SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM

Our Friday musical highlight is a classic: COME SOFTLY TO ME from THE FLEETWOODS.

Now it’s time for me to exit. Stage left…

KATE WINSLET: THE FAB NEW FACE OF ST. JOHN

KATE WINSLET showcased her flawless skin as a spokesperson for LANCOME.

Now the actor is joining the ranks of A list stars as the new face of luxury American knitwear company ST. JOHN. KATE has signed on for the company’s Fall 2011 campaign, following in the footsteps of ANGELINA JOLIE.

“Kate is an ideal choice for our new campaign,” creative director GEORGE SHARP said in a statement.

“She is an accomplished beautiful woman with an extraordinary body of work and one of the most admired actors of her generation.”

The campaign images, which were shot at the historic LOEW’S THEATER in New Jersey this week by photographer CRAIG McDEAN, will debut in magazines this September.

TRIBECA 2011: BRIAN WILLIAMS TALKS TO ROBERT DE NIRO

FROM MOVIELINE

One of the hotter tickets of this year’s TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL got attendees into last weekend’s conversation between festival cofounder ROBERT DE NIRO and NBC Nightly News anchor BRIAN WILLIAMS.

The latter acknowledged that he pitched the event to organizers as a unabashed fan of Mr. De Niro. The sprawling subject matter of the hour long chat — from the two time ACADEMY AWARD winner’s school plays to a hilarious anticlimax involving his middle name — yielded more than a few revelations for the journalist and the audience.

Here a few of the highlights…

He’s not an introvert but he knows why you think that.

BRIAN WILLIAMS solicited reasons why actors or other artists might be more withdrawn than the public expects from their work.

“One obvious one is that people more want to express themselves [acting],” Mr. De Niro said.

“There are less limitations than in a typical existence, if you will. Your job as an actor is to do that the best you can. Doesn’t mean you can’t express yourself or that you go crazy when you’re not working. But as an actor, say, or an artist or a painter or a filmmaker, you can go through the lives of other people, stories, experiences that you might not have personally had. You want to go into this story or experience as pure and expressive [as possible]. It’s kind of nice and it’s fun to do if you like doing that sort of thing.”

He only rewatches his older films in part and by accident.

BRIAN WILLIAMS wanted to know when Mr. De Niro last viewed TAXI DRIVER.

“It’s been a long time,” he answered.

“A long time. You know, if I find it on television just by chance, I might look at part of it or some of it with a little more objectivity. But I haven’t watched it in its entirety for a long, long time.”

“What is that like?” Mr. Williams asked.

“You’re sitting at home, you’re going through the circuit: HBO, HBO 1 through nine, HBO West Coast, HBO Southern Washington State. You go through your Starz and your Showtime, and…You know. There’s Raging Bull. What’s that like?”

“I don’t do that, Brian!” Mr. De Niro said to laughter.

“I watch the news. I watch you! I’m very set in my ways. I watch the NBC Nightly News. I watch the Today show.”

He and MARTIN SCORSESE have at least one more project to collaborate on.

Mr. De Niro said he still intends to make THE IRISHMAN, a biopic based on the life of FRANK “THE IRISHMAN” SHEERAN, a hit man and Jimmy Hoffa confederate who came under suspicion following the Teamsters chief’s disappearance in 1975.

“I had always wanted to do I Heard You Paint Houses,” Mr. De Niro stated, citing the title of CHARLES BRANDT’S 2004 nonfiction chronicle of Sheeran.

“I’d talked to people and heard they’d read it and I said, ‘Let me just buy this book and see what it is about.’ After I read it, I said, ‘Hey, Marty, I think we should really consider this.’ It’s more like what we would do. And then he read it and he liked it. We got Steve Zaillian; he wrote a terrific script. And we’re doing it. But [Martin Scorsese] has one other project. We’ve got to figure all that out before we’re not here any more.”

He is not a Method guy, but he is a comedian.

The actor could go either way, depending on the role and the film, but leans away from living in character when the camera’s not rolling.

“Myself, I would keep my mind off it until I’ve got to go out there,” Mr. De Niro remarked.

