Of months, and then you scatter, and you may never see these people again. Rose bill murray for the hour, again. Captioning sponsored by captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Come in, ray. I saw it i saw it i saw it its right here, ray. Its looking at me. Hes an ugly little spud, isnt he . I think he can hear you, ray. Dont move. It wont hurt you. Aarrgghh arrgghh what happened . Are you okay . He slimed me. Thats great actual physical contact. You can move . Ray, ray, come in, please. I feel so funky. Rose bill murray has had a remarkable career, starting with the improv at second city in chicago. He won an emmy award in 1977 for saturday night live. He starred in many popular films include caddyshack stripes and then lost in translation. He can currently be seen in George ClooneysMonuments Men. Whats going on . This could be a bit of a problem. A bit . Heres a thought we put down our guns. You go your way. We go our way. No hard feelings. He doesnt speak any english. Not a word. Okay. Youre just going to sit down . Yeah, why dont we all just sit down for a second. Rose later this among he appears in the grand boud fest hotel. He is a pop culture icon and has been called by the new yorker one of the worlds most appealing hipsters. I spoke with him recently, and we talked about many things, including the life that he lives. What was the attraction of Monuments Men for you . Well, the story is a story that most people had never heard, the story of a like a core of like a clique of a platoon of guys going out to hunt down the stolen art. Rose who are artists rather than soldiers . Who are artists rather than soldiers, mature men, not enlistees, or draftees, but guys past the warrior soldier stage asked to join the effort and dp on this hunt. Rose we forget in times like this in war that one of the casualties of war is cultural treasures. Right. Well, iraq was a big one, right . Rose exactly. Where we sort of cleaned house in iraq. We won the war in 95 minutes or something but their museums were looted and robbed and i dontn6 know if that stuff has ever been tracked down. Rose a lot of it has, i think. But thats something that really goes. And things disappeared. And with the you know, with the systematic looting of the western europe museums by hitler and his people, they really took a lot of stuff, as you know, there was a story just a few months ago, theyre still finding it. What did they say that was worth, 1. 5 billion one guy. Rose yeah, one guy had done that. So theres the story. Its a greatistic based on a book by robert edcell, i think. Did you read the book . Yes. Rose did you read the book before you accepted the role . No, george told me the story of the movie a year before while eating, you know, pasta and salad. And i just went, oh, god, this sounds so good. But then, you know, i thought, i wish george would have asked me to be in that movie it sounded so good. And nine months later he said, are you busy . Rose and you said . Im not busy. Im busy but im not that biz gle did you like the character . Yeah, it was great. It was sort a composite. We didnt use anyones name. It was a hand gull of men. The character was written by grant hezlot of, and it was a wonderful character. Every actor in the movie has great stuff to do. Every actor is given a couple of home rub swings throughout the film. So its really made for you to have great turns, great scenes while youre telling a story. An interesting story. Rose and how does george work as a director . George is extremely well prepared. George comes to work in a great mood every day, you know. Its the lightest set ive ever been on, really. I usually feel like i have to be the one that keeps things light. You know, im always trying to calm people down or loosen them up. George was just and grant, they were both hilarious all the time. And you put all those people in one place, we got more tall tales and lies and stories to tell, as john says it the making of the movie is you know, youd stop. Youd shoot a scene and then youd stop and balderdash for 25 minutes and just laugh and really you laughed until you hurt because people were throwing out their best stories and throw them over the of the previous one. Rose you cant top this, can you . You could. And people really did top them. It was really fun. Rose hes a prankster, too. Hes famous for playing a lot of pranks. And he didnt do so much on this one. He had one good one on matt damon. Matt damon was going to renew the vows of his wife, and george told the seamstresses on the film to take in his pants a quarter of an inch every two weeks. So hed go away and come back and put pants on and all of us knew, but everyone was you know. Dead faced. Dead panning looking at him. And you see just the look on his fairfax like it was the location was good, too. Well, berlins pretty great. I dont know if you spent any time there. But its really nice. Its really a bubbling place. Its an artist colony, and very unique even in germany. Sort of like lost in texas is very different from texas. Berlin is very different than the rest of germany. Expawlt artists of europe flee there. Its inexpensive. Its very reasonable to live. People live sort of like socialists. There are the squatters and so forth. I know an american guy who was like a socialist here who moved to berlin and he rent outs his sort of little place and he squats somewhere else. Rose i know a lot of architects have done buildings there. There was a sense of great almost one of the great talents for architecture anywhere, because after the reunification and everything they were really building and had opportunities to build great things. Yeah, theres a lot of new stuff. And the old stuff its funny thing is even tho i would think berlin would be a wreck. They bombed the heck out of it. Its a fairly pretty good sized city, and what they didnt bomb is completely intact because on the east german pat of town nothing changed. No buildings changed. Nothing was built. So all apartment buildings are beautiful. You say my gosh, look at this. You see a row of town houses in new york and say what a great street. There are lots of streets like that in berlin. The night life is night and day life. They go hard. The germans would say, were going to dance night. And dance night lasts 41 hours. They go out and go for a day and a half it lasts. Rose how do