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Ed Asner Is Still a Badass at 86

18/07/2016 14:57

Larry Jaffee

Editor & Publisher, Walford Gazette

Millennials know him as Santa Claus in Elf (2003) or Carl the main character

in the animated Oscar-winning feature Up (2009), but seven-time Emmy

Award winning actor Ed Asner will always be best known for his role ‘Lou

Grant’, ﬁrst on the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show and then the spinoﬀ

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Ed Asner Is Still a Badass at 86

hour-long newspaper drama Lou Grant, whose ﬁrst season was ﬁnally

released last month in the U.S. on DVD.

Still active as a working actor who turns 87 in November, IMDB lists Asner as

being involved in 18 projects in the ﬁrst half of 2016. Some are full-length

ﬁlms, while others are TV pilots or documentaries. He’s non-plussed by all

the oﬀers, noting some never get completed or are in various stages of

ﬁnancing or production.

“I give them my name to help sell the picture,” says Asner, who is getting

honored with a lifetime achievement award July 23 at the

International Film

Expo

in Bellmore, NY, where My Friend Ed, the hour-long

2014 documentary

about him being an activist who refuses to budge on his ideals no matter

what anyone thinks will be screened, followed by a Q&A.

His outspokenness in the early 1980s about American military intervention in

Central America is thought to have resulted in the cancellation in Lou Grant

by CBS after ﬁve seasons in the Top 10.

Ed Asner in ‘Lou Grant’

“I carry great guilt about the loss of jobs by my fellow actors, writers,

producers, crew - all the people I loved and appreciated: my words

supposedly being the target of the cancellation [of Lou Grant],” says Asner,

who I ﬁrst interviewed in November 1982 for Rolling Stone. At the time, he

believed he was blacklisted for his anti-Reagan political views, but would

stand by his principles, even knowing what he knows today.

“All I know is I was chosen as the patsy to be the target by Charlton Heston

and his stuntmen and day players who followed him sheep-like, attacking me

for what I believed in,” he says, somewhat bitterly. “I said to that [Lou Grant]

producer of mine, ‘What do you want me to do when they attack me as an

enemy of the state. You want me to shut up?’ It was impossible for me to

shut up. Interestingly enough, my agent at the time, Jack Fields, thought my

career was ﬁnished. The fact that I responded verbally to the verbal attacks,

he thought kept me alive. So here I am today.”

Asner believes the full truth is not known about 9/11, and less controversially

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Ashley

Ed Asner Is Still a Badass at 86

he is active in Autism Speaks, a nonproﬁt that sponsors autism research and

conducts awareness and outreach activities aimed at families, governments,

and the public. Asner has a son and a grandson who are autistic.

Asner is still a loud voice in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), for which he

served two terms as president 1981-1985, and vehemently opposed its

merger in 2012 with American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

(AFTRA), unsuccessfully suing to stop the merger. In another pending case

against Actors’ Equity, he served as lead plaintiﬀ, objecting to producers’

right to pay performers as little as $7 per performance.

Regarding his octogenarian lifestyle, he watches what he eats and explains

his “eight hip surgeries” prevent much mobility. “My left leg is shorter and I

can’t do a lot of walking.” Still he manages a half hour every day for exercise

on an elliptical bicycle.

Asked why it took Lou Grant so long to come out on DVD, Asner believes, “It

was regarded as an ideas show. It was canceled under a cloud of

controversy. People who ﬁnance these things were afraid to touch it. Also,

it’s not the Mary Tyler Moore Show; it’s not going to be a big smash, ﬂood of

sales.”

Asner is depressed by the current state of American politics. He supported

for president “the Jewish Socialist” (i.e., Bernie Sanders), a label that could

he easily apply to him. “At least the Jewish Socialist made a splash among

the electorate and the young. Of the young, it’d be nice if we could all learn

from them. I ﬁnd society itself quite depressing. Our rotting infrastructure, our

military industrial complex is always with us. The leading democratic

candidate is happy to dance jigs for the banks. Mr. Bill [Clinton] is probably in

the background pulling the strings. Our selection of candidates drops even

lower than ever. It’s a joke.”

On what he’s most proud of in his career, Asner responds: “The fact I could

get by in comedy is a great achievement.”

His standard in choosing roles has not changed. “I like to play a real human

being, not a character with no redeeming value. Someone who you can love

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and some who you can hate.”

Follow Larry Jaﬀee on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/lsjaﬀee

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