The Only Ambition I Ever Had Going

What I Found Was An Emotional Consistency With Him. The Words, The Scenes, The Situations - I Wasn't Mimicking What I Thought Branch Rickey's Emotional Reality Would Have Been.

I Think People Only Have So Much Interest In Anybody, And If You Barrage Them In Between The Times You Have Something To Offer Them You Become A Personality Rather Than An Actor - Much More Short-lived. I Only Work Once A Year. And That's Enough.

What I Observed About My Fellow Actors Was That Most Gave Up Very Easily.

American Graffiti Was The First Movie Where The Director Let Me Have Any Input. It Was The First Time Anyone Ever Listened To Me. George Thought My Character Should Have A Crew Cut, But I Wasn't Happy With That Idea. I'd Always Had Pretty Long Hair Back Then - In College, Particularly - So I Told George My Character Should Wear A Cowboy Hat. George Thought About It And He Remembered A Bunch Of Guys From Modesto, California, Who Cruised Around, Like My Character, And Wore Cowboy Hats, So It Turned Out That It Actually Fit The Movie.

What I Look For Is Identifying What The Utility Of A Character Is To The Telling Of The Story Overall. If I Can Identify That From Reading The Script, Then I've Got A Clear Idea Of Whether Or Not I Think The Character Is Worth Playing.