Robert Duvall: Legendary star of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now reveals why he’s not done at 90

Robert Duvall says his six-decade career isn’t done yet, as he revealed which Aussie actor’s performance impressed him the most.

Even at the ripe old age of 90, acting legend Robert Duvall is still searching for his next project.

The veteran star of screen classics including To Kill a Mockingbird, True Grit, The Godfather, Network and Apocalypse Now has been nominated for seven Academy Awards in a career that spans more than six decades and he sits at No. 17 on the imdb.com list of the Top 100 Actors of All Time. But at a time when his contemporaries are disappearing from view – one of his former roommates, Gene Hackman, has retired, as has sometime Oscars rival Jack Nicholson – Duvall is still taking calls from filmmakers and actors still wanting to work with one of the true greats.

Granting a rare interview from the Virginia home he shares with fourth wife Luciana Pedraza and their two Aussie blue heelers, Blue and Virginia (“they are like our kids – they are the best”), Duval reveals even though the pandemic has largely confined him to quarters of late, he’s raring to go on couple of projects. Duvall says he’s waiting to shoot some scenes for Adam Sandler’s coming sports comedy Hustle when it’s safe to do so and also has a part as a serial killer in Ed Harris’ adaptation of The Ploughmen in the pipeline – if it ever gets funded.

Robert Duvall in scene from The Apostle, which he wrote, directed and self-funded.

“I hate to say it, but maybe time is running out so come on boys, let’s get it together,” Duvall says with a throaty chuckle. “They are bringing me stuff still, but it’s a matter of getting a green light.”

“Ed has written an adaptation of the novel and it’s a terrific part, but we’ve been waiting for two years to get the money. There’s money out there but sometimes it’s hard to lay your hands on enough to do it.”

KILLER INSTINCT

Should his serial killer part come off, Duvall says he will be turning to one of his former co-stars for inspiration – Eric Bana. The Aussie actor played Duvall’s son in the 2007 drama Lucky You, describing the experience as one of the greatest honours of his career, and clearly the respect is mutual.

“What he did in Chopper was one of the great performances you will ever see,” Duvall says. “Anywhere. I have seen it twice and I want to see it again. If I play this serial killer, I will watch it again before I do it. And Eric Bana? Talented guy and a nice guy to work with.”

Duvall is on the phone to talk about a new Blu-ray release of his acclaimed 1997 drama, The Apostle, which he wrote, produced and directed. The story of a charismatic but volatile preacher trying to save souls in the American South was a labour of love for Duvall – after trying and failing to get it made for years, he ended up bankrolling it with $US5 million of his own money.

“I had a script and it went through many hands and many years before it came to fruition,” he says. “I had a very fine, good gentleman who was my CPA (certified practising accountant) and he said ‘well, I think you can swing it and put your own money into it’. That was the only way we could get it done.”

Robert Duvall says his Lucky You co-star Eric Bana gave one of the all-time great performances in Chopper.

RELIGIOUS FERVOUR

The Apostle and its lead character Euliss “Sonny” Dewey – which Duvall puts in his top 10 of his more than 100 film and TV credits, and earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination – were inspired by a chance encounter with a fire-and-brimstone preacher in a small Arkansas town while travelling from Los Angeles to New York. He was transfixed and electrified by the passion and the religious fervour and scoured the country trying to find out what made them tick and how he could do justice to them on film.

“I went to churches all over America,” he says. “I was really surveying these churches trying to make my homework play off in a valid way.”

As his fame soared in the 1970s after the monumental success of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, in which he played loyal consigliore Tom Hagen, Duvall was referred to by People Magazine as “Hollywood’s No. 1 No. 2 lead”. As the consummate character actor, Duvall says he’s always been drawn to complex, morally ambiguous characters such as Hagen, Apocalypse Now’s Colonel Kilgore, and Network’s Frank Hackett rather than more straightforward heroic leads.

“I think that the most interesting characters in history are complex people, with their pros and cons. People have to have complexities to make it interesting and that’s what life is about. So, I try to do different parts and parts that always have contradictions and weaknesses as well as positive things because that’s what makes up people.”

The Apostle is out now on Blu-ray.

Robert Duvall with his Godfather and Apocalypse Now director Francis Ford Coppola. Picture: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

BEST AND WORST

Despite having well over 100 TV and film credits to his name, Robert Duvall has no hesitation about naming his favourite two roles: Tom Hagen from The Godfather and The Godfather Part II and Captain Augustus “Gus” McCrae in the TV Western miniseries Lonesome Dove, for which he won a Golden Globe. After that, it gets hard to pin down, but The Apostle, Stalin and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway are right up there.

“When I played Josef Stalin, we filmed it right in the Kremlin, that was one of my favourite parts,” he says. “In Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, I played a Cuban-American, a barber, with Richard Harris and I studied that accent for months. And then when I went to Cuba they said I’d made it, so I felt good about that.”

In a career spanning more than 60 years, he acknowledges not every post can be a winner, graciously declining to name names. “I have done some lemons too,” he says with a chuckle. “But I had to make a living so I have made some crap in my life.”

Robert Duvall and wife Luciana Duvall, pictured at the SXSW festival in 2015, live in Virginia with their two Aussie Blue Heelers. Picture: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for SXSW

THE OSCARS

Duvall’s seven Oscar nominations put him up with the all-time greats, but he’s only walked away with the golden statue once, winning Best Actor for Tender Mercies in 1984. His other nominations were in Best Actor for The Great Santini (he lost to Robert De Niro for Raging Bull), and The Apostle (he lost to Jack Nicholson for As Good As It Gets) and in Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather (he lost to Joel Grey for Cabaret), Apocalypse Now (he lost to Melvyn Douglas for Being There), A Civil Action (he lost to James Coburn for Affliction) and The Judge (he lost to J.K. Simmons for Whiplash).

Many thought he was unlucky not to add to his Oscars tally, particularly for The Apostle – but did he ever feel robbed?

“When I lost to De Niro when he played the prize-fighter, I could understand that,” Duvall says. “He was terrific. Other times when I have lost, I am not going to give much comment.”

Robert Duvall as the legendary Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.

APOCALYPSE NOW

With his cavalry hat and boots and endlessly quotable catchphrases “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” and “Charlie don’t surf”, Duvall’s Colonel Kilgore from Apocalypse Now (left) is one of the most enduring and memorable film characters ever. But while the production was famously difficult for director Francis Ford Coppola – with sets destroyed by bad weather, having to replace original lead actor Harvey Keitel with Martin Sheen (who then had a heart attack on set) and Marlon Brando arriving overweight and underprepared – Duvall says he loved the experience making the movie in the Philippines. But while Kilgore is famous for the helicopter raid on the village set to The Ride Of the Valkyries, Duvall says it scared the hell out of him.

“I went out there and did the first few scenes and it was terrible because I am afraid of heights and they had no real barrier doors on those helicopters,” he says. “And then they changed actors and I had to reshoot it, which gave me another chance to get into it. I actually enjoyed doing that in the Philippines but it was difficult for Coppola, putting up his own money. I always liked working with Coppola. At his best, he was wonderful.”