“It’s like that joke about the actor who’s got a part and can’t remember his lines. The actor’s working in a gas station when a friend who’s directing a Shakespeare play says, ‘Listen, I just want you to do this thing in the third act of Henry V and just walk on and say ‘Hark! I hear the cannon roar.’”

“So he comes to rehearsal. He comes to rehearsal. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. He’s got it written on his mirror in his dressing room. ‘Hark! I hear the cannon roar. Hark! I hear the cannon roar. Hark! I hear the cannon roar.’ Every variation. He had it all down pat. So there’s the first act, second act, third act. He’s in the wings, getting ready after intermission. The stage manager gets him ready: ‘That’s it! All you need to do is ‘Hark! I hear the cannon roar.’ And all of a sudden: ‘You’re on!’ He runs out on the stage and he hears a big boom. He turns around and says, ‘What the fuck was that?’”

His much desired GOOD SHEPHERD sequel remains in limbo.

“I’ve always wanted to do another,” Mr. De Niro said of the delayed possibly doomed follow up to his deeply underrated 2006 CIA epic featuring MATT DAMON and ANGELINA JOLIE.

“Like a sequel to it, from 1961 — The Bay Of Pigs and the Berlin Wall — going up to 1989 when the wall came down. I’m still trying to do that.”

He enjoys hosting SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.

“I felt that people who aren’t actors…not that actors take themselves so seriously. Well, some do. But I felt they do better on Saturday Night Live sometimes than actors [do]. But I had a lot of fun doing it. I think it’s great. Whenever I’m doing a movie and there’s a big dramatic scene, I say to myself, ‘I wonder what they’re going to do with this on Saturday Night Live.‘ But it’s a lot of fun. It’s so fast that you can’t even think.”

“Right,” said Mr. Williams, who himself hosted the show in 2007.

“There’s a woman there who pulls down your pants.”

“Yeah,” Mr. De Niro stated.

“Three people at once. Wardrobe, makeup, hair — throwing wigs on and all that. That’s what makes it easy in some ways, because it’s all going so fast you can’t even think about it.”

He has no regrets.

A few gasps were heard around the auditorium when BRIAN WILLIAMS asked Mr. De Niro point blank: “Is there anything in your career you’d want to take back? Anything you look at now and say, ‘I was busy then. I might have phoned it in. Wish I hadn’t done that’?”

“You know, I think whatever I did, that’s that,” Mr. De Niro replied. “I stand behind it, for better or for worse.”

“A hardcore fatalist.”

“I can’t think like that. I just acted. That’s what I do.”

“You can’t afford the luxury of looking back?”

“I can, but not now,” Mr. De Niro said to a laugh. “Maybe later.”

He’s a hoarder. Sort of.

Asked why he recently supplied THE DE NIRO ARCHIVES to the Harry Ransom Center at The University Of Texas, the actor deadpanned, “They were the only people who would take it.”

“And you know, hanging on to all that stuff after a while gets expensive. You have to store it. You have to take care of it. I did that because I noticed, like, when I did Godfather II, I was in a big costume house in L.A. And they gave me these shoes — I thought they were the shoes that Warren Beatty wore in Bonnie & Clyde. And they were just there.”

“I have my own experience of thing sort of disappearing. Wardrobe, props, other stuff. So I thought I’d just like to hold my stuff — hold as much as I can and put it in my contract. I just had it and eventually The University of Texas wanted to take everything. And they took everything. It’s a good place for it so it’s not dispersed, destroyed, you know…All over the place.”

He’s plugged in. Sort of.

He doesn’t spend a lot of time on the web — “I don’t Twitter” — but he does enjoy his “convenient” iPhone and has quite taken to his iPad as well.

“I read scripts on it. It’s fast. It’s good to read scripts. I force myself to read them more quickly because you’re not [dealing with] pages and all that. It just goes quicker.”

Contemporary politics have him as frustrated as everybody else.

Mr. De Niro was perhaps never more animated and expressive than when asked about the current political climate in the United States.

“I think of the possibility of the government being shut down and I say, ‘How did we get to this point?’” he stated.

