At 61, most Americans are thinking more seriously about the prospects of retirement. Especially, if you are one of the most fortunate Americans whose career choices now afford one comfort in later years. But what if you love your job and don't want to quit?

Robert Forster spoke with me by telephone.

einsiders.com: Must have been a lot of fun in the upcoming Confidence to play the guy who pulls the strings, huh?

Robert Forster: Oh, you know what? It’s a three-day gig, you reduce it down to a series of movie shots of which you try to deliver what you imagine the part needs. Also, you’ve got a director there, asking for stuff, so...it was interesting. They’re always interesting, movies are ALWAYS fun to do.

No, I didn’t see Dustin on the set. I saw him at the wrap party. I worked with Ed Burns, and Rachel Weisz. Morris, I think, Morris Chestnut.

Oh, sure.

What did you think of it? I mean, was this a part that you actively went after, or did they call you?

No, no. I had -- I think my manager represented somebody else in the picture and they said, "would you play a small part in this picture with these actors?" And I said sure!

Speaking of small anything, Diamond Men. Little film, really neat things. I mean, you were able to say so--I mean, it’s the smaller movies that give you all the wonderful things to say. All the mumbo-jumbo about diamonds and everything. It was like an insider’s guide, right?

The guy who made the picture, the writer/director of the picture, is third generation in that business. His father and his grandfather before him were diamond salesmen. That’s where he got the idea for the picture.

We all were! You don’t expect that of a little tiny picture.

He was great! We just, you know, we just sat there at the beginning and talked to each other and we each agreed we’d hold opposite ends of the string. He played the fun guy, and I played the serious guy, and -- of course, that’s the way it was written, but, you know. When you’re just looking for the basics of what we’re here to do, it was just snap your finger, and we knew what we were doing. We just worked on our scenes, one after another, went in there, shot them, and kept moving.

It’s a little picture, a first time writer/director’s low budget movie. You know, it was like every other movie. You gotta set up a shot, movies are reduced down to a finite number of shots. And each one of those shots you’ve gotta get good before you move onto the next one. Movie-making, no matter whether it’s a big picture or a little picture, always reduced down to twenty or thirty movie shots a day. Getting them and getting excellent ones is really what the business of film making is about.

The Franco! Oh, what a guy! He’s a good guy, too. I went to visit him once in Paris while he was editing a picture...maybe it was a picture I worked with him on...

Yeah, something like that...he was an old-timer. He had been an editing assistant of Hitchcock, and so he had been around for a long time. He’d done an awful lot of pictures, I had worked with him in Spain. He worked out of Paris, he edited in Paris, anyway...that’s where I visited him. Anyway, good guy.

Oh....God, I made one little picture of my own, and it’s called Hollywood Harry. This little picture was the most stimulating period of my life. So, in terms of having fun, that stands about above all others, because I made it, I always say "not much, but not junk." It’s a spoof of detective movies, I’ve done a lot of detectives. After that, it would be Jackie Brown, cause this guy gave me a GREAT part, and I had perfect confidence in him as a director. Quentin.

Oh, of course, of course. Jackie Brown must have been a very special time. The neat thing that we have right now is Peter O’Toole saying no, and then saying yes, and the whole idea was "I’m only 70, why give me this award? Wait till I’m 80," you know? As you get older, and you take these roles, particularly -- I read all kinds of reviews for Diamond Men, they keep saying, "Oh, it’s a comeback" or "Oh, this is in the twilight of his career." How do you feel about that?

Well, you know what? The actor still gets up in the morning, if he’s still got something to work with, you go out there and you do it. Never quit! If...you’re in a 12 step program? Well, I’ve got a 3 step program, it’s easier to remember.

· Step 3 is NEVER QUIT. You can win it in the late innings if you never quit.

· Step 2 is deliver excellence right now. This is the only moment you’ve got to work with. So, if you’re delivering excellence right now, that gives you the best shot of the best future you’ve got coming.

