Excerpt from The Actor’s Chekhov: Nikos Psacharopoulos and the Company of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, on the Plays of Anton Chekhov
JEAN HACKETT: What was the process with Ivanov?
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: I loved doing that. I’d like to do that again, actually. It’s a much better evening than it’s given credit for.
JEAN: What happens with that man? It seems like he starts from a place of complete despair and then just goes lower and lower.
WALKEN: Yeah, but, I mean, he’s so funny. There’s a scene in it where I think he stands on stage and doesn’t speak for about 15 minutes. The party scene in the second act. He says nothing, he just stands there and watches everybody. And I used to get a lot of laughs in that scene. He’s so ridiculous!
I saw Walken in The Seagull in Central Park – and he was awesome. Small part – Kevin Kline played the real lead – but Walken wandered through the action, punctuating the scenes with lines – that always sounded thrown away … not punchlines, but he ALWAYS got a laugh. He was great.
Oh my god – this is such a wealth of stuff you’ve posted on that great collection of interviews! I’ll have to spend more time with it but, it made my morning. That Olympia story about the plums is just great.
Off to write grants for autism. I’m back to writing grants. Something ironic about that.
You could give classes in how to write grants!!
Glad you liked, Ted – yes, come back and comment again, when you have a second. I love that book so much!