Former ABC Nightline news anchor and Syracuse University alumnus Ted Koppel said he was not trying to extract a deep, dark secret when he sat down with stage and film actor and fellow alum Frank Langella Thursday night.
He was there to have a conversation.
"I never prepare questions for an interview," Koppel said at a press conference a few hours before the interview with Langella at Syracuse Stage. "An interview is a conversation and tonight that conversation is about celebrating Frank's accomplishments."
Koppel, whose coverage of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis made him a national icon in American news broadcasting, picked the actor's brain on a variety of subjects ranging from how he prepares for roles to memories of life at SU.
Langella, who graduated from SU in 1959 with a theater arts degree, was awarded the George Arents Award for excellence in performing arts by SU as part of the new Orange Central celebration during Homecoming weekend.
Koppel, who graduated from SU in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in speech and dramatic arts and received an honorary doctorate of law from the university in 1982, was also a recipient of the George Arents award in 2005, one of SU's highest honors to alumni.
Koppel focused on Langella's most recent performance, his portrayal of former U.S. President Richard Nixon in the 2008 film "Frost/Nixon" that earned him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination, as well as Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations. Langella also won the Tony award for his portrayal of Nixon in the original Broadway production of "Frost/Nixon."
At first, Langella said he did not want to accept the role, claiming that it was not in "his bag of tricks." After being convinced by the director to accept, the three-time Tony award winner tirelessly poured over old video and audio footage to master Nixon's voice. Langella even visited the former president's childhood home.
"For 36 days, once the jacket and the wig went on, I never related to anyone other than Richard Nixon," Langella said.
Aside from discussing Langella's film career, both men reminisced over their days on The Hill, and especially memories of SU football star Jim Brown.
"It was a great time to be here," Koppel said, remembering how he once saw Brown drive around campus in a red Pontiac.
"I got to share the infirmary with Jim Brown once when I had the flu," Langella said.
But for Langella, perhaps an even more notable influence from his days at Syracuse came from his then-theater professor, Sawyer Falk, whom Langella quoted throughout the night.
"Act in spite of your neuroses, not because of it," Langella remembered Falk saying to him once.
When asked by an audience member whether he preferred Broadway or the silver screen, Langella said he enjoys them both, citing the immediacy of theatre performance and the intricacies of performing in front of a camera in film acting as reasons for his love of the two.
Koppel briefly reflected, in between questions, on having worked for WAER radio at SU. Koppel claimed he was only awarded the position because he could speak German and French and could pronounce the names of German and French composers, as the station played classical music at the time. Koppel currently works for National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp. as a senior news analyst.
Langella's next challenge is on the silver screen in Oliver Stone's upcoming film "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" in which he portrays an elderly Jewish mogul destroyed by a younger generation of businessmen.
Koppel and Langella agreed their time spent at SU and the people they have met, or in Koppel's case interviewed, along the way have affected their careers.
"We've been in the presence of great people all of our lives," Langella said.
lefoti@syr.edu
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