Robert Duvall has been an American cinematic icon for nearly five decades, ever since his memorable debut as Boo Radley in the 1962 film adaptation of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Since then, he’s been in some of the greatest films of all time, as well as what is considered one of TV’s greatest accomplishments with “Lonesome Dove.”
Better yet, Duvall is a proud conservative who recently made it clear in an interview on Fox News Network’s “Huckabee” show that he did not vote for Obama, and if given the chance, won’t vote for him again. That flinty sense of humor combined with an effortless modesty makes him one of the most down-to-earth and human of stars, and has carried him through work in numerous independent projects that he had his heart into and staked his reputation upon.
Another hallmark of Duvall is his Christian faith, which he won’t discuss in particulars, but which shines through in some of his films as a vibrant example of walking the walk rather than just talking the talk. He put $5 million of his own money up for the budget of 1997’s”The Apostle,” a film he wrote, starred in and directed about a tormented Pentecostal preacher who faces a period of reckoning.
Duvall’s latest film is the Depression-era, character-driven dramedy “Get Low.” Once again, it’s filled with issues of faith, forgiveness and redemption, and once again he knocks it out of the park with one of the absolute best performances of his career. Duvall spoke with me personally by phone from his home in rural Virginia, where he happily lives a continent away from the Hollywood rat race.
Q. What inspires you to live in Virginia, away from the big-media capitals of Los Angeles and New York?
DUVALL: I live in Virginia, my wife’s from Argentina and she said Virginia is the last station before Heaven.
Q. This is your third big film to deal with strong Christian themes in your career, following “Tender Mercies” (for which he won a Best Actor Oscar) and “The Apostle.” What draws you to these kinds of films?
Duvall (with Tommy Lee Jones) as Gus McCrae in “Lonesome Dove”
DUVALL: They present themselves. Horton Foote wrote “Tender Mercies” with me in mind somewhat. I had a good history with him from “To Kill” on down. With “The Apostle,” I had attended a little Pentecostal church in Hughes, AR years ago, a funny town where all the shops were run by Chinese. The sheriff gave me dirty look but I was in town for the night to research something, and I decided I wanted to put something on film someday as it’s such an indigenous part of American culture. So I wrote, directed and put my own money into it. Hollywood wouldn’t put money into it without a twist.
I don’t always play good or noble people, though. Sometimes military things come along like Stalin and Eichmann and you have to find a way to humanize those evil guys too, even with all their faults.
Q. What do you feel “Get Low” has to say about forgiveness and dealing with one’s past? How do you hope to affect audiences with its message and themes?
DUVALL: I don’t believe in message movies, but if there’s a message about humanity and a positive thing that a man can gain from his faults and go into his future in a positive way, that’s good. This is a fictional version of a true life guy. There was a guy named Billy Bush in the ’30s who set up and went to his own funeral to see what people would say about him. We fictionalized that premise and ran with it so to speak.
Q. How did this film in particular come your way?
DUVALL: They came to me 4 or 5 years ago, they couldn’t find the money and I said if the Zanuck dynasty can’t raise $7 million, who can? It’s sometimes harder to raise under $10 million than to raise $100 million. They did a rewrite I didn’t like, I lost interest, then they brought in a Southern writer named Charlie Mitchell from Alabama, and because of that I’m talking with you. I always said I’d be ready to go if they raise the money and a year ago we went.
Q. What was it like working with Bill Murray? He’s really surprised people the last few years becoming such an artist.
DUVALL: Bill Murray is kind of a smart aleck but a good smart aleck, always on top of things but always great respect for the project and wanting it to be the best it can be. Some SNL people don’t make very good actors but he’s legitimate. But it was a wonderful cast that we assembled for a very low-budget film, so to speak. Such a unique, lovely script that people responded to it.
Duvall with Bill Murray in “Get Low’
Q. What’s your favorite role? And are there any roles you regret?
DUVALL: I’m sure there’s some I regret, had to pay the rent. Augustus from “Lonesome Dove” was my favorite. But this is my wife’s favorite since “The Apostle” almost 15 years ago.
Q. Does spirituality or morality play a part in your choosing a role? Are there things you won’t do in a role?
DUVALL: Spirituality plays a role in the decision. I’ve played Stalin and bad guys but “The Apostle” I wrote, directed, financed and starred in. If you’re gonna do something of faith that people might admire and cling to if they see this, you have to do your homework and do it the right way. Some thought I was making fun of Pentecostal people in “The Apostle,” but that would have really happened if it was done in Hollywood. But both Billy Graham and Marlon Brando liked it, so I won over both spiritual and the secular. But I had to do it right to get that. With Hollywood backing, I would have had to condescend to the truly religious people in the heartland of America because Hollywood has a tendency to do that rather than show the true essence of belief.
Q. You had a really powerful cameo in another spiritually themed movie, “The Road.”
DUVALL: They put “The Road” in obscurity, those producers. They buried it. I worked two days on that. I’ll tell you an interesting story I told [“The Road” star Viggo Mortensen] one night. I told the story of my looking for a son on the road and that was all improvised, and I heard that [“The Road” author Cormac McCarthy] liked it. I thought the part would fall a little flat, but I knew if I gave myself a surprise as well as the other actors, it gave me a real hook emotionally. You can do that with film. There’s always take two, take three.
Q. You live in Virginia. What about it do you prefer over Hollywood and NYC?
DUVALL: My dad pushed me into acting. He went to the Naval Academy when he was 16 years old after going through one-room school. I like NYC ok, LA’s ok and I have a little office there. But I bought a 1745 house in foreclosure here, it’s been through the Revolutionary War and Civil War, 45 minutes from Washington so we can get to where we wanna go.
Q. You also directed “Assassination Tango” in addition to “The Apostle.” Do you hope to direct anything else?
DUVALL: I wanted to direct a border movie, did a lot of research on the border, since the only ones who know anything really are 12 border sheriffs. We put AMC on the map with “Broken Trail,” giving them 30 million viewers but apparently they don’t want anything else with me. I’d like to direct something else there, or in northern Argentina. I don’t know if I have the time left, though.
Q. What was the biggest challenge or surprise of “Get Low”?
DUVALL: The challenge of “Get Low” was to do the part, an effortless part, the writing led me along, I spent Christmas in Northern Argentina gaining the sense of privacy the way [Duvall’s hermit character] has, in the Andes. Many people have responded to it in Spain, Italy, especially Poland. They laughed at everything there. The oddest thing was that when we were filming the scene where the casket rolls out, [Horton Foote]’s son in law told us he’d just died, and I learned it as the camera was rolling. It was very strange, and I had goose pimples because it was almost like he was there, all the way from “To Kill a Mockingbird” to that very moment.
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