you decide if you want to make a movie or not. Sometimes the people involved. Rose like george. Or wes anderson. He says, do you want to do the job . I say sure, what time. Rose if wes called youd be there . Yes. Rose if jorm called again, youd be there. All of us would be there with george. It was wonderful to be that well taken care of. Rose does it make it difficult if hes also one of the stars of the movie because hes acting and directing . Well and in this case he wrote the screen play. In that case you would think that would be a problem and with another actor it might be a problem but what george does with a movie is selfless. He does the grunt work. He does the plot line. Hes telling the facts. He does all that stuff. Those arent really huge, emotional moments hes got. Its like selfless, serving stuff, and he gives us all the merrygoround stuff. We all have the great stuff and hes doing the service work. Rose do you want to direct . I codirected one with howard franklin, a movie called quick change and i thought i would do it every year for rest of my life but then life changed. But id like to do it. I think if you can direct a movie you should direct a movie if youre able to. Ill probably do it again when life slows down a little bit, has a little more space. Rose your life is interesting. Its not a carefully thoughtout, wellplanned life. What a nice way of saying that. I never heard anyone be so compassionate towards me. Thats really nice. Rose well, its true. It has the additional advantage of being true. Yeah. Rose you know . Well, im a little bit im a little bit seat of my pants. I try to be just alert, you know, and available. I try to see thats a good point be available so that youre not so on the tread nil that you dont see or take advantage of something. Yes. And i mean more than just for work. I mean available for work. But available just for life to happen to you. You know, that were living this life. Were in this life. And if youre not available, sort of ordinary time goes past and you didnt live it. The day passes and you didnt live it. But if youre available, then life you jump up dimensions. Life becomes much more full, and youre really living it. Rose i mean, its that old maxim about half the game is being in the arena, by saying yes and being in the arena, you can experience so much more. Well yeah. And yes to life. Its like, yes, this is this is not easy for me to pay attention. This is not easy life, you know, and its not easy to really engage all the time. Its so much easier to zone, you know, do to get distracted, to daydream, to do something. But to be available and to be there, then things because things are happening all the time to us, and if youre not aware, you miss them. You know but you seem to be a guy who resident a lot, too. I mean, youre really aware. In reading about you i was struck by the point that someone asked you who youd really like to meet and you said einstein and Gregory Mendel all the stuff about about genealogy. So these are two scientists. I get excited about science stuff because theyre sort of laws. Theyre laws of nature. And if theyre laws of nature, theyre sort of like heavenly laws and theyre sort of laws inside of you, too. So if you could get someone to tell you, explain a little bit and crack your head just turn your skull a plilt bit so you heard something a little differently. It just came in your ear differently and landed differently, youd understand something more. Life. Rose where do you live . Right now i live in South Carolina. Rose why . Well, life took me there. Life took me there, and so thats where my sons are, and thats where i am. Rose you like South Carolina . Yes, i really do like South Carolina. I didnt choose to go there, and i kind of i went but i love it there now. I really like it there. The people are kind, and the place is beautiful. Rose a good place to be a parent. Yes. There is its easier. Its easier than being a parent in new york was. Being a parent in new york was quite a bit harder. Rose because i read somewhere that when youre in l. A. , you bunk at georges house. Well, ive done that, but no, bunking at georges house wherever georges house is, is always a pretty good place to be. Its easy. Its easy. Yeah. But where you are you know, i like to go i like to go around america. I like it. Were going to go on this little trip now. Were going to go to berlin. Were going to do a press junket. Were going to berlin, milan, london and paris. And you tell people i have a week, and ive got to go to work. Thats my job. Rose you told me george allowed you to fly in and do the movie and then fly out. So you had it was spectacular. They allowed me to go back and forth from berlin to South Carolina every two weeks so i could keep my house together, keep the guys rolling, keep the place spinning, keep those guys going and still do the job. He made it for everyone. Mine was maybe the most difficult, but he i never had anyone do that for me. Rose do you look for when you look at what youre going to do next, i mean, are you actually out there letting people know that id really like to be making movies . No. No. No. You know, and i quit every once in a while. I sort of retire. Rose or you vow youre going to quit after certain movies because you think one is really great and how could i ever top that . I made a movie called broken flowers and i thought i cant do anything better than that. He wrote a beautiful script. He directed it beautifully. He edited all my lousy stuff out. It was perfect. I just thought i gotta stop. I should stop right now. I should get out like john elway and get out. And i thought now ill look for that other career and i looked around. And i have no other skills, charlie. Rose thats tough. I cant do anything else. This is it. Rose ive interviewed some people boxers, for example, sugar ray leonard. I said, why are you coming back . Because he had made a lot of money and managed it well. He had all the money, had no problem. You know what he said to me, its what i do. Its what i know, thats why. I remember having the conversation with him the night he first made 30 million. And i sad, man, you should quit. You look good. I can understand you. Dont box again. And he came back twice more after that. Rose i know, i know. Because thats what he knew. Thats right. I dont have i dont i dont think i can quit now. And i