95 minutes or something but their museums were looted and robbed. and i don't know if that stuff has ever been tracked down. >> rose: a lot of it has i think. >> yeah? >> yeah. but that's something that really goes and things disappeared and with the sort of you know systemic looting of the western europe museums by hitler and his people they really took a lot of stuff that you know they are still finding it. >> exactly. >> what did they say was worth a billion and a half. >> a lot of them -- >> one guy had done that. so there's the story t is a great story based on a

book by robert ed sell. did you read the book? >> yes. >> had you read the book before you accepted the roll. >> no george told me the story of the movie a year before. while eating pasta and salad. i just went oh, god, that sounds so good. but then you know i thought i wish george would ask me to be in that movie. and nine months later, are you busy? and yeah i'm not busy. i'm busy but i'm not that busy. >> you liked the character? >> yeah, it was great it is sort of a composite. we didn't name we didn't use anyone's name but it was a handful of men and put them together. the crack was written was just a wonderful character. i every acker in the movie has great stuff to do every actor is given a couple of home run swings throughout the film. and so it is really made for you to have like great turns,

great scenes whale are you telling a story interesting story. >> how does george work as a director. >> george is extremely well prepared. he comes to work if a great mood every day. 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. 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 1 place, we got more tall tales and lies and stories to tell. >> rose: the making of the movie -- >> you know you would shoot a scene and then you would stop and then you would just balderdash for like 25 minutes and just laugh. and really you would laugh until you hurt it was that hard. people were pulling out their best stories throwing them over its top of the previous one. >> rose: you can't top this, can you? >> and you could. and people did top them it was really fun. it was really like-- the old west. >> he's a prankster too.

>> well he's famous for playing a lot of pranks. he didn't do some of on this one. he had one good one on matt damon. matt damon had this event. he was going renew his vows with his wife and was working out all the-- so it really looked like it did when he first got married or something. and george told the seamstresses on the film to take in his pants a quarter of an inch every two weeks. so he would go away and we come on and put the wants on. and he would just -- and all of us new but everyone was you know-- dead face dead panning looking at him. and you would see just the look on his face like-- . >> rose: its location was good too. >> well berlin is pretty great. i don't know if you spent any time there but it's really nice it's really a bubbling place an artist colony veru neek like austin is very different than texas. berlin is very different than the rest of germany and all the artists of europe flee there because it is

inexpensive very reasonable to live people live sort of like socialists there are squatters and so forth. i know an american guy who was like a socialist here who moved to berlin and he rents out his little sort of place and he squatts somewhere else. he is this crazy guy. >> rose: i know a lot of architects have done buildings there. there was a sense of a great almost one of the great towns for architecture anywhere because after the reunification and everything they were really building and having opportunities to build great things. >> yeah, there is a lot of new stuff. and the old stuff, the funny things, like even though, i would think like berlin would be a wreck, they bombed the heck out of it. but what they didn't bomb, and it is a fairly good sized city. but what they didn't bomb is completely intact. on the east german part of town nothing changed. because no buildings changed. nothing was built, so all the apartment buildings are beautiful. you walk through gosh, look at this. it's like you see a row of

townhouses in new york what a great street. there are lots of streets like that in berlin. >> rose: and the night life is good. >> the night life is the night and day life. they really go hard. they are not-- they show-- i mean the germans were working, yes we are going to dance night. and dance night lasts 41 hours they go out and they go for a day and a half if lasts. >> rose: how do you decide whether you want to make a movie or not? >> sometimes the people involved. >> rose: like george. >> well george or wes anderson someone who just says you want to do the job. i say sure where are we going. >> rose: without knowing. >> yeah. >> rose: he calls are you there. and if gorge called again you would be there. >> yes, absolutely all of us would come for george tomorrow morning in greenland it was really wonderful to work to be that well taken of care of. >> rose: does 2 make it difficult because he's also one of the stars of the movie because he's acting and directing? >> well-- . >> rose: and in this case he wrote the screenplay along with grant.

