The Year in Interviews

Actor Elliott Gould talked with us in April while in town to promote his film The Caller during the Tribeca Film Festival.

And you’re from Brooklyn originally. I was conceived in Far Rockaway on Beach 126th Street, or so I’m told. And I was born and brought up in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. I went to P.S. 247. I used to go to the Marboro movie theater on Bay Parkway. I saw all the great movies there like For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Picture of Dorian Gray and Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

When we were making The Caller the working title was On the Hook. I suggested another title. In the scene where [Frank] Langella’s character comes into the apartment and I realize he’s the one who’s hired me and he’s John Doe, I say “You knew me and you’re John Doe.” So I suggested that a concept for a title for this movie, being that it’s so abstract, would be And You’re John Doe. Which is a message then to whatever audience sees it; the audience is the unknown person. And You’re John Doe. I thought it was great. But we’re The Caller and, you know, whatever. You know: The Caller. Sounds like a quarterback to me.