STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces

Do we have enough Happy Eggs?

Yes!

Timing is very, very important.

Usually, I have two slices.

There you go.

I can cook one thing.

No, I can cook two things, two poached eggs.

The secret... olive oil.

Now, this is the chef part.

I put way too much in.

All the years you were... kind of living by yourself?

I ate every meal out, including breakfast.

So if I was to look in your fridge in those days, what would I find?

Nothing.

Marty and I, he loves poached eggs on toast too.

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So we're often staying in hotels.

So, if I get a particularly good looking poached eggs,

I'll e-mail Marty the photo and he's never done it back.

Now... yes.

I like a lot of pepper.

Oh, Steve. Will you marry me?

Glad you're not filming this 'cause it'd be so embarrassing.

So, why did you agree to make this documentary?

It's a hard thing to answer.

You ever think you'd be so bored?

I'd see it as a... antidote

to the sort of anodyne interviews,

generic things I've talked about a million times.

And look back at what an odd life.

My whole life is backwards.

How did I go from riddled with anxiety in my 30s

to 75 and really happy?

How did this happen?

My wife, if she looked at this video,

she would say, "What were you doing just then?"

And I'd say, "Putting things away."

She goes, "Oh, is that what that was?"

Well...

So this... I'll move this.

This tape is 45 years old.

If I calculate.

And... I used to tape the show to play back to hear...

I didn't do that often, but occasionally I'd play it back.

So, I'm a little afraid to listen to this.

Let's just press play.

You know, I read something in Time magazine, really disturbed me.

It said at any time the sun could expand

and engulf the Earth and completely destroy it.

I said, "That's it. I'm getting a smoke detector."

Bigger laugh than it deserved.

This stand-up thing was huge to me, it was gigantic.

Now it almost feels like a blip.

You know, we're really lucky the way the human body turned out.

You know, like a simple thing. Instead of having two arms,

we just had one arm right in the center of our body.

That, I'd do like that.

And that would totally put an end to show business,

because how would people clap?

Pretty good.

Okay, I'm starting... You know, I've had enough.

I mean, we should listen to the end, see where it went,

but I just can't bear it, you know.

I have a whole new life now.

It's Marty.

- Hello? - Hi. They need you in ten minutes.

Hello?

Hung up on me.

So, I know you like making cartoons.

How would you feel about writing some cartoons

about how you feel about making this documentary?

- Yeah, like the-- like that. - Okay.

What's going on? That was a false start.

Being able to witness an artist reinvent himself

is really quite extraordinary.

There are very few artists that do that.

For an artist to walk away from that

to find another way of being creative and connecting.

They're aiming for the art of their life.

You know, bravery is the word that comes to mind.

You have to be driven by something outside of what the thing is.

There was a big premiere of The Jerk.

Marie! Where are you, Marie?

Marie!

And four of us go out for dinner with a friend of mine and my father.

And my father said nothing about the movie. Nothing.

And finally, my friend says... "Glenn

what did you think of Steve in the movie?"

And he said, "Well, he's no Charlie Chaplin."

Okay, now do it again. Leave the tape rolling. Do it again.

Back up, Steve, so you're a little further away from the camera.

And this time, don't turn so much in the beginning,

but turn more in the turn, you know what I mean?

Like you showed me.

Okay, go ahead.

God I... sorry.

On my next film, Pennies From Heaven,

I had to learn to tap dance because I didn't know anything.

So, I tap danced for six months.

I wanted to do it, so badly.

Well, Gregory, I... I just finished my first MGM musical.

It's called Pennies From Heaven.

Yeah, I heard it's very good.

I think it's the best thing I've ever done.

- It's my first dramatic role. - Dramatic role?

- That's right. - No wild and crazy guy, huh?

Yeah, it's a totally different thing for me.

- But I do sing and dance a little. - Dance?

It was... made me cry. I just thought it was great.

And the movie has this great concept.

Lip syncing old songs.

If I should wake And find your arms around me...

Steve, when the conversation's like this

he cuts in like that.

That's... He comes from an angle from outer space,

and it comes from his innocence.

It doesn't come from anything calculated. It's just who he is.

I loved it and I thought, "Oh, this is a huge hit."

Yes, absolutely.

I'm gonna say, "Yes, absolutely," to everything you ask me. So...

How's the reaction?

Yes, absolutely.

"Yes, absolutely."

Is Steve Martin a pompous ass? "Yes, absolutely."

And it flopped.

The winner for this year's Oscar

for Best Performance in a Motion Picture, Pennies From Heaven...

...Mr. Steve Martin.

- Did it embarrass you? - Oh, horribly.

I'm ashamed to say how I... felt.

I felt like, you know, a big failure.

I did it all myself.

I don't have anybody to thank.

Not Mom and Dad or the people behind the camera.

It was just me!

I was exhausted. And nothing was working.

- Want a nice time, honey? - No, I like feeling miserable.

I thought I'm gonna take a break. Go to London by myself.

And it was eerie because I could walk down the street

and no one would look at me.

And I was very lonely.

And I went to see the movie Flashdance.

And so I'm sitting there, just depressed and lonely.

And the movie comes on, and there's some little scene where a kid,

they're all feeling their oats and he says,

"I want to be like Steve Martin."

I recognize the irony of just sitting there, like,

"No, you don't want to be me right now, I'm telling you."

- Just quickly... - Yeah.

- With all these reviews... - Right.

And it is such an interesting, strange movie

and the really powerful people in the industry have given it great reviews,

and of course, there has been negative reviews too.

And I've found something that the people who like it

are, like, wise and intelligent people...

- Yeah. - And the people who don't like it...

- Real dummies. - ...are ignorant scum.

Right.

That can happen.

Yeah. You liked it, didn't you?

- Yes. Sure. Wise, wise, wise. - Yeah. Well see...

I kind of decided, Steve,

I don't want to say anything negative about colleagues anymore

- 'cause it's hard enough... - Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you like your glasses right side up or upside down?

- I like the water over the outside. - Okay.

'Cause you just got a little amount in there.

I think we're done.

But I always had a policy.

You don't criticize other artists.

- Any artist? - It's...

When you look at a painting, I'm sure you're critical.

Well, you know, personally I might like it or dislike it,

I'm not gonna announce it.

- Right. - Because we have critics, you know,

- who wanna kill us. - Right.

That's not what I do. I'm on the artistic side of it, I think.

Or trying to be, anyway.

I think it's weird, when I went to the ballet one time

and they applauded certain things.

As if they know what the difficult things are to do.

These 80-year-old people going... "That's art."

When I learned tap dancing from Danny Daniels, that-- for a movie,

I learned it for a movie and then forgot it.

But he said, "Look, Steve.

There are easy steps that look hard and there are hard steps that look easy,"

so you just don't know what anybody is applauding.

What movie was that?

Pennies From Heaven, I'm sure you know it.

- I do. - Let's watch it. I'm kidding.

Yeah.

Hey, buddies.

I came across a word in Hungarian.

"Pihentagyú."

This is literally meaning "with a relaxed brain."

I thought, "That's what I have now." My brain is relaxed.

I'm not under the pressure that I put myself under then.

You know, I'm not out to prove anything, and better stuff comes.

I wish something would happen.