Talking with Robert Forster was an interactive experience and there wasn’t a dull moment. In Part 2 of the EI interview, Mr. Forster talks about his budding career as a public speaker. He was nice enough to tell me his “Chilling Brando Story.”

Einsiders.com: Now, you’ve gotta website RobertForster.com, right? And, something about interacting?

Robert Forster: It’s been a big part of my life, lately. During the years in which I wasn’t working, we didn’t cover this, did we? I created a little speaking program, and I’ve done it respectably, and continuously for years, free. It’s sort of a motivational program, but it’s the lessons of my life, all universal lessons. Respect, responsibility to deliver excellence right now, never quit, and all the rest, and it’s a fun program! As I say, I do it free, and the way I get booked is I’ve got a web site.

I have your website up now. Why did you decide to get involved in interacting. It says “Robert Forster’s interacting.”

Well, because I had no work! And I decided that my creative life was not over with, and that I’d better pick up something to do, and a way to express myself. If you’ve got an art form, then you’ve got a way to express yourself, notwithstanding you can do so every day with everything you do. I decided, you know what? You’d better think up something to do, Bob, because you’re not getting that much work anymore. And so I created this little speaking program.

When did you create this?

I was talking to actors, first they said, “OK, Bob, open that little actor’s workshop, you always told actors to look for, the one where they work every single time because it’s not that hard.” Kids can do it. I can do it. How hard could it be? Working all the time is where you work it out. AND I said to them, “it should be cheap, because if it’s not cheap, someone’s got their hand in your pocket and will never take it out. They’ll be in that acting class forever.” So I started that actor’s workshop, and after a year, I knew that some of the things that I had said to or talking to the actors about had broader application. So, I put together a little menu, and I invited people a couple of times, and I realized I’ve got something to say!

Yeah!

I found a magazine that said “Speakers for Free” and I put myself, I took an ad in that magazine. The ad was not free, and I started getting calls. I got a call first from a Sergeant of Corrections in the jail system here in L.A., and he said, “Would you talk to some white collar criminals in a halfway house?” And I said, “Sure!” And that was my first talk, I took my little menu, which probably had about a dozen items on it at that time, and I copied it. And I drove to the place downtown, L.A., and I found the facility, and I drove past the parking lot, and I thought to myself, “OK, just go around the block once and regroup what you’re going to tell these guys.” Then I said, “Why did you decide to do this, what the hell’s wrong with you, what have you got to really say to these guys?” And then I said to myself, “Just tell them the truth, Bob. That’s all you have to do.” And I pulled into the parking spot, I passed out my menus, first guy asked me a question. One of the things at that point, I didn’t have a core material, I do it a little differently now, but I said, “Pick something on that menu you want to hear about, and the hour flew by!

I’ll bet!

The hour was gone, and I thought to myself, “OK, you do a few more of these things, you’ll probably be good at it, or reasonably good at it. If you don’t get good at it, then quit.”

Do you mind if I pick one?

Sure.

How about the “chilling Brando story.”

That’s my closer! My chilling Brando story.

There’s this program I do, I have the A-List and stuff, which is my core material. I do that first, and then I go on to take requests. This is my closer, in the core material. I’ve already told my story of John Huston's advice to me as an actor doing film-acting. I’ve told you the three-step program, how to motivate yourself, and 9 out of 10 -- and then I close with this. The same week that John Huston gave me my first lesson in screen acting, which I’ve described earlier, I met Marlon Brando. We’re in the fourth or fifth day of shooting, we’re shooting splits, that’s noon - midnight. Half days, half nights. We’re late in the afternoon, and we’re out there drilling, I’m playing a soldier, a private, so I’m doing drilling and so forth. We’re outside.

I know the movie [Reflections in a Golden Eye], he has the hots for you, right?

He does indeed. Preceded by a whisper, “Marlon’s here, here comes Marlon! Marlon’s on the set!” Everybody look. Yup, there he is, Marlon Brando. John Huston breaks the set up, he starts to walk over there, he turns back to me, and he said, “Come on over here, Bobby, I wanna introduce you to Maaaarlon.” And I walk over, and I’m introduced to Marlon, and they talk for a minute, and Marlon says to me, “What time do you break for dinna?” And I say, “Oh, I don’t know, in an hour or so.” He says, “When you break for dinna, come on over to my Winnebago. We’ll have somebody cook up some steak. We’ll have a little conversation.” Great! We break for dinner; I go over to his Winnebago. The Winnebago was set up the way they all are -- there’s the door, and right next to the door is the picture window and the two-bent seats facing each other, and out the picture window is the set, OK? I’m sitting there, facing him, and every once in a while, he looks out the window. He’s looking for something, I don’t know what. We’re talking, then he looks out again, and we’re talking.

Yeah!

