Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind...
A Reilly Good Show - A Chat with The Life of Reilly Co-Director Barry Poltermann
Expanded Editition of 3-5-08 Windy City Times Interview
by Richard Knight, Jr.
The film poster, Charles Nelson Reilly with Poltermann prior to filming, CNR in his heyday, CNR onstage - mesmerizing his audience
In 2004 after nearly 400 performances of his acclaimed one-man stage show, “Save It for the Stage,” Charles Nelson Reilly stopped
touring with the show but nearly two years later he was convinced by indie director Barry Poltermann to remount it one last time so
that Poltermann (along with co-director Frank Anderson) could record it for a movie.  That movie,
The Life of Reilly, captures the
irascible, bitingly funny, heartfelt Reilly at the peak of his powers.  It also instantly reveals there was much more to the openly gay
Reilly than just regular appearances on “The Match Game” and as the villain in the kids program “Lidsville” would presume.  
Touching, bittersweet, hilarious, and eye opening, the movie is an unforgettable portrait of a great theatrical artist and his straight
out of Tennessee Williams family members.  The movie will play an exclusive one week engagement in Chicago at Facets beginning
this Friday, March 7 and continuing through the 13th.  Poltermann will conduct a Q&A with audience members following both the 7
and 9pm performances on Saturday the 8th and again following matinees on Sunday the 9th.

Windy City Times spoke with Poltermann about the film and his close friendship with Reilly.  Highlights:


WINDY CITY TIMES (WCT):  How did you decide what to keep and what to toss from the stage performance which ran over 3 ½ hours?

BP:  Prior to shooting we decided which pieces we wanted to keep.  He would talk for instance, about how he loved Mae West and
would tell great stories about her but they weren’t about his life so that narrowed it down and then we started honing in on his family
and a few friends.  The backstage, “making of” stories started to seem like DVD extras.

WCT:  Everybody knows him from “Match Game” and there’s literally only one tiny thing where he mentions “game shows” and that’s
it.  Wasn’t it hard to take that out?

BP:  Well actually that was an easy choice because he didn’t do anything about “Match Game” (laughs).  Everything he said about
television – everything – is in the film.  It’s like 25 seconds until the story about being on Johnny Carson.

WCT:  That’s very surprising.

BP:  To him the television career that we know so well and we grew up with is something he did for some extra money for a brief
period of his life and it didn’t make a big impact on him.  It was fun; he didn’t seem embarrassed by it but he didn’t really feel like
talking about it.  He told a few stories about Gene Rayburn but it was mostly about when they were on Broadway together.  I could
have asked him to do something about it but he would probably have ignored it.  Not that he was hard to work with – just the
opposite.  But he was like a jazz musician – he’d get into a moment and he’d riff and he didn’t hit marks.  So we just sort of gave up
on that notion and decided we had to keep up so we did the whole thing handheld.

WCT:  The finished film reflects that – it’s like you’re catching lightning in a bottle.

BP:  I told the cameraman, “If it goes out of focus, it goes out of focus, if he moves out of the shot, he moves out of the shot – just
try to keep up with him.”  The more we tried to lock it down during rehearsals it impacted negatively on his performance.  He just
didn’t want to do it like that and he was right.  So it became our challenge to accommodate that.

WCT:  He was by all accounts an amazingly gifted theatre director.  I remember him on either Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin and
pulling three ordinary housewives out of the audience and in minutes had them doing the three witches from “Macbeth” – and you
were convinced they were witches.  Did he talk at all about working with Julie Harris and directing her in the many famous “Belle of
Amherst” productions?

BP:  He talked a lot about Julie Harris and that was one of the most difficult things for us to cut and that’s something that I think
especially theatre fans are going to love on the DVD.  That was one of his closest relationships and one of the things that he was
most proud of.  What it ultimately came down to for us was that it was impossible to condense that and it was about half an hour of
Julie Harris.  Great stuff about their relationship and how they met but it was like another film and the family stories just became
more important and Charles agreed when he saw it.

WCT:  That’s wonderful to hear that it will be on the DVD.  So when is the DVD coming out with all these extra goodies?

BP:  That’s a good question.  We’re in the process of shopping it around for DVD release and talking to distributors.  We’re hoping to
get it out in the spring.

WCT:  For my gay readership, did he talk more about his partner Patrick and was there more gay content?  Maybe discrimination he
felt at some point?

BP:  Everything he talked about as far as being gay is in the film.  I asked him about it a couple of times.  We became pretty good
friends and towards the end as he was getting sick and the reviews were coming in and we had a MySpace and we’d read him the
questions people would send in and that was a question we were getting a lot.  So I had a chance to talk to him about that and his
perspective was that he didn’t want to be defined by his sexuality.  He was open; he always said, “Everyone knows that I’m gay and
I'm not ashamed of that and I’ve lived an open life and I love Patrick.”  But it wasn’t something that he felt he wanted to be defined
by anymore than somebody who is heterosexual should be defined in that manner.

