Andre Gregory is known for his iconic theatre productions, his art, and his unique style as an actor. Gregory began his career directing a number of different avant-garde theatre productions.
He was also an actor, playing roles such as John the Baptist in “The Last Temptation of Christ” and Dante, a restaurateur in “The Linguini Incident.” Gregory is perhaps best known for playing the lead role in the 1981 comedy-drama film My Dinner with Andre.
He has a new book out now called “This Is Not My Memoir”, which recounts his life and stories. Gregory joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about his storied career and his new memoir.
Interview Highlights:
On his production of Alice In Wonderland:
“I saw the world of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’ as a world inhabited by mostly horrifying, cruel, sadistic men who are taking this little girl and just, you know, throwing her against the ceiling. In fact, the wonderful theater critic John Lahr, when he wrote about Alice, compared it to young people during the Vietnam War, who had a kind of innocence that was being destroyed by the adult culture, the warlike adult culture. Well, let me put it this way in the Brothers Karamazov at your show, one of the main characters, one of the three Karamazov brothers says ‘until people stop being cruel to children, there will always be wars.’”
On the political nature of My Dinner with Andre:
“His problem is he doesn’t have money. So he has to wait on tables. There’s a strong difference of classes in the movie. And also, there are many references to fascism. And many references to the danger of America…of the American people going to sleep and not noticing that, around them, fascism is coming to birth. So on one level, apart from the entertainment level of the film, and apart from the difference of opinions of these two oddballs, it’s a movie warning America to wake up, fascism is coming. And, sadly, that’s what we’ve seen in the last four years. And thank God, it looks as if it’s been avoided.”
