A Look Back at the Work of James Lipton (2007)

Unless you have been under a rock for the last ten years, you’ve at least heard of, if not seen the show Inside the Actor’s Studio. The highest rated program in the history of the Bravo network, the show offered and continues to offer audiences a glimpse into the lives and acting process of Hollywood elite. It’s so well known, in fact, that it eclipses, at least in notoriety, the hard-knocks school of acting that it was originally based upon. The name of the Studio’s famed mentor, the late Lee Strasberg, may fall easily from the lips of the subjects of the program, but it’s the host of the cable show, James Lipton, that is today inextricably linked with the Studio. Television has that effect. The show is seen in 79 million American homes and in 125 countries around the world.

Writer, poet, dean, host, producer, James Lipton has been gracing stages and studios for decades, writing and acting in four Daytime Dramas, writing books and writing the 1967 Broadway musical, Sherry!, but it is his one-on-one sit down talk show with the giants of American theatre and cinema that has made him into a household name, a cult of personality that has been celebrated and lampooned, perhaps the highest honor in American popular culture.

In recognition of a career that has spanned more than a half-century, for molding perhaps the definitive craft archive of our time, this year, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honors James Lipton with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

At the close of each interview he conducts, Lipton asks his guests ten, what some might call, random questions. These random questions were inspired by French journalist, interviewer and talk show host Bernard Pivot, who himself was inspired by a Proustian questionnaire. We took the opportunity of his Lifetime honor to turn the questions on Jim.

1. What is your favorite word?

J.L.: Honor.

2. What is your least favorite word?

J.L.: The “N-word.” No matter who uses it.

3. What turns you on?

J.L.: Words, our most precious natural resource.

4. What turns you off?

J.L.: Humiliation – especially toward a defenseless child.

5. What sound or noise do you love?

J.L.: The most underrated “sound” of all: silence.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?

J.L.: The deafening din that passes for fun in many public places today.

7. What is your favorite curse word?

J.L.: It’s neither obscene nor scatological; it’s profane. Jesus Christ!

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

J.L.: A classical dancer – but with this proviso: forever young and never injured.

9. What profession would you not like to participate in?

J.L.: Executioner.

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

J.L.: “You see, Jim? You were wrong. I exist. But you may come in anyway.”