Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Come on, let me take you home. Im going to lincoln if its the last thing i do. I dont care what you people think. Listen to me, you didnt win anything. Its a complete scam so you have to stop this, okay . Im running out of time. You dont even have a suitcase. Im not staying there. Dad, i cant let you go. Its none of your business yes it is im your son. Then why dont you take he . Rose bruce dern is here. He has appeared in more than 80 films from Alfred Hitchcock to quinn ten tarantino. He has specialized playing villains and psychopaths and other unsavory kashger thes. Heres a look at some of his work. I hit him i hit him with a stick i i hurt him its just small change shes got something new now, something everyones afraid to talk about damn it, Everybody Needs somebody, for christs sake. If its over with us its over well, what are you saying . That youre not even going to make the effort. What im saying is i do not belong in this house and theyre saying that i dont belong over there you need to be wiped away like a dirty stain. Turn around. You dont move anywhere. Now how does that feel . How, snil you know, my helping you out dont make a hell of a lot of sense. But im betting on the ranger. Know the big money days are just about done but dont kid yourself, boys. You can still come down real hard. Sorry about the rent, man, im just getting some stuff. Well, let me know when you get it. You want some sandwich . Thanks, man. I want you to burn the runaway right here on his cheek. The girl, too. And i want you to take them to the greenville auction and sell him. Both of them. Separately. This one you will sell him cheap. Rose his new movie is nebraska. He plays an aging father who takes a road trip with his son in an attempt to collect a milliondollar prize. Heres the trailer for nebraska. So you told sheriff that you were walking to nebraska . Thats right. To get my Million Dollars. This is woody grant. We are now on the rise to pay one Million Dollars to woodrow t. Grant, billings, montana. This is his son. You didnt win anything its a complete scam you have to stop this, stock . Im running out of time. This is his wife. I never knew the son of a bitch even wanted to be a millionaire he should have thought about that years ago and worked for it. Whats the harm in letting him have his fantasy for a couple more days . Its the talk of the town. Why didnt you tell us you was rich, wood glee we sure would like to see what a Million Dollars looks like. And this is the clock. Woodys a millionaire cheers and applause that would be wrong are you threatening my family . Everybody saying now woody grants a millionaire. Its no big deal. No big deal . Geez a million here, a million there are there. The newspaper is going to do a big writeup on you woody didnt win anything. Youre a damn liar hey, hey come on . somebody. Rose he won the best actor award at cannes for his performance. Im pleased to have bruce dern at this table. Welcome. Thanks, thank you for having me back. Rose last time was the national air and space museum in washington, d. C. Great to see you. That was terrific. That was a group of people. Yeah, there was. There was some talent there. laughs is this story true, that you already left cannes . Paramount allowed me, graciously, to take my wife, my daughter laura, and my Business Partner wendy to cannes and so they booked a sixday plan and the sixth day was saturday and so we went home and at 9 00 sunday morning laura called me and we were still trying to adjust to the clock so i was still asleep kind of and she said dad . I said yeah . I said we were in there, it was fair. Obviously we didnt win anything. And she said im not sure. I said what do you mean its not sure . Its 6 00 in cannes and every year they announce at 3 00 in the afternoon on the last sunday. And its 6 00 there. She said well, Alexander Just called me, hes still there. Rose Alexander Payne. He was on his way to dinner and they said stop by because you guys won something. So he went and it was the best actor. And i was thrilled because it gave a chance for the guy that gave me the role and made the movie and that youre thrilled the big win for me in this whole scenario is just getting the role in an Alexander Payne movie and this particular one and he got to pick it up for me. Rose but you hit it out of the park. Oh, really. Well, thanks. Rose that was an Impressive Group of judges. Stephen spielberg was the judge, and ms. Kid man, ang lee i think was on it, christopher waltz. So thats four out of seven. Rose they know something about good acting. laughs what does it mean to you . What meant something to you was getting the job. Well, when i got the job at 77 76 then, i realized it was an atbat. I realized i have had a lot of atbats but never in the bottom of the ninth when im down 21 and they ask me to come off be be shane victor reno, you know what im saying . And hes from hawaii i knew id waited a long time to get in a position in my age group of guys where that kind of role could come my way, that id be considered down to maybe last three or four and this time they actually gave it to me. And, you know, when i began, charlie, it was go to new york, become a member of the Actors Studio, work for kazan. Now its a lot different than that, but working with either Alexander Payne or quentin is big, big stuff and thats what you try and do. Because theyre the kazans to me of our generation. Rose and theyre the kind of guys who would pick someone like you, who has the chops to do whatever they want to do but in some other peoples judgment might not be out there. And they know because they know talent and they knew you could do it. Thats the nature of them. Well, i was lucky enough to be in a lot of wonderful movies with a lot of wonderful teammates. The difference between this one and any other movie was bob nelson, the writer, it was all on the paper. I mean, i didnt have to bring jerseys in and invent stuff to be noticed more. In the first day of the movie alexander said to me both pa p. A. Pa michael and i hes the cinematographer are aware of a lot of the stuff youve done. Do something for us im not sure youve ever