Please enjoy this October 2015 interview with William Devane

Having once heard from a friend about his willingness to take any role offered to him, Devane has become something of a professional role model for me.  When the phone rings and someone asks you to give a talk, you go give the talk.  If they ask you to be on a panel you go be on the panel.  If they ask you to teach a class you go teach the class (you were going to spend those two hours doing something more useful?).  It may or may not be optimal, but for most of us, Devane's approach is an extremely good starting point.

Highlights from the interview:

• "I don’t know. I usually only read the lines that I have."
• "The only thing about that movie is that in my entire career, it’s the only time I ever missed a day of work. I had strep throat and couldn’t talk. Actually, you know, I did work, now that I think about it: I did that bicycle ride in the movie. But I was really sick..."
• On Payback:  "They were looking for a gangster Yalie, and she thought that I fit the bill. That was fun, though...good movie."
• "...the elephant got paid more than any of us."
• "[T]hat was fun, because those two guys were just winging it all the time. They were really good at it, y’know? So you had a lot of fun working with them, and there was never any pressure. It was just a lot of fun. But you might have noticed that I do very few things that aren’t a lot of fun."

(link)