>> that could be a hazard. you could think that would be a problem. and with another actor, are you absolutely right that might be a problem. but george-- what he does in this movie t is selfless. he is doing all the grunt work. he's doing all the, like the plot line. he's telling all the facts. he's doing all that stuff those aren't really huge motional moments that es's got. it's like selfless serving stuff and he gives us all the merry-go-round stuff. we all have great-- the great stuff. and he's doing the service work. >> rose: you want to direct? >> i codirected once with howard franklin, a movie called quick change a long time ago. i really enjoyed it. and i thought i was going to do it every year for the rest of my life. but then life changed and i haven't done that again but i would like to do it. i think if you can direct, you should direct a movie, if are you able to you know. i'll probably do it again when life slows down a little bit when i have a little more space. >> rose: your life is interesting and in it seems that it's not a carefully thought out and well planned life.

>> what a unique 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, you know. >> well, i'm a little bit-- i'm a little bit seat of my pants. i try to be just alert and available. i try to-- . >> rose: see that's a good point be available so that you are not so on a treadmill that you don't see or take advantage of something. >> yeah. and i mean nor than just for work, i mean available for work. but available just for life to happen to you you know. that-- living this life we're in this life. and if you are not available you sort of ode time goes past and you didn't live it. the day passes and you didn't live it but if you are available then life gets huge-- you jump up dimensions. life becomes much more full.

and you are really living it. i mean. >> rose: 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 to get distracted, to day dream, 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 are not aware you miss them. >> rose: but you seem to be a guy without reads a lot too. are you really aware. in reading about you and i was struck by the point that someone asked you who you would really like to meet. and you said einstein and was it gregory mendolson. >> all the stuff about

senniality. >> uh-huh. >> so these are two scientists. >> i get exstated about science stuff because they're sort of laws they're laws of nation. and if they're laws of nation they're sort of like heavenly laws and sort of laws inside of few. so if you could get someone to tell you explain a little bit and crack your head just turn your skull a little bit if you heard something a little differently, it just came in your ear differently and landed differently, would you understand something more about it. >> where do you live? >> well, i live right now i live in south carolina. >> why? >> well life took me there life took me there so that is where my sons are, and that's where i am. >> dow like south carolina. >> yes, i really do like south carolina. i didn't choose to go there and i kind of was like-- but i love it there now. i really like it there. the people are kind and the place is beautiful.

>> good place to be a parent. >> yes 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 were in l.a. you budgeted at george's house. >> well i've done that but no, no budgeting at george's house, wherever georgea hois is always a pretty good place to be. >> rose: a nice party. >> 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 go on this trip now, we're going go to berlin i a press junket where we go to berlin milan london and paris. you tell people i have a week i have to go to work. and that is my job. where i have to go for a week. >> rose: you were telling me george allowed to you fly in and do the movie and any out. >> 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 you know. keep those guys going. and still do the job. and de that for all, he made it for everyone. mine was maybe the most difficult but he, i have never had anyone do that for me. >> do you look for and when you are looking at what you are going to do next i mean are you actually out there letting people know that i would really like to be making movies? >> no. >> no and i quit every once in a while. i quit every once in a while. >> you vow you are going to quit after certain movies because you think one, it was really great and how can i top that. >> i did do that. i really thought that i made a movie called broken flowers i thought i can't do anything better than that. i mean he wrote a beautiful script, he directed it beautifully he edited all my lousy stuff out it was perfect. i just thought, i got to stop, i should stop right now, get out like john elway and just get out. and i thought now i will just look for that other ca

reeferment i looked around and i have no other skills charlie. >> i can't do anything else this is it. >> i have interviewed some great, some people without couldn't-- who boxers for example sugar ray leonard. i said why are you coming back. because he made a lot of money and had managed it well. >> right so he had all the money. he said you he said 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 309 million dollars, i said man you should quit. you look good. i can understand you. you know, don't box again. but he came back twice more after that i know i know because that's what he knew. >> i don't have-- i don't think i can quit now. >> i really like doing because you love doing it. >> i really like the acting the action of it. i like it 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, talk about being present and being alert and aware and everything. but i know that because it's going to be on screen i'm going get to see myself failing to be alert and aware so it really is such a strong powerful remind tore work at it. to really be just in the game, to be there. so i like t and i enjoy, i like the whole gypsy mentality of the move-year business where you get together with a bunch of people you live very intimately for a couple of months and then you scatter. and you may never see these people again. but there that short time. >> the intensity of the experience 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 think i used to really think that about only film. i realize it's like that about parenting too or, you can work so hard on a movie there is no limit to how hard you can go. and people, you get in this

