All the Choices - Albert Brooks - Interview

Film Comment, July, 1999 by Gavin Smith

Was there a point when that did get on top of you?

Yes. Absolutely. I still feel it. I still make my decisions based on somebody I want to respect. There was a time where television was the worst thing you could ever do. That doesn't seem to be true anymore, and many of the things that I still hold on to, quite frankly, I don't even think are true. But they're still true for me. I was trying to live up to something that I wanted to be. But you have to do that to have a career that you are proud of. It's unhealthy where it keeps you from doing something you might have fun at. You can make some mistakes and have fun doing them, and you're gonna turn out okay. But there was a time in my life where I thought if I made one mistake it was one mistake too many.

One experience that really taught me a lot was The Scout (94). Monica and I rewrote this script. The movie we wrote ended in a completely different way. It did not end like Rocky, with that bullshit big ending. The way that movie ended was, he was taken down to the field, he threw one pitch, and the movie was over. He just was able to let the ball go. It was a very gentle, quiet moment, where you just knew that kid was going to be all right. And the studio made Michael Ritchie put on this ending, and I got so upset. They tested it with both endings, and it tested nine points higher with the phony ending. I remember I was doing the press junket in New York and the Times said, "Albert Brooks should be ashamed, it's the worst ending." I'm happy that was the only one of those in my life.

Why didn't you direct The Scout?

I didn't want to. I really only did The Scout because I just wanted to play that part, I liked that character, a guy who travelled around -- it was like Death of a Salesman. I didn't want to direct a baseball movie. A lonely type of guy to play, but I guess it was the first at-bat. That script was originally written for Rodney Dangerfield; it was lying around, never going to get made, and I said I would like to do that. And that sort of got it alive, and then it really needed a rewrite because it was written very silly. It had no reality to it at all. It's very rare that artists get to hold out for what they want. I got spoiled. Even if it meant I couldn't make an expensive movie, or I couldn't make them as often as I want, there's no movie with my name on it that I am not proud of and cannot say this is the way I wanted it to be.

Does it seem to you now that directing was always the natural destination for you?

I still like to act. I enjoy acting in projects that I don't direct. Basically, I wound up directing because I could never find anybody else to do it. From the very beginning it was clear to me that my comedy had to get me to do it. If I gave Real Life to Carl Reiner it wouldn't have been Real Life, it would have been another movie. That's what directing is. Directing is simply all the choices, and if I think you're the best person to play [a part] and the other director thinks Brad Pitt's the best person, well there's the different movie right there. So it starts there and goes to every decision there is. Should he live in a two-storey house? No! He should live in a bad apartment. So you've got to do it. It forces you. And certainly, once I wrote, I had to direct. If I never wrote a word I never would have been a director. It's carrying out the instructions correctly, and it would have been way more frustrating standing on the side going, "Oh, don't do it like that!" On The Scout, I never told Michael Ritchie what to do, but there were many times where I had to leave because I thought, Gee, I wouldn't have Brendan [Fraser] do it that way. But, that wasn't my job and I'm not that kind of a person. I don't butt in like that.