Relive the wild ride of Grease 2 with actor Maxwell Caulfield, the man behind Michael Carrington, in this full episode of Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko. Maxwell opens up about knowing early he was meant to act, his London roots, and the moment everything changed when he auditioned for Grease 2 and suddenly found himself stepping into a Hollywood spotlight that can make or break you. Maxwell shares what it was like working alongside a young Michelle Pfeiffer, why Grease 2 didn’t hit the way the studio hoped at release, and how the movie later found its true life as a cult classic with a passionate fanbase. He also dives into the behind-the-scenes reality of movie-making, including a hilarious “Bike Heaven” moment that did not go how he wanted. Beyond Grease 2, Maxwell talks about his love of live theater and what the stage gives an actor that the camera never can, plus what he’s working on now, including a one-man play centered on Pontius Pilate. And yes, we go there on the big career chapters too, from Hollywood momentum to TV fame, including his run on The Colbys and the long view of staying in the game. Wikipedia If you grew up on 80s movies, movie musicals, backstage stories, and the art of actually lasting in show business, this episode is for you. Want to get more involved with the show? Support Still Here Hollywood on Patreon for early access, behind-the-scenes extras, and the chance to submit questions for upcoming guests.
Steve Kmetko
Yes, I'm still here Hollywood, and coming up on today's episode, he arrived in Hollywood with a look that turned heads and a quiet intensity that made people wonder what he was going to do next. Over the years, he's built a career filled with surprising choices, mixing stage work, television drama and the kind of roles that stay with audiences long after the credits roll. He's thoughtful, charismatic, and one of those actors who carries a bit of old school movie star Mystique wherever he goes. This is still here Hollywood. I'm Steve kametka. Join me with today's guest actor Maxwell Caulfield from Grease two. Hi, Maxwell, thanks for coming in today. I appreciate it. It's great to be with you. Steve, tell me how long did you when did you know you wanted to be an actor? Or is it what you always
Maxwell Caufield
wanted to do? I think I did know pretty early on. I remember being at the school I went to in London and being very grateful that whereas most of my pals were 1415, and starting to think about the exams that were ahead of them, and then in order to get to a university, and then, then to decide what kind of career they'd have, now, I went to a pretty, pretty upmarket school, So these, these boys were thinking in terms of becoming, you know, doctors or lawyers and or scientists and but I didn't have the the gray matter for any of those careers. So, but I did enjoy doing school plays, and I felt completely in my element. And so I remember feeling lucky that I already knew what I wanted to do, that I had a career path, and they were not knowing what to do, and probably getting pressure from home, you know, the parents were forking out good money to send these, these boys to, to this particular school, St Paul's in London. And and and the school actually had very good arts program as well, so that really set me on my course. And as far as joining the Mills family, that was never part of the master plan, but obviously I was acutely aware of them all, especially Sir John. He really, really was a legendary British actor, and was always struck by Julia's beauty. It's interesting, when she asked answered the question, she didn't feel beautiful until she met me, she would clearly was beautiful. She had been beautiful for years and years and years from, you know, from her late teens and she and a beautiful baby too. But, believe you, me, but the point being that so many beautiful women don't feel beautiful. It's so ironic. You know, you hear that about these drop dead gorgeous girls who have riddled with insecurity, and you just you wonder why you know when you know that, like men are falling, you know, to their knees, but in your wake.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, was there a roller audition early on that hit you so hard, good or bad, that it altered your trajectory, your career trajectory.
