Share your favorite Welles interviews

[sierra]

I'm sure I speak for most of us when I say I love reading, listening to or watching interviews with Orson. He was certainly one interesting fella. I'd love it if people would list their favorite interviews. And if you want to go the extra mile and link the ones you can, that would be marvelous. Maybe somebody will list something somebody else didn't know of and can check out
I'm also curious as to what interests you most in a Welles interview...his films, anecdotes, politics, movies in general, Hollywood, theater, art, et cetera. Anyone have a favorite quote?

[Le Chiffre]

I'd love it if people would list their favorite interviews. And if you want to go the extra mile and link the ones you can, that would be marvelous. Maybe somebody will list something somebody else didn't know of and can check out

Interesting idea, sierra. Might make a good pdf. Let me see what we can come up with.

[GlennandersFraser]

My favorite interview with Orson Welles, an extremely brief one, comes at the end of a Mercury Theater on the Air rehearsal of "The 39 Steps." Welles has been absent from all or most of the run-through. Someone, probably John Houseman or Paul Stewart, asks if he has any notes or suggestions to share. Welles answers simply in his natural, boyish voice of the time (1938). No other public utterance by him, from that time on says so much about the "real" Orson Welles.

We used to have the episode, somewhere around here.

Glenn Anders

[Le Chiffre]

I'm hoping the 1975 Tom Snyder interview with Welles becomes available sometime. It's available at several Media museums and you can see bits of it in the documentary HOLLYWOOD MAVERICKS. Here are a few snippets that I remember:

Welles explaining why he became even more of a rebel as he aged:
“The real renegade, or anti-establishment rebel, must be a little short of personal ambition. He must be more interested in what he is doing rather than in what he is. Arrogance drains away when you age, but the love of what you’re doing doesn’t”.
“Anyone who’s any good must question themselves everyday”.

On Radio:
“Sponsors interfere with the work, and when they can’t they’ll drop you when the ratings drop.”
“’War of the Worlds’ was done for the benefit of the lunatic fringe who believed everything they heard on radio. We had no idea how large that fringe was. The public wasn’t angry. The newspapers pretended to be angry, and used the show as a stick to beat radio with. I’ve never enjoyed anything more than radio. It was such fun. Always done live. ‘The Shadow’ was the only radio show I ever did that was recorded first.”
“I was used to having control in radio and theatre, so I wanted it for films too.”

“Rich people are the ones who watch their dimes. The rest of us are pretty easy spenders.”

Religion:
“Religions try to prove that the self is our enemy. True Religion consists of ethics (goodness, kindness, etc.) plus the notion that there are things larger than our selves, like God, goodness, art, even television. So one must respect all things art and not look at them as some kind of mirror. We must be more concerned with what we are doing then with ourselves.”

On the future of man:
“I take a dim view of that. Terribly dim. There are too many of us. We’re invaded by people. We’re capable of semi-divinity, but we’re sick, bent on destruction, and not grown up enough to handle the weapons and the technology that we’ve created. There’s always room for hope, but it’s hard to be optimistic.”

[Steve Paradis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

I believe Orson, even when I don't.

[F. Scott]

If that story isn't true, it should be.