F. Murray Abraham, age 74, is so hot right now. The seemingly indefatigable character actor is enjoying the kind of late-career ubiquity that a performer of any age would envy. Not only is he co-starring in the hit series Homeland alongside Mandy Patinkin, but he also filled a pivotal part in the latest Coen brothers' film, Inside Llewyn Davis, and he's got a starring role in the marvelous new Wes Anderson opus, Grand Budapest Hotel. But of course that's not enough for Abraham, who apparently really likes to work. During his downtime before Homeland picks up again, he can be found singing and dancing live onstage in Chelsea, where he co-stars in a satisfying new revival of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's musical The Threepenny Opera. We recently caught up with Abraham to talk about the production—which continues through May 11th—as well as his experiences with Anderson, and his hilarious triple cameos on Louis C.K.'s series Louie.
You're everywhere these days! It's nice to be busy, there's nothing like it. This whole thing that actors have been going through their whole careers, which is constantly looking for work, it's one of those things. I'm one of the lucky ones; I've always worked, maybe not high profile, but I'm always busy. If it's not here it's in Europe, it's something recording. But the point is, in most of the country these days, lots of highly qualified people are experiencing the same thing so many actors have gone through and continue to go through in their lives. They can't find work.
It's a disaster. And I was thinking that it's possible that for therapeutic purposes, we should get actors who have done this for a while to conduct classes in how to cope with not working. Did you read that article today, about that highly qualified person who had degrees, he was out of Chicago he was working in Boston, he hadn't worked for a year, and he really has amazing qualifications and he's one of millions. I'm talking a lot about this because it's so on my mind that we can't get this country working, I just can't accept it.
I hear you. It's very disheartening and frustrating and it makes a production like Threepenny Opera all the more relevant. Absolutely, especially this war that the country seems to have forgotten about, that continues.
So I take it the politics of the play resonate with you. Oh, they're very important to me. It's a pleasure to do a piece of work that you believe so strongly in, but you know, you try to find material like that. But you don't find breadth like that very often and it's not easy to do, it's pretty complicated.
(Kevin Thomas Garcia)
Yeah, I've seen some bad productions. I liked this one. Oh, I hope you saw it when it was together; it's gone through several permutations.
Oh really? I saw it early on, the only thing was that I wanted it to be louder. That's what happened, it was cranked up. Yeah, you were spot on. But if you saw it now you would see quite a different show. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I'll come see it again, I love it. Oh good! I did Brecht for the first time a couple of years ago—Galileo—and that's when I discovered how much I liked him. He's not easy, but I really liked it a lot. And I've known Martha [Clarke, director] for years and we've always talked about doing something. She's my neighbor; she's a couple of blocks from here, so when she asked, "You wanna do this?" and I said "Yeah!" We're doing this just before Homeland so it works out perfectly.
She's something of an unconventional theater director. How does her approach differ from other directors you work with? Well, like we used to work in the '60s, she'll just let you walk around and discover it. It's unfortunate we didn't have four or five months, you know that's what her work needs. She tries to speak through movement. And this play is highly literate, so it was an interesting process, trying to match this man's complicated language to a simple movement that expressed what it is that the words were saying.
I don't want to make it more complex than it is. It was just hard to adapt to a choreographer because it's a different way of speaking if you're not a dancer. And the fact is that if you know her work, you're willing to do any damn thing she wants because she's a genius. There aren't many around you know.
What was it that really clicked for you in your process of discovering the role [Mr. Peachum]? He's a survivor. I took a look again at Deadwood; there are characters in there that Brecht would really understand. I just figured [Peachum] has become the King of the Beggars and really tough. In that sense, all I did was call up the miserable, stinky producers I've worked for. [Laughs] And it was pretty easy after that. They really can be nasty, and one or two directors, too. And who knows what they're saying about me, too, so we're even, but I'm a nice man, I really am. But some of those people, I think, enjoy making life miserable for the actor.
The problem of course is to gamble on not being liked by the audience; that's an actor's problem. If you're going to go forward and trust that they'll understand where you're coming from, and I think they do, I think they realize people are living this way out of necessity as is happening, in so many parts of the world. But, it's sink or swim, and this man I'm playing is a survivor. That doesn't excuse his actions, but in that world you gotta be tough, it's either that or you get shot down, and it's that simple.
(Kevin Thomas Garcia)
Brecht really gets at the brutality of capitalism in this unflinching way. The Army Song: it's not just a bunch of guys sitting around drunk and singing, it's an indictment of the war machine.
Exactly, the lyrics are very dark. I was actually in The Threepenny Opera in high school... Really! Well, that was a good high school you went to, man. I'm so glad that you did it. That's remarkable, high school, my God. That's great! What a thing to carry with you all these years.
It had a big impact on me, and I had a great teacher, Jim Ellington, who wanted to stage it, and it was an incredible experience. Anyway, I wanted to ask you about Grand Budapest Hotel too. Oh, Wes [Anderson] came last night. He loved it, but he had never seen it. He knew the music but he had never seen it, and he and his girlfriend rhapsodized but, boy, that's a guy you gotta meet. Really, I gotta say it's been a real nice run for me working with people I love. You can't toss that word around too lightly; people will think you're full of shit but, you know the book The Little Prince?