harness with other people that are working hard and it's exciting. you know like with these guys here she all know that. cool they made a big thing like your's in the snow and working in the mountains something like that we go to the next scene. and john goodman i just pick up like sandbags and boxes and start walking. like what are you doing. we're going the next part. we're all in this together and this is what we do. this somehow we do it reasons with you still learning? >> i don't-- this was unusual. i never have been in a movie way bunch of movie stars before it was very different to see that. to see how you go and you know w george you do like one or two takes and good actors you got it pretty much. but it was interesting how the spacing there is a sort of a different spatial. everyone everyone's tello is just a little bit slower a little bit-- it's like we're talking about professional golfers. their tell mo is slower and smoother. that is 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-- . >> rose: you're watching, you're absorbing. >> yes you're always getting something. i mean it's fun to watch someone like john goodman who is such a natural actor. and yet it takes work. you can't-- people say oh 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 right. it's harder than anything to be yourself. it's so hard. >> rose: when i see that small part with george, he said you know dow a great charlie rose. maybe a compliment. >> it is it is a compliment, it is a compliment it is a compliment. i'm sure he meant it that way. it's kind of it's a joyous

thing to-- it's fun to be here. but it's fun to work with people that are enjoying their job. you enjoy your job. i don't know how many years you've done this job. but you just seem to be -- >> more than 25. >> okay. and yet and yet for you you light up when the camera turns on. >> it's as fresh as it was when i first started doing it. >> yeah. >> and the excitement and interest and all of that. and because it is unpredictable too. you don't know where it is going to go. >> and you get to meet just the entire huge range of people. enormous section of life. >> you don't learn something doing what i do then something is wrong with you. >> yeah you're so lucky. you're so lucky. you're luckier than hell. >> so you made your mark in second city. >> uh-huh. >> improvisational. i will assume that that is

great training for what you have done with your life. that was a perfect foundation. >> yes. i was-- i have been really lucky. people say hey how i can make it in show business and you say well, god i'm only the luckiest guy in the world. i'm not the right person to ask. you know. but i was-- i was really lucky. i got to go-- my brother brian was in second city ahead of me. so i got to watch he and harold ramos and joe flaherty and all these guys ahead of me. i was just hiding so i wasn't getting from trouble in my own house. i would go to the theatre to watch these guys with no intention of ever doing myself. >> rose: no intention of doing it -- >> huh-uh. >> rose: what did you think would you do? >> i wanted to be a doctor once upon a time. but you got study. that wasn't going it to happenment i didn't know what i was going to do. i had no idea what i was going to do. hi trouble holding jobs because they want you to be on time. i wasn't going to-- that wasn't going to work. >> rose: they wanted you to play by the rules. >> working in the theatre

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. when i finally did begin to try it myself i learned so much just by observing and seeing what they were doing i wasn't-- i didn't really peak at the secretary city. i was just learning it you know. i was sort of the if you guy. and 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 second-- this "saturday night live" job 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 a great secondary education. i mean i started second city and then i went to "saturday night live". if you did "saturday night live" for five years, if you were on that show if you are able to do anything, you can go and do anything. because it was really-- you learned a lot.

and all those pros. all those guys on the set, when we got that job, all those guys sid caesar and all these things they seen it all and had done it all. and there were guys, you know, we were just kids. and they would just go hmmmm and they would tell you something. and it was an amazing education. >> timing is important, i assume. >> i'm to the going to make the joke. >> rose: okay. on the flip side of that, i mean it would seem to me that if you do comedy you develop a higher sense of timing than if you simply had nothing but dramatic experience. >> nass's a serious question. >> well yes, and a fair one. it seems like you know second city we didn't call ourselves comedians even though we were funny. we were actors.