Maxwell Caufield
Well, obviously the I did audition for Greece too, that was was that certainly was what gave me the real shot at the big time. And it was kind of a fabulous, almost like a setup. I remember, I was working off Broadway at the time in the Joe Wharton play, entertaining Mr. Sloan. And there was quite a buzz about the piece. It was becoming quite a cause celebre. Some really fun people were rocking up to see the show Mikhail Baruch off and Diane Keaton and Tennessee Williams and, you know, and tiny little theater in the West Village. So we knew we had heat. And consequently Hollywood started to become aware. And specifically, I've got to give the gay community, partly because of the nature of the play itself. So it was, and the gay community was such tastemakers and always are. And so, you know, like, like Andy Warhol featured me in his magazine, an inside picture with taken by Bruce Webber, but then he subsequently put me on the cover. When grease, I got grease too, he put me on the cover and shot by the great Greg Gorman as well. So you know it was, there was this sort of movement that can get behind you. When I auditioned for Paramount, I got the weekend off to go and try out for. Roll. And as I was I had to sing the song, I'm all alone at the drive, at the drive in movie. And I remember they put a leather jacket on me, and I, you know, put my hands in my pockets to start, start singing, wobbling the notes. And I pulled out a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes. I thought, that's a cool prop. That's really good. I'm not using them as a note in there. And I looked at it, and it was like a little mash note from Olivia Newton, John to John Travolta. And I suddenly realized I was wearing JTS jacket. And I thought, Oh, my God. I didn't think, oh, it's written in the star its destiny. But it sure felt that way, especially is, and I've told this story before, but I was working in London as a movie usher the Leicester Square Odeon, which is kind of a flagship cinema. And right across the square they were, there were klieg lights that particular shift that were raking the skies. And we were aware this movie, Saturday Night Fever, was coming over, and it had this tremendous momentum from the States, this whole cultural revolution, and these white and Leicester Square in central London was just flooded with with women, young girls, adolescents. And the these white Rolls Royces were pulling up. Robert Stigwood was a great showman, and it was disgorging these Alan Carr Indeed, indeed. And so at like the Bee Gees came out, everyone went crazy, and it was all a build up to John Travolta. And nobody knew who John Travolta was, because, welcome back. Cotter. Hadn't even, wasn't even airing in the States, in the UK, I should say. But when Travolta got out with his incredible, this sort of charisma and aura, and obviously he was on top of the world at the time he was he was becoming a planet, not just a star, and the reaction in the square was so euphoric. It was like Beatlemania. And I so I was there was that side of me, you know, I was just sort of on my tea break from tearing tickets, you know, on the entry line there. And I obviously it made a huge impression on me. And the fact that I don't know what it would be four or maximum, five years later, that I'd be playing, you know, in the sequel, not the equivalent of his role, actually the equivalent of Olivia Newton John's role, because Michelle Pfeiffer is really playing Travolta's part, in terms of the cool cat that, and I have to think, I think, I think the gay community also was very appreciative of my relationship with Julia. They thought it was, they totally dug it. And they thought it was just, you know, they loved her. They just loved the way we looked together. And so we got tremendous support there. And I think that also is part of the momentum that got me the part. And I got to ace out of a lot of guys were way more qualified than me. I mean, just just a few months back, I was having dinner with Sean Cassidy the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and Sean said, you know, his wife nudged him, tell him, Sean. And so she said, You know, I did try out for that role. I said, Yeah, I know you did, man, I heard Rick Springfield tried out for it, leaf Garrett. These, all these genuine teen idols and so. But again, I just, I did, I got, I caught a huge break.
Steve Kmetko
Don't kid yourself. The gay community looked at you and saw a hunk.
Maxwell Caufield
Well, I had the look and you did. And you can relate to this, because we were in no, no, you had that sort of you had that Troy Donahue look. I had the Kooky burns look. We had that look hark back to another era, and yet it was very in keeping with the look that was being promoted by Madison Avenue at the time, like by Calvin Klein, all these top male designers were featuring young, blonde, dare I say it, Adonis is that was the look, and this is before all the gym work. It was more about just your natural physique and your sort of certain look. And we both, we both. I'm going to turn this interview around on you, buddy. We both had coke. We both reached some liquid refreshment.
Steve Kmetko
What was it like working with Michelle Pfeiffer, you were both young early in your career. Oh, yeah. What was it like working with her at that time?
Maxwell Caufield
Well, I mean, obviously she was drop dead gorgeous. You know, there was no question about it. Everybody on the set was like, she'd just come on the set, and it was like that sort of Liz Taylor kind of just radiance. And we the one thing we both would discuss off camera was how we would handle imminent stardom, should the film take off. And of course, at that point, you're just so full of confidence about it, you just, even if it doesn't knock it out of the park like the original, you felt that it was going to definitely, I mean, I'd signed a three picture deal at the studio and all that good
Steve Kmetko
stuff well, and then you see how Greece and Saturday Night Fever perform, yeah, yeah.
Maxwell Caufield
And so if I got even close to that, I was on my way and which means, and it's, it's one thing, you know, one of the biggest challenges about fame is, can you handle it, especially now, I mean, there's the scrutiny now, there's no mystique that you it's very hard to maintain any real sort of movie star Mystique anymore. They, they're just crawling all over you, and you're expected to, you know, just reveal all kinds of aspects of your life. So I, I'm, in some ways, I'm not sure if I would have handled the fame that could have been generated, because the film obviously fizzled on the launch pad. We didn't have a great paramount. Did us no favors. And I've whinged about this in the past about opening it at the very beginning of the summer, instead of the end of the summer, when the opening song of the movie, a brilliant song by the Four Tops, is back to school again, just logical and don't go up against et and Star Trek The Wrath of Khan and Conan the Barbarian, or whoever it was, like it was that Memorial Day weekend they were going after and et just crushed, ate everything every I remember Juliet and I standing in the way the line outside the wonderful Cinerama dome there in Hollywood, you know, tossing back the Reese's Pieces, having no idea that this we were about to get like just jumped alive.
