Scott Glenn’s Five Favorite Films

I just really responded to the performance of Zbigniew Cybulski. This is the story of someone who spends their young life in the sewers of Warsaw knowing nothing but war, and then carrying that life without any real reason for living other than continuing on as an urban warrior, falling in love with a bar maid, too late in your life, and essentially discovering lust and passion and maybe the love of his life — in the same day that his life catches up to him and kills him. [Director Andrzej] Wadja is one of my favorite filmmakers. I love Canal and all of the whole trilogy, but Ashes and Diamonds is a film I still think about.

I remember one time, Robert Altman asked me what I thought the greatest movie that I had ever seen was, and I said Citizen Kane. Bob correctly said “Oh bulls–t, everybody says [in mocking voice] ‘Citizen Kane, Citizen Kane.’ Do you really feel that?” And I went, “No, not really.” [laughs] He said, “Give me an honest answer,” and I said Treasure of Sierra Madre. He thought for a minute and he said, “I can’t believe you said that. That is, for my money, the most perfect film ever made.” And I said “Why?” He said it was because “There’s not one frame that I would cut from it, or one frame I would add to it.”

This is a continuing theme, because it’s the same lead actor [Humphrey Bogart]. For me, this is the best love story ever, ever, ever shot. You could make an exciting, complicated, hot, sexy relationship between a pot-bellied alcoholic and a dried up, skinny spinster… Well, what it really tells you about is Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, and what f—ing monsters they were.

This is an odd one, and it’s only because of the performance. Dexter Gordon’s performance is maybe the best acting I’ve ever seen. How spontaneous and organic it is, and people say to me, “Yeah, but Gordon isn’t an actor; he’s playing himself,” and I say I don’t care.

The other actors that I would mention [for similar reasons as Dexter Gordon] — maybe because I’m an actor — is Marlon Brando in this film and David Thewles in Naked. Those are my three.RT: I can see parallels between the three of them. They’re intense.

They all get me. The worst thing you could say about art is that it’s predictable. And there’s an unpredictability about the work that Brando, Gordon, and Thewles do. Even through the parts are different, when those guys are working, you’re really not sure what’s coming next and I love that.

RT: Not knowing what’s coming next from an actor’s performance reminds me of your role on The Leftovers.

That’s almost like I told Damon [Lindelof], who’s become a friend. I said, “Have you been bugging my house, sneaking around?” It’s like he’s channeling me, most of the work I’ve done. Everything that any actor does is themselves. Usually when actors talk about parts that they’re in, they talk about the part that they’re doing like it’s a person separate from them. He’s this way, she’s that way, and I think no, it’s you. It’s not “he” or “she.” It’s buried parts of all of us — but having said that, my kids say the closest to who I really am is [Kevin Garvey] Sr. in The Leftovers. And I find out that HBO has bought the second season, so who knows, I may be back doing it.