“I remember it happened years ago. And I just say, ‘How did we ever get to that point?’ Because the people who suffer are the ones who have jobs where every week, they’ve gotta make these payments. How did we get there? What is this about? This is crazy. And I know Obama was trying to bridge the gap. His intentions are really good. Maybe some things are not as good as we all would like, but his intentions were right. A lot of these guys, their intentions are not even good. They’re just playing the game. And they’re playing with people’s lives.”

“A lot of people believe that this is as far apart as the two ideological sides of our country have been,” BRIAN WILLIAMS remarked.

“We keep saying that and then a month later, they break their own pledge and they get even further apart. Do you ever see it coming together? As I like to put it to people, if 9/11 didn’t do it — if 9/11 didn’t leave us more unified — what would?”

“Well, we’re unified in certain ways in this country and in certain ways we’re not – to me,” Mr. De Niro responded, particularly baffled by certain Republicans in Washington and elsewhere who speak “a lot of nonsense.”

“I won’t mention names, but certain people in the news the last couple weeks, just, what are they doing? It’s crazy. They’re making statements about people that they don’t even back up. Go get the facts before you start saying things about people. It’s like a big hustle. It’s like being a car salesman. Don’t go out there and say things unless you can back them up. How dare you. That’s awful to do. To just go out and speak and say these terrible things? Unless you just wanna get over and get the job. It’s crazy.”

Speaking of which, IMDB needs to make a correction.

Arguably the highlight of the whole discussion occurred in BRIAN WILLAMS’ sign off, which he intended as earnest, succinct praise but was instead thwarted by a certain web resource’s customarily fluid factuality.

“When you go on IMDB,” he began, “their lead sentence — alongside a picture of our guest today and our founder — is: ‘Robert Mario De Niro Jr., who is thought of as one of the greatest actors of all time, was born in New York City.’ That’s all we need to say, along with our thanks to our guest.”

“Wait, wait,” Mr. De Niro said, waving his hands as the audience launched into a swiftly aborted ovation.

“I have something to say: My middle name is Anthony.”

“So why don’t you call the people at IMDB and say, ‘Hey, it’s Bob…’” Mr. Williams dug out his iPad, as if on cue. “I have their app!”

“I talk to people who go, ‘I remember when you did this, you did that, you did that…’ I say, ‘I never did any of those things.’ Or I don’t want to make them feel bad, so I don’t say anything,” Mr. De Niro commented.

“Well, this is one we can rectify,” Mr. Williams stated, pulling up Mr. De Niro’s IMDB page.

“There it is, clear as day. Unbelievable. Wow.”

He showed Mr. De Niro and faced the audience.

“This is like that time I gave him a couple ideas for Goodfellas. I don’t talk about that much.”

EMMYLOU HARRIS: GRATEFUL FOR HER GRANDLY DESERVED SUCCESS

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

EMMYLOU HARRIS said that late Montreal folk singer KATE McGARRIGLE was “one of the most extraordinary musicians” she’s ever known.

Ms. McGarrigle died of cancer last year at age 63. EMMYLOU’S new disc HARD BARGAIN — which hits stores today — has a delicate tune devoted to the memory of the captivating singer/songwriter called DARLIN KATE.

“I really do miss Kate a lot,” EMMYLOU stated quietly during a recent interview in Toronto.

“Her playing, her guitar playing, was exquisite. Obviously piano, organ, banjo. Her songwriting, just so beautiful…and her singing. And the two of them together just made a sound that thrills my soul. But really, this song was about losing a friend.”

Over a wispy acoustic guitar and piano, she sings a simultaneously hopeful and mournful tribute, which ends with the line:

If there was one name I could consecrate/It would be yours/It would be Kate

She said she met the McGARRIGLES — sisters KATE and ANNA, whose diverse songwriting earned plaudits from around the world — back in the 70s when they shared a record label.

They grew closer in the late 80s when EMMYLOU invited the siblings to sing on her 1989 album BLUEBIRD which also featured a cover of the McGARRIGLES’ LOVE IS. She also invited them to work on her GRAMMY winning 1995 album WRECKING BALL.

“Any chance I had to be in their company…I adore those girls. And I love their music. And to be able to collaborate with them was wonderful. Some of the few songs I wrote over my career, I was lucky enough to write it with them. I loved having them singing on my records.”

