NPR’s Scott Simon talk with writer-director Ed Zwick about his memoir, “Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood.”
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Ed Zwick pledges to drop a few names in his new memoir – Denzel, Matt, Brad, Julia, Leo, Bruce, Demi, Tom – Cruise and Stoppard – Daniel Craig and more – but not to depress sales. Ed Zwick says mostly nice things about most of the people with whom he’s worked making celebrated films – “Glory,” “Legends Of The Fall,” “The Last Samurai” and “Blood Diamond,” producing the Oscar-winning “Shakespeare In Love” and creating the signature television series “Thirtysomething,” “My So-Called Life” and more. Ed Zwick’s memoir – “Hits, Flops, And Other Illusions.” He joins us in our studios. Thanks so much for being with us.
ED ZWICK: Very happy to be here.
SIMON: You promised a dish, so let me get this out of the way. Could you tell us your Paul Newman story?
ZWICK: Oh, my goodness. That’s such a good one because – and no one has ever asked. I was only 27. And I had been asked to help Joanne Woodward direct an episode of television.
SIMON: Yeah.
ZWICK: And she was as lovely as you can ever imagine. But one day we were at their house working, and Paul was in the next room. He was watching race car on television.
SIMON: Yeah.
ZWICK: And at one point when Joanne had left the room, he turned to me and said, kid, do you want a beer?
SIMON: Wow, that is so moving.
ZWICK: Isn’t that something?
SIMON: It really – yeah (laughter).
ZWICK: That’s the kind of celebrity story that I tell. Pretty damn good, huh?
SIMON: What do you think made the TV shows you created – and I’m thinking, of course, like, about “Thirtysomething” – different at the time, even now, really?
ZWICK: Well, I think – if you remember that moment, everyone was a lawyer or a doctor or a cop, and the family shows were more like science fiction, as best I could tell, where everyone was just happy and lovely to each other…
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