Impact (Jan 1972)

x edited by Stephen Chesley Too often in the past, Hollywood has presented personalities and called them actors. Few had the versatility and knowledge of their craft that the true actor possesses and earns. But from time to time a dedicated and discriminating craftsman like Peter Boyle comes along; he may become great. Boyle, now 35, grew up in Philadelphia, attended LaSalle College, and went to New York to make a career as an actor. He has appeared in commercials, off-Broadway plays, the Second City revue, Comedy Tonight on TV, and of course as the hardhat Joe, and as salesman Jack Mitchell in T.R. Baskin. Future projects include Dimebox, a Twentieth Century-Fox western with Dennis Hopper, in which Boyle plays a preacher. If an actor never works on stage and just goes and does movies, he can get into a lot of trouble — trouble with his craft. A script is like a roadmap. My focus is on the characters rather than the script. In T.R. I found things — an unconscious thread from things the writer had laid out. It’s a challenge to fight a cliche. In T.R. I didn’t want to present a caricature salesman. At one point I had a fantasy that I would come in with a joy buzzer. I quickly discarded that. It would have been a disaster for me. It’s my task to come up with the characterization. It’s the director’s task to help you do it, to help you make a movie. Ultimately it becomes a thing where he helps you when you’re in trouble. I sound like I know what I’m talking about, don’t I? It all happens in ignorance. How to measure success In a. movie you never know if you’re right. It’s only a guess. Sometimes you sense that you’re not really wrong, but you’re never sure you’re right. I’m very unused to critical reaction. If it’s good I like it — if it’s not, I don’t know, it’s hard — | like extravagant praise. I don’t necessarily believe it but I love hearing it. I think ’m a harder critic than they are. If I have to watch myself on the screen I go through a complex range of emotions, from intense self-loathing to the most arrogant kind of narcissism. I have a perfectionist streak. But you have to be realistic. You learn that if at a certain point you’re not there, then you’re not there, that’s all. On himself I enjoy making movies. It’s an exciting game. All the career bullshit doesn’t make you happy. But the work does. I never said “This is how Ill be an actor.’ I’m a very disorganized person. I need to be an actor and what sort of happened to me is that I just persisted long enough until I got an opportunity. [’'m very impulsive. I don’t have many possessions. I’m starting now. I’m very slow to buy things. Spending money is still a psychological problem for me. Pll either waste it on nothing, or. . . but it’s still hard for me to spend money, somehow. I like to make it. I like money. My past when I was trying to make it: It’s been so bad I don’t want to talk about it. A lot of loneliness, a lot of bitterness. I’m a great believer in the power of fear and terror. To me they’re great sources of whatever I do. ’'m scared of .. . you name it. Like you get so scared that you either sink or swim — you gotta move, you gotta do something fast. I was very heavily into cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry — not Mr. Magoo or Woody Woodpecker — and of course Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck. Now R. Crumb, especially Mr. Natural. On politics As a political activist I'm terrible. I have no — patience for meetings. I’m a satirist. Joe wasn’t satire. It was a political movie. The first movie of class warfare. It said that: certain kinds of people it doesn’t matter if you kill ger