“But basically, I just really loved their company.”

And DARLIN KATE isn’t the only heartfelt tribute on EMMYLOU’S latest CD.

Rootsy opener THE ROAD finds her reverently reflecting on her time with late country legend GRAM PARSONS. Not long before his death of a drug overdose in 1973, he heard EMMYLOU sing at a cozy club in Washington.

He invited her to contribute vocals to his acclaimed solo debut GP and the follow up GRIEVOUS ANGEL, which was actually released after his death.

“You get to a point where you are looking back (and there are) more years behind you than are probably ahead of you,” EMMYLOU said of the song.

“What a blessing it was to meet Gram. He changed my life in the brief period of time that I knew him. And he left me all these gifts, really: the inspiration, music. I think I found my voice from singing with him and I had such a short friendship with him.”

“But some people just impact your life in a brief time and it lasts you, really…I’m still reaping the benefits from that brief encounter.”

The album’s title is taken from a tune from the noted Canadian songwriter RON SEXSMITH, which EMMYLOU covers on the record.

“He writes those lovely melodies, so the song just had everything going for it,” she says, later noting that her connection with RON SEXSMITH is only one of her many Canadian ties — she also points out her love of the McGARRIGLES, NEIL YOUNG, JONI MITCHELL and THE BAND.

“How come I’m not an honorary Canadian citizen? Why has this not happened for me? Why do they still hassle me at the border?”

The RON SEXSMITH tune is one of only two covers on the record, with EMMYLOU receiving a songwriting credit on the album’s other 11 tracks.

Over the course of her career, she has been something of a reluctant songwriter, preferring instead to use her haunting evocative vocals to interpret other writers’ songs.

Following her 1969 debut, she waited until 1985′s THE BALLAD OF SALLY ROSE to release another record composed primarily of her songwriting and it would be another 15 years before she repeated the feat with RED DOT GIRL.

This time, EMMYLOU — who identifies herself as “very goal oriented” — decided beforehand that she wanted to write the bulk of her next record, and set aside a “sacrosanct period of time” in which to work.

“I really have to cordon off some time for myself to get started, otherwise I’m easily distracted. And I’m not a good multitasker.”

Still, it didn’t come easily.

“No, it’s hard work. I think you have to crack the ice. You have to just sit in a room, with nothing happening and not leave to go raid the refrigerator every five minutes,” she saids, before abruptly shifting gears.

“Oh, I talk like I know what I’m doing. It’s all still a mystery to me, frankly, songwriting…I don’t know if I’ll ever write another song. When I finish, it’s like: ‘OK, I got through that and I actually came up with something I feel good about. Now it may never happen again.’”

“So I really don’t take it for granted, that’s for sure.”

That sort of modesty seems typical of the legendary musician.

On this day, the soft spoken chanteuse is cordial and accommodating. As an aide fusses with her appearance in anticipation of a photographer snapping her portrait, she glances at her long white tresses and sighs: “Do you have a towel I could put on my head?”

She’s similarly self deprecating about her wardrobe, which on this day consists of a grey mini skirt, black boots and a loosely fitting open weave sweater hanging off her slim frame.

“I like to look small and yet I can’t stop buying big clothes,” she lamented.

Given her humble approach, it’s not surprising then that she refuses to claim too much credit for her recent success.

Each of her last three albums has hit the top 50 on Canada’s album chart and the top 5 on the country chart — which means that EMMYLOU HARRIS, with the music industry all but crumbling around her, has managed to recently rival the most commercially fruitful periods of her career.

She credits luck, her record company (NONESUCH) and her lineup of great producers, though she acknowledges that her commitment to never releasing subpar material simply for the sake of it — even if it means the occasional extended silence — might help.

“I think it’s hard enough to go in and make a record that you’re excited about — if you’re not excited about a record, man, I can’t imagine what kind of hell that would be.”

“I think I’ve always sold just enough records to have a successful career and yet not have success get in the way of your music, if you know what I mean. So I’m able to literally make a living and do work that I love. It sounds simplistic. But I’ve just been really lucky, I have to say.”

