OSCAR-WINNING actor admits, “I stumbled a bit but I never gave up.” Ruben V. Nepales
LOS ANGELES—Jon Voight, who stars with Liev Schreiber in the crime drama series “Ray Donovan,” talked about the role he relishes these days—being a doting grandpa to his daughter Angelina Jolie’s kids. “I have Angie’s six and they are quite a crew,” said the actor of Angelina’s children with Brad Pitt: Maddox, 13; Pax, 11; Zahara, 10; Shiloh, 9; Vivienne, 6; and Knox, 6.
“They’re an amazing bunch of energy,” continued the Oscar and Golden Globe Award winner in this chat at the Four Seasons Hotel in LA. “Some of them are getting into that teenage era that Liev (who has two kids with Naomi Watts) is so frightened of. That teenage era can get into another set of things but I think they (Angelina’s kids) are going to do pretty well. As they grow up, those times will be good for us with this crew.
“And yet, with all the children that are in your family, you still miss having the babies. Although now you have little kids—you can talk to them. They have opinions and it becomes exciting. It’s a nice time.”
Jon opened up about being a father to Angelina and James; his second marriage to their late mom, actress Marcheline Bertrand, which ended in a divorce (like his marriage with first wife, Lauri
Peters); and his own personal and professional struggles.
“In some ways, I was trying to be around more than I was,” said the actor, now 76, whose many memorable films include “Midnight Cowboy,” “Coming Home,” “Runaway Train” and “The Champ.”
“I did make mistakes with my kids,” admitted Jon, who had a well-publicized tumultuous relationship with
Angelina. Father and daughter have been in good terms in recent years. “Whew—I went through a lot of drama, as you know. You have seen me through that. But surely, I always loved my children dearly.
Different pace
“I love my grandchildren. The thing is, you don’t have the responsibility and it’s not a 24-hour thing. When you are with your children for 24 hours, you have to have a different pace. And you have to find private time to do this and do that balance. Yet, you are available to them every second.
“As a grandfather, you can’t wait to see them (grandkids) because you are not spending that much time with them. You want to get as much out of them as you can. You don’t want to leave them for a second. It’s a different kind of feeling. You want to get to know them. If you have six of them, you spend a little time with them for a day or so. You want to find special time with each of them, to make that contact. It’s exciting.”
Humanitarian nature
Jon claimed that he noticed his daughter’s humanitarian nature early on. “Angie gave indication of it when she was young that she would fight for others’ rights and defend people who were picked on. She had that ingredient. I see the work that she’s done with the United Nations. She’s a lovely person with kids. She cares for other people, taking their side and stuff. She’s got that, for sure.”
Jon is also proud of Angelina’s achievements as a director. “I was very impressed with her direction of ‘Unbroken.’ As an actor, a filmmaker and an audience member, I don’t know how anyone could have told that story better. It’s a brilliant piece of direction. I know the things that she fought for with the casting. I am very proud of her.”
Although he appears to have smooth relationships with Angelina and James now, Jon elaborated on his lessons as a dad who had volatile relationships with his children, “I learned the basics. I was distracted when I started out. I was a little confused. This is a very tricky terrain. I don’t know how much to say about this. Sometimes you get a little off. I was a very young person. I had a lot of things. I was exploring in life.”
On his own upbringing, rise as an actor and subsequent marriages, the New York native shared, “I had very good parents—very admirable mother and father and good brothers (his younger sibling Wes Voight composed the 1960s hit, “Wild Thing”). I had a lot of schooling from Catholic schools—nice schooling. I have no regrets about that.
“Then I was anxious to get out in the world. In the beginning, I stumbled a bit but I never gave up. I knew I had something. I had enough encouragement from different people at different times who said that I got something.
“Then you get all this attention and then it was like, what am I doing now—everybody was getting married. I was getting in my 30s and saying, now that I had some success, I should get married. I actually pushed myself into being married. I said, I should be married and have children. I should be a normal person.
“Then I met Marcheline. We had our ups and downs. I finally said, ‘Let’s get married.’ I don’t know how I made that decision. I wasn’t as stable as I should have been at that time.”
“I thought that all the attention that I got would probably turn my head a little bit although there were a lot of good aspects when I look back,” Jon pointed out. “But I got off and made mistakes. The marriage dissolved and I have regrets about that because it’s difficult when those things happen. When people say they are going to get divorced, I say, ‘Don’t do it. You had love between you and you can find that again. You must do it for the kids because a divorce is a terrible scar.’ I didn’t know that then.
“I wanted to take care of the mother and the children. I wanted to be with them all the time but the scars that were created from the divorce prevented that. I am still living with those ramifications.”
Born babysitter
If he didn’t become an actor, Jon claimed that he would have been a babysitter. “I really love being with kids, listening and talking to them and playing with them—even little babies. People who know me—friends—come up to my table if I am eating in a restaurant and say, ‘Jon, there’s a baby over there. You have to see that baby. He’s terrific.’ And I go over to see the baby because I love children.”
“Age brings wisdom,” he remarked. “There’s a lot to learn. I made more mistakes than anybody. You learn from your mistakes. I remember my grandfather. He had nothing but patience. I have that with the kids too now. I have patience [with them] and I am not thinking about anything else. When I am with a kid, I am fully focused and so appreciative of the life before me and the delight that this child is going through with so many things. Just to enjoy their exuberance for life is a magnificent thing.”
Great father
Jon once again brought up Liev, who plays his son, the titular character in “Ray Donovan.” “As Liev is thinking about his children, I am thinking about my grandchildren too, how much time is left for me and to do something for the next generation, too.”
“You see the joy that Liev has in going home,” Jon added. “As soon as he walks in the house, the kids jump on him and he becomes daddy. He appreciates it. He’s a great father. I have seen him with his kids. He’s responsible—that’s what we must be. It’s the most important thing.”
“It’s wonderful working with Liev,” he stressed. Jon plays Mickey Donovan, who adds to the woes of Liev’s Ray, a “fixer” for a powerful LA law firm. Showtime, which airs the series, describes Mickey as “an ill-tempered ex-con who is nevertheless charming.” Jon’s four Golden Globe trophies include one for best supporting actor in 2014 for his performance in this show.
“Mickey’s arc this year is that he’s trying to establish himself on his own,” Jon said about what to expect from his character in the coming Season 3. “His real love is his family. Mickey wants to show Ray that he can do it on his own. Mickey wants to have some stature. Unfortunately, he goes in the wrong direction. Mickey always ends up doing the wrong thing but he has other intentions. I have great sympathy for Mickey (laughs).”
“I am very pleased that the first thing they do is smile,” Jon said about how the hit show’s followers react when they see him in person. “They know… ‘Oh my God, here he is.’ Then they say, ‘I hate you!’ Yet they are smiling. They say, ‘You are great. I love to hate you. Why do I like you so much?’ Stuff like that. It’s a conundrum. But there’s a lot of humor in how they view the character. They are right—there’s a lot of humor in this character.
“He’s crazy. He’s a mess; he’s going to be trouble (laughs). Yet he goes forth. He’s a little like Don Quixote without any of the nobility. He always seems to get himself into deep trouble and that’s going to happen in this season. Then Liev is going to have to try to rescue him.”
(E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.)