De Niro Interview on his Craft, Coach, and Current Role

Since his first major film roles in “Mean Streets” (1973) and “The Godfather Part II” (1974) Robert De Niro has built an enviable career and become one of the greatest living actors of our times.  He is also one of the few celebrities who can be in the public spotlight and still maintain an almost tabloid-free personal life.  I can think of at least three pop songs that evoke his name, crossing over into each generation as relevantly as the latest technology. In a recent interview, De Niro and I discuss his acting training in New York City and his current film where De Niro returns to a role of gravitas and pathos as a failing writer and father in “Being Flynn,” based on Nick Flynn’s memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.

“Stella Stories”: The Day I Studied with an Acting Legend

By Rick Copp, special to SALIA

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a ham. In my twenty plus years working in the entertainment business, I managed on more than one occasion to insert myself into several TV shows and movies I was writing and producing. I got my SAG card doing a voice over on a Tea Leoni FOX sitcom called “Flying Blind.” I played a jovial sidekick on a ‘50s sci fi serial in an action comedy TV movie I co-wrote and co-produced called “The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space,” and I had a recurring role as a bitchy chef on a 90’s action series remake I co-created called “Team Knight Rider.”

People often ask me if I ever trained to be an actor. Well, let me be clear. Yes. Technically. Well, it all depends on what you call training. I audited a four week acting class with legendary stage star and famed acting teacher Stella Adler in the late ‘80s. Her former students include Marlon Brando,  Warren Beatty and Robert De Niro.

In 1987, I was working as the Director of Development for a New York based television production company where I helped develop children’s shows. The company was owned by a major New York advertising agency with clients like Hasbro toys and one of the CEOs was married to a former Hollywood actress by the name of Anne Newman, who had appeared in a number of classic movies like “El Dorado” with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum and “The Thrill of it All” with James Garner and Doris Day. Anne took a liking to me and one day suggested I join her at Stella Adler’s acting seminar she was taking every Wednesday night. I jumped at the chance. Anne was loads of fun and I thought it would lead to us having a lot of laughs. And I was sure she would pay for the drinks we would inevitably have after class.

How wrong I was. Not about the drinks. Anne came through on that one. It was the class. No laughs. None. First of all, I didn’t get the memo that when Ms. Adler entered the room you were to spring to your feet and applaud wildly. Her disapproving eye caught mine when I was still sitting in the hard back aluminum chair as she was wheeled in (she was in a wheelchair by this time), her right arm raised, slightly waving like the Queen of England. It all went downhill from there.

Every student who took to the stage to do a scene was viciously criticized, torn down, more than a few left in a puddle of tears. She was awful to everyone, but particularly relished attacking the girls. Even so, I kept thanking God I was simply auditing the class as an observer and would not be called down to perform for her. Wrong again.

It was one budding actor’s turn to perform a monologue from some courtroom drama. I noticed his hands were shaking when he took to the stage. Ms. Adler bellowed, “How can you make a closing argument to the jury without anyone there to play to? You MUST have a scene partner.” Her eyes scanned the room. “YOU!”

She couldn’t be pointing at me. I turned around. Anne and I were in the back row. There was no one behind me! Ms. Adler screamed, “YOU! What is your name?” “Rick Copp,” I managed to squeak out, my voice cracking. Stella nodded. “Mr. Copp, would you be so kind as to play the role of the juror so this young man has a scene partner?” I turned to Anne for help, but she looked away pretending she didn’t know me.

“I… I’m not an actor… I’m just auditing…” I said softly. Ms. Adler’s eyes blazed as she bellowed, “I expect EVERYONE in my class to participate. Mr. Copp, if you please!” Anne gave me a nudge. I stood up and walked down to the stage, nodding at the shaking young man about to perform his monologue. I sat down and he started talking. I don’t remember what he was saying. I wasn’t listening. I was doing my own internal monologue. “Omigod! She’s going to yell at me! She’s going to tell me I suck and I have no business being here and I don’t take the work seriously and I am an affront to the entire acting profession and how dare I come into this room and disrupt the real actors who are here to do their work and learn from the great master…” I kept my eyes fixed on the poor young man talking to me. He raised a finger to make a point. He was still shaking. He was blowing it. I was blowing it. This was a HUGE disaster and I was about to be ripped a new one.

Ms. Adler stared at me, an angry frown fixed to her face. Finally, mercifully, she stopped the scene. She was yelling, her face flushed red and it wasn’t even the heavy rouge she was wearing. She was tearing down the poor actor playing the lawyer for something like five minutes. When she finished, she ordered him back to his seat. I was the only one left on stage. “As for you, MISTER Copp…” Oh God, hear it comes. “EXCELLENT work! I BELIEVED you were listening intently to the attorney. I BELIEVED you as a juror. I applaud your concentration!”

You know, in hindsight, the late great Stella Adler truly was an acting legend with much wisdom, a true purveyor of untapped talent. Right? Right?

 

 

 

Why Stella Adler? The Biographer’s Explanation on Oscar Day

I always wanted to be a famous actress. Every year I would watch the Oscars with a special notebook and record who won what for which category.  I thought I was doing something important for posterity (not realizing there were archivist paid to accurately collect this data).  It made me feel that I was a part of that world, that world of magic: the movies.  In 6^th grade as my teacher was passing out the play we were going to perform, I was counting which character had the most lines and raised my hand for that role when she called out the name.  In junior high I enrolled in drama class, but by then I had discovered a new love, poetry. I began identifying myself as a writer.

Stella Adler wanted to be a famous actress too.  Only she was born into a family of actors and put on the stage as soon as she could walk and it was her destiny to perform.  Like me, she also thought acting was magic: it gave her the self-esteem and approval she didn’t receive at home.  School did that for me and I effectively earned straight A’s and scholarships to college.

