The studio fought him long and hard on that and he prevailed, they had a lunch with Chevy, and Landis kept saying all the wrong things [on purpose]. He said, ‘Oh Chevy, it will be just like ‘SNL.’ You’ll be one of 10 people in the movie and it’s an ensemble. Now, if you do [‘Foul Play’] with Goldie [Hawn], it’s just you and her and it won’t be as fun.’ Chevy walked out of there going, ‘I’m not doing that movie.'.

Tim Matheson

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I love JFK. My mother had been a worker on his campaign and adored him.

Tim Matheson

workers campaigns mother

With comedy, you really want to work things out beforehand.

Tim Matheson

comedy want

I always wanted to be an actor. I was one of those lucky kids - or cursed kids - who always knew what he wanted to do.

Tim Matheson

lucky actors kids

We wanted to make Tucker's Witch just more human and playful, because I don't think we see enough playfulness between characters on TV. It's like, "Who really gives a damn about two detectives on a case?" The sillier we went, the better it worked.

Tim Matheson

giving character thinking

As an actor and a director, I always let my actors go... assuming they have good ideas.

Tim Matheson

assuming

I worked with some of the best actors I've ever worked with: Mel Blanc and Don Messick. They could play a scene against themselves. Think of the characters that Mel created, and they're as good or better than any performance anyone has ever given. I mean: Daffy Duck! Think of the specific voice Mel gave Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig... It's just astonishing.

Tim Matheson

character mean thinking

I kept thinking that with all those first jobs, "This is the beginning of something!" And then nothing would happen. That's the real Hollywood.

Tim Matheson

real thinking

Meeting Jerry Mathers I remember thinking, "This is it, man. This is the Hollywood life! I'm an actor and I'm going to Jerry's party. This is how it begins!" I was 13 or 14, and I thought this was the beginning of something.

Tim Matheson

party men thinking

I think that idealism is always there in America. It's a spirit that's been subverted lately, and sold down the river to the contractors, what with the privatizing of all aspects of the government. It's so cold and cynical - all dollars and cents and parcel it up and sell it out and downgrade it and outsource it. They don't consider what it does to people. I think the spirit of this country is finally coming back, and hopefully it will triumph.

Tim Matheson

country people thinking

I understood the workmanlike quality of a good stand-up. They all have this. There's a technique for everything you do. But boy, it's tough, 'cause there ain't anybody else out there but you.

Tim Matheson

tough quality boys

As a director, I know everybody's job, and I know how to do it. I can smell bullshit when someone's telling me it can't be done, because I've seen it done a hundred thousand times.

Tim Matheson

bullshit done

Funny is funny. You can be fooled by the eye, but if your performance is funny to the ear, it will be funny. I think it's that if you don't have the visual, you have to infuse the full personality into the voice.

Tim Matheson

eye personality thinking

I always wanted to be an actor. I was one of those lucky kids - or cursed kids - who always knew what he wanted to do. My wife too. She's a ballet dancer, and she's known what she wanted to do since she was 5. My mother used to tell this story about how our TV set had been taken to be repaired, and back then, they took the set out of the console. So there was this empty console with an empty TV screen in it, and I would climb inside and be like, "I'm on TV!"

Tim Matheson

taken mother kids

I love horror films. And I like chick flicks! I like to approach the different genres of moviemaking and explore them. And you get a little better the more you do them.

Tim Matheson

horror film different

Working with Steven Spielberg, how bad could it be? But "1941" was one of those excessively big movies where every action scene was done and re-done and re-done again. It was so overproduced and overly expensive. And it wasn't terribly funny.

Tim Matheson

scene done action

I must say Steven Spielberg was great to me, and I loved working with him. He called me up on the phone and was like, "I want you to be in this movie - 1941. There are a couple of parts. You can take whichever one you want. One of them is a main character who is involved in everything, and there's another character who has his own storyline and goes off on his own. He's probably the funnier, more unique character." I said, "Well let me do that second one."

Tim Matheson

couple unique character

Steven's Spielberg is one of the most visually talented and character-oriented directors I've ever worked with. And I learn from him every time I watch one of his movies. Good or bad - and he has made some awful movies - they're never uninteresting. He's made four or five of the greatest movies of all time. Perfect movies, like E.T. or Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan.

Tim Matheson

all-time perfect

Whenever I study a genre of film-making, Steve Spielberg is the first guy I go to. Even Catch Me If You Can, which is a very lightweight kind of thing, if you just look at the economy of the way he designs his shots and works around actors, the craft is amazing.

Tim Matheson

design guy study

I read Animal House and I said, "I will burn down a house to be in this. I have to be in this movie." I read 1941 and I went, "Well, if Steven Spielberg likes it..." But it just wasn't on the page. It was a very big, unwieldy thing, and there were so many characters. It was fun to shoot, but I didn't know what the core of it was.

Tim Matheson

animal fun character

It started with Ronald Reagan, when he took away the financing to the California universities. It used to be cheap to send your kids to the UCs. They'd call it an investment, because the more you educate people, the more they'll pay in taxes, because they'll get better jobs. But Reagan said, "No, it's a cost, so you're going to have to pay the cost." So now people can't afford to get an education. Anyway, I don't want to get too political, but yeah, I think the spirit of this country is finally coming back, and hopefully it will triumph.

Tim Matheson

country kids thinking