|
No one makes a speech like Warren Beatty. He was in prime form on Thursday night when he accepted the 36th annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award at the Kodak Theatre where he managed to be simultaneously focused and scattered, funny and touching.
“I can't think of anybody I don't like in this room," he said, adding that he knew the cholesterol levels of several of the people in the star-studded crowd. “God knows I do love
making good movies. There is really nothing like it."
Beatty, 71, then looked at his wife of 16 years, actress Annette Bening. “I love my profession," Beatty said. “It introduced me to the person who has given me the most important thing of all, which is her love and the love of our four children."
With a career that spans more than five decades, the Oscar-winning actor, writer, director and producer, whose films include Bonnie & Clyde, Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Splendor in the Grass and Shampoo, joins Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, James Stewart, James Cagney and Sidney Poitier, who had been given the Life Achievement Award.
The two-hour presentation at the Kodak was an eclectic evening featuring Robert Downey Jr, who brought the house down with a stoner joke during a story about how Beatty became involved in the 1975 film classic Shampoo; hip-hop artist Pras performing a song from Beatty's political satire Bulworth; and former President Bill Clinton.
Jane Fonda got the evening off to a funny start by telling the crowd that she has known Beatty for more than 50 years. “We did our first screen test together," she recalled.
“It was a love scene, and we kissed. We became friends and nothing more. I thought he was gay. All of his men friends were gay — shows you how dumb I was."
After showing clips of Ishtar, the 1987 critical and commercial disaster that starred Dustin Hoffman and Beatty, Hoffman took the stage, noting he found it ironic “they asked me to speak at the-films-that-bombed part of the evening".
Hoffman, an avid Los Angeles Lakers fan, made a point of telling Beatty that he skipped the game to be there, unlike Beatty's good friend Jack Nicholson. “Warren, I'm here and I was here for dinner," mused Hoffman. Nicholson showed up after the Lakers' defeat.
A longtime Democrat, Beatty was praised by former Senator George McGovern for staging a huge political concert for his presidential campaign in 1972. “I know many good people across this land," McGovern said. “Warren is one of the greats."
Clinton received a long standing ovation when he took the stage late in the evening. The 42nd US president talked about meeting Beatty for the first time in 1972 when he was a campaign worker for McGovern and how Beatty helped Clinton sway a young woman's vote by taking a walk with her on the beach in Florida.
Nicholson pointed out that Beatty, who hasn't made a film in more than seven years, has won “eight times more awards than movies" he's been in. “You're a great film artist," he said.
Last year's winner, Pacino, who worked with Beatty in Dick Tracy, presented Beatty with the award: “It's an honour to know you," Pacino said.
Power play
Warren Beatty has also used his movie stardom to build political clout. He was involved with the political campaigns of Democratic nominee Robert Kennedy, and when George McGovern ran in 1971, Beatty formed part of the “Malibu Mafia", an influential group of moviestar-advisors to the senator.
In 1999 he said he would run for governor of California, but nothing came of it. And in 2000 it was widely expected he might run for president — but once again he lost heart. In the end his only political success was on-screen, when he played a politician turned rapper in Bulworth (1998).
|
