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by Susan King |
When he was a young actor in New York in the 1950s, Martin Landau hung around with his good friend James Dean and competed for roles with the likes of Sydney Pollack and John Cassavetes.
"I would meet them in offices and waiting rooms before readings," the tall, lean actor said in Beverly Hills. During the hour-and-a-half chat, the 87-year-old Landau discussed acting with such passion it was akin to having a personal "Inside the Actors Studio" encounter.
Then there were the "British guys" as Landau jokingly described them - Canadian actors such as Christopher Plummer, John Colicos and William "Billy" Shatner. "We knew each other but not well," said Landau, a supporting actor Oscar winner for his uncanny turn as Bela Lugosi in 1994's "Ed Wood."
Whereas the American actors gravitated to the Actors Studio, the Canadian actors "came from a different tradition - Shakespearean stuff. Christopher went to London and worked there. They were much more concerned with traditional acting."
Martin Landau, left, and Christopher Plummer as in "Remember."
Sixty years after their salad days in New York, Landau and Plummer have teamed for the first time in Atom Egoyan's ("The Sweet Hereafter") thriller "Remember," which opens March 18.
Landau plays Max, a frail Holocaust survivor living in a nursing home. One day Max tells fellow resident and survivor Zev (Plummer) he has discovered that he camp commander who had killed both of their families at Auschwitz during World War II is living in North America.
Because Max is in a wheelchair, he sends Zev on a cross-country trek to find the commander and kill him. Zev, though, is suffering from dementia and must constantly call Max to keep his quest on track.
Landau first worked with Egoyan some 28 years ago on NBC's reboot of the classic anthology "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
"We hit it off wonderfully at the time," said Landau. "I hadn't heard from him in 28 years. He called me and said, 'I really want you to do this. It's a complicated character.'"
Though they don't have many scenes together, watching these two veteran Oscar winners work in concert is like a master class in acting.