|
 |
|
| Tuesday, November 13, 2007 |
The Jewish Paparazzi: Retired, or the Wizard of Oz?
This is part of our Nov/Dec 2007 issue.
After 40-plus years and a resume of classics like Jaws, Close Encounters, and The Goodbye Girl, for which he won an Oscar, Richard Dreyfuss is done with Hollywood — unless it makes him an offer he can't refuse. "I don't read scripts or seek out work anymore. I always said to myself that I would stop acting in my fifties and go into politics and teach history and it's a promise I've kept," says Dreyfuss, now 60 and working as a researcher, helping instructors at Oxford to develop a civics curriculum. "I'm trying to bring civics back to the public school system in the United States. I love the atmosphere of that [academic] world. I have a Mister Chips fantasy," he confides. "I'm the guy who never went to college, but is always trying to prove that he did."
But if the paycheck is hefty enough, Dreyfuss cheerfully admits he can be bought. In early December, he'll appear alongside Zooey Deschanel, Neal McDonough, and Alan Cumming in Tin Man, the SciFi Channel's trippy version of a familiar classic. "It's The Wizard of Oz in space. I play the mighty lotus-addicted wizard, Mystic Man. The idea of playing the Wizard of Oz is fun, and they offered me a good salary, so why not? So much for being retired."
Indeed, Dreyfuss may do another film this fall, "a drama-comedy about a tasteless, graceless bookie," but insists that movies take a backseat to his educational endeavors. "The Oscar, none of those things were important. I'm going for the Nobel," he says. "I'd rather have it said, 'He died trying to help.'"
-- Text by Gerri Miller
This is part of our Nov/Dec 2007 issue.
|
|
|
|
