Time Capsule
Billy Crystal
THE LEGENDARY COMEDIAN ON GREAT IMAGES FROM HIS GLITTERING CAREER
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
OVER THE COURSE of an incredible 50-year career, Billy Crystal has turned pretty much everything he’s touched to, well, crystal. Stand-up? Check. Starring in (and occasionally writing and directing) a string of much-loved comedies? Check. Hosting the Oscars repeatedly and splendidly? Check. Horror, with his new Apple TV+ show, Before? Check check check. But he’s never been the subject of Empire’s Time Capsule before. “Thanks for reminding me of all these great moments,” he tells us, before dropping the punchline with typically precise timing. “And how old I am.” We’ll have what he’s having.
WHEN HARRY MET SCARY BEFORE (2024)
“It’s a world that I love being in, this psychodramatic thriller, scary kind of world. At this point in my career, to get a chance to play something different was thrilling. I love being in this dark kind of space. When I’d have to experience something really dark on the show, when they’d say, ‘Cut,’ I would just giggle, going, ‘Look what I get to do.’ That’s Dr Eli Adler with his young patient, Noah Sawyer, who’s played brilliantly by a young English actor named Jacobi Jupe. He’s extraordinary. He’s 11, he plays eight. That’s how good he is.”