Name: Peter Fonda on Late Show, 1997-99
Uploaded: 2019-08-17T05:20:40.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Peter Fonda on Late Show, 1997-99' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-08-17. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Peter Fonda on Late Show, 1997-99' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-08-17. Transcript available.

Peter Fonda on Late Show, 1997-99

Our first guest is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and a very, very
talented actor.
He currently stars in the critically acclaimed new film, Uli's Gold.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Peter Fonda.
Peter?
Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
I was talking to Peter a second ago, and I mentioned that I had seen the film,
and I really enjoyed it.
And I don't think we're giving anything away when we say that your character
keeps bees, is a beekeeper, raises bee, makes honey.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, coincidentally, I understand, this is something that your father did for a
while in his life.
In his later life, he was an Eagle Scout, and that was one of the merit badges,
beekeeping.
In his later life in Bel Air, I always thought Henry Fonda in Bel Air is an oxymoron.
You know, he moved in with chickens and not for their eggs.
Because he made the best compost in the Bay of Los Angeles area.
At any rate, he kept bees.
And I never saw him really keeping the bees, but one afternoon, I saw him come
whooping.
I mean, he was jumping around, you know.
And he had the full regalia beekeeping outfit on, tied around the ankles, tied
around the wrists, big gloves up to here.
The whole full veil and helmet and all.
And he thought he had a bee up his trousers.
And, you know, it was impossible, but he was sure, of course, there wasn't a
bee up his trousers.
Now, did this happen to him frequently or only when he was with the bees?
I don't know.
Because it was a whole different deal there.
And then, now, so when you're actually in the film, there are many, many scenes
of you actually in there.
You have to go after a swarm, I guess, and try and get them back into the hive.
And did you, did somebody teach you how to work with the bees?
Yes, first thing I did was spend some time with beekeepers, people who actually
did Tupelo honey, which is what I do in the film.
And Tupelo, what is that?
Of course, we know that as a Van Morrison song.
Yeah, but it's also very special honey.
And it only comes from northern Florida.
Although Tupelo trees grow in many parts of the world, the swamps isolate those
trees and that bloom so much that the bees only work that bloom.
Tupelo honey never crystallizes, ever.
And it's got a lot of other great properties.
It's like the purest, the most high-quality.
Everything else is called bakery-grade.
Yeah, you used that term in the film.
And I thought, oh, I didn't miss what they're making donuts with.
Oh, well, good for you.
I'm with you.
I thought it was a great Van Morrison song until I got this film.
Yeah, but you, in the, in the, so anyway, you're working with the bees and you
must have been nervous about it.
You're worried about getting...
Well, you know, the first day I was a little nervous but reminded to be calm.
Don't wear anything that has scents on it or smells or any wild colors.
And so I was with these guys barehanded, watching them do, and I would do what
they were doing, picking up bees.
And, you know, I had, I didn't have the full regalia on.
I just had a helmet and veil.
Just a beginner.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
You know.
It's the setup, right?
They're going to set me up with this.
This is the sting.
And I felt a bee, you know, going up my jeans.
And I thought, oh, my God.
And I was in, they call the place they keep the hives, they call it the bee
yards.
And so I was in the middle of the yard, and this is not requiring fast running.
One has to be slow around the bees.
Right.
Move fast, they sting you.
They get frightened and they attack.
So I've got the bee going up my leg, trying to move out of the bee, yard, I'm
out of there, you know, and ripping my pants down and pulling them off.
And there was no bee.
Or.
Runs in the family somehow.
Or that was my father telling me, don't get too cocky.
Yeah.
But the two beekeepers who were with Victor turned to Victor and said, you got
the right guy.
You know, I mean, it sounds horrible to have, like, a bee up your pants or in
your shorts.
But, you know, just once, it might be fun.
You know, just once.
You know, Paul?
Give it a try.
Just give it a try.
Yeah.
There's so many things to talk to you about.
You know, I was reading about you this afternoon.
Easy Rider, 1969.
Yeah.
Is that possible, 1969?
So help me out here.
In a couple of years, it will have been 30 years?
30 years in 99 of its release.
The next year will be its 30th anniversary of the making of the film.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We started filming on my 28th birthday.
Oh, my goodness.
And, you know, I see people on the street who come, I saw your movie when I was
10 years old.
I just finished working with Kurt Russell a while ago and John Carpenter.
And I got to come up to Kurt and say, you know, I've been watching you since
you were six years old.
You know, because he was in the Disney.
Sure.
Now, are you going to do another one of those digitally remastered, re-release,
here it is again at three decades later, the way they did it with all the Star
Wars movies and stuff?
They tried that but miserably failed.
Yeah.
They didn't do a good job.
They didn't put it in a stereo, number one.
They didn't really put anything into doing it.
By that time, Columbia had bought the picture back from Pando Company and Raybert,
the producers.
So when you look at it now, and you've probably seen it dozens of times, I
would think.
When you look at it now, like if you just got up tomorrow morning and watched
it, what would be your impression of that now?
Actually, I get a very good impression, even though I've seen it so many times.
I'll stop by a television set that's going and just watch, waiting for maybe
something Jack's going to do because I loved it, you know, or a particular shot
that was great.
I'm always stopping.
When I hear the music, and all that music was already famous when it was put in
our, they had gone gold with all those songs, basically.
And for a lot of people, it sort of coalesced in time and in their minds,
images, you know, that are universal will last forever.
So that's a sign of a nice piece of work, I think.
We have to do a commercial.