“Stella Stories”: Elaine Stritch Recalls Stella

Elaine Stritch

When I interviewed Elaine Stritch she told me an anecdote that you’ll have to channel Strich to get the full impact of, but here it goes.  One hot summer evening in New York Stella had a party and ran out of ice. Elaine Stritch admonished her host, “For God’s sake Stella, you’ve run out of ice!  Send someone to go to the corner to buy some.”  Here, Stritch imitates Stella at her meekest: “Well, we don’t, we don’t buy, we make it.”

“Okay,” a parched Stritch resigned herself, “forget it.  I’ll drink it warm.”  Later, a heated discussion ensued about how no one speaks the Queen’s English anymore and Stella said, “Well the theatre isn’t limited by that anymore. What matters is where the language comes from.” And then someone interrupted her and said, “Stella, you’re full of shit,” and Stella responded, “I wish you people would stop yelling at me. I’m just a girl without ice.”

“Stella Stories”: Stanley Rubin Succumbs to Stella

Stanley Rubin

In 2005 I met with the producer Stanley Rubin and his wife, actress, Kathleen Hughes (Stanley says theirs is the “longest platonic romantic relationship in Hollywood”) at their home to talk about Stella.  I began the interview by reading a letter I had that Stella had written to Stanley.

“Dear Stanley, you have seduced me as a woman, made me a fan of your work, created a talented and gracious evening for me and extended your friendship to me with warmth.  I am unashamed and unafraid to say I love you. Oh. Dear Kathy, I wrote Stanley a love letter.”

Kathleen Hughes

“Stella Stories”: John Abbott on Stella

This particular “Stella story” is better understood by being prefaced by the fact that having been brought up in the Yiddish theatre, Stella had a penchant for Jews, not as a culture or out of any loyalty to Judaism, but simply because she was surrounded by great artists who happened to be Jewish.  She respected them from an early age and fostered a loyalty to them. That being said, once, Stella was watching an actress perform a scene in class, which wasn’t going particularly well.  Frustrated, Stella charged the stage with her typical appalled shrill, “This isn’t acting!  What kind of person has the audacity to stand upon the platform unprepared!  It’s insulting.  I don’t want to be subjected to it.”  And the girl who she was berating turned around at which moment Stella saw the star of David dangling from her necklace and it was as if the rant had never been uttered. “No, not you darling,” and Stella pointed to the other actors on stage, “Them.”

“Stella Stories”: Stella and the Crane Family

By Robert Scott Crane, special to SALIA

Stella and Bob Crane on set

Both of my parents were actors. This alone should qualify me for some sort of disability program, but unfortunately, it does not.

Recently, I began research for a film role.  Like some strange thespian archeologist, I wound up in the cellars of the UCLA Film and Television Archives. Tucked between a 1958 “Stars of Jazz” program and a 1973 Linda Lovelace interview, I stumbled upon a personal Holy Grail, a 1964 program titled “Stella Adler and the Actor,” hosted by Bob Crane, my father.

“Stella Stories”: A New Blog Series

Jacob Adler in "King Lear"

Stella was a brilliant raconteur, which must have been contagious since so many people have stories about Stella.  Between the stories Stella told and the ones others told and continue telling about her, an entire book could be written.  Most of the stories you’ll find here did not make it into Stella’s biography. That’s why I decided to dedicate a series of posts on “Stella Stories,” which will be a mix of stories I’ve culled from primary sources, stories people have told me, and stories guest bloggers will write for the series.

My personal favorite is brief, although if you don’t know about Stella’s upbringing in the Yiddish Theatre or haven’t read about it in my previous posts it may not be as funny as if you had. Playwright Jerome Lawrence told this story at a memorial tribute to Stella.

Apparently the commode in Stella’s master bathroom wouldn’t flush and she asked her assistant Eddie Weinbaum to drive her down to the Lower East Side to a storefront plumbing outfit operated by two brothers in their 90s whose family had once supplied back stage toilets to the popular Yiddish theatres.  When Stella handed over her credit card, the younger brother waved the card in the air, “Masha, royalty, right here, royalty! Just think Jacob Adler’s daughter would be sitting on one of our toilets!”

Robert Scott Crane's parents, actors Sigrid Valdis and Bob Crane

 

Next up: Actor Robert Scott Crane’s personal account of discovering “Stella Adler and the Actor,” the only broadcast program of Stella’s class hosted by his father, Bob Crane.

If you have any “Stella Stories” of your own that you want to tell me or write yourself, please submit by email to sheana88@hotmail.com and put “Stella Stories” in the subject line.

Stella for Star: The Story of Stella’s Star on Hollywood Boulevard

Blanche gasps "Stella, Stella for Star" upon seeing her sister in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

“Everyone thinks I don’t know that Stella means star,” Stella Adler once told her class.  Who was she kidding?  After starring on Broadway, being a pioneer of the legendary Group Theatre, making films in Hollywood and becoming one of the preeminent American acting teachers who taught past and present generations from Marlon Brando to Benicio del Toro, no one would doubt Stella’s awareness of her appellation.  That same name Brando made famous with his STELLA! yowl in “A Streetcar Named Desire” has been buried in a business where celebrity shines, and just as quickly fades to black –  as starless as the Los Angeles night sky. 

Stella Adler’s Divided Legacy

Facade of Stella Adler Academy and Theatres

In 2010 the Stella Adler New York Studio opened a west coast branch in Hollywood named the Art of Acting Studio.  A mile north of this school is The Stella Adler Academy of Acting, which has been operating in Hollywood for twenty-five years.  These two schools, though they both claim to teach Stella Adler’s technique, are in competition with one another. The reasons for this divided legacy are easy to understand, which like most divisions in this world, boil down to politics and personalities.