“Well, I don’t know what the hell period we’re in. It’s very sad,” Peter Bogdanovich recently told us when it comes to the state of acting. “There used to be a studio system that fostered talent, and now there’s no place for those type of actors. Most actors want to be versatile like Marlon [Brando]. They don’t want to be a personality actor, mostly because they can’t because they don’t have any personality to give.”
No short of personality himself, Bogdanovich is one of the last great directors of a certain era. With friendships ranging from Orson Welles to Wes Anderson, he seems to never run out of stories about his experience in Hollywood; thanks to the release of his latest film, She’s Funny That Way, he’s given a podium to share some of them.
The director recently sat down for two extensive conversations, one with Marc Maron and the other in video form for DP/30. Spanning over two hours, he talks about being an outsider with his contemporaries, how he convinced the studio to make The Last Picture Show in black and white, an unproduced western that was looking to star John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda, and much, much more. Dive into some film history by checking out both conversations below.
What’s your favorite Peter Bogdanovich film?