Steve Guttenberg’s Hollywood Bible
Steve Guttenberg became a movie star with huge box office hits starting with the “Police Academy” series, and soon after with “Cocoon”, “Three Men and a Baby”, “Short Circuit” and a number of sequels. He recently stopped by the SiriusXM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about his career, handling success in Hollywood, and his new book, The Guttenberg Bible. Excerpts of the interview appear below.
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Ron Bennington: You’re one of the few people who has had 3 successful film franchises.
Steve Guttenberg: Well, yeah. And actually it’s becoming much more popular now. You got “Iron Man” now. And then you got “The Hunger Games”. There’s going to be a bunch of them. And we’re going to have a bunch of “Avengers”. And you got Johnny doing “Pirates of the Caribbean”.
Ron Bennington: Oh yeah, just staying with that. You were very early on in that though with the “Police Academy” films.
Steve Guttenberg: Yeah. I was one of the first guys to start doing them, but Harrison Ford of course is doing them. And of course, the great Sean Connery. But at a point, I remember when I was doing Part Number 4, people were making fun of me that I’m doing all these sequels. I go “Well, why can they do all these “James Bond” sequels and I can’t do “Police Academy” sequels?” I mean what’s the big deal? What’s the stigma?
Ron Bennington: The stuff in your book, I think that is so great. Just how crazy you were as a kid of “I am going for this.” I am not taking no for an answer, crashing on couches, showing up places. And I guess that’s everybody’s dream, but most people run out of stamina, I think early on as that’s happening. They get crushed by Hollywood.
Steve Guttenberg: Yeah, well the streets are littered with dead bodies. And if you think about Belushi and Joplin and you just go through the list, Chris Farley.
Ron Bennington: What was the drive for you? What was the drive as a kid?
Steve Guttenberg: I just believed in myself. And I thought I had a voice. I had something to say. And I really wanted to do what people said I couldn’t do. I mean everybody said “Your name is Steven Gut-enberg. You know you’re this Jew boy from Long Island and you’re not classically good looking and you’re not 6’4″ and you aren’t a cowboy and how are you going to be a movie star?” And I thought to myself well I’ll show you. And I was lucky enough to succeed. A lot of people didn’t. And I don’t think I’m anything special. I just think that I’ve always had a great determination to get some things done.
Ron Bennington: You and so many great young entertainers in “Diner” at the same time. Which is one of those films that at the time, not a huge hit, but it is a classic. It’s one that people look out on.
Steve Guttenberg: Actually “Diner” was named by Vanity Fair the most influential movie in the last 30 years. I think because of the writing. Hopefully the acting too.
Ron Bennington: The acting was terrific, but you know what was great about that film? The casting was so dead on.
Steve Guttenberg: Casting is the whole game. It’s the whole game. A great director hires the right guys and just let’s them do their thing. The whole game is casting. If you ask Woody Allen. The whole game is casting. It’s the game.
Ron Bennington: At what point did you think okay, I’ve got it? I’m in. I’m part of this machine.
Steve Guttenberg: Oh, I still know I’m not.
Ron Bennington: Really?
Steve Guttenberg: None of us are in the machine. It’s all an illusion. Both success and failure are both illusions. There’s a club that you’re in, but it’s a capricious club. And you have to be very very aware that Bobby Sherman works as an ambulance driver. That’s just the way it is. And the streets are littered with these guys who had a little fame and are gone. So you have to understand there is no Warner Bros. or Paramount family. There is no SiriusXM family. There just isn’t. You know if you don’t produce, you’re out of the family. Whereas in your family, if you don’t produce, you’re still in the family.
Ron Bennington: Were there actors that you were competitive with? Like you know that you’re all going to be up for same roles all the time?
Steve Guttenberg: Yeah, all the time. You still are. You’re still competing at different levels and then somebody wins the derby and then pops up and they’re the big star. And for a little there, they get all the offers and you are the second, third guy on the list.
Ron Bennington: Did you ever take it personal or did you always have this amount of where you could take a step back?
Steve Guttenberg: Yeah. I don’t take any of this personal.
Ron Bennington: None of its personal.
Steve Guttenberg: No, no, no. Because also it’s not my everything. I don’t give a shit. I like to win, but this isn’t real. This isn’t like being a doctor or a soldier or a policeman. This is movies. This is being an actor. You have to realize it’s not real. What’s real is doing stage at the Guthrie in Minneapolis, that’s real. Or doing something here in New York at the Classic Stage Company or doing Shakespeare in the Park, that’s real. But “Transformers” or “Police Academy”, commercial pictures, that’s not real.
Ron Bennington: Was there a time that it started to burn on you though? Where you’re like this is…
Steve Guttenberg: Oh, I wanted to quit show business 5 times a day. Absolutely. I mean it’s a business of sociopaths. You’re allowed to do in show business what you’re not allowed to do at IBM. I mean very few guys can bring a dog into the office and that’s like the smallest part of it. I remember there was a really famous agent who use to drive a motorcycle and wear leather all day. And what other job can you do that?
Ron Bennington: As long as the money’s coming in, you can get away with anything.
Steve Guttenberg: You can be a murderer. In show business you can be a murderer and there are of course, murderers in show business, as long as you bring in the money, it doesn’t matter. You could be the worst human being in the world as long as you’re a rainmaker.