Steve Kmetko
Well, if Michelle Pfeiffer were watching this, what would you say to her?
Maxwell Caufield
I'm very, very happy for her acclaim as an actress, because the movie wasn't about your acting chops, and she did go on to, as you know, Academy Award nominations, and she's probably going to earn herself another one before all is said And done. She's retained her looks. She's become a very, very arresting actor, because that's the other thing. If you're an actor, you've got to be able to hold the camera you you've got to have the audience with you really committed to following your course of your character you and so she's got that quality where you you you're fascinated by what she's thinking and what she's going to do next. And that's, that's movie star, that's something you can't you can't manufacture, that the studio can't bestow it upon.
Steve Kmetko
And we'll be right back if you'd like to be more involved with us at still here Hollywood, you definitely can just visit patreon.com/still here Hollywood. You can support us for as little as $3 a month. You can get our episodes a day before they post anywhere else, you can see what guests will be coming up and submit questions for them. You can even tell us what stars you want us to have on as guests. You'll see what goes on before and after the episode, plus exclusive behind the scenes, info, pics, video and more. Again, that's patreon.com/still here Hollywood. Do you think the film would have been received differently if it had been released, released today?
Maxwell Caufield
Well, the film, as you probably know, Steve, it has become a true cult classic. I mean, that's a term that's bandied around a lot, but I got a couple of years ago, I got to do a musical version. Well, not a musical, but it's a derivative of grease, two called Cool rider that was presented at the London Palladium one night only. And I came in and played tab Hunter's role, Mr. Stewart. And when I came on to to make, you know, I made my initial entrance, and then I go into that great song, repro. Generation or lead the class in that song. The nature of the Palladium is, it's very, very tall Victorian theater. So it goes up to the to the gods, as they say. And the reaction to my coming on the stage was so euphoric. I it was, it was literally it stopped the show for like five minutes while people just express their incredible love for the film and, by extension, my involvement in it. But it was just, Oh, my God, he's from this is the real deal. You know this Juliet referred to it when you you make people happy, because you remind them of the happiest period of their, of their, of their youth, and Greece, too, became a hit because it coincided with the launch of HBO and and DVD. I mean, VHS is so it was just endless. It was on a continuous loop for a lot of households, and it found its audience over time.
Steve Kmetko
What's keeping you busy these days? Ah,
Maxwell Caufield
well, a lot of self taping into outer space. You know this? This, this new trend that's actually it's not even new. It's entrenched now. You don't go in to meet producers and directors anymore. You put yourself on tape, and it goes to the casting office, and you hope that it makes it up to the to the creators, because they now can see many more actors than they used to. Used to when I used to go in to an audition and there'd be 810, of us, maximum, sitting in the waiting room, and you recognize your competition, and some, very often, it's a cliche, but you'd see the actor opposite you go, he's much better for the part than me. You know, you talk yourself out of the job, and if you didn't do it psychologically before you went into the room, you usually, if you're like me, you talk yourself out of it in the room, because you keep yakking even after the audition is finished. And but so I do my share of that, and I get incredible support from Juliet. She is sort of the dream Off Camera Actor performer to interface with. And she really cracks the whip, first off, making sure I know the lines. And then secondly, like, like a good tennis player really hitting the ball back at me, so that I react spontaneously instead of in a premeditated way. And once in a while, it pays off. I've actually had more success auditioning via video for the for the theater than for television and and then so not working to the extent that I'd like to be. Frankly, I finally knuckled down and devised a I committed to doing a one man play, which I'm quite excited about. Got again Juliet's 100% support. It's a play called pilot, the lost gospel. And it's about Pontius Pilate, who's a sort of one of the strange, sort of mysterious characters, notorious characters, of human history. And the idea is to go and do it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. I've broken it out a couple of times, just in sort of benefit readings, not readings performances, and it's been very well received. And it's kind of a cliche as a middle aged or veteran actor to finally just put yourself to work because no one else is doing it, but I'm quietly confident that it does hold an audience, and, more importantly, that I can actually remember that many lines for 75 minutes, because it's a lot of dialog, and that is As you advance, the years race away. I mean, even Juliet's, her godfather, her godmother was Vivian Lee, but her unofficial Godfather was Laurence Olivier. And, you know, by by extension, and he, Olivier took great interest in Juliet's, you know, her development. And but he, famously, toward the end of his career, was having such a hard time remembering all that classical dialog that he couldn't even let the other actor make direct eye contact with him. You almost had to say your lines past him. So that he could keep his focus. Because obviously Shakespeare is the ultimate challenge, and so I'm excited about that. And like I said something, the theater has been good to me, and so far as the same way, when you interviewed Juliet, she was talking about the great breaks that occurred in her career occurred as a result of a producer or director seeing you live on stage, not sweating bullets in an office in Burbank, trying to convince them, but like suddenly just seeing you and deciding they have to have you rather like a piece of art that they want to have on the wall. So you never know. It may lead to things. And even if it doesn't, it is getting my yayas out doing it
Steve Kmetko
long winded answer, I haven't heard yayas in a long time. Fact, I'm not even certain what they are. Let me ask you a question. Over to you, sir, is there a scene, a behind the scenes moment from Greece too, that you've never shared publicly?
