Doing Jack

On the set of City Slickers 2, Jon Lovitz interviewed his Oscar-winning co-star Jack Palance for Movieline.

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JON LOVITZ: You used to box, Jack. What made you go from boxing to acting?

JACK PALANCE: If you get punched around enough, eventually you go to acting...

Q: You mean you became punch-drunk and through that haze in your brain, you picked acting?

A: Yeah. What happened to you?

Q: I was just pretty much born in a fog. Actually, when I was born, the doctor used the forceps to pull me out and that kind of...

A: He made a mistake.

Q: Yeah, he squeezed a little too hard...

A: So you became an actor?

Q: So I became an actor.

A: Can you imagine how many doctors make mistakes? There are so many actors!

Q: And the harder they squeeze, the better actor you are.

A: Unless they squeeze the shit out of you. 'Cause if they do that, actors can't perform. We're all full of it.

Q: Do you think that actors today are better or worse than when you were starting out in the '50s?

A: I think it's all the same, really.

Q: They always say, "Oh, it was so magical, different and golden back then." You think that's true or not?

A: I think that's a lot of bull. I think they made wonderful films then. But there are great moviemakers today. Wonderful actors, too. The only reason I sometimes think they're not so good is because they're younger than me.

Q: You do other things besides act, right?

A: Well, yeah. I think I'm gonna become a scuba diver.

Q: Are you certified in scuba?

A: No, but I sure like to eat fish.

Q: That was my next question: If you could come back as a fish, what fish would you be?

A: I'd like to be the biggest whale. Boy, that'd be some load of whale shit!

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