>> exactly. >> rose: comedic actors. >> being funny you got 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. so if you can play straight to play funny playing straight is not a big thing at all. you know like lots of so-called funny people can be very good in dramatic role. i mean i started making comedies because i came out of "saturday night live" and those were the jobs i would get asked to do. and then after a while people would ask me to play straighter parts. and now i get all kinds of straight parts and people think oh you made a change in your life, well no, this is just what i get asked to do. you know i always do the ones i like. and lately people ask me to do straight things or straight things that have a little bit of humor to them. >> rose: do you wish they would ask you to do comedy? >> i don't-- no i don't wish that. but i-- sometimes i feel like i want to do something really funny.

i'm feeling like i'm going to do something funny soon. and usually when i think that way, it comes yeah. >> rose: see, that is 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 it does. >> so, like i wished-- i had a wish that i could do a movie that was sort of romantic. and then sofia cop ola asked me to do this lost in translation-- translation which is sort of a romantic movie. which it was about love. even though i won't in love with scarlet johansson she was in love and struggling and i was in love and struggling. so we talked about love it really was about love. >> rose: nominated for an oscar. >> uh-huh. >> rose: 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. >> hi some funny things i was going to say you know. i was ready to go. i didn't have notes or anything. >> rose: what were you going to say. >> i was going to say, when i heard hi been nominated

and i named these other people i thought i really had a pretty good chance. see that was my-- you know. and i just thought, no one had ever given that speech. >> rose: exactly right. >> no one had ever given that speech. and people, you know it was great because i-- you know hi-- 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 that sort of ode speech of saying everyone. i would just go out and entertain. i figure you are on a tv show with a billion people, just go and do something. give those folks in bombay something to talk about. >> rose: this is my moment to speak to a billion people on the planet. >> yeah. >> rose: and here is what i want to say. >> i want to thank my hairdresser, what, what? what? >> rose: i want to thank-- somebody else i can't remember who it is. >> and then they forget. and then they read it off notes. an actor reading his lines off a piece-- . >> rose: how disappointed were you at the moment? >> well you just sort

of-- i was just sort of surprised. i was surprised. i didn't really feel-- . >> rose: you thought you waited -- >> well i was just sur priced. i was really surprised. >> rose: because you had heard it before. >> i wasn't angry or anything. i was just like what? you know, that's the academy. they do things 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 and about the prizes, that i had sort of had like a low-grade infection of liking winning the prize. and wanting to win the prize. and i thought oh, good because i often see and i'm sure when dow people win the prize. and then for the next couple of years, they really struggle because they're sort of stuck like hey, i'm an academy award winner baby. and so now what do i do? >> rose: i want to see an

academy award-winning scripts. >> exactly. so they can't pull the trigger on anything. then they start thinking i have to find a script that is an academy award-winning. >> rose: so they don't work for three years. >> and i think that's possibly could have happened to me. but i realized t was a month later oh my god, look at me. look, 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? >> well i didn't think of it as an academy award winning performance. >> rose: but i know how to nail this character. >> but yes, i knew i was going nail that character. >> rose: why do you know. >> when you are a man you know. you are not yet man, are you boy. when are you a man you'll know. >> rose: i certainly hope so. >> you just-- you just know. i mean sofia had gone through the whole process of trying to find me. she called all kinds of

people. and i met her. i found her just charming just wonderful, and self-assured. and i thought okay i'm throwing in with her. i like her. then she sent me the script i looked at the script t wasn't overwritten it wasn't sentimental or maudlin t was clean it was only about 95 pages or 94 pages, something like that. seemed like it could be 130 140. they can get ugly. and i thought oh look at this. it's all there. everything is there. i mean and i can bring a little bit more to this too. and i know, what they're-- i know what she's talking about here. i know what she's talking about. it's sort of resonates with me. >> rose: what was she talking about? >> she was talking about like emotional intelligence and like what it means to really be in love you know 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. becauser's in front of that moment of like how am i you know st. peter denied jesus. but even pretty solid guy but seen st. peter chickened out. any man or woman can chicken out in the face of pressure. and so here were some people under pressure. and how did they deal with it. how did they-- and they shared something. and rather than let the pressure sort of throw them at each other they just sort of threw their feelings at each other without demand or responsibility to like change each other's roots. >> rose: so what did you whisper in her ear? >> you know i told someone once i told someone the truth once, and they didn't believe me. they didn't believe me. >> but have you thought about it since then or has she told you or do you know? >> has who told me?