“Because I think there are a lot of artists out there who follow their muse and follow their heart and haven’t had the success I’ve had.”

“I can’t explain it. I’m just grateful for it.”

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS…

Our Friday musical highlight is GOD PART II from U2.

It’s Easter, kids. Party hearty.

And now it’s time for me to exit. Stage left…

BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD: LOVING KALEIDOSCOPIC COLOUR

Two years ago, a friend urged actor BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD to purge her closet of everything black. Many women would’ve balked at the command. To BRYCE, it was a revelation.

“Ever since then I’ve much preferred to wear bold colour, even if I’m picking my son up from school and working from home,” she told PEOPLE.

“I’ve been wearing accessories, purses and dresses every day as if I were in sweatpants. As a result I’ve felt much more social. Clothes are a way of celebrating the day.”

And she has a lot to celebrate: she is currently the face of KATE SPADE NEW YORK. BRYCE stars in a series of fun colourful ads for the company.

“Shooting the campaign was one of the most creatively playful experiences I’ve had. I was riding on bikes, jumping off staircases, climbing on top of mailboxes and painting on the wall. My son (Theodore, 4) was with me and it was as if I were entering his world for a day!”

BRYCE said that the on set stylist taught her how to mix and match purses — “I’m the colourful bag lady [now],” she shared — and she learned that she loves colour blocking.

“The shoot inspired me. The fact that I am representing the line now feels utterly surreal.”

BLONDE AMBITION: A PRECARIOUSLY INTENSE ALCHEMY

Being blonde (as I know so well) can be more than a little dangerous.

So little time. So many ridiculous stereotypes to smash.

Therein lies the grand and glorious fulfillment. Well, at least some of it.

Our marvelous magnificent friends at EW have a slideshow that focuses on 14 well known personalities that lightened their locks – with varying results.

Here is how it all shakes out for me…

Golden is particularly fine on BRAD PITT and KELLY OSBOURNE. Though that lavender hair that she had a while back was very striking.

LAURA PREPON and LINDSAY LOHAN are great as blondes or redheads. But they look better as the latter.

KATE WINSLET, ANGELINA JOLIE and JULIA ROBERTS can pull off virtually any shade in the colour spectrum. But ANGELINA really shines with dark hair, while KATE and JULIA genuinely achieved their best looks as redheads.

To get the gallery, please go here

EMMA WATSON: FASHION IS MY HARRY POTTER ANTIDOTE

EMMA WATSON may be best known for her recurring role in the HARRY POTTER franchise. But she’d prefer that you didn’t call her Hermione.

“I’m aware that it’s hard for audiences to separate me from my character,” she admitted in the summer issue of New Zealand’s REMIX magazine.

So to delineate the real EMMA WATSON from her on screen counterpart, the actor is expanding her body of work to include decidedly different projects.

“Hopefully by doing things like that people will see a different side of me,” she remarked of her fashion portfolio, which includes representing BURBERRY and LANCOME as well as designing for PEOPLE TREE and ALBERTA FERRETTI. This newfound style initiative, however, isn’t entirely a marketing maneuver.

“I love fashion and clothes,” she said, evidence of which can be found in her polished street style.

“It’s fun playing around with different sides of your personality.”

To read more about EMMA’S stylistic metamorphosis, pick up the new issue of REMIX, on newsstands now.

KATHLEEN TURNER: HER YEAR OF CATHOLICISM

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KATHLEEN TURNER is as confused as anyone about the heavenly detour her roles have taken lately.

She’s making her first appearance as a Roman Catholic nun when the play HIGH opens this month on Broadway. And, in a divine bit of coincidence, the actor best known for BODY HEAT and ROMANCING THE STONE also stars as a suburban mom striving to be named CATHOLIC WOMAN OF THE YEAR in a new film opening simultaneously at THE TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL.

“For some reason this year it’s my year of Catholicism. Who knew?” said the actor in her rose filled dressing room at THE BOOTH THEATER where she’s putting the finishing touches on MATTHEW LOMBARDO’S play.

“I must confess that I don’t believe in any organized religion. I happen to think that they’re all men putting words in God’s mouth. That doesn’t work for me. But I certainly believe in belief and faith.”

