Larry King's Live

 

Introduction of Three Men and a Baby and welcome to Leonard: - Welcome, Leonard, nice to see you. "Nice to see you, thank you." She shares how much she enjoyed the film.

- It's a comedy, of course I I though you really could do a comedy.
"Well, it is surprising to some people because I suppose I've not been heavily identified with comedy."
- because you have this demean of a serious guy, an author. ..

"There were some people at Disney who thought I could do this.
… Very talented professionals. They (the actors) came to work knowing they had to have a chemistry.

- The original French version had a different tone.

"We look at 100 pairs of twins…. I looked at the tape and chose 6 pairs that I wanted to meet." When we narrowed it down to the last couple of sets of twins we brought in the guys to see what the chemistry is with the babies." A clip from Three Men and a Baby is shown.

- I think you did a wonderful job… (talking about Tom Selleck) you brought this unbelievable humanity to him.
"You are seeing him, it's his charm. All three are wonderful in the film. … I made him feel safe. … h e trusted my taste. When I laughed he knew it was funny."

- I get the feeling that a director must be strong because he is the boss. What kind of atmosphere did you create?
"It's the question of being outside the scene and seeing it. … what the nature and mood the film is about."
- Can you be specific?
Leonard Nimoy tells about suggestions which in one situation he thought were funny and when the same was suggested again after in another situation, he felt the joke was on the situation and the idea was not helpful to be used again.
- There was a very specific point of view that you wanted to bring across. What was it?

"The point of view was the plot itself. There are three Peter Pans, three swingers who don't want to grow up.

They have a great time in this play-pan and they don't want to make a commitment to anybody and they don't want to be responsible to anybody but themselves, very selfish guy in that sense. And into their lives comes this infant who teaches them to make a commitment.
They learn that making a commitment to somebody is o.k. and they have feelings to somebody and thy kind of grow up through the course of that picture, become a little bit broader people, people who are more likable."

I often feel that whether you are a director or an actor when you see a piece of material that you real like there is something else in that material that you yourself can relate to, that you feel you can add something you, you say 'uh! That's me, I know all about these people.'

"Yeah, yeah."

Did you know all about these people? "Well I think that I have learned in my life that if you think you really do have an interaction with somebody, you really have a really give-and-take relationship, you really care about somebody enough to put yourself out f or that person … it can be very meaningful. And these guys were afraid of it, afraid of an intimate commitment."

Were you afraid to do that for a time? (laughing) "I did a book about that. … I don't think it is a matter of being afraid to, but it is sometimes difficult.
There are complexities; there are some elements who are frightening, some elements needing a greater security, maybe you make a fool of yourself, I think all human beings have a tendency to …. "

You are talking of love and relationship?
"Sure, exactly."

You have to children and now a grandchild. What do you remember when raising children? "The fact of having raised two children and now having a grandchild was absolutely valuable in making this film because I know what it is like to go through the sleepless nights, the difficulty to get the child to eat and learning how to change the diapers. … Anybody with children will be able to identify with this here. …"

There you are, a father and you are having the responsibility with a child, maybe two children.
Have you begun juggling the situation especially as an actor?

"I was an infant myself when my kids were born. I was in the army when my first child was born and by the time I came out here (I was here for a short time) and by the time we came out here, I was expecting our second child. And I had hardly a career going. I was working nights driving cabs to bring in some money to pay some bills. It was terrifying, but we sort of went through it."

Back to 'Leonard Nimoy', a subject that sometimes I don't think you like to talk about. Why is that?
"I don't know. I think I rather talk about the things that I do rather than.. I mean the work that I do. Maybe that's why I turned to acting. As a young man I stepped into characters. I could disappear. There is kind of a safety in that, there is a comfort, a security in that." Do you feel insecure? "No, I feel good about myself."

From then, the Star Trek movies, the directing, there has been a tremendous transformation. You are right; I think I changed a lot through the couple of years. The whole directing thing has changed the whole perspective. …" More confidence in yourself? "Yeah, yeah, people came to me and said: 'You should be directing.' "

This transformation, did this cause the separation from your wife?
"No, I don't think there is a specific connection. .. To say 'It has nothing to do with it would be silly', on the other hand it is very complex."
About the visit to Russia: "I heard from it (the little village) for years and it was very much as I expected. I found some Nimoys and established who we were, I showed photos from my parents and my children."