>> well i whispered it in her ear but via the moment happened when it happened when it actually happened i was miked. i was wired. they had microphones. so there i was i was miked to wire it. and ava cabrera who was the script supervisor and sofia had this moment where they just looked 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. i went it doesn't matter what the hell i say to her in this picture. this is really-- it will be just a wonderful mystery.

but those two really and then they, i heard them say it. i was like that's right. this is how it is going to roll. >> when people want to hire you what do you think they're hiring? >> what do you think they're looking for. >> i'm hanging around for that one. >> rose: i certainly hope so. >> i mean other than experience and craft and talent and-- you know. is there i mean is there something within you in your persona saying i need that persona in my fill number. >> well i think i get some work now because one thing i've sort of-- sorted of tried to do is not be sent amount-- sentimental is try to really just squeeze all the smalingts out of

everything. i just don't allow it i try not to allow it you know. and you know, i've been relatively successful doing that. and so if someone has a script that walks a tightrope of sentimentality they can ask me. and i will be committed to like not falling into that pit. i think that's one thing. i always feel like when they hire me they get the whole thing, which includes like goofing around on the set. or just trying to leverage the situation. >> you trying to leven it up or that is just who you are? i mean you love i have heard stories about you that are-- you will be walking by where they are 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. >> well you know that's true. i can jump in. that's the available thing

we spoke of. the available thing. wz. >> rose: how about being available to life experience. >> yes, yeah not feeling like i couldn't possibly do that. >> rose: i'm the same way. just the sense of being able to know i can be-- i can get inside of whatever kind of experience you know whatever they're doing and make them feel it's perfectly natural for you to be there. >> those jobs i've also-- it also looks like i'm game that i will try some stuff the sort of range of movies i've done has sort of moved around a little bit. i've done some different kinds of things. they know i come from an improvisational background so i can sort of help out sometimes if there's an area that is sort of like a little fuzzy here. we can throw him in there maybe he could figure out how to make this work a little bit. i can do that. you know i'm a mature actor now, relatively and so you

know i always say if you don't embarrass yourself or make a fool of yourself early on or-- people will trust you later. like this sort of second generation of directors that i have gotten to work with like wes anderson and sofia these are younger directors. and they go like i'm-- you know i've done casting myself and you go like you say oh there is so-and-so. oh, god de that horrible, you know can cite some movie that should be set fire to you know. and if you don't make those movies that should be burned people trust you. they think okay he's not going to-- he hasn't sold himself, sold his soul for money or fame. >> rose: i think for whatever it is worth there is some sense at the core integrity about you. >> deep, deep within rdz i knew would you ruin that. >> sorry. >> rose: but there is a sense, you get a sense that there is something very real of that the man who as you

said squeezed all the schmaltz out of it. schis somehow the core of you, and you decided in your own mind n your own life where that is. >> well i've learned something about living. i've learned something about living. and it works all the time you know, it works in life. you know, i can make it through the-- people say how did you get in here. like i went into the super bowl press junket saying the other day at the sheraton. and i just sort of made my way through. how did you get through all this. well i live here you know i know how to do things you know. i can get from this side of the street to the other i don't get in trouble. >> rose: but a couple stories about you you go into places where you weren't invited and somehow building able to look them in the face and sort of say i belong here. >> well you know, if you don't feel like you're taking over anyone's space like you're here to rob their fun that you are here to share and contribute people will let you go you know.

