From a cassette tape belonging to the archive of Nolan Hendricks. This one is labeled 'Sam Westwood, 1991'
Harris: Helen Benson actually had a brief period where she landed some clients that
seemed prestigious. Shelley Hack had just come off that campaign for Charlie perfume which was massive and Helen promptly managed to land her a role in 'Taxi Driver'. That was a
major coup for Helen.
Sam: I thought about signing with her, but wasn't sure I liked the idea of us
both sharing an agent.
Nolan: I'm interested in some of the roles you
didn't get. Is it true you were up for 'Chinatown' in case Jack Nicholson was unable to manage to direct and star?
Sam: Yes. I still think that movie was robbed at the Oscars--
Anyway, I was up for a Barbra Streisand movie too. 'For Pete's Sake'. And I didn't end up getting cast. I only had "what-if" moments about 'Devil Child', 'Dune', and 'Model Shop'.
Nolan: What's this about another stab at 'Devil Child'?
Sam: I've considered it as a follow-up to the film I just did. Shaun and I are in talks as long as I don't use any of the original elements. I'd be getting the chance to direct my own movie. Nothing is set in stone yet, though.
Nolan: Going back to roles you read for, I'm curious to know about 'Day Of The Locust'--
Sam: That was perfect for Bud Cort and Erin Gray. Bud hadn't really had a big role since 'Star-Spangled Girl' and Erin's career was finally starting to pick up steam again.
Harris: She was still modeling too--
Sam: Yeah. If she couldn't get decent roles, she'd switch back to modeling. You had photography. I'd be the first one to tell someone to find something to fall back on and yet I
didn't have that--
Harris: You had your writing.
Sam: True. I mean in those days there
were easier ways to get into writing--
Nolan: I've had to work really hard. Print is still a widely read medium but I think in a few decades it might all go digital--
Sam: I don't know. Does everyone
really want to sit on the computer to read the news?
Harris: You can already post messages with other people about common interests--
Nolan: Message boards.
Harris: One of my fans told me about a 'Rocky Horror' one. I haven't checked any of that out myself yet--
Nolan: Going back to 1975, with everything going on and roles not panning out--
Sam: How did I still manage to have
two movies out that year? Lucky, I guess. (chuckles)
Nolan: You also did TV--
Sam: Yeah, I did that episode of 'Thriller'. Funny, Harris and I were trying to remember when I shot that--
Harris: You went to England for that but I know it was after I got back--
Sam: I shot it during 1975, went there for a few weeks, did a quick shoot. It would have been right before 'Peter Proud'. It was one of those series that aired over here. Think they might have aired it here in November and the next spring in the UK.
Nolan: How did you land that anyway?
Sam: Dick Clayton knew some British TV producers and they had a role for an American on an anthology series called 'Thriller'. The name of the episode was 'Dial A Deadly Number'. This woman thinks she's calling a shrink but she's calling my character who is this down on his luck American actor and everything just goes downhill. For
him. [1]
I enjoyed working on that and it was better than doing another game show over here.
Harris: Nolan wanted to know about
'White Line Fever'--
Nolan: Yeah, I almost forgot.
Sam: They wanted to start shooting that in February but I was still filming 'Devil Child'. The producers suggested another actor but Jonathan Kaplan and the studio wanted me so they waited a month to shoot. The only reason I did the movie was that the shoot was in Tuscon. And because things kept falling through, we thought a quickie movie might make people realize that there was nothing wrong. I'd had so many shoots fall through before and after that.
Of course, I didn't logically think that going home to film a movie, I'd be constantly having to do publicity. I had the key to the city, local news media on the set constantly. Locals who didn't like me growing up would be trying to suck up. I had to wear a disguise just to go for family dinner. It got a
little ridiculous. My dad turned to me and said "You didn't know what you were getting into, did you?"
(chuckles)
That movie came out really fast, like six months later. I remember flying out to shoot 'Peter Proud' right after the premiere.
Nolan: Wait, you always made it sound like the two days you shot for Roger Corman was after 'Devil Child'--
Sam: Well...
let's see, 'Devil Child' was February to March--
(Sam mumbles)
'White Line Fever' was right after and then 'Overlords' was two days in June. Yeah, I guess I shot it in between those two.
The summer before I shot a comedy and that was released first, in July. And it got pummeled because of 'Jaws'. And 'White Line Fever' wasn't a flop. It was a smaller budgeted film so it made money back but it wasn't enormous. Because of 'Jaws', things shifted a little. Movies started to get
bigger.
Harris: Jaws pummeled everything.
Damn that Harrison Ford! (laughs)
Sam: Harrison and I were always up for similar roles even after 'Jaws'. It was when he did 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' that I was left in the dust.
Honestly, I didn't want to primarily be in action movies. I did
a lot of them, though.
Nolan: 'Sunburn' was later but that was a comedy--
Sam: Yeah. A lot of people mention that my 70's movies were all kind of similar but I switched things up often. 'Iowa' I was the romantic lead. I played a cop in 'Brother's Keeper'. But all of those movies were
heavy, heavy films. I wanted to do a comedy.
Nolan: Did you feel conflicted playing a cop?
Sam: I actually had a conversation with Kent McCord when we shot 'Arms Of The Stars'. Kent was uncomfortable doing 'Adam-12' at first. Didn't bring this up to Kent because when we shot that I wasn't out to him. Before my acting career started, I'd been out to a gay bar, something I couldn't do when my film career blew up. This would be about 1964--
Nolan: I can't even imagine. I know how bad things are
now from my sister--
Harris: And you are a straight person who got beat up in Kansas in the '80s just for
associating with gays, imagine what it was like 25 years ago--
Nolan: Good point--
(Cat meows and makes clawing sounds in the background)
Harris: I'll go check on Mary Rose. She probably wants out.
Sam: There was always the chance of a police raid. My other option was to go cruising the park and that seemed depressing. All I wanted was to meet someone else like me, not necessarily
do anything.
Anyway, I get there and felt out of my element. It was just
my luck that there was a police raid that night. It left a bad taste in my mouth. This guy helped me get the Hell out through the back before the cops found us and he became my first boyfriend.
Nolan: Is this the man you were seeing when you were discovered?
Sam: Yeah. He tried to talk me out of doing the screen test and I...I can't "What if" about him because I can't imagine not being with Harris. My then-boyfriend
wanted to make it work and he was hurt that I chose movies over
him. I don't know
why I did it. The excitement, maybe. And that wasn't the only thing I felt guilty over.
When I got drafted, I couldn't mention my sexual orientation because my film career would have ended. So that's how I was deferred and did the training films and went to veterans hospitals. I'd see these guys who were completely damaged, some of them were double amputees, some had shell shock, and I'd think "This should have been me".
(Harris is heard coming back into the room)
Harris: We
both feel like that now with everything going on.
Sam: Yeah. There was a period where we'd constantly have to pencil in a funeral to attend or send flowers (to). Can we shut this off for a bit?
*Tape recorder clicks off*
[1] The OTL version of this episode can be found on YouTube