The first of back to back devout Catholic roles has KATHLEEN playing SISTER JAMISON CONNELLY, a foul mouthed recovering alcoholic who is asked to treat a 19 year old crystal meth addict and prostitute.

The three character play explores the battle between addiction and faith as the nun tries to help a young man perhaps beyond forgiveness or redemption. It requires her to be devoid of glamour in shapeless clothing and a ponytail. The playwright had someone specifically in mind.

“When I was starting to get the idea of this play going — before I even put it on paper — I wanted a Kathleen Turner type,” MATTHEW LOMBARDO explained.

“I needed a broad to play this role.”

He got the perfect one — a Broadway veteran with a distinctive husky voice who has earned ACADEMY AWARD and GOLDEN GLOBE nominations. He also got an performer who was not afraid of dropping F bombs or showing a savage side.

“I am very drawn to women who simply just don’t accept how things are,” commented KATHLEEN.

“Don’t ask me to play a victim. It’s not going to work. I would stink at that. Give me a woman with a fight on her hands.”

She also brought something else to the feisty role that MATTHEW LOMBARDO only gradually learned: a familiarity with substance abuse. About a decade ago KATHLEEN admitted that she was abusing alcohol to calm the grinding pain of rheumatoid arthritis.

“I didn’t realize the extent I was self medicating. You know, I was in that strange place where I wouldn’t take pills because I was afraid they’d screw up my mind but I’d take another drink. And alcohol kills pain. It really does. When I realized how insane this thinking was, I checked myself into a clinic to figure out what was going on. And I learned a lot.”

KATHLEEN took HIGH on a pre Broadway tour — there were workshops in Hartford, Connecticut, Cincinnati and St. Louis — and she learned she wasn’t alone. From hundreds of audience members who stayed to chat after performances came tales of families torn apart by addiction.

“I’m starting to think we have a huge national dirty little secret here,” she stated.

Her own addiction may have helped her get in touch with the emotions associated with substance abuse, but KATHLEEN dismissed the suggestion that being an addict is a requirement for the part.

“I’ve played hookers but I’ve never been out on Hollywood Boulevard, OK?” she said, laughing.

The play marks her first return to Broadway since her 2005 TONY AWARD nominated spin in WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. Her other notable Broadway roles include MRS. ROBINSON in THE GRADUATE in 2002 and MAGGIE in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF in 1990.

When she was playing MRS. ROBINSON on stage, KATHLEEN famously appeared nude. This time, the clothes stay on even if playing SISTER JAMISON CONNELLY has meant a different kind of stripping.

“It’s so intensely personal that it feels very, very, very vulnerable. I don’t know how to shield myself from some of that material, which is good and is essential for the material to work, but it’s hard. If you’ve ever had a phobia about like standing up naked in front of everybody, that’s what it feels like.”

KATHLEEN has also been focusing on one person shows, including SANDRA RYAN HEYWARD’S TALLULAH and portraying newspaper columnist MOLLY IVINS in RED HOT PATRIOT, which she debuted in Philadelphia last year and hopes to tour with next year. She also made time to play a Catholic mom with a secret in the new independent film THE PERFECT FAMILY, costarring EMILY DESCHANEL and JASON RITTER.

KATHLEEN has found more roles in the theatre as big film projects dry up and has been nurturing HIGH for almost two years as it made its way to Broadway. MATTHEW LOMBARDO said that she turned down any special treatment along the way, declining to stay at five star hotels if it meant breaking up the team.

“She just wanted to be with the company. It’s rare that you find an actress who’s willing to do that kind of work. What makes her different from the rest is that she understands the creative process. How many actresses of her calibre would schlep through three cities?”

KATHLEEN said that she did it because she’s growing sick of revivals and happy to champion good new works.

“I’m thrilled at the thought that I’m helping to place a new piece in the library.”

And after years of safe choices on Broadway, she thinks better, riskier times are ahead. Along with HIGH, she loved DAVID LINDSAY ABAIRE’S darkly comic new play GOOD PEOPLE and laughed out loud with her daughter at THE BOOK OF MORMON.

“I think people are getting their guts back.”