Maxwell Caufield
Oh, let me see now. Oh yes, I think I have again. I've because, because I get asked about grease too. So much I do remember, there's a sequence that shot in biker heaven where Michelle's character Stephanie Zanoni thinks the cool rider because she doesn't know his It's Michael Carrington, the schoolboy that's been a pestering her and really kind of annoying her, actually, in his pursuit. They wanted she so she's, she thinks he's, he's died going off dead man's curve on his motorbike, and she's all broken up about it, and she's singing the song from, it's a school talent contest, and it's, it's, they're playing girls for all seasons. It's a very cute, beautifully choreographed, I mean, and costume number very and, but Michelle suddenly sort of goes off into this sort of reverie, thinking about the cool rider in heaven. And they wanted me to and it was just the heaven was depicted as a lot of lot of dry ice and smoke, obviously. And but on character was on a mountain of beaten up bikes, but they'd all been spray painted gold and silver and what have you, and they wanted me to wear the helmet. And I felt ridiculous. I felt like a sort of bobblehead. It was absurd enough. I was sitting on this bike, on this mountain of beat up bikes, but they wanted me to wear the helmet for the scene, and we had to sing together. And I just felt it was absurd. Why singing a song with a motorcycle helmet and goggles on? Because they wanted to keep up this pretense that she didn't know who I was. And I remember I did. This is one of those incidents where you did not endear yourself to the crew, because I suddenly sort of got into it with the line producer and our director, the magnificent Pat birch still with us, well into her 90s now, Pat, she's something else, absolute phenom. And I'd say, Listen, the goggles, The Aviator goggles, are quite enough connect with I had all my hair back then, so I was like, let's play. Let the wind machine blow back my golden tresses, and she still can't tell me, tell it's the schoolboy. And they said, no, no, we got it. We're under strict orders. We got to get you in the damn helmet. So I said, Can we shoot it two ways? Can we do it and then you guys decide in the editing room, I was pretty confident about that, and because I'd eaten up this time, and it was, it was some reason we were shooting at night. I don't know why. Even though it was on the soundstage, everyone wanted to go home. I think it was obviously the last scene of the day or something. And we finished the down scene in the helmet. I said, Okay, great. Helmet comes off, we're ready to go again. And they go Max. We're going to hit overtime. The boys. It's been a long, long week, and I felt busy. They tricked me. So that's the final version that you see the bobblehead doll on the in bike of heaven.
Steve Kmetko
That's Hollywood for you. Let's, let's segue on the stage. What does live theater give you that the cameras never can
Maxwell Caufield
Well, you hear actors talk about the control you have in that you're not at the mercy of the editing room. You also have that fantastic sort of, it's a kind of a it's a. Chemistry that occurs in an auditorium between you and a live audience, because they are barometers of the truth. And if you are meandering or you're not investing it with true sincerity, you're just it's the eighth Show of the Week. You're just going through the motions. You can sense it the audiences, they just start pulling back. What you want is that audience coming to me, you kind of meet somewhere in the middle. You're obviously projecting out to them. You're playing to them, but they are also bringing their energy, the experience of their day, to that the theater that night, and it's your mission is to enthrall them for that hour and a half, two hours you and the rest of your company, the and the story, hopefully you're lucky enough to be in a really compelling show. And so you want people to to because it's not cheap to go to the theater, and it's the reason why theater tickets are high prices, because it does cost so much money to mount a show and to promote a show, rent the theater, or what have you. It's they you've got to at least break even as a producer, hopefully you're going to get your investment back. But so you owe it to the audience to give it your maximum all eight shows of the week. And I've found over time, I actually enjoy the matinees the most. I feel freest at the matinees. I don't know why. Maybe it's just a biorhythm thing middle of the day, you're not, you know, you haven't, because you have to conserve your energy to be ready to really give it them your all at 738, o'clock at night. I mean, I now read about the discipline Broadway actors holding up major roles, you know, vocal rest all day, and very strict diets and sleep regimens, so that they are 110% because those Broadway ticket prices are seriously high. So you again, if people are going to part with that much dough you got to, like I said, just knock their eye out and give them something to remember forever the most, the shows that I most remember of live performances, whether it's John Malkovich in true west or, you know, before I came to do this interview today, I was thinking, I hope I'm good at names today. I'm not always good at names, but we went to see Dream Girls, and that incredible song Effie sings, and I'm telling you, and I'm telling, yeah, I'm not going. And it's a little confusing, because they're both actresses, the gal, the gal who did it on film and the actress who played it on Broadway have very similar names,
Steve Kmetko
Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Holliday,
Maxwell Caufield
thank you. Say, See, there's, there's your gray matter still in good shape, sir. But Jennifer, Jennifer Holliday played it on Broadway correct, and won the Tony and and took the roof off the building. And I mean, that's the performance I'll never forget. I felt her on their feet before she finished the song, literally almost screaming for her to stop. It was so intense, but it made me think what it must have been like to see Marlon Brando do Kowalski for the first time, just like, you know, and so it is that's exciting, and to even come close to these illustrious people they'll have the opportunity to do it is something that drives you to keep seeking out that role that you know you do as well as it could be done, or at least you can do. So that's I do think
Steve Kmetko
ultimately, it must have gotten kind of a feel of that in elephant.
