|
|
December 3, 1999/24 Kislev 5760, Vol. 52, No.14
Lemmon learns from role
DEBRA L. WALLACE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Some people leave an indelible mark. You never forget them or the lessons they teach you.
Such is the case with veteran actor Jack Lemmon and with his most recent television film character, Morrie Schwartz.
Lemmon says he was deeply moved by the best-selling, non-fiction book "Tuesdays With Morrie," about a Jewish college professor who taught the world how to live and die with grace.
"I read the (book) and I loved the character of Morrie," Lemmon, 74, said during a recent interview from his office in Los Angeles. "I was quite taken with Morrie's philosophies, but I frankly didn't think of myself playing the role in the television film. I never thought I would be asked. But when they did ask me, I jumped like a turkey."
Now Lemmon and Hank Azaria, who plays writer Mitch Albom, are bringing this remarkable story to a wide audience on ABC on Dec. 5. It airs locally on KNXV-TV Channel 15 at 8 p.m. The movie is produced by Oprah Winfrey, who also spotlighted the book on her hit talk show.
In the TV film "Tuesdays With Morrie," Albom, a 35-year-old accomplished, overworked sportswriter, reconnects with his old college sociology professor and mentor, Morrie, who is suffering from ALS - also known as Lou Gehrig's disease - a disease that the older man says physically "melts you like a candle." Still, he keeps his mind and intellect razor sharp.
An initial visit at the West Newton, Mass., home of the man he once called "coach" turns into weekly sessions in which the older man challenges the younger one to re-evaluate his values and priorities.
Their rekindled relationship - 16 years after Albom's graduation from Brandeis University - becomes a Tuesday afternoon habit that lasts for 14 consecutive sessions, in which the men discuss the meaning of life.
The lessons ended in real life on Nov. 4, 1995, when Morrie died at age 78. But Albom believes Morrie's words will live on as long as he and others are alive to teach them.
Albom said in a recent interview that while the film strays somewhat from the book, "it's a lovely and sweet film that captures a lot of the essence, dignity and love that went on between me and Morrie."
Lemmon - who has won two Academy Awards and an Emmy and has left his mark with numerous films, including "Some Like It Hot," "The Apartment," and "The Odd Couple" - says that it was easy to learn from Morrie during the month-long filming, because the actor embraces Morrie's philosophy about the beauty of life and the healing effect of love. Morrie also had an insatiable appetite for the simple pleasures in life: twirling around a dance floor and a nice meal with close friends.
"I'm sure that I do live my life a bit differently after playing Morrie," Lemmon said. "You can't help but be affected by him and his words in a positive way, but it's not something I'm always aware of happening."
The professor was wise enough to know that many of us are so afraid of loss, we don't allow ourselves to fully love someone else. Morrie taught about the importance of forgiveness, and how vital it is to make time for the people who are closest to your heart.
"Morrie felt that love always wins, and it may sound like a platitude of some kind, but he's right," Lemmon said. "He was a really unusual man, and I could see why he had such a profound effect on his students. I, too, couldn't help but be affected by him in a positive way.
"There is an overall feeling, an honesty and a directness of what he felt, and a lack of ego. It wasn't ego that kept him going despite his failing health; it was the determination of a born teacher to get his point across to the very end."
The book and movie also have Jewish sensibilities. Albom is Jewish, and Morrie, who was also Jewish, had vivid memories of playing stick ball on the Lower East Side of New York near where his mother ran a candy store.
In the film, we hear Morrie's beloved mother uttering Yiddish words to her young son, whom she called Moishe.
Since his father was not a religious man, Morrie often found himself in synagogue alone among the men in long black coats. There he prayed to God to take care of his dead mother and polio-stricken brother.
Although Morrie became an agnostic when he was a teenager, later in life he drew on several religions for his life philosophy. He said he still felt at home, culturally, in Judaism, and kaddish was respectfully recited at his funeral.
Albom says that Morrie's humanistic approach to life was very Jewish.
"One of the aspects of Judaism I have always loved is that it accepts that there are other people in the world and sees the value in being a human being," the author said. "Morrie put people first before dogma and belief."
Morrie believed that if each of us cared less about material possessions and more about gaining spirituality, and didn't take our loving relationships for granted, we would be happier.
In fact, several rabbis have used Morrie's words to teach their congregants that the sum total of our lives is not our actions during our last few days, but the way we lived and what we gave to others.
"Dying is just one thing to be sad about," Morrie says in the film. "Living unhappily is another. I am a lucky man to still have time to learn, to say goodbye to the people I love, and time to teach my final course, not about dying (but) about living."
At the end of the film, when Mitch and Morrie are saying their goodbyes, Morrie tells the young man how much he has been touched by Mitch's love. He explains that death ends a life, not a relationship, a concept Albom believes most people can understand.
"What Morrie says is pretty simple and true. And I think that everyone has lost or will lose someone in their life who matters. So trying to cheat death a little bit by investing in one another while you are here rings true (for) so many people."
Lemmon said that on several occasions during the filming, he felt himself becoming teary-eyed at a time when Morrie would not have. He said this probably resulted from a combination of feeling sorry for Morrie and being overwhelmed by what Morrie has faced.
Lemmon said Morrie truly had a gift of unconditional love that he shared with Albom, his other students and those who read the book and watch the film.
"I equate it with my love for acting, which I become more enamored with the more I do it. It is a noble profession, as Shakespeare said, and I realized somewhere along the line that the key is not to only entertain people but to enlighten them," Lemmon said.
"You can make them stop and think. All good works of art do that, from a painting to a novel or a poem; you can change or add to someone's life. That's a very rare privilege that most people don't have.''
|