it's like that feeling last night we went to the movie premier, right. and then there is a big party afterwards a lot of noise and alcohol and everything. but then you want to go out and get a bite to eat and decompress a little bit. we went to a place called smith i had never been to smith over by lincoln center. it was a thing where you look and you saw a handful of people in there, they are probably closing you know. so the guy driving the car do you want me to check out. let me try it. so i had a good feeling about it myself. so i walked in. and i look at the maitre d' and the look was like oh there is this guy you know. i said hello. i was just wondering if are you still open, there are a couple of us and we are just thinking about, we were wondering if you had any food. any food it's a restaurant right. and he said no, we just closed. and someone on the way in had said he already sent two people away so don't count on anything. so he went in the back.

and he said okay steaks and salad you know it turned out it was oyster stew and everything. but it was just great. but that was kind of the fun it was like they could have gone home. but it was like maybe this will be fun. it ended up being a lot of fun. we made it a lot of fun. and we just clowned around. and we had fun with the cooks and the waitresses and the maitre d' it was just a really nice time. and it was easy. we were all-- everyone is pretty easy. not difficult. you know. that's fun thing of getting in. it's like there is no limit to how much fun,. >> rose: and how much you can play. you really can play with somebody. >> yeah, yeah. >> rose: and if you can play with them they will open it all up, you know. and then you can make them a hero. and they love that. >> and they were heroes. they were. because they were five of us. our prospects weren't good at midnight trying to find some food. >> rose: you can could have found food.

>> we could have found food but we would have had drive through a lot of slush to get to it wz wes anderson you mentioned a several times. what is it about wes and the films that he makes that you instantly say yes when he calls? >> well, i got a lot of pressure to do rushmore from-- hi agents then. lots of people. and i kept getting copies of bottle rocketers. i have the largest single collection of bottle rocket in the world. all kinds can of people were sending them to me. and then they sent me the script and they said, and then it was like okay we're going to set up a meeting with you. and wes. i said i don't have to meet with him. and they were like-- well i think you should. no it's okay. i don't have to meet with him. i have read the script. and he knows exactly what he wants to do.

sneath ♪ there's nothing this world to stop me ♪ ♪ worry being that girl ♪ ♪ i found out i was wrong ♪ ♪ she was just door time ♪ ♪ i found out i was wrong ♪ ♪ she just kept on lying ♪ ♪ now she tries to tell me sfo true ♪ ♪ i just can't believe ♪ ♪. >> i have never really seen that before. someone so specific the script is so specific he knew exactly what he was going to do. i said i'm in that's fine. >> you could tell from the script. >> i could tell from the script. >> and he obviously his movie just keeps getting better. wait until you see this next one this grand budapest hotel. this is -- >> yeah. >> this is like a times

square billboard dropped on your head it is amazing. it is amazing. it's really-- . >> rose: he's coming into town for an interview soon. >> yeah. but he's-- and he's just great fun. we've become great friends and i really love him. i love him. and he makes the making of movies his life. he really makes the living-- . >> rose: and he has his own style, personal style. >> yeah, he has his own fashion sense, that's for sure. and he tries to dress everyone in the movie like himself which is really cruel. finally i had to say yeah yeah, i know he wants the cuff this short. i don't go that way, okay. you can make his short. everyone's cuffs are this short. your pant cuffs never reach your shoes and you're dressed like him in his various incarnations. >> rose: so what was it about the life of having all these people work for you agents and the like, that you said oh no, that's not what i want to do? i will have a phone number, you can call the phone number. i will hear the message.

and if i want to call back i'll call you back. i'll take it-- seriously but i don't need all in other stuff. >> well that became too much-- i remember hearing ellen burr sin say i had a dream that i was being drown in a flood. and i realized it was a flood of peoplement and she had all these people living around her and doing all this stuff. but i found that the phone, like i would 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 go who in the hell was that. and then three minutes later the phone would ring and it would be 30 or 40 times. and finally i just walk over and go like who, who is this? and it would be oh hi, is he there for michael? and i go like-- you have got to get another job it was just like the summer their job was to let the phone