ON LINE:

HIGH ON BROADWAY

ROBERT REDFORD: ON THE CONSPIRATOR, THE CONSTITUTION & BEING REALLY REALLY BAD

FROM POPEATER

In THE CONSPIRATOR, director ROBERT REDFORD tells the little known story of MARY SURRATT, the only woman charged as a co-conspirator in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. The icon is aware you likely have no idea who MARY SURRATT is, despite her connection to the most notorious murder in American history.

POPEATER spoke at length with ROBERT REDFORD about his motivation for telling this gripping story – and we coax out other anecdotes, like his fanciful experience on a quiz show in 1960, the recipe for his expulsion from college and what it was like to be a environmentalist when no one else gave a god damn. And because he’s ROBERT REDFORD, the man got deep, revealing despite all the riches he’s earned, he still finds himself in dark places.

NICKI GOSTIN: I have to admit I’m a bit embarrassed to say I’d never heard of MARY SURRATT.

ROBERT REDFORD: Don’t feel exclusive. Nobody else has either. That’s why I decided to make the film. I never knew about it until I read the script and that’s what intrigued me – because when I first got it, I mistakenly thought it was going to be about Lincoln. And I thought: well, that probably is not going to interest me because that’s territory well travelled by books and documentaries. Of all the characters in American history no one has survived with as much attention as Lincoln.

But when I read the script I realized Lincoln was the frame, the assassination was the frame for the story that no one knew about and that’s what intrigued me. A story tied to that assassination that no one knows about and as I dug into it and went into the archives and got more and more into the story behind it, that led me to feeling like this is a story I wanted to tell. It’s a story beneath a story that everybody knows.

It’s a story about a trial and a woman that few people know about and inside of that which is where the creative work is done and the relationship between the lawyer and MARY SURRATT – and to me that’s where the emotions lie and that’s where I went to develop that aspect of it because I thought the arc of their characters had such a reach to it.

NG: Do you see the relevance of the story today?

RR: First of all, the parallels that exist there are not for me to even talk about because they sit there provided by history. They’re there for the filmgoers to find and they’re pretty obvious. I don’t feel comfortable talking about them because otherwise it looks like I may be into a propaganda position I’m not really in. The parallels are given to us by historical fact now with today’s headlines – with Eric Holder announcing he’s been pressured to have the 9/11 trials moved to a military tribunal. Well, it’s almost speaking right to the film. I think that’s for others to find. It’s there obviously.

NG: It’s still not clear if MARY SURRATT was innocent or guilty. Do you have an opinion?

RR: No, I don’t and that’s what I love about it. I probably would have been bothered had there been conclusive evidence one way or another. One of the appealing things was the ambiguity to her innocence or guilt. Because they never knew if she was guilty or not it was a double tragedy because she was put to death. Not only was it a trial that violated the constitution which was very young at that time, but it was one of the first violations of our constitution which has now seen many, many others come following that. There’s always someone trying to mess around with our constitution. But the fact that they could never prove she was guilty I thought added an extra piece of ambiguity that made it intriguing.

NG: It’s a period piece. Those costumes look like they were pretty itchy.

RR: The bigger problem was the heat. We were filming in October but Savannah is warm up until close to Christmas. The room was very small and there was also smoke to get that feeling of the day when everyone was smoking cigars or pipes.

NG: So it was like a bad nightclub from 1865.

RR: Exactly!

NG: I have to tell you QUIZ SHOW is one of my favourite movies. I love all the different layers to it.

RR: Thank you so much. Because it was a very special movie for me to make because I was actually in a quiz show. When I was a young actor in New York I was desperate. I had a wife who was pregnant about to deliver a child, we had no money, no resources and a teacher said, “Hey, they’re casting down at a quiz show. They’re looking for people,” so I ran down because I was told you’d get $75 if you got selected. I got selected. It was a show called PLAY YOUR HUNCH with Merv Griffin as the host.

NG: Did you win?

