4Hawk Productions and The Neboya Collective Present...
Photo by Thatcher Keats
The Austin Pendleton Project:
Where the Work Is
Where the Work Is
This intimate
portrait of Austin Pendleton - Actor, Director, Writer, and Teacher -
profiles a multi-dimensional artist who has survived the ups and downs
of the professional arts in this country over the last five decades.
Along the way he became the unrecognized soul of the American Theatre.
The film documents the colorful and dramatic life of this unappreciated
artist. It also explores the larger themes of his art and many
successes.
With comments and insights of actors, writers, directors, and artists, including Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Olympia Dukakis, Louis Zorich, Laurie Metcalf, Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal, we explore Pendleton's long and famous career. This film portrays that not only does Austin always go where the work is, but he has reinvented the work everywhere he has gone.
With comments and insights of actors, writers, directors, and artists, including Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Olympia Dukakis, Louis Zorich, Laurie Metcalf, Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal, we explore Pendleton's long and famous career. This film portrays that not only does Austin always go where the work is, but he has reinvented the work everywhere he has gone.
Interview Excerpts:
"He seems so shy for an actor, actors are always trying to get all the attention on themselves and he was very quiet and sort of observant and then on stage he just stole the stage, always. It's this sort of amazing duality in his personality."
- Natalie Portman
“Because he’s such a bright, bright, brilliant man he finds a way to reach everyone in the way in which they need to be reached... he models the desire and the appetite to be in all parts of theatre... he’s challenged me, he’s supported me, he’s enlightened me...”
- Olympia Dukakis
"His work as an actor is never grandstanding and showing off, it seems like there's an inevitability to it, an ease and there's no line between the man and his work, it's very authentic."
- Meryl Streep
"The only thing I want more than to be directed by him again, is to act with him."
- Peter Sarsgaard
"He seems so shy for an actor, actors are always trying to get all the attention on themselves and he was very quiet and sort of observant and then on stage he just stole the stage, always. It's this sort of amazing duality in his personality."
- Natalie Portman
“Because he’s such a bright, bright, brilliant man he finds a way to reach everyone in the way in which they need to be reached... he models the desire and the appetite to be in all parts of theatre... he’s challenged me, he’s supported me, he’s enlightened me...”
- Olympia Dukakis
"His work as an actor is never grandstanding and showing off, it seems like there's an inevitability to it, an ease and there's no line between the man and his work, it's very authentic."
- Meryl Streep
"The only thing I want more than to be directed by him again, is to act with him."
- Peter Sarsgaard
