Name: William Hurt Had A Supersonic Airplane Scare, Talks "Broadcast News" | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-03-13T22:55:18.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'William Hurt Had A Supersonic Airplane Scare, Talks "Broadcast News" | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-03-13. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'William Hurt Had A Supersonic Airplane Scare, Talks "Broadcast News" | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-03-13. Transcript available.

Our first guest tonight won an Academy Award in 1985.
Do you know what for, Paul? What film?
That's right, Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Definitely.
Some other of his motion pictures include The Big Chill,
Broadcast News, and his latest, which opens on Friday,
is called I Love You to Death.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome William Hurt.
That's pretty nice.
You walk out, oftentimes we have big, major, important stars like yourself
who do films, and in your case, quality films,
and they come out and they sit down and the place goes nuts,
and it must be very gratifying.
It is for as long as that goes on, and then there's a silence
and you have to do something.
No, no.
Now, tell me about the hat.
First of all, did you pay for that?
No, but I'm probably going to.
Now, did you get the hat because you liked baseball hats,
or did you just like the hat?
I have a collection of hats, and I stole this.
They actually gave it to me.
They gave me four or five of them.
Four or five?
This is a perk.
Major perk.
Now, you know, you're one of these guys,
one of these guests, one of these people
that we've been trying to have as a guest on the show
for a long, long time.
I was going to bring my jacket so you'd recognize me.
Oh, that's right.
We had your leather jacket on years ago.
And people would always say,
the answer is, well, he said he would do the show
when he turns a certain age.
Now, tell them what the age was that was the kind of the...
For some reason, the idea popped into my head
that I would do it when I was 44.
Right.
But I recently turned 40,
and now I'm really scared of dying,
so I thought I had to...
Oh, I'm very flattered.
This is one of those things you wanted to get in before you...
Well, I know you're older than me, too,
so I was scared of you dying.
We gave him five hats.
Well, anyway, I couldn't be happier that you're here.
I told this story about a year ago.
I was coming back from a trip.
I won't tell it again.
But anyway, I just enjoyed the accidental tourist.
Oh, thanks.
And it was one of those things
where sometimes it will trigger something,
and I just...
I started sobbing, and I couldn't stop.
They finally turned the plane around
and went back and had me taken off.
They did.
It was the Concorde.
Yeah, no...
Oh, now tell me about that.
You had a little experience on that.
Yeah, we were on it the other day,
and we were flying over for the BAFTA Awards,
which are the British Academy...
the British Film and Television Awards.
This is from Kennedy to...
To London, Heathrow.
And we were getting on, and it was late.
And the whole point of taking it
is to avoid jet lag.
So they said that we weren't going,
and I asked why,
and someone said,
because there's a hole in the wing.
Oh.
And I just thought at 1,400 miles an hour,
that could be a problem.
Yeah.
And I didn't...
You know, I thought,
well, then fine, we'll wait.
Yeah, take all the time.
You need to putty that up.
But I had been on...
I'll put my finger in it for you if you want.
And then two years before I had taken it,
and you may know that they turn on the afterburners
on takeoff and then turn them off for sound reduction
until they get out over the ocean
and they turn them on again,
then you go faster than sound.
That's when you go supersonic, yeah.
And there was somebody who took a big sledgehammer.
It was like someone took a sledgehammer
and beat on the left wing.
It was a big bang,
and it lurched over to the left
and then straightened out.
And then he dumped the fuel,
and we went back
because they blew an engine on it.
Wow.
But I know there won't be any pain
if you...
Go out like that?
Yeah, if you sort of blow up at 53,000 feet,
you know,
I didn't expect it to be a big problem.
Now, were you just...
Were you...
Oh, you're right.
Looking at it from that thing,
but your problems are all done.
Yeah, I see.
But now,
were you frightened or not when this happened?
No, not at all.
I mean, I figure that...
You like that plane, don't you?
You're fascinated by that.
Yeah, I like planes.
Now, I hear everybody
that I've talked to recently
who has flown it
in the last five or six years,
everybody has a story like that.
They're having, apparently,
trouble maintaining this thing.
But at least they have a story.
I'm glad they have the story.
But the same kind of thing
happened to Tom Brokaw
once coming back from London
and the same procedure.
I don't know if they...
Did they turn around?
Yep, they dumped the fuel
and they came back in.
I think they take those precautions.
It's good.
Yeah.
And you got to go up
into the cockpit of this thing?
Yeah, it's long.
It's a long, very thin cockpit.
The engineer does a lot of work.
I noticed in the new airplanes
that the engineers don't...
They're not included
in the cabin environment.
But the engineer often throttles
the engines and stuff.
Yeah.
Well, if you're an engineer
for Northwest Airlines,
of course, you're making cocktails.
Yeah.
You got your hands
full of problems.
That's right.
You want to talk about
the new film?
Sure.
Okay.
This is an interesting bit of work,
I think.
Do you have a...
Is there a piece...
A clip of this film?
Do we have a clip of this film?
Yes, we do.
As a matter of fact.
Someone mentioned
that there might be one
and I don't know how to...
I've never been good
at giving away the plot,
but I think the plot
in this case is so screwy
I couldn't possibly do it.
And I think you should start
by mentioning
that it's based
on an actual happening.
That's what they say.
