“I’m thought of as an unlit firecracker,” Lithgow sums up.
“You don’t know which direction I’ll fly off in.”
And he’s blowing it."
Illustration by Anne Latini for EW
What is the catalyzing characteristic that draws Lithgow to a role?
And what binds the diverse collection of them across his half-a-century-long resume?
“And the fact that the character travels a journey.”
“It’s given me tremendous viability.
I myself am surprised by the things they will ask me to try.”
“3rd Rockpeople remember crazy moments the time I wore black leather pants too tight for me.
They like to see me do my alien salute.
We did that three times in 139 episodes.
Thought it up in three-and-a-half seconds, and then it enters everyone’s DNA for decades to come.”
Dick’s blunders did wonders for the man behind him.
“It exploded my career,” he says.
“It exploded everybody’s expectations of me.
They created a character, Dick Solomon, for me and only me.
If I hadn’t done it, they wouldn’t have done it.
People ask me to sign their hammers, including at the stage door of a Broadway show.
“And I had to swear that I wouldn’t tell anyone.
And it was just captivating.
It was like listening to the ultimate campfire story.
What about the baby?'
There was a culture of secrecy surrounding it and it was really fun.”
“It’s a slightly more sophisticated crowd,” notes Lithgow ofThe Crownsegment of his fanbase.
“They love English acting and history, and they are fascinated by royalty.
He’s also a fascinating, idiosyncratic, and occasionally comic character.
If there’s any comic relief in that first season, it was Churchill.
They love the fact that I brought my comedy chops.”
“It was a great study in an old man’s fantasy,” raves Lithgow.
“Everybody immediately invokes that.
“And the fact that it was Netflix, they were selling the crown jewels to produce it.
I just knew it was going to be a spectacular project.
As excited as I was, I was equally terrified.
But I was so excited and flattered that they would think of me for it.”
“It was a wonderful film.
And back in those days, transgender people were much more in the shadows.
[The role] disarmed people because the character was so dear, so appealing.
I remember the actressCarol Kanesaying she just felt like Roberta was the friend she wished she had.
It really meant something to people.
I got remarkable letters, and transgender people would come up to me and thank me.
It was very moving.”
It took some persuading and an in-person meeting with Williams for Lithgow to land the part, though.
So we finally did a screen test and that sold him.”
“That was another pretty bravura performance,” he notes.
“Everybody was just completely disgusted by the performance.
My niece wrote me right after seeing it; she sent me an email, ‘Just sawBombshell.
Yuck!!!’
Of course, she considered that to be a compliment… [The role] was very disturbing.
It was because it was so seedy.
It was such a perverse performance.
I mean, the story was so ugly.
[Fans] single out the searingly uncomfortable scene withMargot Robbie.
She was amazing in it.
It’s a matter of just embracing what your role is just going with it.”
Lithgow received praise from those within the news business.
(“You even breathed like him!”
was one compliment.)
But, as he is quick to explain, he was set up to succeed.
And [screenwriter] Charles Randolph, who had won an Oscar forThe Big Short.
All those extraordinary elements were in place.
Just a tremendous role, tremendous challenge.
[But] I had no doubts, no qualms about that whatsoever.”
We didn’t take it nearly as seriously, but boy, the impact that had on children.
So that’s very nice."
“And it’s almost impossible to say no to it at that point.
And that sold me in an instant.
I said, ‘Oh, I get it!’
In other words, we really, really feel for this big creature.
“That’s an older crowd who were teenyboppers 35 years ago,” he says.
Look at us, we’re dancing!
But they only remember the fact that I wouldn’t let the kids dance.”
Shaw Moore’s enlightening rippled through at least one fan’s family.
“Really sweet fellow.
And I took my daddy to the movie the next night without telling him anything about it.
I was just overwhelmed because I always thought ofFootlooseas my teenybopper movie.
It just goes to show what an impact it had on people without even knowing it.
Because he took it very seriously.
And we did too.
It was mainly because of Herbert Ross, our director.
And there was no better evidence of it than that fellow.”
“Termsof Endearmentremains about the best movie I was ever in,” he says.
“Everybody loves the film so much.
All the characters were so vivid and wonderful.
You just cared so much for these people.”
This was another role that almost eluded Lithgow.
“They just realized, ‘This is not going to work.
People have got to forgive her for having this affair.
“So they thought of me!
Turns out, they figured I was the best possible adulterer.”
“He wouldn’t let me free,” shares Lithgow.
“Terms of Endearmentwas the best script I’ve ever read.
I was dying to do it!
But I couldn’t do it.
But the good news was they were both Paramount films.
So my entire role was shot in five days.
I went from Utah to Lincoln, Nebraska right back to Utah.
And, if you see those two movies, I have exactly the same haircut!”
The fans who run up to Lithgow are decidedly passionate.
“They will quote lines I’ve long since forgotten,” he says with a chuckle.
“They will do an imitation of me, so that’s kind of weird.
‘Do you know what real love is?
‘Kill a few people, they call you a murderer.
Kill a million, and you’re a conqueror.’
Curiously, a lot of Englishmen think it’s great, and I think my English accent ishorriblein it.
But it is a thrilling film.”
“I was not that enthusiastic about it,” he admits.
But it’s kind of standard-fare action stuff.
It was so thrilling and beautiful to look at.
I’ve never done a scene like that before.
“I get jokes from flight attendants on airplanes.
All the time!”
I wish I had a nickel for every one.”
You have that Spielberg fellow to thank for sending Lithgow on this flight.
You’re not playing to the last row.’
But George nothing I did was enough for him.
And I felt, “Oh man, have you ever got the right actor for this!’
And he just kept asking for more, more, and more, in his strong Australian accent.
He said, “I want to see your face crack!”
It was like, ‘Oh boy, here we go!’
And it was very liberating.
From then on, there’s been no stopping me.”
The polarizing movie has developed a cult audience which Lithgow can identify as they approach.
“I can see the people who are going to rave aboutBuckaroo Banzaifrom across the street.
They’ll say, ‘Hey, man!’
and I’ll oblige them.
And I adore them because I honestly loved doing that movie.
When Lithgow first heard of it, he wanted no part of it.
Or, rather, in it.
“I turned it down,” he remembers.
“It was so crazy.
I didn’t know what to make of it.
But then I met with W.D.
I just loved it.”
“There is no more hateful or racist role than Earl Talbot Blake,” says Lithgow.
I guess it was just because I went all the way with that role.
And it just made it into this kind of terrifying, overheated drama.”
But it doesn’t stop me from doing theater."
But then I would say something like ‘I’m not the monster here you are!’
“People will say in broken Italian accent, “Oh!Monty Python!
So I begin to think of myself as the American John Cleese.
I take it as an enormous compliment to even put me in the same universe.”
(The pair ultimately would share the screenwhen Cleese guest-starred on3rd Rock.)
Other off-base fans want to clink metaphorical glasses of Chianti with him.
That’s doubly weird, given that Lithgow was actually next in line to play Hannibal Lecter afterAnthony Hopkins.
The confusion doesn’t end there, though.
“I frequently get Frasier,” says Lithgow.
“It was a time when I had no intention of being on a sitcom.
