“Ah, I don’t know…They just want to get to the bar and get by me.”
That’s what M. Emmet Walsh told yours truly when we were reflecting on all the people that kept coming up to him at the 5th annual Gasparilla International Film Festival opening night festivities. Walsh was being honored by GIFF with their Lifetime Achievement Award. His film and television career has spanned over six decades – more if you count his stage credits. Chances are you know his face if you’re having trouble placing the name.
The 76 year-old Walsh was both gracious and baffled about why GIFF was honoring him at the Tampa Theatre. He made mention that his career is not done just yet, so this award may be a bit premature.
Walsh’s brand of humor entertained the near capacity crowd before and during his award presentation. He even hung around the next day to partake in a film industry version of American Idol. Being one of the celebrity judges, his charming wit ended up acting as a calming method for all the aspiring actors that were performing in front of him.
He seemed to have a grand ol’ time at GIFF. But like those before him, he had to deal with my off-the-cuff interview questions prior to receiving his award.
Now having access to a guy with Walsh’s experience, the natural question one has to ask is how the industry has evolved from when he started out. Are we better off? Or is he missing the methods from the past…
“Wow (guess he didn’t expect a guy like me to go that deep). When I first got to L.A., – you know I’m a stage actor from NY – when I first got to Los Angeles, they were doing 39 episodes of television. There were only 3 networks when I started. Now there’s hundreds. Everything’s different.”
“Movie-wise, it’s all different too. When I started, you used to take about 50 days to shoot a movie. Now they’re shooting movies is 11,12, 18 days you know. It’s a different world altogether.”
As for studios’ mindset these days when green lighting projects and assigning budgets…
“They (studios) could do four $25 million dollar movies year. But they don’t want. They want to do one or two $100 million dollar movies. And it’s a different audience now too. They’re looking to please the people that go who are between 19 and 30. They do not want a film that interests geriatrics like myself.”
I told Walsh that my personal feeling on films today, is the emotional connection with the audience is constantly declining and doesn‘t generate the same response for the engrossing films of the ‘70s for example. He chimed in stating that you could make the argument that the films from the ’30s and ’40s formed a better connection or were more interesting than even the flourishing ’70s for that matter.
From there, Walsh went into how hard it is to make a living as an actor these days. I didn’t ask that question, but the ones who have interviewed Walsh understand that he’s the driver. So the best thing to do is to sit back and enjoy the ride…
“I know it’s getting harder and harder for an actor to make a living. There is 115,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild. This is the union you have to belong to in order to shoot a movie. 115,000 thousand! Who are these people? They’re out there hoping to catch a light and go down stage center and sing the impossible dream. It’s tough. It used to be you learned how to act and then you got a break. Now I don’t know what you do.”
So what was his game plan? A very innovative one…
“I have a degree in marketing from college. Marketing is sales. I am the product. How did I go about selling myself that other people don’t know how to do? And I definitely did know how to go about that. I said, how do I advertise? How do I put this product out? How do I package it and what do I do with it? And that was me. And I was very good about that. Being good is not good enough. You got to get lucky. You got be in the right place at the right time. And if you get a break, you have to know what to do with it. Cause you may never get another break. You know, it’s a very tough business. There’s the acting business and there’s the business of acting.”
What he is getting at here is, one must constantly hone the craft of acting and understand what to do with it. Having a niche will get your foot in the door, but how long you stay in that building is a whole other battle one must be prepared to learn. And this where Walsh comically interjects…
“I knew the business side, I learned the acting side. I got lucky. I’m good, I’m talented. I’ve had fun. So fine. I got breaks and people didn’t.”
After a brief laugh – thankfully, cause it is tough to tell whether Walsh is joking around or sarcastically telling you off – his last comment was a nice transition to discuss the reason why he is at GIFF in Tampa Bay. Cue the enjoyable M. Emmet Walsh wit once again…
“Well, whatever. Or else these people are so desperate they couldn’t get the first name on the list.”
GIFF has been eyeing up Walsh for this award for a few years now. With an assist from Walsh’s casting director friend and former student Kathy Laughlin, he finally arrived. But this isn’t something he usually does.
“I don’t do this. I’m content without having to get on the Johnny Carson show every other night and say how wonderful I am. I’m a low-profile guy.”
Whether he wants to acknowledge his accomplishments or not, Walsh has done something every actor strives for – and very few achieve – he kept working. And he’s still going.
I began to conclude this chat – well, Walsh decided to conclude this chat with his go-to line…
“Okay, you got it?”
Almost. Since the guy has worked in every type of movie, along with a vast pedigree of actors that include Al Pacino, Steve Martin, Harrison Ford and the late Rodney Dangerfield, is there anyone he wanted to share a scene with that never materialized?
“I missed a couple of them, but I got a lot of them. (He leans over) I guess I wasn’t in the right place at the right time. But I’m okay.”
If he had it his way – which he does – he just wants to be on stage. In his heart and mind, Walsh will always consider himself a stage actor. And since he’s been able to do it all, he has no regrets whatsoever .
When speaking with Walsh, one can easily tell when he’s had enough talking about himself, as evident by his humble speech. So in the efforts not to get beat up by an old guy, here’s how the savvy actor wrapped this up…
“Come on…I’ve challenged myself, I’ve had a lot of fun, I don’t do the same thing all the time. (Switching into 3rd-person mode) Here he is, 76 year-olds and he’s still trying to do it. And the next thing you know, you’re gonna say ‘ oh shit, he dropped dead on his feet, poor bastard.’ (And back to 1st-person) I ain’t going to get the whole spread in USA Today like Elizabeth Taylor did. It ain’t going to go that way. But I’ve had fun, come on. And the longer you hang on the quicker they forget about you.
So I’m here and being honored. It’s very nice. I brought an extra suitcase to handle all the trophies they’re going to give me.
“Okay, you got it?” Yep!
