Richard Jenkins On His New Film The Humans, His Early Days As An Actor, And More

Is there an actor or director that you've never worked with, living or dead, past or present, that you would like or have liked to work with?

Well, I don't really think like that. I always think if I worked with him, I'd be so intimidated, but I always loved Michael Caine. Michael Caine, when I saw "Alfie," I was about 18, 19 years old, and I just thought, "What is this?" I had not seen "On the Waterfront," or some others. Those came later to me. I was in my 20s before I watched that stuff.

But I just went to the movies by myself and saw "Alfie," and that's when I really said, "I'm going to do this. I'm going to be an actor." If I can in my life do something like that, even close to what this guy did... It was one of those things where I believe you find movies and plays and literature, you find them when you need them. Alfie came along at a time in my life when I was thinking about, "Could I be an actor? Is that possible? Do I have any talent?" Then you see something and it just motivates you to say, "I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this," and that was Michael Caine.

I've never worked with him, and I've never met him. But I was doing something in London and he was on the soundstage next door, and I don't know why I did this because it's not me really. I would usually stay away, but I ran over there to see if I could meet him. He was gone. I don't know what I would've said to him. "I really liked you in 'Alfie.'" I didn't have a game plan.

And a director?

With directors, I don't ... I wrote a note to Steven Spielberg once and he never wrote back, so I thought, "Well, he's a busy man."

We shot "The Humans" right next door to where they were shooting "West Side Story," and I always wanted to go because the choreographer's a friend of ("Humans" director Stephen Karam), and Stephen said, "He said come over and watch him shoot." I said, "Let's go." He said, "Well, we have a movie to shoot here." "No, no. Let's go watch. Are you kidding? This is 'West Side Story.' We can watch the dance in the gym or something. Let's go see it." We never did.

Do you have a favorite movie of all time? I know that may change all the time, but do you have one?

Well, I don't know if it's the greatest film, but I think performance-wise, "On the Waterfront" is it for me. There's performances that I just love, and I think Brando, and [Eva Marie Saint] is brilliant too, everybody, and it's wonderful. When I see it, I just have to stop and watch it. But I do that with "Grease" too. I love "Grease."

Who doesn't love "Grease?"

I do it with "Cool Hand Luke" and "Hombre" too. Movies come along when you need them. There was a movie called "Bread and Chocolate" that I loved. It's not a great film, but I needed it when it came along. I've seen it since, but at the time it was like, "Whoa," and I think that's what "Alfie" did for me, and "On the Waterfront." You see Brando in that and it's like, "How do you do that? Man, that's really good."

"The Humans" is now playing in theaters in limited release and streaming on Showtime.