done. Dont show us anything. Let us find it. I knew id found a friend, a partner, and a teammate. So i didnt have to push. I didnt have to show how good an actor i was. I just had to be a human being. And he would be there to find it and see it and throughout the movie. When my old girlfriend comes out that long shot in that magical once upon a time face he takes the time to watch characters make decisions in the moment rather than cutting away to Something Else to speed up the scene. He lets you see it involveed. And makes it still entertaining in the way its edited. And that was something that you get a few days in a movie but with him you get it everyday. Even the faces of the people from nebraska and from wyoming, montana, south dakota where we were. He goes for eight months ahead of time with john jackson, his casting director, and they find faces. They dont look for buildings and stuff, they look for faces and then they would say, you know, on october 29 of this fall be in that bar and well put you in a movie. So those people would show up at the specific bar just to shoot the face. First time i go in the bar the cowboy with the long beard is talking to the lady eating the peanuts, he was there. He doesnt have to direct them. He just says okay, be yourself, have a drink, talk to whoevers next to you. So he gets a very Preston Sturges frank capraish rose does this mean in some of your roles you had let the acting show too much . I pushed too much. Not which would be trying to it starts at president beginnings when ms. Kazan and strasberg say to me okay, you can go to california now. After three years being guinea pig at the Actors Studio, so to speak. And i went, they said to me the first thing youll do is westerns, a lot of westerns and youll be the third to fifth cowboy from the right. Be the most interesting goddamn third cowboy anybody ever saw. Rose laughs as you go on in your career and the parts get bigger and bigger you tend to embroider. Sometimes it works and adds, sometimes it doesnt. I was guilty probably of pushing a little too hard so that doesnt mean overacting, that means just im in the room, too, hello . Rose laughs i might be interesting. Take a look. What was the biggest role of your lifetime . This one . Number one . Rose its an alexander pain movie. He may not be synonymous with that yet but hes 6 for 6. Hes made six good knew please . A row. Secondly hes basically the linchpin of the movie. He drives the movie a certain way because president story follows him. But its a team work movie. Its all of us together. Thats behind the camera, too. He has 85 people on the crew and 47 have worked everyday on every movie hes ever made. So you have a family you dont dare not risk. You dont dare not take chances. Theyre there to back you up. He told me the first day go out there on the edge, stay there like you like to do and we have your back. Then hes sitting right here and he gets delight out of watching the movie for the first time. Hes seen the scenes, he knows they work on paper so he sit there is sometimes like a little kid just watching the movie. Rose saying, yeah, that worked, didnt it . And also the piece of material was magnificent. Ive been in others. I mean, you know, people say well, you mean its a better chance than in gatts bi . My problem with gatsby has always been i dont play i dont think mr. Fitzgerald ever wrote it to be a visual experience for an audience. An example being how do you put the last paragraph on the screen . It cant be done. And im sure mr. Salinger was up to the same thing. Theyre about the readers mind, the readers heart and when you put it on the screen, i dont know, sometimes its like very rarely only until the last maybe quarter of a century have they ever put christs face on a screen, you know . It was always you couldnt see who he quite was. And one of the Great Stories ive heard in my career well, you want to ask questions, obviously. Rose go no, go ahead. Charlton heston told me when they were doing benhur. William wiler shut the movie down for two days to look for a face. He spent two days, saw 1,300 faces in rome or right outside where they were shooting and he finally picked one. In the scene in the movie, its a roman censure i dont know who rides up and benhur on his way to the chain gang is stopping at a well for water. The centurion hates him. He cracks his whip. A man bends down and starts helping heston get a drink of water with a goblet and kind of washing his face a little bit and the centurion crack it is whip again. And he said i said no water for him and he gets the thing back again and the man stands up and turns around and William Wyler wanted to cast an actor who could show he just looked into the face of god. Because its jesus christ that gifts him the water. And thats movie making. Thats what i came for. And wyler no wonder hes as good as he was. That wonderful part half my career has just been sitting at the feet of a lot of people. When we did that championship season we had stacy, we had myself, paul sorvino and jason miller who wrote it. We just sat at mitchums feet. How can you not listen to this guy . And when i think to myself how they kind of got excited about our age group in the beginning 70s because they stopped doing movies just about conventional leading men and women but started making movies about people on the edge more. People that were out there more. More exposed. More study of behavior. Well, if you look back on it, mitchum might be one of the first guys that was into that because you go back and look at night of the hunter. That strange folks from a hollywood movie star and he was into that kind of stuff and i loved that. And kazans whole thing sometimes was about finding guys like that to put them in in the viva zapata after zapatas been killed in the square all the generals are up on the wall and the peasants run and cover him up right away and theyre saying to each other this could be anybody. Who knows that this is zapata . Hes shot up so bad, nobody could know. I think hes still maybe in the hills. On the wall is an old broadway actor named arnold moss, a whitehaired man whos the old retired general in charge of the whole assassination