Charles Grodin

Charles Grodin here. If you don't know who I am you probably didn't go to the movies much between 1970 and 1993. I had a good run, but I'm back and I'm going to get my carreer going again thanks to the World Wide Web and Myspace and Friendster....Anywho, more about me:A student of Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen, I made my Broadway debut in 1962 and debuted on film two years later in Sex and the Single Girl (1964). I was screen-tested for the lead in The Graduate (1967) but turned it down! I won small supporting roles in Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Catch-22 (1970, as the navigator Aardvark), but got my breakthrough role in The Heartbreak Kid (1972). I then followed with an odd mix of projects: King Kong (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978, stealing most of my scenes), Sunburn (1979), and Albert Brooks' first feature Real Life (1979, as the put-upon patriarch of a family under a documentarian's observation).Then came the 1980's....Oh sure. I'm no stranger to devestation and indulgence. Just like my peers on SNL, I dabbled in drugs (note: I was never actually "a part" of SNL, but I was in that age group, just a little older by 10 or 12 years). Spent my days high and dry, messed up on cokeballs and speednips, marijuana joints, and even a little "hustle n'flow". But the most devestating of all was my short sweet trip to being type-casted. Just like Jeffrey Jones and Brian Doyle Murray.In 1982 there was a gem of a flick, an adaptation of Neil Simon play, "Seems Like Old Times." Oh sure, I butted heads on an hourly basis with the supporting lead (portrayed by the "comedian" Chevy Chase). The thing is, Chevy always THOUGHT he was funny. But I KNEW I was funny. If only there hadn't been that damn dog. That bloody Saint Bernard.You know the rest, Midnight Run, Beethoven (1&2), and some bullshit cameos like So I Married and Axe Murderer (Mike Myers is a douche bag).THINGS LOOK UP NOW THOUGH, MY DEAR DEAR GRODERS. Just got a new flick coming out. "The Fast Track" directed by a fellow named Jesse Peretz (I had never heard of him either, which made me skeptical...but he's good. Damn good. He's Dutch. I like the Dutch). What we're talking about here is Zach Braff from The Garden States, Woody Allen famed Mia Farrow (not as bitter as she deserves to be, by the way), and some others. Yeah, it's a supporting role, but that's because Hollywood doesn't like acknowledging age. That's why Mia Farrow has had so many face lifts and stretches I hardly recognized her. We used to hang at the same joint in British Columbia in the 60s...Way before Lennon was shot.If you check out the latest issue of "Film Comment" there's a page spread I wrote about working with directors. They chose a still from Beethoven, of course. But, c'est la vie!