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Interview With Robert Duvall
Aired May 26, 2003 - 15:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: To a story we've been following here in Washington. A proposal to build a visitor's center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, it got a bit of extra publicity a while back from actor Robert Duvall, who testified before a congressional committee. I spoke with the Academy Award winner about the issue and I started by asking why the idea is important to him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERT DUVALL, ACTOR: I'm a veteran and my father was a professional naval officer. He went to the Naval Academy when he was 16 years old. And I've also had my own sense of patriotism, and I feel this is a good thing, you know.
I mean, you have to separate the war from the warrior, really, and that was a controversial war, the Vietnam War. And the wall is to honor the warrior, as opposed to the different opinions and approaches and perceptions of the war itself.
So I think if you have a memorial, if you have an impact of the wall, and you have a memorial underground that won't hurt the aesthetics of the region, then those two impact things are adjacent to one another. You see a very moving thing with the wall, then you go downstairs underneath, right adjacent to the wall on the mall, and you get an education, especially for the young who don't know anything about it.
WOODRUFF: I asked you because, of course, the memorial has now been there for several years.
DUVALL: Right.
WOODRUFF: Millions of people have been to see it.
DUVALL: Four million a year.
WOODRUFF: Four million a year. Why is it necessary to build a visitor's center? Why isn't the wall itself enough?
DUVALL: There has to be supplementary information to really, you know, educate the young, especially the young people, the young students coming up that really don't know a thing about it and just see what's on the wall itself. But some adjacent thing like -- I think the Lincoln Memorial has it and the Jefferson Memorial has a center like that. It's to educate, so to speak.
WOODRUFF: You mentioned the fact that so many young Americans don't understand -- were either born after Vietnam or don't know very much about it. What about the fact that your generation, my generation, know war. Can young people today even comprehend what sacrifice war is, do you think?
DUVALL: It all depends on whose perception you have, you know. Some people think all war is wrong. Some people think we should never go to war. But sometimes, war is inevitable, I guess.
You have to draw the line at times, you know. And young people, a lot of young people are patriotic in leaning that way as opposed to the other way. I can name two actors, Gene Hackman and Michael Caine in England went to Korea and fought, and they seem to have a respect for the military, those two guys.
You know because so many people that don't know about the military, they're the ones who want to -- in my profession, they're anti-war, but they're also somewhat anti-America status quo-wise, but they love to put on the uniform and play soldier in movies. It's kind of a contradiction, I find.
WOODRUFF: Do you want to name any names?
DUVALL: No, I won't name names. I could name names of people who did better acting jobs gaining 4-F status to get out of the draft than going in and serving, but I won't name names. Their acting was better in that than I've seen on screen.
WOODRUFF: Why are so many in your profession, do you think, of the liberal political persuasion? And that often does go hand in hand with being anti-war.
DUVALL: It depends on the war, too.
WOODRUFF: That's right.
DUVALL: But I think when you go to high school and people wear loafers, sometimes they wear no socks, sometimes they put a dime in the loafer. The next week they change.
It's peer pressure. You know, dress, peer pressure. You smoke because this guy smokes.
I think when you step into Hollywood, there's a bubble. And not all, but, I mean, I think there's a -- you have to be something. You have to become something. And you don't have to be -- become a liberal or whatever. You can be anything you want to be and be a good actor or whatever.
WOODRUFF: Did you personally support the administration's conduct in this war on Iraq?
DUVALL: Well, it was difficult to come to a conclusion. I suppose history will prove what is right or wrong. But I'm not against going to war if it's for a good reason.
Hopefully, this has been a good reason. We'll see. They did it well, though. The men and women who fought in Iraq did it well. They were wonderful.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Actor Robert Duvall. And we should mention, Senator Chuck Hagel, whom we just spoke to, was one of the principal sponsors of that legislation to create a visitors' center at the Vietnam War Memorial.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 26, 2003 - 15:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: To a story we've been following here in Washington. A proposal to build a visitor's center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, it got a bit of extra publicity a while back from actor Robert Duvall, who testified before a congressional committee. I spoke with the Academy Award winner about the issue and I started by asking why the idea is important to him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERT DUVALL, ACTOR: I'm a veteran and my father was a professional naval officer. He went to the Naval Academy when he was 16 years old. And I've also had my own sense of patriotism, and I feel this is a good thing, you know.
I mean, you have to separate the war from the warrior, really, and that was a controversial war, the Vietnam War. And the wall is to honor the warrior, as opposed to the different opinions and approaches and perceptions of the war itself.
So I think if you have a memorial, if you have an impact of the wall, and you have a memorial underground that won't hurt the aesthetics of the region, then those two impact things are adjacent to one another. You see a very moving thing with the wall, then you go downstairs underneath, right adjacent to the wall on the mall, and you get an education, especially for the young who don't know anything about it.
WOODRUFF: I asked you because, of course, the memorial has now been there for several years.
DUVALL: Right.
WOODRUFF: Millions of people have been to see it.
DUVALL: Four million a year.
WOODRUFF: Four million a year. Why is it necessary to build a visitor's center? Why isn't the wall itself enough?
DUVALL: There has to be supplementary information to really, you know, educate the young, especially the young people, the young students coming up that really don't know a thing about it and just see what's on the wall itself. But some adjacent thing like -- I think the Lincoln Memorial has it and the Jefferson Memorial has a center like that. It's to educate, so to speak.
WOODRUFF: You mentioned the fact that so many young Americans don't understand -- were either born after Vietnam or don't know very much about it. What about the fact that your generation, my generation, know war. Can young people today even comprehend what sacrifice war is, do you think?
DUVALL: It all depends on whose perception you have, you know. Some people think all war is wrong. Some people think we should never go to war. But sometimes, war is inevitable, I guess.
You have to draw the line at times, you know. And young people, a lot of young people are patriotic in leaning that way as opposed to the other way. I can name two actors, Gene Hackman and Michael Caine in England went to Korea and fought, and they seem to have a respect for the military, those two guys.
You know because so many people that don't know about the military, they're the ones who want to -- in my profession, they're anti-war, but they're also somewhat anti-America status quo-wise, but they love to put on the uniform and play soldier in movies. It's kind of a contradiction, I find.
WOODRUFF: Do you want to name any names?
DUVALL: No, I won't name names. I could name names of people who did better acting jobs gaining 4-F status to get out of the draft than going in and serving, but I won't name names. Their acting was better in that than I've seen on screen.
WOODRUFF: Why are so many in your profession, do you think, of the liberal political persuasion? And that often does go hand in hand with being anti-war.
DUVALL: It depends on the war, too.
WOODRUFF: That's right.
DUVALL: But I think when you go to high school and people wear loafers, sometimes they wear no socks, sometimes they put a dime in the loafer. The next week they change.
It's peer pressure. You know, dress, peer pressure. You smoke because this guy smokes.
I think when you step into Hollywood, there's a bubble. And not all, but, I mean, I think there's a -- you have to be something. You have to become something. And you don't have to be -- become a liberal or whatever. You can be anything you want to be and be a good actor or whatever.
WOODRUFF: Did you personally support the administration's conduct in this war on Iraq?
DUVALL: Well, it was difficult to come to a conclusion. I suppose history will prove what is right or wrong. But I'm not against going to war if it's for a good reason.
Hopefully, this has been a good reason. We'll see. They did it well, though. The men and women who fought in Iraq did it well. They were wonderful.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Actor Robert Duvall. And we should mention, Senator Chuck Hagel, whom we just spoke to, was one of the principal sponsors of that legislation to create a visitors' center at the Vietnam War Memorial.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