RR: No! I wasn’t a contestant. I was a subject. It was the most mortifying thing. This guy picked me and I said, “Am I going to be on the show?’ And he said, “Yeah,” and I said, “Oh my God. I’m going to be on TV.” The next thing I know there are three screens and the contestants were two couples and they were arguing. They had to argue about those three screens that were silhouetted and in front of the screens stood a man and behind one of the screens was the guy’s twin brother. They had to guess which one of the three was the twin brother. When my screen went up everybody booed. I thought: “What an entry into show business!”

Anyway…the issue for me was that back then the American belief system was still enough intact where you could not conceive that they would rip off the entire country. Then there was the whole issue that had never been touched, where I knew I was going to be in trouble, talking about anti Semitism within the Jewish community. That had never been touched on and I was going to get clobbered on it – who the hell is he to be doing that? – but I just saw it, just experienced my whole career life.

NG: Having said that, you know for Jewish girls you are a god because of THE WAY WE WERE.

RR: (Laughs) No, I swear to God I don’t.

NG: You’ve got honorary membership.

RR: Well I consider that a pretty good club to belong to.

NG: You were a big environmentalist way back in the early 70s. Were you considered a kook?

RR: Yes I was. You know there was a derogatory categorization of anyone interested in the environment and preservation and nature. I was considered a tree hugger, granola cruncher, all these derogatory terms where for me it was about if we didn’t start preserving something, are we going to survive? Because if we develop everything you have no life. So I focused on that and I got very committed. But I received a lot of grief over those years because there was no real community of support for environmental preservation and now there is. But there’s still the forces against it which you can now see.

NG: You’ve been in a zillion movies. What’s your favourite?

RR: I don’t have a favourite. I’m not saying that just to be political. The most fun I’ve ever had was on BUTCH CASSIDY. But in terms of making a story about something which I thought should be made: ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN or THE CANDIDATE, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR or QUIZ SHOW.

One of the things I remember as a young man in New York, the academic world was still considered a very high calling and order – and you would see very frequently pictures on magazine covers of academic figures and entertainment was considered at the back end of it. It was back there with sports, cartoons and obituaries in newspapers. Slowly entertainment moved up to the front and the more substantial stuff got pushed away.

I felt like in that moment in history the quiz shows and the scandal that came, at that moment entertainment got exposed. But academia got exposed – the corruption. The sad thing is it didn’t hurt entertainment. It hurt academia.

NG: Well I find it sad that SARAH PALIN insinuates that higher education is elitist. I can’t work that one out.

RR: Well, I can because the country is made up of three categories: traditionalists, cultural creative people and the moderns. The moderns are the hi tech Silicon Valley people. The traditionalists on the lower end of it are the people who don’t want change. They’re afraid of change therefore they have anger. The fear card is a very big powerful card and when you have people afraid of change they’ll do anything to prevent it. They’re doing it because they’re limited, frightened of people who are not as limited. I think with SARAH PALIN, part of her strength is how limited she is.

NG: What would we be surprised to know about you?

RR: I think a lot of things. Like I live in doubt, great doubt about everything. I come from a very dark family, Irish immigrant family, quite poetic of mind but dark in outlook because they suffered so much in the past. My family says if something good happens there must be something wrong with it. There’s that, there’s the doubt that every artist has.

NG: Are you a worrier?

RR: Yeah, I worry about things I don’t need to worry about which is a waste of time. I’m very critical. I’m way too critical. That makes life hard and then there’s just I think the idea that whatever you’re doing is never quite as good as you want it to be and you have to live with that. I’m hardly someone who looks like he rode in on a golden horse.

NG: But you do look like that!

RR: I know! That’s the problem. I keep hearing, “Oh, everything’s so easy for you,” and that’s not the case.

NG: You were naughty. You got kicked out of college for drinking.

RR: That was just one of the few naughty things. There were many other naughty things. I came from a very lower working class background in Los Angeles and the thing that got me out of trouble was being an athlete and then being an artist that saved me, I think. I went to Europe to study art. I found myself by being in different countries. Seeing my country from another point of view. I had a full view of my country that I think may have darkened things a bit so that eventually when I was able to make films, I wanted to tell stories about my country that were underneath the stories that you thought you knew.

Like THE CONSPIRATOR is underneath a story that you’re aware of.

But yes. I went through the normal process of being bad and of course it was great fun a lot of the time.