Tracy Letts

It means emotional access, right, that you can easily access and bring to the surface any number of emotions, which is one of the first jobs any actor does.

It means a facility with language, which he had.

And for me, perhaps most importantly in terms of Duvall, it means a certain transformational ability.

You know, movie stars, for the most part, bring you some version of themselves, and they perform that version of themselves over and over.

And Duvall was certainly capable of doing that and did that a lot.

But he was also capable of... You know, if you sit in a place that is, this is essentially me, and then you sort of fiddle with the dials, you know, you might get some range.

But with Duvall, you got a lot of range.

You got...

a tremendous flexibility and very facile transformational quality that he could play low status, high status, verbal, nonverbal, smart, dumb, rural and urban, especially with him.

It was a big swing.

And occasionally just uncork something way out of what you would think is his comfort zone.

That for me is not only what great acting is, it's what makes acting fun.

It's why I think anybody would want to be an actor, to be able to be different people in different circumstances.

And for me, Duvall was...

The best example of that.

Hard to find a comp.

I'm sure we'll talk about that, but it's hard to find a comp.

Right.

Well, I mean, if the movies are essentially, what, 120 years old, he's the last 60 years of it.

He really is.