Yes. Wes Anderson is the Little Prince grown up. I swear. [Laughs] Anyway, it's a pleasure.
How did you get hooked up with him? I don't know, it's just one of those lucky things. Life is full of fortune and mine was very good when I met him, it's one of those things. I don't know how to explain it.
And how was the production? It was great. Like I said, he's probably one of the best I ever worked with ever. The thing that he shares with the Coen brothers, for example, is that the set is comfortable. There's one boss—with the Coen brothers it's two guys with one mind. But everyone on that set is aware that the buck stops here. [Anderson] knows what he wants and how he's gonna get it, and you completely trust him, and it's a very comfortable situation because you know finally, also, that you trust that it's going to be good. And that's not that common.
In a case like working for this guy, if it doesn't work out, it's still been a remarkable film experience. He basically has the same crew around him, which is what the Coen brothers do, and he has people that trust him and like him that give him what he wants and they know what his eye is looking for. So you're accepted into the family; it is a family feeling, which is kind of what this experience is like for me too with Threepenny Opera. Everyone in the company really likes each other. When the show comes down we stay up in the dressing room and hang out, I mean that's very rare.
It's also rare to see such a large cast these days. Especially with a small off-Broadway show in a small theater.
I heard that with Grand Budapest everyone would have dinner together or something like that. It's really odd to say these things because it sounds like press stuff, public relations, but it ain't. It's legit, I mean I don't know where you heard this, but what you heard was the truth. It was neat, it was swell. And I was there from the beginning, you know, and I should factor that in. Usually the crush starts to happen at the end of a shoot when you've been together for a long time.
I know that at the beginning it was heaven, and there was three or four feet of snow—this was in Görlitz, Germany, about four blocks from the Polish border—so we had to cross the river and have a Polish meal. It was just a fairy tale book city by the way, a tourist destination for German tourists in Germany. It's hundreds of years old and they kept it in pristine, old condition. Kind of a medieval Disneyland, but legit, it's all functioning. And it's quite beautiful, and elegant, with very good restaurants. So it was just fine. I'm sorry that it was just two weeks or three weeks; i would have liked to stay longer.
Did Wes give much direction? Oh no. Do you have a certain set of rules that you look for in an editor?
Rules? I don't know. I try to get a sense of what the person's taste is. Because the good directors, one of the elements that distinguishes a good director as far as I'm concerned is few words. And what that indicates is they know what they want, and they can be fairly precise and get too verbose and you kind of lose your way in the verbiage and the talk. It becomes more about the director than finding the truth in the character or the scene. And he's just very quiet and very simple, and he knows so clearly what he wants that you tend to just simply trust him.
That's hard to find, a director you trust, because if you don't trust the director—and you find out pretty quickly if you can't trust them, if they're full of shit—is that you begin to direct yourself. You're not acting, you're kind of looking at yourself as you're acting. It's acceptable, but it's really not why you do it, you would really like to find something real and exciting and original and blah blah blah but, that's what he encourages.
Can you recall anything specific that he said to you in that regard? No, they're just simple little..."Easier over here, just a little easier over here. Do it a little more off-hand." Oh, or things like "Quicker." That's an interesting observation, by the way. "Quicker." Because what that does [laughs] is that it forces you to think less about yourself and more about the rhythm of the language, and it kind of puts you in another direction all by yourself. It's kind of what tapping into your own instinct is about. That's a good trick. You know the voiceover stuff we did in Görlitz, we did it in probably an hour and a half, because I was very prepared, and the direction was that quiet and that simple. And we got in, we did it, and it's very voiceover, and it's hard to believe we did it as quickly as we did. Of course, the words are good too.
Yeah, I've been an admirer of his since Bottle Rocket came out. Oh boy, wasn't that good.
It's so funny. And speaking of funny! It's been great seeing you show up on Louie too. Twice and you're playing different characters. Yeah, I just did a third one and I'm playing a different character. This time I play his father.
Wait, weren't you his uncle before? Yeah. [Laughs] Do you know him?
Not personally. Wait 'til you meet him, he is really something. He's a treat. Yeah, we get along really well. I think that the first time we worked together he was surprised to learn that I speak Spanish. He speaks Spanish and he picked up that I have a bit of a Texas accent. And that's the first time anyone has ever spotted that. I'm from Texas, and I said, "That's the first anyone has ever heard that." That's a remarkable ear, by the way. Anyway, we began kind of a friendship, and it was a good segment. And then when I did the other one, the uncle, that was a treat. We really had some laughs. What a character.
Do you have any idea why he wants you to keep coming back to portray somebody different. I don't know. Like I said, it's luck. I think I'm the only one he does that with, but as far as I'm concerned it's nothing but good fortune. My good fortune, and I'm very grateful for it.
