“Revenge is a worthless quest,” says the actor.
My name is Inigo Montoya.
You killed my father.
Mandy Patinkin in ‘Death and Other Details;’ Mandy Patinkin in ‘The Princess Bride’.Everett Collection (2)
Prepare to… be investigated for your crimes.
Rufus has one major rule he never works without a partner.
But what if Patinkin were to turn to one of his most famous characters?
Mandy Patinkin on ‘Death and Other Details’.Everett Collection
He opts for the latter.
Sure, but Inigo Montoya is fairly single-minded too, no?
“Why do I choose Inigo Montoya?
Violett Beane and Mandy Patinkin on ‘Death and Other Details’.Everett Collection
“We’re living in a moment when the world is on fire and brokenhearted,” Patinkin continues.
And in most cases, it’s driven by revenge.
Inigo had the privilege to learn that revenge does not bring your father back.
Violett Beane and Mandy Patinkin on ‘Death and Other Details’.Everett Collection
When he says, ‘My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.’
But he didn’t get his father back.
So, Bill Goldman gave us the lesson that revenge is a worthless quest.
MANDY PATINKIN:Not at all.
Sometime in my long ago past, I’m sure I sawMurder on the Orient Express, the original.
I saw the firstKnives Out.Other than that, I know nothing about the genre.
I just read the script and thought, “Well, this looks like fun.”
And this came across my path.
Or did you just start from scratch?
I based it on nothing.
Every time he makes a move, he is looking for something before he leaves the room.
And I loved him.
But I sort of have dabbled in playing people on TV.
I was an FBI-pop in detective inCriminal Minds.I was in the law enforcement spy area onHomeland.
I’ve been on the fringes of that world, but not one of these guys.
Everett Collection
Every detective has a weakness and Rufus’s flaw is that he is an alcoholic.
I’m not prepared to figure it out.
That’s what drunk people fail at doing.
But I did no preparation whatsoever.
There were some, but for the most part they were young and beautiful.
But it said that I had a Brighton accent, and I love doing accents.
I worked diligently at that.
A lot of people don’t know what the accent is.
The show is very glamorous, but Rufus wears basically the same clothes the entire time.
Were you jealous of everyone’s wardrobe?
No, not at all.
I hate clothes in my own wardrobe.
And I just have different ones so that everything’s clean.
I’m not a clothes person.
And then he was all about the shoes and the shoes were hurting my feet.
I can’t walk.”
He said, “Well, Mike will go crazy.”
I said, “I’ll take care of Mike.
And that was my argument to them.
That was my logic because if I can’t walk, I can’t do anything.
You’ve starred opposite some incredible leading ladies over the years, but Violett Beane is a relative newcomer.
What was your working relationship like with her?
She reached out to me early on during the pilot.
She was nervous, and it was a very touching moment.
She asked me if I had any way to help her feel more comfortable.
This was like day one or two, and I said, “Violett, you got here.
This isn’t your first rodeo so you know what you’re doing.”
I was basically saying to trust yourself.
Listen to your own voice, which is very hard for us all to do.
I also said to her, “Don’t be afraid to be afraid.
You’re a person in a strange situation in this story who’s got a lot of baggage.”
Anytime in real life that I’m in front of someone who’s frightened, I lean in.
I take a stab at help them.
It’s a collaborative art form.
The best thing we can all do is the do the best we can every second.
Do you particularly relish working with younger actors?
I love being with young people.
It was Meryl [Streep] and Kevin Kline and Chris Walken and myself and several other people.
Maximilian Schell, the great actor, wanted to doHamlet.
I never got rid of that thought.
And when I became a 50-year-old actor, I wanted to do what Max did.
So I said to a friend, “I would love to doHamlet.”
And the friend worked at NYU graduate school, and they put a whole cast together.
We’re almost through the play, and I have to go the bathroom so bad.
With about five minutes left in the play, I went.
You are as old as the person you’re speaking with.
So if you’re feeling too old, hang around some young people.
It’s the gift of life.
You haven’t appeared in a professional stage production since 2011.
Might we see you back on Broadway any time soon?
Since 1989, I’ve done solo concerts, and I’m on the road now as we speak.
I’m doing concerts and I love doing them more than anything I do.
Indeed, I am working on a play that we did one workshop of a month or so ago.
I’m doing another workshop of the same play at the end of April, the beginning of May.
It’s the most extraordinary piece.
So it’s not just a hope, I’m at it.
