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October 25, 2002: Actor Richard Harris dies at age 72
LONDON - Irish actor
Richard Harris, the roistering star of screen gems such as 'A Man Called Horse' and 'This Sporting Life' plus the more recent
Harry Potter series, died Friday night at a London hospital, his family said. He was 72. |
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| Interview by: Prairie Miller |
|  Looking more like an apparition from his latest movie Harry Potter than Richard Harris himself, the rambunctious actor seemingly floated into the room in a long
wine red cloak and dangling locks of white hair framing his animated facial expressions. But there was no doubt that I'd be
in for a highly unusual rendezvous when I caught a glimpse of his scruffy running shoes peeking out from beneath the regal
cloak.
Projecting an image that was part princely wizard and part bagman, Harris began the proceedings with an attention
getting scatological exclamation of sorts. He then got into more serious territory, such as why Harris went for Harry, despite
his own most adamant reservations.
It turned out, according to the thespian vet, to have something to do with ultimately
accepting an offer he couldn't refuse, due to a child's spell cast over him of nearly Harry Potteresque proportions. In other
words, Harris revealed himself during this interview to be not such a man's man that a little lady can't still twist the big
bloke around her finger. Harris also spouted some homespun philosophy about the pub battlefields that have come and gone in
his admittedly boisterous life.
RICHARD HARRIS: I see you're recording this, so I'll have to behave
myself. Well look, before you turn your tape recorder on, let me say this....Fuck It!
Okay, no more of that. Carry
on.
 It may be a little more difficult after that, but here goes. How do you feel about complaints
from your co-stars that they're not being paid fairly for their work in Harry Potter?
RICHARD HARRIS: Oh really? I didn't know that. Well, they paid me very well, I must tell you. I will say this. I may have to do the
whole lot of these Harry Potter movies. But I think Robbie Coltrane's agent is better than mine, because he's got a choice
to do as many of them as he wants. But I have to do the lot.
And I agreed to do them all for free. But I wanted two
and a half percent of the royalties from the merchandising. And they told me, we'll pay you any money you like, but you're
not getting any piece of the picture!
But hang on now. The thing in England is this. If you do a picture in England
with an English equity contract, your salary includes a residual buyout. And that would have nothing to do with Warner Bros.
That's the law. That's England.
I also heard they cyber-scammed you for the video
game, so you won't get any piece of that.
RICHARD HARRIS: No,
not a thing.
What made you want to do Harry Potter for free?
RICHARD HARRIS: Two and a half percent?! That's two and a half percent of the merchandising. They're anticipating 700 million in profits.
That's two and a half percent of 700 million. C'mon, quick, quick!
The money aside, what particular sorcery
lured you into the Harry Potter movie?
RICHARD HARRIS: I didn't
want to do the pictures. I never read the books, and I never will read the books. It's not my kind of reading. But the script
was super. So I said okay, I'll do it. And then came the rough part. Which was, if you do one, you've got to do them all.
So I said no to it. I turned it down.
What made you change your mind?
RICHARD HARRIS: My granddaughter. She was eleven then. And she's a Harry Potter fanatic.
She read in the papers that all the actors in the world were queuing up to do it, but that Richard Harris won't do it. Typical
Harris, they said.
Anyway, she rang me up and told me that if I didn't go and play Dumbledore in the movie, that she'd
never speak to me again. And since it meant an awful lot to her, I said okay, I'll do it. But acting is perfect, it only lasts
about ten weeks. Then I have the rest of the time to go to the pub, and have free time.
So was that a good career move, or what?
RICHARD HARRIS: I don't know. What's a good career move at my age? I mean, I'm at
the pinnacle of my decline!
Do you ever worry that your very provocative observations about
the movie world might come back to bite you on the butt?
RICHARD HARRIS: Hey,
I've done that all my life. And I'm still working. I'm still in demand, and I've done that all my life. I've said exactly
what I feel like saying. Wait a minute, what did I say that was naughty?
You know, that comment about Tom Cruise.
RICHARD HARRIS: Oh that....Okay, yeah. But I'm sorry, I don't mix in my profession
at all. My mates have got nothing to do with acting, directing, or those lovie dovies in the English theater. I don't hate
them, I just don't want to be around them. It's not my life.
I make a movie, I love to act, and I like being an actor.
