Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 9 June 2017
For Sam Elliott, ‘The Hero’ sums up his life, career nicely

LINDSEY BAHR Dip sandwich to calm his
AP Film Writer nerves after he froze up in
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) a scene. About working
— Sam Elliott is thinking with Jimmy Stewart and
about the old days. About Slim Pickens and Ben John-
when he was just starting son.
out in Hollywood in the late They’re stories he’s told be-
60s as a contract player for fore, and will tell again, but
20th Century Fox, getting there’s something else go-
paid $85 a week and pay- ing on behind that all-too-
ing $85 a month for a little familiar baritone.
bachelor apartment near As Elliott goes down the list
the studio gate. About of the people who helped
how William Holden once the Saturday matinee ob-
took him to get a French sessed kid get his start in

In this June 6, 2017 photo, Sam Elliott poses for a portrait at the “Hero” junket at the London Hotel
in West Hollywood, Calif.
Associated Press
Hollywood there comes a and silent Western types, married for 33 years, and
pause after every name and send-ups of those men, living in Malibu since they
and a sentence that will from Virgil Earp in “Tomb- met. They have dogs and
be repeated often. “Who stone” to “The Stranger” cats and chickens and
is now deceased,” the in “The Big Lebowski.” And worry about the Santa
72-year-old says matter-of- he doesn’t expect that it’ll Ana winds and every year
factly. ever happen again. wonder whether or not the
It’s not that it’s a surprise for “We basically took what fires will blow their way. He
a man whose career has we loved about Sam, the misses the time when they
spanned 50 years. But this legacy that he has, and could ride horses up and
moment is different. we made him less famous, down the beach.
Blame it on “The Hero.” less successful and more of “We’ve had a really won-
“All of these people in my a screw-up,” said the film’s derful life together,” says
past at that period of time director and co-writer Brett Elliott, who married Ross,
are gone. And I really wish Haley, who first bonded turned 40, and had his first
they were here — par- with the actor when he cast and only child Cleo in the
ticularly right now,” Elliott him as the man to sweep same year. “It didn’t come
says on a recent after- Blythe Danner off her feet early, but it came.”
noon in a sunny booth at in the charming indie “I’ll It pains him to think about
the art deco Hotel Shan- See You in My Dreams.” how different his second
gri-La in Santa Monica. A lack of work is not some- act in Hollywood has been
“There’s something about thing that Elliott has to con- from Ross’. She actually
‘The Hero’ that sums it all tend with either. In fact, had a bigger part in “The
up for me. If I never worked he’s busier than ever jug- Hero,” but it was mostly cut.
again after this movie, I’d gling the shooting sched- “It’s brutal on her, as you’d
be good with it.” ule of the Netflix sitcom expect because she’s a
“The Hero,” out in limited “The Ranch,” with films and woman ... Hollywood’s ten-
release Friday, is a film that press in between. He just dency for casting the wom-
was made, literally, for El- wrapped on Bradley Coo- an out when she’s past
liott. He plays Lee Hayden, per’s remake of “A Star Is 10-years-old,” Elliott says
a past-his-prime Western Born” (he plays Cooper’s grimly. “I think she thinks
icon, who’s not getting roles agent) and will soon be off that she has no value any-
anymore (only voiceover to do another film in Massa- more, on some level, in the
work), is estranged from chusetts. business.”
his adult daughter (Krysten “I’ve never had a schedule You get the sense that El-
Ritter) and spends his days like this one. It’s like the or- liott, who often ends sen-
smoking weed with a friend der went down, ‘Don’t give tences with a deeply sin-
(Nick Offerman). Then he him a minute’s free time,’” cere and elongated “in-
gets the call — he has can- he says with a self-depre- credible,” is infinitely more
cer. cating smile. “I’m embar- interested in others than
It’s the first time anyone rassed about the riches.” himself — the antithesis of
has written an entire script He suspects his wife, actress most actors. He wants “The
for Elliott, who has attained Katharine Ross, is a little Hero” to succeed so that
icon status in his half cen- worried about him. Haley can move on with his
tury of work playing strong Elliott and Ross have been directing career.q