· Step 1 -- you’ve got to have a good attitude in order to delivery Step 2. If you’ve got a bad attitude, you cannot deliver excellence. Step 1 is accept all things, it doesn’t matter if you’re not getting the good jobs anymore, Bob. Just accept it. It doesn’t matter that you’re not getting the Winnebago anymore. Put it behind you, just like that! Your shoulders relax, suddenly you’re ready to deliver excellence now. If you’re holding onto negative stuff from before, you cannot deliver excellence. So, accept all things. It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t love you anymore, Bob. Put it behind you.

Step 1 -- accept all things, that gives you a good attitude. Step 2 -- deliver excellence right now. That gives you the best shot of the best future you’ve got coming.

And that Step 3 is NEVER QUIT! Once you quit, you’re waiting to die. If you don’t quit, you’ve still got something to do.

Why?

Oh! Listen, when I was a kid, my mother sent me a book, when I was in college. The name of the book was White Hyacinths. This book was a book of homespun philosophy by a guy who lived around 1900. The book began by saying, "If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one of them to buy White Hyacinths to feed my soul." And from that, of course I understood that there was a spiritual component to life, and that you had to feed it. The end of that book is this: "And the reward which life holds out for work is not ease or rest or immunity from work, but increased capacity, greater difficulty, and more work!" I was thinking, "Jeez, I hope not!"

"Oh, I hope not!" I thought. OK, so, I said to myself when I realized that the reward you get for work is more work, I said, "Not me!" And then I became an actor, and realized that a work day is one of the great things that an actor has to look forward to. You look for work, it’s hard to get. But -- several times a day, while you’re working, somebody asks you to come to the set, and you hear "Action," and you get a chance to swing for the fences. There are very few opportunities in life to do at peak, your peak work. Acting is one of them.

Oh, it’s great work! If you can get it! So, the idea of work, man, it’s one of the great things, and an actor knows it.

Um, not usually, except if it’s 4:00 in the morning. But, you know what? As soon as you get that fast shower, and you’re out on the road and driving toward wherever it is you’ve got to shoot that early in the morning. Boy, oh, boy. You know why you’re there. And you keep slugging it until the day’s over, sometimes it’s 14-16 hours.

Sounds like an actor’s career!

You know, you can put yourself in that place, but you do it as gracefully as you can. You keep on looking for whatever roles you may be right for. Maybe you’re not right for the leading man anymore, but whatever there is available. You put yourself out there, and see whether you can’t nab it and deliver a good job, and then move onto the next thing, if there’s going to be a next thing. I say never quit, that’s step 3. You’ve still got a shot at winning it if you never quit, and even if you never win that big thing, you’re making the best out of the life you’ve got. Why quit until the end? Why quit before the end?

How old are you, Mr. Forster?

61.

62.

I’m kidding!

I don’t know, listen -- how does a 61-year-old guy feel? This is it, you know. I can feel myself getting creepier.

She was great.

Ahhh! I forgot she was on that show, I never see it!

I worked with Joanna Cassidy many years ago.

Bess Armstrong is great! She was younger than me... She was a lot younger...she was a young babe!

Well, you know, it sort of depends on what the story is I’m sure. There certainly was -- I still hope to work with Sophia Loren!

It’s what I thought most of, growing up!

Hot stuff!

And still yet! Some people just never lose it. And it’s a delight, still operating.

The next thing I will do, unless I happen to slide something in before it, will be in about a month, when I will do a third episode of Fast Lane. Fast Lane is, well, as you know, Peter Facinelli, it’s a FOX show, with Bill Bellamy. It’s a slick cop show, and I play Peter’s father in a episode called...oh, I forget what it’s called. I had a great part in it, and then they asked me to come back and do a second one, and now they’ve asked me to be a third one, so.

You lucky guy, you! Well, there was a reason we called Crunch a high school football comedy. Then it was re-titled the Kinky Coaches. So, it’s hard to tell. It didn’t change the movie. It wasn’t much of a movie, but it was a high school football comedy. The title, probably, is better than the picture.

Jonathan W. Hickman