From: mike.dickson@almac.co.uk (Mike Dickson)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.prisoner
Subject: MCGOOHAN INTERVIEW    7/9
Date: 23 Jan 93 18:27:00 GMT
Reply-To: mike.dickson@almac.co.uk (Mike Dickson)
Organization: Almac BBS Ltd. +44 (0)324 665371

>>> Continued from previous message

 McGoohan: Well, that was very interesting that one...(which was
           probably my favourite earlier on, Warner. That was probably
           it.) That was one that was written in the 36 hour period.
           And Leo McKern, who was a very good friend of mine and a
           very fine actor I think, came in on short notice to do it,
           and it was mainly a two hander. The brainwashing thing, he
           was trying to brainwash me and in the end No. 6 turns the
           tables. And the dialogue was very peculiar because all it
           consisted of was mainly "Six, Six, Six," and five pages of
           that at one time. And Leo, one lunchtime, went up to his
           dressing room and I went to see the rushes and I knew he was
           tired. I went up to the dressing room to tell him how good I
           thought he'd been in the rushes. And he was curled up in the
           fetus position on his couch there, and he says, "Go away! Go
           away you bastard! I don't want to see you again." I said,
           "What are you talking about?" He says, "I've just ordered
           two doctors," he says, "and they're comin' over as soon as
           they can." He says, "Go away." And he had. He'd ordered two
           doctors and they come over that afternoon and he didn't work
           for 3 days. He's gone! He'd cracked, which was very
           interesting. He'd truly cracked. And so I had to use a
           double, the back of a guy's head for a lot and eventually
           Leo did come back and we completed them and also he was in
           the final episode, so he forgave me for everything, but he
           did crack, very interesting, I thought....

 Troyer: Much as he cracked in that final episode.

 McGoohan: Same, exactly the same.

 Troyer: I was wondering about how much intensity there was in that. I
           know that acting is always an enormously intense experience
           but in that head-on two hander where there was so much
           dynamic pressure. Obviously, it was real.

 McGoohan: It was 8 days shooting and for most of those 8 days we were
           head to head on from 8 o'clock in the morning 'til 6:30 at
           night with an hour for lunch. So, it was pretty intense. It
           was psychiatrist couch time, sort of thing.

 Troyer: Were you a different person when you came out the other end of
           that series?

 McGoohan: Tired, that's all.

 Troyer: Beyond that?

 McGoohan: No, no....

 Troyer: It wasn't purely psychoanalysis?

 McGoohan: No, no, I never let any part that I play sort of take over.
           I think that that's nonsense when that happens. I think you
           should be able to go in and do it, learn your lines and do
           it. Some are more fatiguing that others, some are more
           emotionally exhausting than others. I mean, you can't play
           Hamlet without being drained or King Lear without being
           drained but to say that you lived through the day playing
           Lear or playing Hamlet before you go out the next night and
           go on to the stage, I think that's ludicrous.

 Troyer: What about the notions that some actors, some people in other
           creative endeavors have, that we all have a finite bank of
           energy that each time one brings some of it up there's a
           little less left for next time, or for the other end of the
           road.

 McGoohan: I think that the contrary is true. When one looks at people
           such as Arthur Rubenstein, people with tremendous talents
           and they are young men. They're young men at 75, they're
           young, 80 they're young! Their vitality, in fact, increases.
           Their energy increases. It just happens, I mean the force.
           The adrenalin increases. It just happens that the machinery
           of the body, the parts, the spare parts are wearing out a
           little bit...I think it increases and I know a lot of old
           folks who are young, young people.

 Troyer: So the creative urge is a muscle, the more we flex it, the
           stronger it gets.

 McGoohan: I think so, yeah. Yeah. It's just this stuff wears out.
           That's all.

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