really like doing it. Rose i dont think i can quit now because you love doing it . I really like the acting the action of it. I like how i i have to be myself to do it correctly. I have to really work at its the best i am is when im working because its you know, you talk about being present and talk about being alert, aware, and everything, but i know that because its going to be on screen, im going to get to see myself failing to be alert and aware. So it really is such a strong, powerful reminder to work at it, you know, to really be just in the game, to be there. So i like it. And i enjoy i like the whole gypsy mentality of the movie business where you get together with a bush of people. You live very intimately for a couple of months and then you scatter and you may never see these people again but in that short time the intensity of the experience. Absolutely. Rose while youre there. Very intense, very close, people just really slave. Theres no limit to how hard you can work on a film. I used to really think that about not only film. I realize its like that about parenting, too. You can work so hard on a movie. Theres no limit to how hard you can go, and you get in this harness with other people that are working hard, and its exciting. You know, like with these guys here, they all know that. So it was like, cool. Youd see someone you know, they made a big thing about were in the snow and working in the mountains, Something Like that. Cut. We have to go to the next scene. And john goodman and i pick up sandbags and boxes and start walking. What are they doing . Were going to the next site. Were all in this together and this is what we do, how we do it. Rose are you still learning . I had never been in a movie with a bunch of movie stars before. It was very different to see that, to see how you go. With george you do one or two takes, good actors, you got it pretty much. But it was interesting how the spacing theres sort of a different spacing. Everyones everyones tempo is just a little bit slower, a little its like we were talking about professional golfers. Their tempo is slower and smoother. And thats like real bigtime actors, their tempo is slow and smooth, and to be in a group where everyone is slow and smooth like that. It was different to have everyone youre watching. Youre absorbing. Yes, youre always getting something. Its fun to watch someone like Jon Jean Goodman who is such a natural actor, and yet it takes work. People say, hes not acting. Hes just being himself. Well, its hard to be yourself. Its hard to be yourself. Show me you know, its impossible. Its the hardest job there is. Its harder than anything to just be yourself. Its so hard. Rose when i did that little small part with george he said, you know, you do a great charlie rose. And i thought thats maybe a compliment. It is a compliment, it is a complimn . And im sure he meant it that way. Its kind its a joyous thing to its fun to be here, but its fun to work with people that are enjoying their jobs. You enjoy your job. I dont know how many years youve done this job, but you know more than 25. Okay, and yet for tu, you light up when the camera turns on. Its as fresh as it was when i first started doing it. And the excitement and the interest and all of that, and because its unpredictable, too. You dont know where its going to do. Yes, and you get to meet a huge range of people, an enormous section section if you dont learn if you dont learn something doing what i do, theres something wrong with you. Youre lucky youre luckier than hell. Rose thank you very much. Ill say my prayers tonight. Yeah. Rose so you made your mark in second city. Uhhuh. Rose improvisational. I assume thats great training for what you have done with your life. That was a perfect foundation. Yes. I would ive been really lucky. People say, how can i make it in show business . I say, im only the luckiest guy in the world. Im not the right person to ask. I was really lucky. My brother, brian, was in second city ahead of me. I got to watch he and harold ramos, and joe flaherty and john belushi ahead of me, and i was just hiding so i didnt get in trouble in my house and went to theater to watch these guys with no intention of ever doing it myself. Rose no intention of doing it yourself . No, no. Rose what did you think you wanted food . I wanted to be a doctor at one time but you had to study and that wasnt going to happen. I didnt know what i was going to go. I had Trouble Holding jobs because they wanted you there on time. That wasnt going to work. Rose they want you to play by the rules. This acting, working in the theater. We didnt have to get to work until 9 00 at night. Rose thats right. So i learned a lot just watching those guys. And when i finally did begin to try it myself, id learned so much just by observing and feeling what they were doing, i wasnt i didnt really peak at the second city. I was just learning it. I was sort of the new guy for a while and, you know, i was just i was just getting i was just getting kind of good. And then i got this is the night live job. And it was another ensemble group, working with not only talented actors but writers this time, too. So you got to use your writing skills and your acting skills. And this was it was a great secondary education. I mean i started at second city and then i went to saturday night live. If you did saturday night live for five years, you were able to do asking. You learned a lot. And all those pros, all those guys on the set, when we knot that job, all those guys had done your show of shows sid caesar, all these things. Theyd seen it all. Theyd done it all. We were just kids, and they would tell you something and it was an amazing education. Rose timing is important, i assume. Im not going to make the joke. Rose okay. On the flip side of that. It would seem to me if you do comedy, you develop a higher sense of time, than if you simply had nothing but dramatic experience. Thats a serious question. Yes, and a fair one. It seems like you know, at second city we didnt call ourselves comedians even though we were funny. Rose exactly. We were actors. Rose exactly, comedic actors or not even comedic. Being funny you have to be able to play straight to be funny, which sounds like a paradox but its not. You have to be able to play straight to play funny. If you can play straight to play funny, playing s