Maxwell Caufield
Man, yeah, that's a that role. There's a kind of a gift that role, because the audience is doing half the work they they're projecting your deformity onto you. You don't wear any makeup at all because of that brilliant theatrical device where they show the images of John Merrick in a medical dissertation that Trump the elephant man's John Merrick. John merrick's benefactor, Frederick Treves has, has, he's giving, he's addressing a whole bunch of medical students, and he's doing a slideshow. And the actor is in the Leonardo da Vinci perfect man pose, the actor who's going to go on and play Merrick, and so you just start distorting. And the audience is looking at pictures of, as I said. Of his, frankly, his hideousness. I mean, it's just, it's just he looks like he comes from The Dark Side of the Moon, and the audience imbues you with that for the whole rest of the evening, and they end up thinking you're brilliant. It's a gift, that part. Let me tell you I saw David Bowie do it. Oh, now how do you top that? No, it was pretty good. Yeah, yeah,
Steve Kmetko
and we'll be right back. Tell me about the Colbys. Tell me about television work.
Maxwell Caufield
Yeah, I haven't done nearly as much TV as I'd like to have tried out for a lot, but I do know that the Colbys was one of those real purple patches for me. It actually was kind of engineered by Juliet. I was doing a play in New York at the Public Theater, and it was a play called Salonica, and it had the great Jessica Tandy in it. And again, I was, it was very fortunate. I was playing the kind of role that brought a lot of heat, the fact I had no clothes on for the first 20 minutes of the show, definitely, I think, contributed to the buzz.
Steve Kmetko
And, yeah, I think so. I think I read about it in Time Magazine.
Maxwell Caufield
Anyway, started seeing the same patrons on a regular basis because it was a, it was a, it was a thrust stage, so the audience was on three. I was like, Oh yeah, you've got a season ticket for that particular location. But I but Juliet, her dear and good friend, Douglas Kramer, who was Aaron spelling's partner, she invited Doug, who loved to go to the theater. He had an apartment in New York. He was an art collector, and a very good friend of hers
Steve Kmetko
probably enjoyed seeing that play. Yes as much as anybody.
Maxwell Caufield
Yeah, and Doug, Doug. Doug came to see the play. And this is okay. This is again, is I can't, you know, I alluded to the fact that I all my breakout parts began with MC Michael Carrington, Myles Colby, and obviously my original name Maxwell Caulfield, and Doug. Was very forthright. We had supper afterwards, and he said, you know, we're doing a sequel to dynasty, and there's a character, and his name is Maxwell Colby. And I went, Oh, no, no, you're joking. I said he wasn't offering me the part, but he was sort of like, let me know that I had the inside track, and certainly, as a result of him watching this play, he was and but as I said, it was just, I seem to remember, it was just Juliet Doug and myself, and at that point I didn't know that Charlton Heston was On board Barbara Stanwyck. You know, these genuine Hollywood legends. And I was very gun shy about sequels as a result of Greece too. I was like, oh, dynasty two. I don't know, I don't know if this is going to work, but we went back to LA back to Juliet's lovely house in Beverly Hills after the Off Broadway run, and I went, damn, I wonder if that role is still going, you know. And by then, they changed it to miles Colby. And I thought, oh yeah, they're over the Maxwell Colby concept. But I screen tested for it, and again, it was one of those things where, as long as you didn't trip over the furniture, got the lines out, the role was yours.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, when you look back at yourself at the height of your breakout roles, breakout fame, what do you wish you could whisper in that guy's ear?