ring 6,000 times in the hope that someone would answer. i thought this is just-- . >> rose: and if they hadn't been able to find you because someone would say they will call every three minutes. >> they will call every place. they will call your relatives. >> rose: you decided i don't need all that. >> i just-- hi the greatest i had michael ovitz. he was like the great agent. he was-- and he was, he was my monster. he was great you know. he is a famous character. but he was my character you know. and when he's on your side boy life you know he's a weapon. he's really somethingment and i loved him. he was great. but when he stopped he became something else. he was no longer an agent,. >> rose: he became an executive. >> he became, you know, all kinds of things. so so then it just changed. it just changed. and the people-- the other people were lovely and wonderful people. but it wasn't the same. i wasn't-- it wasn't the same. and i found like-- then i really started looking at it

a little more closely and realizing that so much of what they do is they want to just sort of corral you with someone else within their company or you know, i don't know it was just a lot of phone calls that i really didn't want to take. >> rose: so if they want to reach you they have a phone number they know you can call and will you find somebody who has that number. >> some people get very they get frustrated and just can't get you. that's all right. you know, you miss some. but i don't think i have ever missed any that i really wanted you know. but it's just it just cleans your life out. just purifies your space a little bit. you don't have to have all of these-- i would rather choose my own distractions than have someone else. >> rose: are you in in charge of your own life in a big way, more than most. >> yeah. >> rose: that's what i meant in the beginning. you have in a sense defined the kind of life you want to have. >> well i'm getting there. i'm getting there. >> rose: what's not there that you want to get to? >> oh i think i would like to be-- i think i would like

to wake up better you know. why not try you know try just keep an eye on what you do when you wake up. you know, i wake up sometimes and i go goddamn this pillow is good, you know goddamn i wish i were you know w that person something you know. i wish i were somewhere else. instead of like jumping up. i did hear a good thing one day. i went to church-- the soulful black church, the catholic church in charleston. >> rose: where the music is fine. >> where the muss sick better. gospel sometimes, the preaching can be kind of good. and he just said the they had a guest guy one day. and he said how about this. you wake up in the morning and you wake up and you say lord what dow want me to do. and i thought i held on to that forever. that is a great feeling. what dow want me to do? i'm awake now.

what do you want me to do. >> rose: so when you look at where you are and comedy today, i think back about caddyshack and this wonderful thing about it. and i will tell you what it relates to for me. there was a guy named norman cousins, used to be at a magazine-- and you had a very serious life threatening disease. and he found out that laughter helped him. and he would put up things that made him laugh. >> uh-huh. >> rose: and i'm told that people that that is part of what caddyshack does as a therapeutic experience. >> i guess i can tell the story but you know who stevie nicks is from fleetwood mac she told me this story too. i always thought she was an ice queen. i loved her voice but i was like you know and she came to me she walked up and said you know i was having a hard time once. and i watched that movie and i watched it like for a week

or something. i just kept watching that movie. and it just cheered me up so much. and i thought man if i did something like that for someone who is such an important person to so american people in what she brings you know. i felt really good about that. but it's true about the laughter thing. and i think he watched abbott and costello and all these guys an that's what he did and healed himself. and it's you know laughter is the best medicine, isn't that what it says. >> and when you think about povies like that and ghostbusters are those movies that are a different era than today and nobody is going to make them? >> is comedy, come kedic movies gone to a different place? >> well you know, if i could be sort of constructively critical. >> of me. >> no, not of you you just what i feel like the funny ones, i just feel like some of the concepts some of the premises are so unrealistic

in a way that it doesn't hold a whole-- you know you have to be able to engage with the characters. 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. are you just going with the gags it is just the gags and the situations. you don't really get the characters so much. you don't feel that they're driving it they're pulling you into the stuff. >> but i think like but there is like bridesmaids. i thought bridesmaid was a wonderfulfully funny movie. because i thought the premise was so good bridesmaids, right. a powerful premise. but the characters were so good. you know. and they were so, like the girl like kristin wiig like trying to be in love with the cop that crazy thing it was so real that you-- you committed. you engaged. you bought in. you know, i don't buy into

these high premises and go oh you can't make me believe that this could ever possibly happen you know. >> rose: you have turned down things you wished you had made. >> you know i thought about it. it was, no i've never turned down anything i wished i made. i turned down movies that i knew would be successful but i never turned down anything that i wish-- . >> rose: because they had the ingredients of commercial -- >> like airplane, i said this is going to work. but it's not for me but it's going to, wochlt i just didn't-- and there have been things that i knew someone was going to make. there were a lot of movies that i passed on that people have made and they have had great success with it. they just weren't for me. >> rose: tell me what it is that you want that you don't have? >> well, i would like to be i would like to be more consistently here, you know.