We'll be right back here with Peter Fonda.
Here's part of the family.
Look at this.
Is that the best-looking family in the world?
Of course, there's your father.
This is Jane.
Yep.
And there you are.
How old are you in that photo?
17.
17.
Did you, when you were 17...
Can you understand I'm wearing a tie and a suit and that?
Yeah.
That's how I was taught to fly an aircraft.
Things changed in your life.
And when you were 17, you had no idea, of course, that one day you'd grow up
and your brother-in-law would be Ted Turner.
Just never had any idea.
You get along and right with Ted?
Oh, I like Ted.
What kind of a guy is Ted when you and your family and Jane and her family are
together?
And what is that like?
Actually, it's great fun.
He's got a very good sense of humor.
He's hysterical, for that matter.
He's an interesting American character, or I guess icon now, if people throw
that word around.
But he's had a fantastic life, a fascinating life.
Oh, absolutely fascinating.
And when Jane started to...
Well, actually, this is funny.
If you can think of Jane and Ted on a blind date, right?
Talk about oxymorons.
But Jane was so nervous, she asked me to fly down from the ranch to be with her
when Ted came to pick her up.
I think that's wise.
I think that's an excellent idea.
Well, I mean, I love Jane, and I don't want anybody to hurt her at all.
So I opened the door, and I said, hi, Ted.
I'm the brother.
Now, all I know about Ted now is he owns all of the state of Montana.
A great deal.
He's the largest landowner in the United States.
And the largest private individual single landowner in the country.
My goodness.
We're on Ted Turner land right now, I believe.
I'll tell you what, we have some interesting footage of you as an early point
in your career.
You started, I guess, working in theater, and then went to television.
And I think this is from an early appearance on...
Do you remember the show?
Oh, yeah.
It was my first time on film, let alone television.
It was Naked City.
Naked City.
With Joe Van Fleet, and Martin Sheen and I were the young male ingenues, if
that's the right word.
And it was very bizarre.
One of the high points of the film, very Buñuel-like,
Martin and I get beaten up by midgets on Coney's Island.
On Coney Island.
On Coney Island.
What was that word you used?
Very Buñuel-like?
Buñuel.
You know, Luis Buñuel.
Viridiana.
A very sick, wonderful film.
I think he's...
Belle de Jour, is there any memory of Belle de Jour?
He'll be here tomorrow night.
I think Buñuel is here tomorrow night.
Belle de Jour.
I don't know.
Catherine Deneuve de Belle de Jour.
You're talking to a goat.
I don't know what I'm doing.
He used goats well in his movies.
Well, now, we're going to see this.
So, it's early, like, 1950...
1961.
1961.
I said, give me back my money.
You son of a little beatnik.
Give me back my money.
No, Billy, don't start anything.
Shorty.
It's been a long, interesting career, hasn't it?
A very long, interesting career, yeah.
And I would think that right now is probably one of the nicest parts of that
career.
You've got this lovely movie opening all across the country,
and I hope it does really well for you.
Thank you, Dave.
It was a pleasure meeting you, Peter.
My pleasure.
Thank you very much.
Peter Fonger, Peter Acklin, Jonathan Taylor Tommey.
Our next guest is not in that category.
He's a very talented actor with an Academy Award nomination,
and this year for his fine work in the critically acclaimed film Uly's Gold.
Here he is again, folks, Peter Fonda.
Peter, come on.
Oh, my God.
Well, Ray, Peter Fonda, you look good.
I feel great.
You know, I watched in that Uly's Gold, and I thought the world of it.
I thought it was a nice...
You know what I liked about that film, in addition to your performance,
and I thought all of the performances were pretty good.
But it was just a very simple, kind of nice, pleasant, not-so-pleasant story,
but pleasantly told.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
There were no laser jets from Saturn.
You know, there were no huge car chases.
There weren't guys getting...
You know, it was just a nice story simply told.
That's, for my money, the beauty part.
Peter Nunez, who wrote the story, is very clever of taking around the clichés.
What would have happened if I'd picked that gun up?
Yeah, right.
Then you would have the cliché gunfight, instead of kicking into the swamp.
And it was also, you learned a little bit about honey growers, guys who were
beekeepers and stuff.
Right.
Yeah.
And gold, Uly's Gold, refers to...
Tupelo honey.
Tupelo honey.
Right.
And it's made from a certain kind of clover.
Tupelo gum trees, and although they grow around the world, only in the Apalachicola
swamp systems are they so isolated from any other bloom that the bees just work
that and make the pure Tupelo honey.
It's amazing, isn't it?
When you think about it, in this day and age, you know, near the end of the
century, with all of the technology available to us, but still, if you want
really, really good honey, it's up to the bees.
It's up to the bees, absolutely right.
That's a nice thing, isn't it?
And they've been doing that for millions of years.
Exactly, exactly.
And I noticed what happened, you lose the key to the restroom where it's
supposed to...
No.
No, but I was waiting for you to ask about this, because if we're going to
start talking about the O-word, I'm going to say, here, touch that.
All right, fine.
There you go.
What is that for?
Touch wood, you know.
Oh, so this is...
Yeah.
Yeah, all right.
You've been through this before.
You've been nominated...
How long ago were you nominated?
I was nominated for my work in 69 as a writer.
As a screenwriter.
For Easy Writer, right?
Yeah.
Thank you.
An honor which I got to share with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southerns.
And Jack was nominated for his role as supporting actor.
Well, this is a very nice thing then for you, isn't it?
Because you and Jack then, in that film, in your