Maxwell Caufield
I did an interview. I referenced the Andy Warhol magazine was very influential periodical at the time, and the gag for that particular magazine was they'd get somebody famous to interview the cover, the artist, you know, whoever was on the cover that month. And so I chose, and they said, Who would you like to interview? We'll try and get him. And I said, Well, tab hunters, right there on the set. I mean, it's kind of perfect. He was a teen idol. I'm trying to launch me as one and and so we did the interview. Tab conducted the interview, and it was a it wasn't like we're doing now. It wasn't being filmed. It was strictly audio tape and then transcribed for the magazine. And I remember tab asking me certain questions, leading questions, and my answer. Is, I remember a couple of times tab like wincing, just going, No, you don't want to be saying that. It's just that's not going to look and it was me trying to be humorous, but it definitely came across as a certain. There was a certain again, you know, it's that thing of confidence, where it moves into arrogance. And I do remember that in hindsight, and I've since read the magazine. It's been sent to me to sign or something. And I idly flick through it. And there's those great pictures that Greg took, Greg Gorman, only, you know, image enhancing and all the rest of it. And I remember, like, look at the print. I'm like, damn, I hope they just were looking at the pictures. They didn't read this big mouth Brit sounding off.
Steve Kmetko
Were you at all? Did you have trepidations about coming to work in the United States?
Maxwell Caufield
No, obviously, was it a goal? Very much, very much. So I was, I'd been, I'd come to the States with the with the Boy Scouts on a what do they call exchange program deal. They came and stayed with us in London, and then we went the following summer. We went to and it was in Philadelphia, little town outside Philadelphia media, and we got to go to high school for a few days. That was eye opening, to go to a US High School. So so different from the nature of the school I had gone to, and there were girls there too. So it made it a little more fun. But the the bottom line is, is that I'd been there and fallen in love with the US when I was 14 or 15, and shortly thereafter, I got introduced to James Dean. And the whole James Dean, you know, the relaunch of the mania about Dean was just taking off again. They were starting to show his movies again at Art House cinemas that I think the Japanese were very were totally caught up with his image. So they were part of it. And you remember the synergy between the US and Japan and so forth, and the Brits were all over Dean, too. They so I was seeing I was seeing him. I mean, to my to this day, the most transcendent performance for me on film is James Dean in East of Eden. So again, I had this whole and then, and then there are these incredible picture books of him back home on the farm in Indianapolis, in Indiana, I should say, and little town called Fairmont and and then he's, he's buried there. Yes, he is, yes. And I've been there a couple of times, but, but the, but also in the brilliant shots of him in New York City. And so I was sort of totally enamored of this image of this guy, and frankly, was aping him shamelessly. It got me kicked out of drama school in London. I was so busy slouching and mumbling and being a miss, you know, the rebel without a cause. So they were like, Come back when you grown up a bit, dude. So it got me, it jump started the whole, the whole path. And then, you know, I met Juliet, which completely, that was not part of the game plan at all, and the choice was her beautiful, little Spanish style house off of Benedict Canyon, or my sort of roach infested apartment on the east side of New York. So there wasn't much of a discussion there. And I came back to Holly, I came to Hollywood for the first time and and as I say, I've always been felt that if Juliet had gone back to London and had reignited her stage career, she would have received the kind of a claim that has now put someone like Helen Mirren in the position she's in, because she's the interview, what you would have garnered on your certainly your listeners, viewers will will have picked up on it. She's got such an essential modesty that and so she hasn't been as laser focused as you have to be on your career to get to the to the top of the heap. It really helps to have a kick ass agent. They this, you know it?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah. Oh.
Maxwell Caufield
It you have, you got to have an agent that plays the knows the game and plays it well and and looks after your interests, but not at the cost of rubbing up the employers, because they're the ones who ultimately cut the checks. Now you see, I told you, I told you I was gonna shift. We should just change chairs now. No, no, no,
Steve Kmetko
did you get down on one knee when you proposed to you yet?
Maxwell Caufield
Yeah, I think I'm, I think I Yes. I think I certainly, I would have to. I mean, if you can't get down to sort of English theatrical royalty on Monday, you need your head examined. I proposed to her on a hilltop behind a house in Beverly Hills. She lived off of Benedict Canyon at the time. And I think I can't remember the nature of, I think I'd left her a message in our bedroom to come up to this little, sort of, this little Goat Trail, to this top of this little hillock, up up above there at the top of San Ysidro drive, I think. And I think I even had, like little doves in my pocket. You know that I released at the moment she she accepted the proposal. Oh, sweet, yes, yes.
Steve Kmetko
Well, I had to lay it on thick, yeah, I guess so.
Maxwell Caufield
What was it like? It was sunset at the time, too. So, no, no, no, no, no. Music, just
Steve Kmetko
string quartet or something, no. How did you feel about marrying into this theatrical royal family?
