John Lithgow (Extended)

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1:05at IXLLearning.com slash audio. Visit IXLLearning.com slash audio to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Ryan Reynolds here from MidMobile. The message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything goodness world, stop. With Mid, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at MidMobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required, intro rate for three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra, see full terms at MidMobile.com. It's the Rachel Pacho with Stephen Colberg. Welcome back ladies and gentlemen. My first guest tonight is the legendary actor you know from Conclave, the Crown, Terms of a Deer Met and so much more.

2:06Please welcome back to the late show, John Lithco. So lovely to see you again. Wonderful to be back. You look absolutely in the pink. Well, I am. Well, I've just been told that this is my tenth appearance on the show. Wow, that's in time. Fantastic. Well, you've just turned 80 in October. Yes. Good for you. Busyer than ever. Yes, I only deal in round number. Oh, exactly. You're back on Broadway for your 25th time in the show Giant, which I want to get to in just a moment, but you're also... You're also everybody knows now, you're playing Dumbledore for the next eight seasons. On the Harry Potter series, do you enjoy being a busiest possible? Well, it's exhausting, but it's exhilarating. Two fantastic jobs like this at my age.

3:08I kind of can't believe it. I'm working harder and better than ever. Vanity Fair, in an interview with the Vanity Fair, they asked you like, what's your greatest achievement? And you said, contentment in old age. Do you have any advice? Well, do you have advice on how to achieve? Got it. Like, that sounds fantastic. I'm sure you can't sustain it the entire time, but you aspire to achieve it, ultimately. I'm 61, and I'm curious. I'm about to start a new chapter of my career. Where were you at in 61? Let me model myself on John Lithgow. Oh, God. I can't do them one... One years ago. Just say 20 years ago. But I was... No, I didn't. Seen... 2005. 2005? I was on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in a year-long run. Wow. Yeah. All right, there it is. That's what I'll do. Yeah, that's a good... I'm going to go... You're available for next year. I am. Go to Broadway.

4:12You're one of our greatest actors, and I'm just curious, how do you define... I've talked to so many actors over the years, but I've never asked, what does it you do? What is it you... What does it you do for a living actor? Well, defend your choices for what you do for a living. Well, at the very most basic level, I tell stories. I can't explain why it is, but everybody needs stories. You can't get through a single day without seeking out some sort of narrative being told to you, whether it's an episode of a TV show or a Broadway show or an opera or a ballet, or going... Sitting and listening to a symphony being played, we just crave it. And I don't think people give it a thought. They just do it because it's a part of their lives, and I am that part of society that delivers this to the other half. And are you... As an actor...

5:14What's your greatest tool to do that is your voice, is it your physicality, is it your curiosity, is it your empathy, is it your interest in human beings? Well, I think all of the same. Okay. It's great that we can't search out. As you rattled it off, I sort of... It was like checking off the boxes. Yes, an actor uses his body and his voice and the depth of his emotional experience, I think, to sound pretentious for just a moment. Yes. When you were younger, did you ever play a part that you later looked and went, oh, I wasn't ready for that part. I didn't have the depth of emotional experience to actually understand what I was doing. No. That was... I was... You came out of your mother deep. Yes. Born deep, the John Litho story. I think it's been just the opposite. So many times I've been asked to play things

6:15where I've thought, I can't do that. But it was someone else believing in me and thinking that I could. I say yes, I do it. And I have one of my great, ecstatic experiences. What do you want in a director? What's his job in your opinion? Regarding John Lithco, what's his job? Well, I think it's just creating a space where an actor feels like he's making a contribution. Where everybody feels like a creative person. And guidance and being the perfect intermediary between a writer and an actor. I think that's a pretty good definition of a great director. When you work with a writer director, does he ever say I spoke to the writer and I think he agrees with me about how you should write us? I sometimes have trouble with writer directors. Because they hear it one way in their head and it's just not right. Right. I worked with a director once on a film

7:15and the third day I took him aside and I said, I am probably the nicest actor you will ever work with. And things go on like this. I will murder you. Because he couldn't let go of his own way. He heard it. Wow. He was telling me exactly where to take a longer pause which syllable to emphasize. Yes. An actor has got to feel like he's more than half of the creative process. Well, you're starring now in the play giant on Broadway playing role doll, the great author. Looking at this play bill, it doesn't seem like it's the sunniest depiction of role doll. We've got a shot here. If you mind looking that again, there you go. He's a little grumpy looking. What is it about? Well, lots of people know role dolls writing. You know he has his dark side as a writer.

