In a wonderful interview conducted by the A.V. Club, 101-year-old actor Norman Lloyd reflected on his amazing career from his days on Broadway with the Mercury Theatre to an appearance this year in the Amy Schumer big screen comedy “Trainwreck.”
In a sharp, funny and insightful chat with Will Harris, the New Jersey actor talked about his early days. He joined the Mercury Theatre a year after his marriage to fellow Federal Theatre Project actor Peggy Lloyd. The couple remained together for 75 years until her death in 2011.
Lloyd recalled John Houseman bringing him into the Mercury and his stealing the show in a brief, but memorable scene as Cinna the Poet in “Julius Caesar” in 1937.
“I think that’s why probably I was never warmly embraced by Orson,” Lloyd tells the A.V. Club with a laugh.
“Years later we appeared together on a tribute to Orson… And after that evening, all of us who were involved in the evening, like Kenneth Tynan, the critic, and so forth – we gathered on the stage to say hello and goodbye, at which point Orson embraced me in this tremendous embrace and whispered in my ear, “You son of a bitch.” And that was the last time I saw him! (Laughs) I took it as a mark of affection… I think he just was saying, ‘You’re impossible, and I love you.’ And that was true. ”
Lloyd is no fan of the 2009 film Me and Orson Welles, a fictional account of the staging of Julius Caesar, which portrays him as a vulgar skirt chaser.
“Hated it. Did I make myself clear? (Laughs) It was just stupid. It’s no good. That’s the one that Christian McKay is in, I believe, and now I must tell you that I should qualify my answer – or maybe not! – and say that he is very good at playing Orson. It’s the best rendition of him I’ve ever seen. So McKay is very good. The picture is no good. I’m in that picture as a character. It’s terrible! I loathed myself. It has nothing to do with me. Have I made myself clear? (Laughs)
He added, “…They take license with my personality! And about George Coulouris, that they had him as neurotic and afraid to do his scene. George Coulouris you couldn’t stop from acting, for Christ’s sake! It was all just crazy. It’s all just made up. Who shot that? (Richard) Linklater, didn’t he? It’s terrible! It bears no relation to truth, or to what happened when you worked with Orson and so forth. I thought McKay was very good, but the rest of the characters are just ridiculous. They’re all made up! I didn’t even recognize myself… and then I thought, ‘Well, thank goodness I can’t!'”
Lloyd also talks about working with Charlie Chaplin, Elia Kazan and Alfred Hitchcock.
Check out the full interview over at the A.V.Club.
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