Sitting down to chat with an award-winning actor

Every day mainstream magazines and nightly entertainment “news” programs tout the latest exploits of those individuals that we consider movie superstars. Coverage of these individuals is so frequent that they are known solely by their first names: Lindsay, Nicole, Britney, Brad, Angelina, Denzel, Russell, and Tom (Cruise or Hanks), to cite a few.

Because the aforementioned stars are highlighted so often, we tend to forget the thousands of lesser knowns that linger in the background as supporting actors or part of the technical/production crew.

To be honest, many a film’s success can be credited to the talent of the gifted character actor that shines in his/her respective supporting roles. The work of past actors like Thelma Ritter, Agnes Moorehead, Akim Tamiroff, George Sanders, Frank Silvera, and other character actors is legendary and many of them received acting awards and nominations for their film contributions.

Today, thespians like Brian Dennehy, Joe Morton, Jenifer Lewis, and Charles Napier, though they are not household names, are immediately recognized on screen because they are so memorable in parts, whether big or small.

Peter Coyote is one of those whose presence on stage and screen is rarely forgotten. He has appeared in over 100 film and television programs and has worked with such illustrious directors as Steven Spielberg (E.T., the Extraterrestrial), Roman Polanski (Bitter Moon), Stephen Soderberg (Erin Brockovich), and Brian De Palma (Femme Fatale).

He has also had recurring roles on such television fare as The 4400, Brothers and Sisters, The Inside, and the short-lived Commander-in-Chief with Geena Davis.

He has just finished post-production work on an installment of the popular Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

We in Camilla are fortunate that he, along with co-star Tichina Arnold of Everybody Hates Chris fame, just happens to be staying in town while filming The Lena Baker Story in Colquitt.

I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, initially at Camilla Java, our local coffee shop, and we later sat down for a friendly chat at McCree Hall, the town's bread-and-breakfast establishment, where the actor is residing while making the film.

In person the Emmy-winning actor stands a solid 6’3” and looks much younger than his threescore and six years. But, what is most impressive about him is his mellifluous voice, something that has been put to good use as the actor is much in-demand as a voiceover actor for commercials and documentaries.

However, Coyote did not actually set out to become an actor. He says, with a wry smile, “I had done sort of my best not to become an actor. I was in the black-turtleneck-Camel-cigarette-crowd in college. We were poets and writers. One day the drama teacher, who was this great Irish rogue, slipped in our booth at the student union and he said, ‘Has it ever occurred to you that theater is argument of great moment that is danced before the public?’”

Coyote was urged to audition and ultimately made the school’s repertory company, doing play after play after play, and honing his craft during his four years at Grinnell College (Iowa), receiving his B.A. in English in 1964.

Moving to San Francisco, the young actor got involved in the social-consciousness movement of the 60’s. “I got involved in this radical political theater, the San Francisco Mime Troupe. That, too, was fascinating, largely due to our political radicalism. We had this show called The Minstrel Show that was really dangerous show. We were arrested six or seven times, we were closed down, and finally Harry Belafonte and Dick Gregory brought us to New York and we dazzled the East Coast.”

Like the name implies, the show featured Coyote and five other actors (two other white performers and three blacks) dressed in the traditional blackface but the writing was skewered with lines that were critical of the establishment and the status quo, quite the norm for the counterculture of the era, of which Coyote was a part.

He is proud of his 60’s work that brought about significant change in the mindset of many Americans and chronicles his efforts in his best-selling autobiography “Sleeping Where I Fall.”

The 70’s found Coyote as the Chairman of the State Arts Council of California and he brought to the job the same radicalism that he used in his theatrical and social-activism of the previous decade.

“I had a big success out of that, raised the budget from one million to twenty million, and got people to see that the arts were a problem-solving mechanism and the artists were this reservoir of creative problem solvers in the culture.”

His untiring work led to some innovative use of art as a means of making societal changes. “We had dancers teaching old people how to get healthy, artists teaching convicts skills other than literacy, artists doing signs for the national parks, and filmmakers working with high school kids about teenage pregnancies, among other activities,” the actor proudly acknowledges.

After having success with the arts council, Coyote then decided to give acting one more try, though his heart was in writing. The actor says, “I went back and did theater for two years and decided to take a stab at the movies for no more than five years...and then I got lucky!”

Coyote did numerous plays, some written specifically for him, and won accolades for his performance in Sam Shepard’s play True West.
From that acting gig, Coyote was sought out by Hollywood and, at the ripe OLD age of 38, the actor got his first Screen Actor’s Guild card...and the rest is history, with him being a busy and frequently WORKING actor.

He tells this amusing story about his start as a voiceover artist: “I got into voiceover before I got into acting. When I was trying to break in the business, I got an agent in San Francisco and I made a really funny tape of about thirteen and fourteen dialects of people talking about Peter Coyote. I sent it around to all these advertising agencies and it made them laugh.”

As a result of this little bit of self-promotion, Coyote began to get gigs that paid triple the scale amount that others received. From then, he was very much in demand as a celebrity “voice” for many products.

Though acting pays the bills, Coyote is still a writer at heart. “One of the things that I’m doing, now that I’ve gotten older, is that I’m trying to put more of an out-rigger on my career as a writer. I just sold a pilot to Fox Television, which is probably on hold due to the writer’s strike. I’ve gotten three people interested in producing scripts that I’ve written. I also directed my first film this year and I really enjoyed doing that.”

He also said – and I don’t know whether it was original or not but it brought a smile to my face –, “Theater makes you excellent, films make you famous, and television makes you rich.”

During the course of the interview, Coyote voiced strong opinions on other non-acting related topics and these were most impressive.

Like in his days of yore, he is still politically active and offers this comment about the Presidential race: “I’m supporting John Edwards because he’s the most progressive of the three elect-able candidates. I just think that he’s a guy who has decided to go for broke and not play it careful and we need some radical change in the system.”

Surprisingly, the actor is not critical about the current Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush: “He is an easy target. I’m sure that he suffers...His world is falling down around his heels. He’s being humiliated and he knows that he won’t have much of a legacy for his Presidency...and, for those reasons, I have sympathy for him.”

The actor, however, is not as forgiving for the media and the mediocrity of what goes for “reporting”: “It’s all based on the trivialization of news and the turning of news into entertainment to sell feminine hygiene products and razor blades and it’s dumbing us down as a culture.”

Coyote is also devoted to his religion and its tenets. “I’ve been a practicing Buddhist for thirty-five years and was ordained this year. I take a vow which I repeat every day to save all sentient beings. It’s a very deep and sustaining part of my life.”

When asked about his family, the married father of two adult children said, “I’m really proud of my children. Ariel, my daughter, has her PhD in psychology and my son Nick is an apprentice at Vanity Fair in New York. They both seem to have taken the best of me and left the worst behind and they’re doing O.K.”

Wife Stephanie, coincidentally, is also involved in the arts as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Commission.

During the course of our dialog, I couldn’t resist asking the actor his impressions of Camilla: “Relaxed is the first things that comes to mind. I sat out on the street and I watched folks, black folk and white folk and people seemed relaxed with each other. I didn’t see a lot of nervous behavior or deferential behavior and things moved at a nice pace...It’s a nice place to walk around.”

“Relaxed” is really how I felt as I listened to the man talk about his profession, his politics, and his years of “doing the sixties.” Coyote is indeed, a “man for all seasons” and it was indeed an honor to have the privilege of sitting down and “chewing the fat” with him.

I suppose, as Mr. Coyote might say, it was a bit of “karma” that led me to the coffee shop that afternoon for the two of us to meet and have a rewarding exchange of thought.

One never knows, does one???