A Quote by Roger Ebert
Who was the real Hitchcock? I interviewed him once and haven't a clue.
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I interviewed Johnny Knoxville once. I was kind of scared to interview him because I thought he might be a real jerk, but he was really nice, and I ripped his chest hair out.
I didn't speak English very well, but I studied day and night so I'd be ready for my first break. When Hitchcock interviewed me I didn't understand a word be said, but I had been told that he liked to tell jokes so I watched him carefully and when I thought he was waiting for a laugh... I laughed.
Hitchcock was such a master of putting on screen things that made you uneasy. Somebody once asked him what frightened him most, and he said the police. He came from a poor background. I think he understood those fears.
I was in awe of Robert Osborne, the man, and his incredible talent. Like everyone else, I loved watching him introduce classic films on TCM. But I was fortunate to also get to know him in real life by spending time with him and being interviewed by him over the years at events around the country.
I still don't feel I know Hitchcock at all. I find that the more one looks, the more elusive he becomes. But my admiration for Hitchcock the filmmaker remains undiminished. He is a giant of the cinema and the darkness in him informs his cinematic language. You can't separate one from the other.
The truth is, I don't have a real clue what love is - how to find it, how to give it. Once upon a time I thought I knew.
I, you know, am all over the place — every category of pictures I have made, good, bad or indifferent. I could not make, like Hitchcock did, one Hitchcock picture after another. … I wanted to do a Hitchcock picture, so I did `Witness for the Prosecution,’ then I was bored with it, so I moved on.
Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. Sometimes it hurts, but when you are Real you don't mind being hurt. It doesn't happen all at once. You become. Once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.
Every time you look at a house in Los Angeles, the real-estate agent will tell you that someone famous once lived there. It always seemed irrelevant to me: Does a property gain value just because Alfred Hitchcock used to eat breakfast there?
I'll never forget my interview with Barry Humphries - one of the oddest I've ever done. He insisted that for half the time he appeared as Dame Edna. So I interviewed the real Barry Humphries in a suit and tie, and then I interviewed Edna in full fig in her dressing room, where she criticised Barry mercilessly.
Elijah Cummings said, "you'll be the greatest president in the history of, but you know what, I'll take that also, but that you could be". But he said, "will be the greatest president but I would also accept the other". In other words, if you do your job, but I accept that. Then I watched him interviewed and it was like he never even was here. It's incredible. I watched him interviewed a week later and it's like he was never in my office.
The thing about Hitchcock is that, however much one dissects him, he still manages to hang onto his mystery. You can never quite get to the bottom of him.
I've interviewed the president in the White House. I'd interviewed major newsmakers and Hollywood actors.
I wouldn't use the word 'scared' for my role as Hitchcock, but it was my most insecure. Taking on such a formidable, giant personality such as Hitchcock; he was one of the great geniuses of world cinema. Sheer genius.
Universities used to prepare young adults for the real world. I dare say the graduates today go in without a clue and graduate without a clue. It's time to acknowledge the college degree is not worth what it was in the past. Times are changing, and so is the way we prepare our youth to survive in a competitive world.
Saturday mornings, or at night when I'm trying to go to bed, I'll watch Hitchcock mysteries and stuff. I know that's pretty boring, but it feels comfortable. It's called 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents.'
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