i would like to really-- i would like to just-- 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 as being really here really there it really alive. in the moment you know. and you see people i like to live to be old you know, 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 a hundred that is my only shot. >> one of my great dreams, but go ahead. >> so i would like to just be more here all the time. and i would like to see what i could get done what i question do if i really didn't cloud myself with automatic you know if i were able to not get distracted to not let

the-- to not change channels in my mind and body so i would just you know on my-- i'm my own channel just really here. and always with you you know, that you could look at me and go okay he's there. there is someone there. and i could when you look in the mirror you go there is that guy. and you catch yourself, like what you were-- like when you looked in the mirror. you can make a face and toughen yourself up or handsome yourself up whatever you do. but when you catch yourself in that mirror you see the state you are in. like who-- are you happy are you sad are you confident are you rosie are you beleaguered, are you here, you know, and most of the time you're not. you are just like oh, oh it's almost like you want to look away it's just like that's not me there. that's what i am doing right now. but that's not necessarily me. >> what's necessary for to you get there? >> well it's all contained

in your body, you know everything you got. your mind your spirit your soul, your emotions, it's all contained in your body. all the prospects. all the chances you ever have. i always think of of that clint eastwood line. you kill a man you kill every opportunity you ever had. i don't know which movie it is from it is a really good line. >> you kill every opportunity you ever had. >> ef rechance that guy ever had. >> i often think about lives and say what might have happened if that person had lived. >> right. >> like you think about belushi just a week ago like god, he's been dead as long as he has been alive now. he's been dead now as long as he was alive. and you think that's a funny funny-- sant dial to put in front of yourself.

>> it's that wish it's a wish right it's really a wifernlt you got to dream not dream but you have to wish big. you have to wish big. and i would like to go i would like to see what i could do. i have got sort of a drunken phone call from a friend of mine sister who i really like. and she is funny. she's really funny and she drinks. she called me in the middle of the night and i was like oh boy, you ever get someone call you when they're not at their best. but she was so charming and so lovely. and she just kept saying you could be did -- you have no idea how much you could do, bill. if you could just-- you could do so much. and i have never had anyone talk like that and it was funny because i-- it was like a drunken phone call in the middle of the night. and i listened to her for 40 45 minutes while i was-- i was sound asleep. but it was such a-- it was

really like it came from the other side you know, it felt like it. it was sort of like you know a voice that was sort of intoxicated or like one of the-- visionaries you know visionary speaking to you in the night and coming in your dreams. and i you know i hope to remember that kind of thing. just try to remember those things. those-- that encouragement you know. >> rose: i suspect you know whatever she was saying to you, you knew it somewhere you do know that inside of you. >> well it resonated. it rang a bell inside of me a bell that ing ares a lot that says, remember bill come back you know remember. remember. this is your life. this is the only one you got. as we always say to my one brother, this not a dress rehearsal this is your life. this is not a dress rehearsal this is your life you know. >> rose: thank you for

coming. >> i have enjoyed it. >> pleasure. >> thanks for asking me. >> thanks. >> for more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us yen line at pbs.org and charlie rose.com. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> funding for charlie rose has been provided by the coca-cola company supporting this program since 2002. american express. additional funding provided by:. and by bloomberg a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide.

announcer: explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this. made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ julian davison: snow-capped mountains and icy fjords with bearded warriors in horned helmets sailing forth in long boats. those are the first images that come to mind when one thinks of norway. so perhaps it's no coincidence that in the 19th century the descendants of those long ago vikings were also responsible for constructing... one of the most spectacular railways in northern europe. they did so with the same stoic perseverance as their