Okay, this is really special to me. From the vaults, a video interview with one of my favorite writers Kurt Vonnegut (originally posted 1/17/09). I’ll catch up with you after you get to the end of this post.

—-

After I completed my Masters degree, I took off a year (I was supposed to go back and get a Ph.D. — that never happened) and traveled around the country. Freed from academics, I could read anything I wanted to. And what I wanted to — and did — read that summer was a lot of Kurt Vonnegut. His combination of science fiction, dark humor and satire led to some great books, many of which became movies including Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), Mother Night (1996), and Breakfast of Champions (1999). But there is one story I want to remember: “Who Am I This Time,” a 1982 American Playhouse presentation directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken. Here’s the premise:

From a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. Christopher Walken is a shy hardware store employee. But whenever he takes a part in a local amateur theater production, he becomes the part completely–while on screen. Susan Sarandon is new in town, a lonely itenerant telephone company employee. On a whim, she auditions for and gets the part of Stella to Walken’s Stanley when the theater group does A Streetcar Named Desire. Before anyone realizes the problem, she falls deeply in love with the sexy brute, not knowing what the real man is like.

Has anybody else seen this? It’s a wonderful short movie (60 minutes), human and delightful with a nifty twist at the end. So unlike other of Vonnegut’s material and all the more interesting for it.

This interview is from “The Charlie Rose Show.” The first segment is with author Thomas Wolfe. Vonnegut is second.

UPDATE: I mentioned “Who Am I This Time?” Well, I found the damn thing online! And I’ll be posting it at 4PM EST / 1PM PST (U.S.) today. It stars Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken. You have to watch it – a truly fantastic little story.