Name: Albert Finney on Letterman February 10, 1982
Uploaded: 2019-02-08T20:07:50.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Albert Finney on Letterman February 10, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-02-08. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Albert Finney on Letterman February 10, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-02-08. Transcript available.

Thank you very much.
Paul Schaefer in the Soul Review.
Albert Finney is a noted British actor who has performed on both the London
stage and also on Broadway right here in New York City.
Among his best remembered films are Murder on the Orient Express and the title
role in Tom Jones, which vaulted him to great success.
He's currently starring in the movie Shoot the Moon with Diane Keaton. Please
welcome Mr. Albert Finney.
You look terrific. That's a great-looking tie and a fine-looking shirt.
Yeah, I did a movie about a year ago and I got these out of it.
You really? That's one of the great things about being in show business, not
that I'm really in it, but...
Your clothes are cute.
What show are you doing for me?
But that's the deal. Sometimes you get to keep some clothing.
Yeah, I did a play, Luther, here about, well, some years ago, but I don't use
the monk's habit much.
No, that's occasionally maybe a weekend at home.
But I don't get, you know, there's not much call for it.
Yeah.
I mentioned in the introduction of the show, which I sort of stumbled through
because I was thinking in my mind about the scene in Tom Jones where you and
the young woman were dining on various...
And then applause broke out.
Do you remember that scene?
But it's, did you know at the time, were you trying to shape a scene there that
would be long remembered?
Well, one of the problems with the film was I was playing this young innocent
who continually kept getting seduced by worldly women.
It's a very tough role to play.
And one of the problems was that often the women had to say, oh, you're cute
and all that.
And the director, when we work on the script, said, oh, it's so boring.
There's so many scenes where they say you're lovely and we can't have another
one.
This couple, we're going to have a meal.
And the idea came out that we did it through the way we ate, so that the woman
would seduce me by the way she ate the various courses.
So courses were selected that could be suggestive.
Like what?
Give us an example.
Well, it was very easy to shoot because we shot it without direct sound, which
means if a jet goes over, the tape wasn't ruined, you could do it again.
And the director could talk you through it like they did in the silent days.
So we were, you know, there were oysters and...
What was the first...
Did she start eating first or you...
Oh, yes, she had to seduce me.
But it finally led up.
We shot it with her on one side of the table, the camera representing me.
And each dish was laid in front of her.
And she'd eat a bit of it and the director would say, no, eat that slower.
And as you swallow the oyster, just look at him out of the corner of your eye
and smile.
Right?
Now, by the time we got to the pears, the dessert, he would sort of...
Now, no, no, don't just eat the pear.
You're more than hungry for the fruit.
Very, very suggestive talk was going on.
But it was very easy to shoot because we did the whole sequence in half a day.
Yeah.
In all of...
Out of all of your credits and awards and so forth, is that the thing that
people mention
most to you?
Well, yes.
The eating scene comes up quite a lot.
Yeah.
But I eat three meals a day.
Yeah.
There's terms of reference coming to one's life quite often.
Uh...
What, uh...
Now, Shoot the Moon, I understand, is not a lighthearted romp in the hay.
No.
It's a fairly intense, uh...
Yes, it's about a breakup of a marriage, and, uh, the couple, uh, played by
Diane Keaton
and myself have four girl children.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, you know, they're still very involved, and certainly find the breakup
difficult, although
they've broken up.
Yeah.
They're still also possessive and jealous of each other.
Yeah.
And, uh, there's not much, uh...
Is it terribly sad to watch this film?
Because I have sort of been thinking maybe I won't go see it because it'll make
me weep and
sob.
Well, it might, but it might be a relief, you know.
I mean, it might show you...
You mean even that could be better than my own life, is what you're saying?
Absolutely.
Oh, heavens.
I mean, it could give you something to look forward to.
Yeah.
Now, uh...
Things aren't as bad as they are now, you know.
Is that, uh, that difficult for you, too, the other end of the spectrum?
Well, if you, yeah, if you play a part where you have to sort of get near the
edge a bit
as a character, I mean, you do go back in one's own mind.
And to times when, in one's own relationships, one may not have behaved
entirely like a gentleman.
And, uh...
Are there times in your life that, uh...
A couple.
Yeah.
But you...
Because it may be useful for the sequence you're going to do the next day.
And, uh, in thinking of it, you know, you kind of open the capsule in your
memory of something
that may be relative to what you're going to do the next day.
And it's depressing.
I mean, the feeling floods your system.
And although intellectually, you know, you're only loaning that emotion
for the next couple of days' work,
the fact that you've evoked it from something rather, you know, unpleasant
maybe in your past
can be depressing.
And it kind of gets to you a bit.
Yeah.
Uh, we have, I would guess, as they say, a clip of this film.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, do you know what's on the film?
Yes, it's around the time when I start to realize, uh, that I'm losing, uh, the
family.
And, uh, particularly, uh, foresee a problem might develop with our eldest
daughter.
Mm-hmm.
But, uh, you'll see it.
Okay.
So, this is Shoot the Moon with, uh, Albert Finney and Diane Keaton.
And we're going to take a look at that now.
Yeah, that, uh, it couldn't have been a bright, sunny day.
It had to be raining when it's just...
So happened.
Yeah, yeah.
That's, uh, that's awfully sad.
Does it get sadder than that?
Imparts.
Oh, no.
You want to see some more?
Yeah, if you got the whole thing, maybe we could, uh, roll the thing through.
Let me, uh, ask about your, uh, your early life, if you don't mind.
You're, you're not, uh...
I am still having it.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Oh, excuse me.
Uh...
Did it tell me that it was a retrospective?
No, I mean, you know, when you were, uh, um...
in another country, you weren't, you weren't born in this country.
That's what I mean, earlier geographically, not chronologically, is what I
meant there.
Um, now, like our first guests, you were born in another land.
It sounds very mysterious, doesn't it?
Yes.
Uh, and that would have been...
Mine, where's the map?
Mine was the other side.
Born in, in England.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
In the north of England, in an industrial town.
Yeah.
Do you remember a film called A Taste of Honey years ago?
I remember the name, yeah.
Well, that was filmed in my city.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, which it was, it was a, grew in the industrial revolution, very gray
and grimy.
Mm-hmm.
People had lots of heart and spirit, and you had to, to live there.
Mm-hmm.
And...
But that's where I came from.
Yeah.
It was a pleasure meeting you, Albert, and continued success, and I will go see
the film, even
though I know it's going to make me terribly sad.
Thank you.
Albert Finney, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you, sir.
We'll be right back with a look at the world's cheapest movies.
Mm-hmm.
We'll be right back with a look at the world's cheapest movies.
We'll be right back with a look at the world's cheapest movies.
We'll be right back with a look at the world's cheapest movies.