They say that it happened
in, I think, Pennsylvania,
that there was a pizza shop owner
and his wife
who were having
some difficulties
in their relationship.
and she went after him.
Yeah.
And this film
is based on that,
but I don't think
that that makes it
any worse or better.
It's just a movie.
Yeah, but I think
as you watch it,
it's interesting
to keep reminding yourself
not only is this a movie,
it actually happened.
But people
are spending their lives
looking at the National Enquirer
believing that too.
And so I think
we're maybe learning our...
Okay.
Well, we were talking
about this this afternoon.
When you did broadcast news
and you wanted
to do some research
into broadcasting,
not that there's
much to be learned, really.
But you spent some time
with a guy
who's a great friend of ours
who's been on the show
many times
and I think
as good as it gets
for sportscasting.
Me too.
Marv Albert.
Yeah.
What was that like?
It was great.
He really knew his stuff
and I was pleased,
you know,
I was glad to know
that not only did he know
his stuff on camera
but he knows it
off and even more.
He's encyclopedic
and he's human.
Yeah.
We had dinner afterwards
at this deli,
you know,
where they had this sandwich
which for some reason
was named Hurt
and it was good.
It was a good sandwich.
It was a...
It was your sandwich, right?
It was my sandwich.
And what were
the ingredients of this?
I don't remember.
Marv was talking so much.
And was there also
a Marv sandwich?
Uh, I don't know.
Yeah.
I remember, though,
being on the floor
of the basketball court.
Madison Square Garden?
It's small.
Yeah.
And the men are large.
Yeah.
And they move fast
and there's a lot more contact
than you ever perceive
on camera.
Yeah.
It's a very physical game.
Much more physical.
It's so graceful
and amazing.
I was really caught up with it then.
What about the profession
of broadcasting
did you learn
or observe
that you thought
was important
by watching Marv?
Oh, by watching Marv?
Well,
not a lot about broadcasting.
I just...
I like the fact
that he knows his stuff.
Yeah.
You know, I mean,
I don't get that feeling
from all of them.
Yeah.
He's a very bright guy.
And also,
I think I keep forgetting this,
at one time,
he was a ball boy
for the Knicks.
That's true.
Yeah.
So he's been associated...
He's interested, yeah.
He has a dream life
in the sports.
Are you a sports fan yourself?
Uh, sometimes.
Sometimes.
It's been getting harder
in New York to do that.
Yeah.
Some people have sort of
been spoiling the brew.
Like who?
Like...
Oh, God.
You're going to put me
on this, but...
Well, no.
You don't have to say,
but I mean, like...
Well, I think...
Like Steinbrenner.
I'm not even like Steinbrenner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean...
Would the Yankees
be your first team
of preference?
Would they be your...
Baseball team?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not anymore.
Yeah.
And who would you follow?
Now?
Yeah.
The Red Sox.
I'd have to move back
to the Red Sox.
And what do you know
of their season upcoming?
Not much.
I know that the season's late,
and then they're, you know...
And so I think, you know,
I keep looking at all these guys
fighting for the money,
and it kind of wrecks it.
Yeah.
It's interesting with baseball, though.
If you have a team
that was your team
when you were about
eight, nine, or ten,
whenever you started
being interested in baseball,
it doesn't make any difference
where you go...
It's hard to follow.
...how old you get,
what turns your life
have given you.
You still have that team.
You've got a tug.
You know, your heart...
You get connected to it.
Yeah.
And that's like people...
I still meet people
who are brokenhearted
about the Dodgers.
Yeah.
And the Giants
and all the teams
that have moved around.
Yeah.
So what are you working on now?
I just am finishing
working on a really interesting thing
with Woody Allen.
And then I'm starting
a film in Europe
with a man directing
named Vim Vendors
who directed Paris, Texas
and Wings of Desire.
And that's a very interesting project.
They're both interesting.
Really having a good time.
You don't seem to do
any really awful movies,
do you?
Thank you.
But you know what I mean?
They make like 500 movies a year.
80% of them
maybe shouldn't have been made.
But the ones you were in
always turn out to be...
I'd try to make one a year.
No, I don't know.
But I mean,
can you always tell
just by...
Is it the guy
who's directing it?
Is it the script?
Is it the cast?
Or a combination of those things?
Let's start out
with the structure
of the screenplay.
You know,
what does that mean,
the structure?
It means that
when you're reading it,
you're looking for the point.
You know,
what's the theme
and how is it pointed at?
What are the building blocks
of the script?
I try not to pay attention
to the character.
If they want me
to look at a character,
I try not to look at the name
because I don't want
to pay attention to that.
I want to pay attention
to the whole thing.
So you're looking
at the foundation first.
Well, that makes perfect sense.
So I try to do that
and you can tell often
after you read
a thousand very bad scripts
in the first ten pages
if somebody has
a reasonable idea
of how to structure a theme.
If the theme is sincere,
if it's a reasonably
interesting thing
and if the way
they look for it
is vivacious
and creative
and then I look
at the people.
Do you have an example
of this?
And this is a silly question,
but do you have
an example of one
that you looked at
and you applied
all of that consideration
to the script
and turned it down
and later it turned out
to be just great
and you think,
oh man,
I might have made
a mistake there?
No.
Yeah, there you go.
Well, for you
we have a hat.
Thank you again
for being here.
It was a pleasure
to see you.
Brilliant.