Actor, writer and director Gene Wilder talks about his life from his childhood through drama school, theater and cinema, studying at the Actors Studio, his first big breaks in 1967 with ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘The Producers’, his relationships with Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor, playing Willy Wonka in ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ (1971), why ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1975) is his favourite film, the controversial scene from ‘Silver Streak’ (1976), his marriage to Gilda Radner, why he retired from acting to write novels and what he has learned along the way.
00:00 - Intro
01:34 - Why I thought I could make people laugh
02:55 - Why I wanted to become an actor
04:45 - Being bullied at the military academy
05:58 - The impact of my mother’s illness
07:19 - My parents reaction to wanting to become an actor
08:50 - Meeting your idols: Lee J. Cobb in ‘Death of a Salesman’
11:37 - Acting studies and going to England
15:07 - The Actors Studio and Lee Strasberg
18:46 - Realizing my strength was comedy not drama
20:52 - Getting into movies: ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘The Producers’
25:34 - Meeting Zero Mostel
29:18 - Mel Brooks as a director
30:14 - Why 'Springtime for Hitler' became 'The Producers'
31:32 - The Academy Award nomination
32:29 - ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’
34:48 - 'Young Frankenstein'
37:11 - Casting Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman
38:52 - Arguing for 'Putting on the Ritz'
39:49 - Knowing when something is funny
42:52 - Becoming a director
45:25 - 'Silver Streak' and meeting Richard Pryor
47:11 - 'Silver Streak' - the shoe-polish scene
51:14 - The Black and White ‘double-act’ of Pryor and Wilder
53:17 - Gilda Radner
01:00:21 - Loss and Love
01:02:01 - Ironies and Life