But I don't like the acting profession, or the people associated with it. That's all. And they're probably very happy to be
without me in their company as well. Because I can be very rude....Now, what was your question?
It was about Tom Cruise.
 RICHARD HARRIS: Oh yes! Look here, my first movie that I did, was with James Cagney.
Now, wasn't he a huge star? Well, he came to Dublin himself. And there weren't fifty five bodyguards, and there wasn't a private
jet. He didn't have his dietitian. He didn't have his psychiatrist to motivate him. He didn't have his makeup artist or his
hairdresser. He came on his own.
On my second picture, Bob Mitchum, the same thing. My third picture, Gary Cooper,
all huge stars, same thing. What goes on now is so stupid. It's like creating importance around themselves. On the other hand,
I like a guy that a lot of people don't like here in the States. And that's Russell Crowe. A down to earth guy.
When
I was finishing up on Gladiator, Russell and I kind of hung around together. He'd come to my pubs, he'd walk in, sit down,
no fuss. He took me to his pubs, the Australia pubs in London, no fuss. That's what I like. And I hope he stays like that.
And
that's why people don't like Russell in Hollywood. He says what he feels, and he doesn't play the game. He's really from my
generation, from the O'Toole, Harris and Burton generation. You know, no bullshit.
Maybe that was a different time. Actors
would fly alone to Dublin, but you didn't have planes flying into buildings back then.
RICHARD HARRIS: Ah, listen up. Sorry. Do you actually mean to tell me that if somebody wants to kill Tom Cruise, that they would get
through fifty bodyguards? That's bullshit. And let me tell you something else. When Russell Crowe walked into my local pub
in London, there was no fuss. If he walked in with eight bodyguards, there'd be a fuss.
He would draw attention. He
would aggravate people. There'd be a rout. You're inciting it yourself. You're inciting an importance. And now these actors
who surround themselves with bodyguards, they're all mini-talented for a start. And now they all have opinions about world
politics. Give us a break! Read a script!
Speaking of scripts, somebody should make
a movie about the lot of you.
RICHARD
HARRIS: I don't think anyone would
finance it. And I wouldn't give 'em the rights. No, no. I wouldn't even write my autobiography.
Why not?
RICHARD HARRIS:
I've been offered fortunes for it, but no. You know, you've got to write about all the
women you've been with. They're all grandmothers now. But sexuality between two people is private. You don't capitalize on
it and make money out of it, just to show what a great cocksman you were. You don't do that.
I think people who do
that, I hope the money burns in their pocket. I don't need that. I wouldn't do that. And that's what they want when they ask
you to do it. They'll tell you, we want to know, give us the lot. No, no. I won't do that.
I'll tell you, I'm a great
man about my freedom. That's why I really have to suffer this Warner Bros. thing. Because I don't like authority, and I don't
like having to ask somebody's permission to do something.
That's why the only two times I've been miscast in my life,
was in my two marriages. I'm not a good husband. I hate to be told, you're late for dinner. Excuse me, you have dinner. I
may not be here. Where will you be? I have no idea. And if you're not here, I won't ask you where you are.
But you'd have some good stories to tell if you wanted to, right? Like your bedroom exploits.
RICHARD HARRIS: Ah, yes! I would have a lot of good stories to tell, but I'm not
going to tell 'em. Even now, to you.
What goes through your mind when you get
in an elevator, and MacArthur Park is playing?
RICHARD HARRIS: I
pretend I'm deaf! It was too long. Seven minutes and twenty seconds. We were the first seven minute and twenty second record.
We broke the four minute barrier. Then the Beatles came along after, with Hey Jude. They went on and on repeating 'hey Jude,'
just to beat us.
You don't seem to mind much right now, but do you care what
people will say about you when you're gone?
RICHARD HARRIS: Nope.
I couldn't care less about reputations, not at all. For a start, I won't be around!
What about those ripping yarns we hear
about you movie star guys, are they true or fabricated?
RICHARD HARRIS: No,
they're all true, I'm afraid. What surprises me is that we're still alive. We're still here to talk about it! O'Toole, I think
he's a bit younger than I am. So he's not quite seventy, and I'm seventy one. But it's a phenomenon that we're alive.
You mean after all your hard living?
RICHARD HARRIS: Oh
Christ, yeah! You could fill the Titanic with what we've drank!
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