Maxwell Caufield
You know, when you're young, you there's no, it's not, I don't know that. You can call it arrogance, but, but you just, you don't, you don't limit yourself anymore. You don't put brakes on confidence. Yeah, confidence. That's the thing. And it can be, it can cross over to a certain arrogance as well, if you're not careful. I i Like I heard Juliet, in answer to one of your questions, say that she knew how to behave, and and, and as a result, though, she she only, only ever endeared herself to the crew, because the crew just want to get the job done. They don't. They don't. They don't want to be waiting for you after lunch. They don't, they don't want you know you to get into some sort of protracted discussion with a director about your motivation. They just everyone's there on the shop floor getting the best product they can as quickly as they can, because there's inevitably, a lot to do on any given day if you're going to and directors hate to have to lose certain coverage that they planned. So as I say, you pick up quickly about about not, not screwing around and not and having total respect for every member of the crew, from the top to the bottom, even, you know, even the the what are they? What do they? Call them the gophers.
Steve Kmetko
What's something that Juliet told you early in your career that changed the way you approached it?
Maxwell Caufield
Ah, okay. Well, she always gave me tremendous latitude. She She probably could have come down harder on me sooner, about, like, just sort of using so much, I don't know, braggadocio, whatever you know, her dad, I remember the point at which I knew, you know, because you it's feast or famine in this business, and I'd gone through a very fallow period. And I remember us going to visit John and Lady Mary, Sir John, in their beautiful home outside London in Denham village, Buckinghamshire, and him telling me that I should maybe think about doing your job, which is interviewing people, because he a he knew I was a chatterbox. You just let people dig their own holes. Hopefully, and Jim and does a nice editing job, but but the bottom line is, is that he felt. He knew I like to be in front of the camera. He knew I loved as we all do. We love people in showbiz because they're upbeat and they're optimistic and they're dreamers, and I. And so it's and they got a great sense of humor. With any luck, they got good, you know, all those people that Johnny Mills used to hang out with over a bunch of cards, they really, they knew how to have a good time. And they weren't so self conscious, I think, I think, and they and so protective of their, you know their image and what have you. The way you kind of have to be now. You have to be very, very careful about what you say. You know, you know how easy it is to give offense to some segment, and if they turn on you, you're screwed if they've got any influence. But, but Johnny saying that to me, was saying to me, Look, give up. It wasn't he wasn't saying give up acting. He was just saying, find a way to stay in front of the camera, if that's what you really want to do.
Steve Kmetko
And here I am, and here you are in front of a camera.
Maxwell Caufield
You know, Juliet didn't mention the fact that she she basically dug us out of a big hole by landing that role on passions, which interestingly, because we're shooting this in Studio City, right next to the old Desi Lou studios, right? It's got tremendous history. CBS Radford. CBS Radford, and that's where Juliet shot passions for nine straight years. And boy, I don't know how she used to handle those monologs. They gave her absolutely crushing amount of lines to learn on a nightly basis. And what's more, she would go out on the town. I was like, how we were doing it. We'd go out and have dinner with friends or go see a screening or whatever, and she'd be back at CBS Radford at 615 in the morning, you know, getting tabitha's mountain of hair put on. And
Steve Kmetko
what's one project you secretly wish the two of you could do together?
Maxwell Caufield
Well, we, it's interesting. You should say that we you talking about, you know you, I know you've asked me about, or will be asking me about. What do you wish you'd done that maybe you didn't get or you could still have to do, but I do remember Williamstown Theater Festival, very celebrated summer stock. East Coast situation has very attracted a lot of fabulous actors over the years to go play up there, and they were going to do Sweet Bird of Youth, the Tennessee Williams play. And I've always sort of fancied myself as a bit of a Williams esque actor. Now, those, those, those, lot of those roles have passed me by, but, but they were going to they thought they had Alec Baldwin and Faye Dunaway to do chance Wayne and Alexandra del Lago. And it's a relationship between a famous star and an aspiring actor, and there's a significant age difference. And as you know, Geraldine Page did it with Paul Newman and but for whatever reason, the Baldwin Dunaway combination fell away and they were scrambling, and I lucked into the role of chance Wayne, and I just wished I absolutely insisted that Juliet play The character is also known as Princess cosmonopolis. And that's, that's something I wish we had done together. What we are looking at doing, we recently did love letters together, which is, I know, almost a cliche, but we found that it's we have a particularly potent combination the two of us doing it. People have seen the show a lot, come back and said to us, that's the best version of we've seen and and that, again, that sounds immodest, but that is principally because Juliet is her character is absolutely it's a it's a beautiful and heartbreaking character, and the role that that was also out there for her is the role in trip to Bountiful, which, again, Jolene page to great, great acclaim, and she won an Oscar for Yes, She sure did. And that's a role that's fabulous for Juliet, and I really hope she does get to essay it. And there's a great part for me, supporting role of the sheriff who befriends her. And so that's something that's potentially out there. Steve, I hope it is. It to me that would be the role that people would suddenly realize that Juliet's a major league actress, the fact that she's been out here in Hollywood all these years. This means that she hasn't had the chance to prove it, but she's still got the chops. And, you know, it's like, you know, athletes obviously need to get out on the field of playing, but if you've got those moves and you've got that sort of countenance that doesn't go away, kind of like people with great singing voices in Elvis, no matter what, how his body betrayed him toward the end or his voice never changed. It was always absolute velvet. So what I'm saying is that Juliet's got, still got that ability to absolutely have an audience eating out of the palm of her hand. I've seen her do it when she people, they love to see Juliet as the victim, the woman in peril. People really are, really care. Like, for example, wait until dark. I think she's done it a couple of times. I love that, yeah, yeah. And she, she's got the audience, like, desperate for her to survive.