Hey, why is the guy putting the heat on me, I’m thinking. The first assistant is, “Oh, listen, I’m so sorry, there weren’t enough dressing rooms. There weren’t enough Winnebagos, they’re all in New Jersey, or they’re here or they’re there. He says, but don’t worry, when we get to Rome, he’ll have a dressing room.” When we got to Rome, I had a GREAT dressing room, shower and everything. No towels.

Ha!

Because it was Italy.

Yeah.

Finally, the first assistant is dismissed. He walks away. But now Marlon’s got everybody on that set’s attention, even though they couldn’t hear exactly what went on in front of his dressing room. They can see the body language of the first assistant, and the gestures, and they all knew something happened in front of his dressing room. Now that he’s got everybody’s attention, Marlon picks out the biggest guy on the set, one of the Producers, or the Production Manager, or somebody big, he points to that guy, and he says -- Let’s call him Phil --

OK...

“Phil! Phil!” Phil comes running. “What is it, Marlon? What is it? What do you need?” “Phil, I’m very, very upset.” And he eyeballed Phil, and I watch him, and I’m thinking “What in the hell was he so upset about?” And maybe 10-12 seconds, 15 seconds, a loooooooong time...sweat is starting to form on Phil’s upper lip. Finally, the answer to the question both Phil and I asking ourselves, “What’s he so upset about?” Finally, Marlon says, “Phil, there’s too many folks around. They’re making me nervous.” “What do you mean, Marlon, what do you mean?” “Phil, I need some tranquilizers.” “What kind do you need, Marlon?” He tells him what kind. Phil is off like a shot, he’s out there. Phil gets 40 feet away, Marlon says, “Phil! Phil!” Phil comes back. “What is it, Marlon?” “Phil, there’s no music in this Winnebago. I like to soothe myself, hear some classical music, there’s no music here.” “Relax, Marlon, I’ll be right back. Relax.” He’s starting away again. He gets 30-40 feet away, Marlon says, “Phil, Phil!” Phil comes back. “What is it, Marlon?” “Something with a couple of speakers, Phil. Couple of speakers.” Phil leaves, in a half hour he’s back with a big guy carrying a big record player, new speakers, a stack of classical records, he installs it in 40 seconds, he’s out the door. Phil gives Marlon these tranquilizers; Marlon takes them. “Anything else you need, Marlon?” “No, Phil, you did great, I appreciate it very much.” “Anything you need, Marlon, don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.” “Phil, you did great, I appreciate it very much.”

And with that, he sends Phil away, closes the door, he sits back down, he watches Phil through the picture window, walk back to the other Producers who are waiting to find out whether we’re going to work tomorrow or not. Marlon watches him for a few seconds, then he turns to me and he says this: “You see, if you don’t scare them, they will never respect you.”

Now I learned three really important things. I learned that the word respect has polar opposite meanings. One end of the meaning of the word respect is a thing that people give you if you’ve got a hammer over their head. They call that respect. And then, the extreme opposite end of the meaning, of the same word, is the thing that people give you when they love you, when they want to see you succeed and get a little space to operate, and hope you do good. They call that respect. Number 2, I realized what paths were respected in Hollywood, and that’s who’s got the hammer. And number 3, I said to myself, “Man, if you ever get any of that respect, I hope it comes from the other end of the scheme. That positive end of the scheme, where at least you don’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back.”

Furthermore, and I finish my little core material by reminding my audience what I remind myself and my children. Life is short -- 50, 75 years...100 maybe. Life is an arc -- first you’re born, and you can’t take care of yourself, and then you can take care of yourself, and then for most of your life, you’re required to take care of others until the very end when you can’t take care of yourself, when you have to rely on the ones you’ve parented. You’d better do a good job, Bob. That arc of life is segmented into “now” moments, almost an infinite number of “now” moments in a lifetime. Almost that many in a day. Almost to which you could deliver excellence or not, or less, if you choose. And if you choose to deliver excellence, it points you in the direction of all the good stuff, all the good stuff is in the same direction as respect. It’s love, it’s truth, beauty, justice, respect. All those are in the same end of the scheme. And then, by delivering excellence, to any moment of any time, you’re pointing yourself in the direction where all the good stuff is. If you’re looking for a direction in life, if you happen to be one of the ones that believes in an afterlife, that there’s a positive afterlife waiting for you, if you’ve heard about the path or the path of righteousness, or the “way”...

Right.

That’s it! You just deliver your best to point yourself in that direction, and if you happen to be one of the ones that believes that inner peace is the best thing that life has to offer, well, then you know what you’re doing when you wake up in the morning. You’re using your life and your life experiences to understand with. With every opportunity, and with every action, you deliver that understanding. That’s what art is! Delivering understanding in the simplest and most direct of ways.

You’re a deep thinker, Robert.

Well, these are simple, simple, obvious truths. There isn’t anything deep about it! These are all available to all of us; they’re available all over the place. That’s why, when people ask me why I do it free, I remind them that the truth is free, it’s only the horse shit that costs so much.

Mr. Forster can be contacted for a little interaction through his website robertforster.com.

Jonathan W. Hickman