‘An extraordinary experience of freedom’
In the beginning, not even Elliott Gould understood what director Robert Altman was doing. Gould was a young actor with just three movies on his resume back in 1969, and here he was on the set of a wartime comedy called “MASH,” with a filmmaker at ease with an unusual brand of creative chaos.
Gould and co-star Donald Sutherland were alarmed enough to complain to their agent. “Neither of us had a clue as to how Bob was working, and how he was creating, so there was a few problems,” Gould says now of those earliest days with Altman. “It was just that I didn’t get it. Almost like Donald and I were two pretentious actors who didn’t know what ... was going on. As it all evolved, Bob and I became very, very close.”
On its release the following year, the movie about a Korean War mobile Army hospital turned out to be a huge hit, and the provocative and hilarious debut of a vibrant new voice in film — a director who was already 44 and had decades of experience working in television and short films. “MASH” was where his career as a distinctively American auteur began, so it was a fitting choice last weekend to open this month’s series of screenings of Altman films at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.
In attendance were Gould and Sally Kellerman (who played Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan), appearing onstage to discuss the making of “MASH” and to pay tribute to their friend Altman, who died in 2006 at age 81. “Every time I see it, I see something I didn’t see before. It’s like a kaleidoscope,” says Gould, 76. “War is war. The human condition is the human condition. What is it be human, to be alive, to evolve, to learn?”
“The reason it was such a blockbuster is that you couldn’t hear what anybody was saying — people were laughing so hard. You had to go back five times to get it all,” says Kellerman, whose Academy Award nod for her performance was one of five nominations for the film, including Best Picture and Best Director. “Elliott and I — we worshipped Bob. Working with him was just an extraordinary experience of freedom and creativity and laughs and hard work. He made everything fun.”
Organized by writer-producer Tegan Summer, the series of screenings and cast Q&As continues with 1996’s “Kansas City” on Oct. 9 and with Altman’s final film, 2006’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” (with an appearance by Virginia Madsen) on Oct. 16. They are among more than 30 films Altman made after “MASH.”
In the years immediately after “MASH,” Gould turned down the lead in Altman’s acclaimed western “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” eventually cast with Warren Beatty, but they worked together again that same decade on “California Split” (1974) and “The Long Goodbye” (1973), a post-modern take on private detective Philip Marlow.
That film opened with a 10-minute sequence of Gould as Marlow awaking fully clothed at 3 a.m. to feed his cat, with a trip to the store for the wrong kind of cat food and brownie mix for the female candle-makers and yoga enthusiasts next door. Later, the private eye is in a police interrogation room and not given a towel to wipe the fingerprint ink from his hands, so Gould smeared it on his face in a moment of wild improvisation.
Decades later on the set of “Oceans 11,” director Steven Soderbergh asked Elliott about the scene. “I said what that exhibited was Altman’s confidence and trust in me, because it wasn’t in the script,” recalls Gould. “With Altman I could improvise. I’m always in character.”
Before Altman’s death, Gould says, he and the director had actively discussed a sequel to “The Long Goodbye,” with the central character now much older. Gould had a treatment written, under the title “It’s Always Now.” With Altman now gone, Gould still hopes to one day see it made. “I could not find any money for it, but it’s alive,” he says. “Everything remains to be seen.”
It was another burst of improvisation that led to Kellerman’s career-making performance as “Hot Lips” Houlihan, a character that originally had far fewer scenes in the script. During a second meeting with Altman before production, Kellerman challenged the director on why her character had to exit soon after her public humiliation during a prank in the showers.
“I was so mad. I go, ‘Why does she have to leave? Why couldn’t she do this and that?’ I had all these ideas,” remembers Kellerman, now 77. “I’m practically in tears and so angry, and he casually leans back and he says, ‘Well, why couldn’t she? Why don’t you take a chance? You could wind up with something or nothing.’ Oh, it was like love at second sight.”
After years of working in TV and the medium’s strict adherence to the script, this openness to extensive improvisation was a different experience for Kellerman. “It was just a whole other world with Bob. I just loved the freedom,” she said of the director, whose demeanor on set she described as “relaxed but focused.”
Kellerman remains busy acting in TV and independent film, including appearances as the mother of comedian Marc Maron on IFC’s “Maron.” She also has a long career as a singer that Altman openly supported, personally hosting events for her. “He worked on my shows and just made them better,” says Kellerman, whose second album, “Sally,” was released in 2009. “He helped me find my freedom as a singer.”
Aside from film roles, Gould appears in the new TV sitcom “Mulaney” and the Showtime crime drama “Ray Donovan.” But he admits to still having dreams of Robert Altman and the times they shared over several films.
At the Alex last week, Gould described a dream he had of being on a crowded outdoor movie set with multiple versions of a script in front of him, plus copies of the book the film is based on. During a take, his performance is interrupted by “cut!” shouted by the cameraman, who complains that Gould “is not saying what is written.”
That’s when, during the dream, Altman emerges from his trailer. “Don’t ever say ‘cut’ again,” the director declares, and points at the actor. “He can’t ever say anything wrong.” That’s what working with the man was like, Gould says now. “That was my dream.”
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What: “The Robert Altman Series of Q&A Screenings”
Where: Alex Theatre, 216 North Brand Blvd., Glendale
When: “Kansas City,” Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m.; “A Prairie Home Companion,” Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m.
More info: (818) 243-2539; www.alextheatre.org, www.alexfilmsociety.org