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Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. Were you surprised that 30 or so years on, there was interest
in making a movie?
A. Yeah, especially given that we were surprised that the
television series has had the longevity that it has. It was extraordinary
over that amount of time, so eventually it became a question of
when they were going to make a movie.
Q. Looking back after 30 years, how much do you consider these
roles to have been a blessing to you?
A. There are several ways to answer that question. First of
all, what we came to be was an accident. That being said, we were
all working actors, this was an opportunity that came along, neither
David and I thought it would be a series. When it became one,
we did the best that we could do under the circumstances. And
we did what we did. You live your life and then just move on,
you know.
Antonio: You roll the dice, you know. You roll the dice
and you play the cards you get!
Paul: I think the thing that we find, all of us, is that the people
we tend to celebrate, in media, or film, or sports, or whatever,
people that given the circumstances or the situation, are able
to stay present. We all know that we did the best work we could
do when we were present, and we were fortunate that there was
this opportunity, that we had this friendship, and we managed
to hang on by our fingernails and stay present for a few years.
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Q. The original series was a drama, and this film version
is more comedic. When you first heard about this change, did you
worry that it might show a lack of respect towards your work?
A. No, you have to understand that it's 2004, not the Seventies.
The Seventies had a totally different set of sensibilities - not
only in America, but in the whole world - and that sensibility
allowed us to break ground as a cop show, and show cops in a more
sensitive, and more multi-dimensional light. It allowed us to
play on the elements of tragedy, drama, comedy, farce, and it
allowed us to explore many, many levels. This particular film
highlights their only strengths, which is their great comedic
actors, with a great chemistry and a great past together. And
I think they do a really good job, and I don't think that doing
a movie today, and trying to capture all the things we got in
the Seventies, would be possible. It would be kind of like trying
to ask yourself to recreate the Seventies, in terms of the audience's
sensibilities, and that's impossible.
I think we all have a tendency to look at it with a little bit
of nostalgia and a little bit of judgement, and say wasn't that
great, but if only they had, or if only, if only, but what it
does accomplish is that it tips its hat to what we accomplished
in the series, but it does it with a 2004 sensibility, and people
have a nice time.
Q. What did you most like about what the actors brought to
your characters?
A. Ben's energy, and he's a very good mime, and he really
captured an awful lot of the mannerisms. When I talk about my
acting, I tend to refer to it as the dance, and I thought he got
the dance.
Q. What do you think of the continuing appeal of the series?
A. David and I could only guess that it's about the friendship
and the energy that we have. When you get to do a car chase, and
then someone dying in your arms, and then turn around and do a
tribute to Charlie Chaplin, somewhere in all of that, something
that happens is a little wink with the audience, which says that
we're having fun here. And I think the audience have always chased
that.
Q. Were any of you offered the chance to get into the Torino
on the set?
David: Paul had lots of opportunities to get into the Torino
and chose not to take one.
Paul: You know, I never liked the car. I submitted to its seemingly
inescapable popularity. What can I say? The first time I saw it,
I thought it was ugly. I thought it was ridiculous that undercover
police officers would be driving around in what I called a striped
tomato.
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