Ron Bennington: One of the things that you did when you were a movie star is hook up with two TV stars to make a movie when you did “Three Men and a Baby”.
Steve Guttenberg: Well, I am actually still a movie star. Once you’re in the club, you’re always in the club. You know whether you’re working or not, whether you’re making hit movies or not, you’re always still in.
Ron Bennington: But when you were doing this with two TV stars, when you did “Three Men and a Baby”, it used to be the movie star was way above the TV star, but by the time you’re doing this and it’s Sam from “Cheers” and “Magnum”, those guys were gigantic stars and not everybody thought that this movie was going to make a lot of money.
Steve Guttenberg: Well yeah, one of my agents said “You don’t want to do a movie with television stars. I mean they’re 2nd class citizens” and I thought uh-uh, no way, that’s Tom Selleck, that’s Ted Danson. These are talented, super talented actors. And Ted was in “The Onion Field” and Tom’s done a lot of great work and you can’t count these guys out. I just thought the story too was going to be great.
Ron Bennington: What is that like though that people think they know who Steve Guttenberg is?
Steve Guttenberg: Sure, but that’s the great game of being in television or in movies. People think they know you, but that’s the greatest compliment. Because if they think they don’t know you then maybe you’re not really doing your job. You have to be believable. There are some people who really do think I’m a cop. And I was in a goofy movie that happened to be very popular. But that’s the great compliment to doing your job. It’s like playing a doctor and someone says “You’re a doctor, aren’t you?” And you go, no, I’m an actor. I mean reality television, you watch reality television today, that’s not real. That’s basically all scripted. But when you see Snooki, you really do believe that most of that stuff is real, but most of that stuff is not real. Because they set these situations up. I mean it has to be. It has to be unreal. Once you put a camera in somebody’s face, I say that’s where the entertainment starts. Because if we’re just talking, we’re talking. A camera starts and you sit a little different, you look a little different, your hair’s a little different, you start using different language, that’s the whole game.
Ron Bennington: Suddenly everybody becomes somewhat self-conscious, but you can stay, I mean one of the things about you is that you seem natural here as we’re just talking and then you’re also natural on film.
Steve Guttenberg: Yeah, that’s the trick.
Ron Bennington: But you’re faking that.
Steve Guttenberg: Well of course you have to fake it. Because I’m talking. If we were at lunch, you’d be different because I don’t need to entertaining. But you know you’re being listened to and people are going to comment on your performance, no matter how real it is. Newsmen are actors. Whoever is your favorite anchorperson, they’re acting. They’re not real. I mean Walter Cronkite, he was acting. Of course he was acting. He’s on camera. Anytime you’re on camera or on a mic, you have to act.
Ron Bennington: And really, now that we’re such a service related business, most of us are acting in our jobs. You go into a Starbuck’s, no one really, that person doesn’t really care if you’re happy with everything. That’s a small performance that we all do.
Steve Guttenberg: And the same with Abercrombie and Fitch which is the opposite, in which they’re instructed to be really aloof and disinterested. And that’s the cool people you want to hang out with.
Ron Bennington: The store that they have here on 5th Avenue, they don’t let people into. People have to line up out front even though this massive store could probably take 10,000 people.
Steve Guttenberg: Right. To buy a t-shirt.
Ron Bennington: Yeah, right, but let’s keep a 100 people standing out front because it’s makes them feel like something great is happening inside.
Steve Guttenberg: That’s exactly right. You have to create the illusion of unavailability. That is the great trick. The illusion of unavailability. You’ll never get in. You’ll never talk to him. Meanwhile the guy’s sitting alone doing nothing, there’s nobody in the store. But you want to create that desire.
Ron Bennington: When you wrote this book “The Guttenberg Bible”, who were you writing it for? When you’re writing these stories and telling these stories, you looking at young actors or are you looking at your fans? Who are you thinking about with this?
Steve Guttenberg: I think I was thinking about some bubbala sitting in a chair with glasses on, one of those La-Z Boys and sort of, she kicked back, open it up and just laughing. Maybe it was my grandmother. Somebody who is deep and real and likes a good laugh and isn’t looking for a memoir that is about child molestation or drugs or alcohol or rehab. And so many of these memoirs are all about, you know these fuck ups you do in your life. And I think to myself why would you want anyone to know that you were molested as a kid? I mean why would you want the guy in Ohio who doesn’t know you to know this? I understand going to a psychiatrist and getting therapy for it and I can see a couple of these memoirs maybe helping people, but I don’t think that telling us a show business story is a place..or there’s a great baseball player that I’m a big fan of and he just did a memoir in which he talked about problems in his childhood. I don’t know why you want to do that.
Ron Bennington: And I think if I was a kid and getting into this business, I think this book would be fun.
Steve Guttenberg: I do think for young actors, it’s a great thing to read because I think it will give some inspiration and also show you there are no rules. When you’re an artist and you want to paint the side of a building or you want to paint a fingernail, you want to paint a piece of rice, you paint.
Ron Bennington: Just keep moving. “The Guttenberg Bible”, thanks so much for stopping by Steve. I’ll see you next time through.
Steve Guttenberg: Absolutely. Thank you.
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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio. Not yet a subscriber? Click here for a free trial subscription.
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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.
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Follow Steve on twitter at @stguttenberg and check out the new book, The Guttenberg Bible.
