The Lang and the short of it
STEPHEN LANG on the great directors of his career
AS A MAN with over 100 movies to his name, Stephen Lang has worked with a director or two. “By nature, I am a very collaborative actor,” says the 70-year-old. “I’m always willing to learn and be guided by the director. I accept and appreciate the fact that the vision is always larger than the actor, the world is larger than the actor, and that’s why the director directs and the actor is directed to act.” With the recently released Old Man, he adds Lucky McKee to a weighty roster of collaborators. Here, he looks back at some of the standouts.
BUD YORKIN
TWICE IN A LIFETIME 1985
Lang had been a theatre actor of note, and had made a couple of TV appearances, when Yorkin, a legendary producer who was returning to the director’s chair, cast him in this Gene Hackman drama. “Bud came to see me in Death Of A Salesman,” says Lang. “Afterwards, he asked to see me. He sent me the script and we talked for a while, and he said, ‘There are two parts in here and you can play either one.’ So I chose to play the son-in-law, who was married to Amy Madigan’s character. It was an opportunity to work with some of the finest actors ever — I mean, Hackman was a total hero of mine. And Bud was very good to me. He was a social director; we were always going out to eat.”