Steve Kmetko
I love, I love any production that gets the entire audience to gasp at the same time.
Maxwell Caufield
Dream, yeah, yeah.
Steve Kmetko
What's a change you're grateful for?
Maxwell Caufield
A change in my life, or change in society in your life. You asked Juliet some very leading questions like that, the real Soul Searchers and you, you, you know, the question on the face of it's relatively simple, but it's actually it's seeking a sort of a real, really, much more profound answer. I'm vamping now, what was the question? Again, stalling. I'm thinking
Steve Kmetko
no one's ever accused me being profound. What? What are you? How has the business changed the most? Okay, let's link
Maxwell Caufield
it to the current times. I I keep you know what I keep coming back to? You know when you go and see great work, it can really inspire you. It can make you still believe in an industry that's become, as you know, tremendously corporate. The industry's really run. So maybe you could say it's always been run by the bean counters, but now, more than ever, it's legal affairs, and it's just, it's, it's, it's, you know, and TV queues, one thing and box office draw potential is another. But at the end of the day, I think that the business hasn't, isn't, isn't as much fun as it used to be. There's no question about it. It's much harder to catch a break now and get through the door and meet people that the doors aren't open. So the way, you know, used to get off the bus in this town, and you know, the casting community would give you the once over and see if you they thought you had it like the way it used to be. You know, there's we see in the golden era, and all the beautiful boys and girls of America coming in and hoping against hope to catch a break the Yeah, the the thing that I I keep coming back to this year is Brad Pitt in f1 because I must say, I was immensely skeptical of the idea of Brad playing a Formula One driver at his age. He said he's a handful of years younger than me, but, you know, we're almost contemporaries. And I was like, No, I'm sorry, dude, your reflexes are not fast enough to be driving a car at that point. You know the way these rocket ships, the way they are now. I mean, the young the young man just one, Orlando Norris, I think he's landers, like 23 or something, and and these cars are just lightning fast, but my God, pit pulls it off. He totally convinces you, you know, that he's got it and, and he's a great producer as well as you know, genuine, one of the last genuine movie stars and that film, and I know it's awards season now, so there's a lot of great but the price of admission to that film is satisfied by the first five minutes of that picture. It's so exciting and it's very authentic the film. And so I I've shifted the focus onto onto Brad Pitt and the idea you can still, and that may sound immodest, but this you can actually have crested 60 and and still show him You got it, you know,
Steve Kmetko
which is what he's doing right now.
Maxwell Caufield
Yeah, consistently. What
Steve Kmetko
do you want? Fans to understand about you that they might not already. Are you tired of answering questions about the age difference between you and Jim?
Maxwell Caufield
No, because actually, funnily enough, our Christmas card we just were just sealing up envelopes and the the picture that we like to one like every other year we throw in a shot of the two of us, just a candid snap, right? And so the picture we put in this year, I said, it's great. I look, we look like total contemporaries. You're just absolutely refusing to age. And I'm, I'm getting, I'm getting a lot of lines and but you know, I remember talking to Juliet's already referred to Pete Townsend. I remember because when who fanatics and we went to see we went to see them many years ago, actually, and got a chance to go backstage and talk to Roger Daltrey and and at the time, the expression that was being used to describe rock stars of a certain age was wrinkly rockers and Rogers. I'm proud of every one of these wrinkles. I love them. I love them. And I remember thinking that concept of just embracing your maturity is it's, I mean, let's face it, it's not fun, getting stiffer, getting out of bed, yeah, yeah,
Steve Kmetko
getting Charlie horses in your thighs or whatever, yes. Okay, Maxwell, I'm done with you.
Maxwell Caufield
Are you? Yeah, let's quit while we're still ahead, the hot seat
Steve Kmetko
is cooling down. Okay, so thank you for coming in. I appreciate it.
Maxwell Caufield
I appreciate getting the chance to do have a lovely wife. I do. She's the tops
Steve Kmetko
still here. Hollywood is a production of the still here network all things technical, run by Justin zangerly, theme music by Brian Santa shin. And executive producer is Jim Lichtenstein, Jim.