they just did and he says i dont know. Sometimes a dead man can make a terrible enemy. Thats kazan. Found that face for that line, you know what im saying . I got in the business for that. I got in the business to make movies about people and i think weve forgotten that. Not forgotten it but i think its tougher to get those movies made now than the wizardry and the technology and Marty Scorsese uses the phrase the propensity to make money fast. 100 million on an opening weekend. My god if i had a studio i could make 20 movies for 100 million. When you out with roger corman doing movies for 120 grand, its rose you and jack and several others. Oh, yeah. Rose heres my i like to received a vice rather than give advice but listening to you you may not have time and this may have no interest to you but i can imagine how thrilling it would be for an audience to have you stand on a stage and talk like you are now and behind you because of the technology are the scenes that youre talking about. I mean, it would be enthralling because cinema is our well, i wrote a book several years ago called things ive said and probably shouldnt have. And john whyly and them put it out and theyre basically academic puts they put out and stuff like that. So i started doing what i call a one man show. Exactly what you said, but without the photograph. Thats a fabulous idea. Or even the movie. I think in in three weeks the Brooklyn Academy of music is doing a retrospective on me and theyre showing 13 films leading up to it and then the last night theyre showing a film and ill be there and to have a retrospective on the knew please . In four of the ones theyre using i have three little scenes hush, hush sweet charlotte they cut my head and hand off before the second reel. They shoot horses, dont they . Which nobody ever sees. Wonderful, wonderful. And theres that, theres marnie which i just play a little part in the beginning of and so im cool c w them showing that. But heres people ive never met along with paramount that are going out and finding these movies and it took them forever to find a print of they shoot horses, dont they . And thats 11 oscar nominations. But this is the first retrospective of bruce derns work . I love that. Rose i do, too. So when you look back on the career are there regrets or do you samely say thats what life is. Life is living and making choices as you come to eat point . I think when i got in it because i was a runner. I was aware i hasnt gotten into the long stuff yet but i was aware it was an endurance contest. I was aware that some do, some dont so therefore youre going to have in the marathon you dont race until youve done 16 miles so i had to put in my 16 miles, i knew that. And both kazan and mr. Strasberg made me aware that it was a long journey for me because i was not a conventional leading man. A conventional leading unanimous my generation were Burt Reynolds clint eastwood, bob redford, warren beatty. Those were the good looking guys that got the young men parts. And i cant tell the story but rose oh, yes, you can. Can i use a bad word . Rose go ahead. Im at summer stock, central city, colorado, and im there washing flats and playing any kind of part i can get into and bela lugosi is coming to do dracula. And im cast because im part of this resident cast as ren field, the fly eater. And he runs around and everything. About ten minutes into the rehearsal there was an actor named bob webber who was in 12 angry men and a lot of things like that. He said mr. Dern . And i dont know, do you say yes, count . Or yes, bela . So i saidiest . He said i want you to switch roles. I was playing the good looking young man. Bob webber was playing renfield. He said i want you to play the little fly eater and i want mr. Webber to play the young leading man. I said why . He said look at his neck i said what about it . In my country the guy with the bull neck plays the bleep part. Rose laughs thats bela lugosi so you open your first year ever looking to be hired and that happens to you. But as i look back on it, i enjoy the ride, i was paid well. Not fabulously well i was in really good movies. And some great attempts that didnt necessarily become well seen movies. Like the one jack and i did. It was wonderful. Smile. A movie nobody ever saw about the california junior miss pageant. After dark, my sweet. A knew see there on that weekend three movies open all if youre at different theaters in the sexplex. One is after dark, my sweet. One is the grifters and one is laura dern in wild at heart for david lynch, all in the same complex. Well, except for the grifters the other two ate it. And the guy that wrote after dark, my sweet wrote the grifters. So if you were lucky enough in those days to get one of your independent films made and financed and got into cannes it seems like the independent film in that day was put in the independent film thet sore there werent but 105 seats or something. On marvin gardens we were doing a scene where i have to go over and tell jack that i love him. And i go up and i put my arms around him. Well, we did three or four takes and its a nine minute scene and jack and i both turned and we called him curley bob because hes a huge guy and had this great hair and jack says curley what do you want . What do we have to do . And i said yeah, bob, what is it . He ripped his sleeve up like this. He says goose bumps, i want goose bumps. Oh, my god. So we do it six more times and say okay, thats it. Now were in the other set and jack and i both go up and said roll your sleeve up. And we rolled his sleeve up. And he says what do you see . What do you see . And jack says i just see a big jewish arm. Theres nothing on it. And i said i really dont see anything. It looks like maybe you ate too many hershey bars when you were young, but they arent goose bumps. He says they are goose bumps and what does it tell you . We dont know. 15 million opening weekend. Rose laughs and thats how one of the independent filmmakers whod done five easy pieces and what else, is brilliant, is interesting in opening weekend. Rose who were your best friends in hollywood . Is jack one of them . All my friends real, dear friends, are girls. The o