Interview with Actor Robert Carradine

Actor Robert Carradine comes from an amazing family of actors. His father, John, was a star during Hollywood’s Golden Age, appearing in such films as The Grapes of Wrath, The Ten Commandments and Around the World in 80 Days. He also appeared in several westerns alongside John Wayne: Stagecoach, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and what would be Wayne’s last film, The Shootist. His brother, David, is probably best remembered for his starring role in the television series “Kung Fu,” while another brother, Keith, won on Oscar for Best Original Song for his song “I’m Easy” from the film Nashville and went on to star on Broadway in “The Will Rogers Follies.”

Mr. Carradine earned praise for his powerful portrayal of doomed soldier Bill Munson in the Oscar winning film Coming Home. He is probably best known for his role as Lewis Skolnick in the 1984 comedy Revenge of the Nerds and it’s sequels, as well as Sam McGuire, the father of the title character on the television series “Lizzy McGuire.”

His other films include Mean Streets, Joyride, The Big Red One, The Long Riders, and Django Unchained. He also hosts his own Podcast, called “Party Nerds Popcast.”

On Friday, October 24^th, Mr. Carradine will be appearing in Omaha, Nebraska at the Omaha Community Playhouse for a special screening of his first feature film, The Cowboys. He kindly took some time out this week to talk to MediaMikes about his career.

Mike Smith: Acting certainly runs in your family. Did your father encourage you and your brothers to pursue the craft?

Robert Carradine: Not directly. I do remember that he did say if we had an interest in pursuing acting that we needed to get a literary education.

MS: Your father was such a great speaker. A true orator. Such an amazing gravitas. Was that acting or did he always speak like that?

RC: That’s how he spoke all the time. He took a great deal of pride in his diction and his vocabulary. He did have gravitas when he spoke.

MS: The first film I saw you in was Joyride, which starred a second generation of Hollywood talent (NOTE: besides Mr. Carradine, the film starred Desi Arnaz, Jr, Melanie Griffith (daughter of Tippi Hedren) and Anne Lockhart (daughter of June Lockhart). Was the casting intentional?

RC: That was totally planned. They wanted that so they could use it in their advertising.

MS: You’re appearing this week in Omaha for a special screening of The Cowboys. Any good John Wayne stories?

RC: The one story that gets people is when I was on location. It was about the fourth day of a ten week shoot. I’m seventeen-years old and we’re shooting a scene where each one of the cowboys has to ride a bucking bronco. After the fourth kid tries, A. Martinez, the actor that played Cimaron, rides into the ring, jumps on the bucking horse, rides all the rough off of her and makes her back up. He basically breaks the horse. He rides the horse up to the fence where we’re all sitting, hands the reigns to the next kid and says, “here boy…maybe you can ride her now.” The kid jumps off the fence to fight Cimaron, and I jump off the fence to protect the kid, because he’s a little kid. John Wayne breaks it up and he pulls me away from the fight. He says, “you. Get back on that fence where you belong.” He’s then supposed to curse Cimaron. But before he can say his line, I say, “excuse me, Mr. Wayne. I don’t think you should tell me to get back on the fence where I belong. I think you should just tell me to get back on the fence. Because I’m the head kid.”

That did not go over well!

MS: Wayne and your dad both starred in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Did he know who you were?

RC: Oh yeah. He definitely knew the name.

MS: You later went on to star in “The Cowboys” television series and, later, “Lizzy McGuire.” Do you enjoy doing television?

RC: I love doing it. The thing that’s great about television is that you tend to not get behind. Things run on time. When you get a call sheet with the day’s work on it you can pretty much count on the fact that you’re going to get to everything. There’s a certain comfort in knowing that the work’s going to get done.

With brothers Keith and David in “The Long Riders”

MS: Here’s a Long Riders question that I asked James Keach. What was it like working with your brothers? And were you competitive with the other groups of brothers? (NOTE: Walter Hill’s 1980 Western The Long Riders co-starred Mr. Carradine and his brothers, David and Keith, as well as Stacy and James Keach, Dennis and Randy Quaid and Christopher and Nicholas Guest)

RC: There was a joking competitiveness. One of the things that became quite competitive was seeing who could get out in front of the hotel first in the morning when we had to get picked up. It got to the point where people began showing up fifteen-minutes early. (laughs)

As Lewis Skolnick in “Reenge of the Nerds”

MS: Time for the obligatory Revenge of the Nerds question. Did you have a sense while filming that the film would have the success that it did?

RC: No. But I do remember that we had an incredible time making the film. It was a lot of fun. And I think that the camera records how you actually feel and, the fact that we were on fire, for lack of a better phrase, the camera recorded that. That was one of the things that made that film work on a massive level.

MS: You’ve worked with some amazing filmmakers, among them Hal Ashby, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. You’ve also directed for television. Any thoughts of tackling a feature film from behind the camera?

RC: I have two feature films currently on the back burner at the moment because, as I’m sure you can imagine, it’s terribly difficult to raise the funds to make a feature film. But we have people that do that who are currently working on raising funds and we’ll see if that comes to fruition.

MS: You’ve sung in a few films. Any thoughts of taking a shot at musical theatre like Keith did?

RC: It’s funny you should ask. I had the opportunity to do some musical theater where I would have had to dance. I would have had to sing. I’m not really a singer, and there was a lot of dialogue. I took a long look at it. Initially I said “yes” but as I started to get into it I realized I was in over my head, so I had to back out.