8:17Well, he had his dark side as a human being. A man of great charm, great wit and intelligence. But a streak of witting and unwitting cruelty that he's curiously, not so curiously, he had a streak of anti-semitism which is very much what the play is about. It's a piece of history. It's a day in doll's life in the early 1980s when in the middle of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, when doll himself, he had a book coming out, one of his major books, The Witches. And he chose that moment to go very public in a book review he wrote with his anti-semitism and his strong anti-Israeli feelings in the way they were conducting this assault on Lebanon. It's an examination of that day.

9:19And as you can imagine, in this day and age, and it's extraordinarily timely. You've got this play in London. We did it in two different runs in London at the Small Royal Court Writers' Theatre where it was such a success, award-winning success that it went to the West End, had a run there, and now we're doing it on Broadway. And you won the Olivier Award for your performance or that. I'm just curious. Did you ever meet Olivier? I never met him. Did you ever see him perform live? Yes, I did. When I was a drama student in London when I was about 22 years old, it was when he was running the National Theatre at the Old Vic. And I must have, I saw him in two performances, one a very small role and one a big, titanic role, one of his great roles, the captain in Stringberg's Dance of Death.

10:22And I was completely stunned by this performance. I feel like I saw it five days ago. It stays with me so vividly. I've been stealing from it my entire career. And it was uncanny being given the Olivier Award at the Royal Festival, Royal Albert Hall in London and invoking Lawrence Olivier. I believe I said, I never met the man, but I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Oh. You brought plays over from the UK before. Yes, you brought plays over from the UK before. My Broadway debut was in a new play from London, which had had been debuted at the Royal Court Theatre, where we debuted giant. That was in 1973. My very first Broadway show, and I won a Tony Award two weeks after the opening night.

11:22Wow, that's right. Got the changing room? Yeah, the changing room. It's not just Broadway stages that you've graced. You have also danced recently with the New York City Ballet, and not for the first time. Here you are. What part are you playing there, sir? I'm playing the elephant, the elephant as portrayed by Dame Edna. It's sound song is carnival of the animals. I love it. Yeah, yeah, quite lovely. Are you a good dancer? You know what? I met Mikhail Barishnikov for the first time. And recently? First, no, years ago, the first he had seen Carnival of the Animals without my knowing it, and the first words out of his mouth were, you are a wonderful dancer. Wow. Wow. Now, I must add that I was dancing to comic effects.

12:28And I made them laugh. In other words, you know, I was dancing as well as an elephant can possibly dance ballet. Well, John, it's so lovely to see you. Thanks for being here 10 times. You know, I was on with Dave 10 times. That was when there were times I was on with Letterman. Is that right? Yeah, I was so happy to have been on with 10 times. And I got, I made it to town. Yeah, yeah. Stephen? This is a really, really sentimental moment, Stephen. Oh, I mean, I share this feeling with everybody in this audience. I just have loved talking to you and getting to know you over the years. Yeah. And I've loved hearing your poetry. You shared poetry with us, and my producer tells me, and I've not heard this, my producer tells me that you have brought a special poem for us. Yes, and I have to give a shout out to Carly Hillman, your producer, who had the wonderful idea of me writing a poem for you, Stephen,

13:29just for this occasion. She, she, she sent me the email on Friday, and I have tech rehearsals all weekend. I thought I can never squeeze this in, but I did. Oh, and thank you. I want you to know I had no idea that she was doing it. Yes, and I told her, do not tell, do not show this poem to Stephen. I want him to hear it on TV in front of everybody to see. It's called The Mighty Colbert. Oh! The time has arrived for us all to prepare for the doleful departure of Stephen Colbert. How will we last in the gaping black hole that's left in the absence of this merry soul? For a decade of late night and nine years before

14:31of satirical tapes on the Colbert Report, we've been lavished with laughter for 20 straight years from the genius between Stephen's two mismatched ears. Why does his exit stir up such despair? What mysterious magic imbues late night's air? Stephen's wit is the source of his lunatic art, his intelligence, wisdom, compassion, and heart. These are the virtues that bring out the best in even his gravest, most humorless guest. His monologues, though, with their slap-happy quirks, have clearly been Stephen's sublime masterworks. Each one is a targeted rotten tomato

15:34bookended by music from Batista and Kato. So why is he canceled? Why trash all that pleasure? Why Yangkoff the Air, this beloved national treasure? Stephen's tale is a lesson for all who come after. Beware of a boss with thin skin and no laughter. But don't mourn for Stephen, he's going to be fine. He'll only get better like aging fine wine with a talent so rich and discernment so rare. There's much more to come from the mighty coal bear.

16:46Previews for Giants on Broadway, Star Wednesday, John Lipto, everybody. Thank you for listening to The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing, if you want to see more of me, come to The Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and exclusives. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching saved nearly $750 on average and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Multitask right now. Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, national average 12 month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. Me and my brother, we grew up off the grid.

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