WCT:  That’s right! (laughs)  We homos look forward to being defined for our professions or accomplishments, too – just like the
straight world.

BP:  In a way I got to see him as a step ahead – that he’d already dealt with that.  It just didn’t matter.  He really felt strongly about
that and he didn’t like it when people would say that he was a gay icon or he was a trailblazer or anything like that.  He felt it was
irrelevant; he felt, “This isn’t something that any of us should have to be discussing in this day and age.”

WCT:  Yes, we shouldn’t have to but unfortunately…

BP:  I think in Charles’ case he had an amazing ability to not care what anyone thought.

WCT:  That’s pretty obvious.

BP:  People have said to me, “You know he never talked about it until after his television career was pretty much over” and I would
say, “I don’t think that’s true.  I think he was fiercely who he was always.  He was always a full human being and was proudly who he
was and that comes through in every second of his career.”

WCT:  Also, because that question was never openly asked.  It was a subject that was just too taboo.  You didn’t dare ask someone
about their sexuality.

BP:  Right but then when he was asked the question in later years he discussed it at length without hesitation.  He talked about
Patrick quite a bit in interviews but the story of his life had a lot of obstacles – only one of which was some amount of prejudice for
his sexuality.  He didn’t want that to become the story.

WCT:  Did he see the finished movie?

BP:  He did and he loved it.  I think he probably wished it was a bit longer (laughs).  He saw an early rough cut.  He came over to my
house and watched it which was one of the most nerve wracking nights of my life.  His epic narrative had been condensed down to 90
minutes.  He said he loved it and the next day he called up with some notes and he had a lot of really good ideas which we used.

WCT:  Throughout the film he casts various people in the roles of his family – Shirley Both as his mother, Hume Cronyn as his
father, Burt Lancaster as his uncle, etc. – but I’m just wondering, did he ever say, “Barry, when you make the biopic of my life I want
to be played by NAME?

BP:  Oh wow, that is the best question I’ve ever been asked but I never asked it and he never suggested it that I can recall.

WCT:  I’m so surprised because it’s such a motif throughout the movie and he’s the one person he doesn’t cast.

BP:  I think that’s because he wanted him to play himself!

WCT:  (laughs)  I’m sure he did, I’m sure he did!

BP:  But I can’t believe I never thought to ask him that.  It’s such an obvious question but I’ve never been asked it and it reminds
me that there’s a very bittersweet nature to this whole process because he wasn’t around to see it released.  He was around for the
beginning of the festival where it debuted and he saw those early reviews and he ate them up.  But he didn’t get to stand in front of
an audience and soak it in and I can’t call him to ask him that question.  So for Frank (Anderson) and I (the film’s co-director), you
know, sometimes we find we don’t want to speak for him.

WCT:  What did he die from Barry?

BP:  He was sick for about a year and a half off an on before he died.  He had pneumonia and then he had a brain infection – it was
several things.  He had sort of given up on life in a strange way towards the end.  In a strange way, I think this was his last
testament.  There wasn’t much left he wanted to do.  He just kind of withered away.  The night we finished the show and the film he
walked off the stage and down into the dressing room and said, “Well, that’s it.  I’m done.  I’m not going to perform anymore.  That’
s all I wanted to do” and he thanked us for recording it.  The next morning his agent called and said, “Charles isn’t feeling well.  I
just want to let you guys know that he’s cancelled all his upcoming performances, all his directing gigs and he’s retiring.”

WCT:  He wasn’t kidding.

BP:  No he wasn’t.  Then, two or three months later we got together and showed him the first rough cut and he went home after
seeing that rough cut and then had those notes and he was really sick at the time.  About a month later I got a call from Patrick
saying, “You guys should come over and try to cheer him up.  He’s really down” and I went over there and asked, “Are you down
because of the film?” and he said, “No.  I love the film; I’m happy with the film.  I’m just sick.  I just don’t feel well.”  That’s when I
connected that up.  He was fine until he walked of that stage the last time.  I mean, Charles always complained about being ill
(laughs).  Everyone who knew him said, “Oh, he’s been doing this ever since I first knew him” but now he really was.  He just never
really recovered.  

It’s something I don’t talk about too much because I don’t know if there’s a direct connection but he definitely felt a sense of
completion after doing the show and especially after seeing that he liked what we did.  Because he was a little suspicious of us – we
knew the “Lidsville,” “Match Game” side of him and that’s what brought us into this – and that wasn’t who he wanted portrayed so
when he saw the film I think he was happy that we’d gotten it right and he was sort of ready to go.  It was strange to be at the
bedside of someone you didn’t know two years earlier towards the end and thinking, “How did I get here?”  It was incredibly surreal
and knowing him as an amazing and complicated and interesting person and not as this caricature that we grew up made it even
more surreal.  And that’s what I hope people get out of the film; that they walk away saying, “Wow, I just saw this entire thing that I
didn’t know.”