European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 19, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Goodman packs a Wallop As Ruth in a the babes by Lawrence Christon los Angeles times n the babe John Goodman Muscles his Way through a nearly impossible genre the dramatized biography to bring us everything that was epic about baseball legend babe Ruth not Only his appetite for food and drink and Good times and his gorgeous Pigeon toed turns around the Diamond but also his lacerating grief and misery and his isolation. This Prodigy of nature As Goodman shows us was also a fundamentally unreachable Man. Goodman a Bravura performance May come As a Surprise to people who know him from tvs Rose Anne in which his Dan Conner has become americans Blue Collar dad and spokesman for every working stiff pinched by Post reaganomics and the comic anguish of the women around him. But it wont Surprise anyone mindful of Good acting. A i done to know anyone who Hasni to taken him seriously As an actor a says his co Star Kelly Mcgillis. A everybody knows him from Roseanne raising Arizona and Barton Fink but he a really Gonna hit with this one a says director Arthur Hiller. A a he a in total command of his work. In the scene for example when Ruth a wife leaves him if you watch closely when John leans his face into the Wall you la see the Muscles in his Arm twitch. He did no to say a of in a Gonna tremble Here it was just his spontaneous Way of showing this awful buildup of anger and anguish. Its regardless of How Well the babe does Goodman is guaranteed electronic immortality once Roseanne orbits into syndication and through his accumulation of roles he a virtually assured an entry clip into the All purpose Panorama of film stars that Rolls out whenever Hollywood wants to commemorate itself. Celebrity is not new for Goodman but it exacerbates an old sore a phenomenon he has never been comfortably Able to accommodate the tyranny of Fame. When told that the babe could very Well change his life he said a not again a and his face dropped in a plaintive expression. A a it a harder for me Selling Mem than making Mem a he said about publicizing his movies. A a this la be the last time i think ill do it. Now there a camera Crews parked at my momus place. Too much. How can you make it fresh in a not real big on Reading pieces on myself anyway. I feel like a horses that last bit of self deprecation is characteristic of the insecurity that creeps into the outlines of his roles lending them a tinge of melancholy mixed in with carefully suppressed anger. He a 6 feet 3 inches and somewhere around 270 pounds his fluctuating weight which has exceeded 300 pounds is a source of great self consciousness. A if i done to have a script in Man idiot a he told Maria Shriver in a recent edition of no cd a first person. A it does no to make you Happy to be called a fat ass All the but who Calls him that an often told Story about Goodman concerns the time when he was shooting everybody Sall american and a pretty 19-year-old woman named Anna Elizabeth Hartzog came up to compliment him. Thinking himself unworthy he was rude and she quickly changed her mind about him. Later realizing what he had done he sought her out to apologize. It was a persuasive performance they were married two years later. Goodman is one of the most Graceful big men to come along in the movies since Oliver Hardy and although his Demeanour is More nil lineman than courtly Southern gent he is clearly a shy Man. Of the babe and Ruth himself Goodman said Quot i univ Ectyl City Studli John Goodman a newest role is babe Ruth shown below playing for the new York Yankees in 1929. Was pretty intimidated by him. He san american icon but fortunately i had a Good script to go by a John Fuscoe a the screenwriter a and i did no to have to worry about All the baggage that went into it. I did do research. Robert w. Creamer a writer for sports illustrated did an excellent biography i relied on it a lot to learn How he walked and moved and about the Guys who played with him. He never loved anyone. I thought that was real Goodman a portrayal of Ruth seems a natural step up in a career in which each of his supporting roles has been characterized by a set of gestures and shadings and attitudes that Combine in an oddly perfect pitch never obtrusive but something that would be missed if we had not seen How he played it. His muttering quixotic ally self absorbed exterminator in Arachnophobia for example. Or the sinister banality of his Good of boy next door in Barton Fink his big face filling up the screen with an eerie suffocating sincerity in which we can Only suspect pathology before seeing it erupt. King Ralph Goodman a first leading role was fairly yanked out of reach being both underwritten and overproduced part of Goodman a preparation for the babe involved learning How to hit and throw left handed which turned out to be so difficult that there was some worry he would not be Able to master those skills in time. He worked out mornings in a los Angeles Park before driving Over to the Roseanne set which is characteristic of what sports announcers like to Call a players a work a it was like playing in a sandlot except everything a rigged in your favor Quot he said of the babe. A i tried not to imitate Ruth so much but to find something More inside. I wish i could lost More weight and played More baseball. But there just Wasny to enough time. I had to gel Back to work on Goodman is especially concerned about his daughter. Who a turning 2. Quot two weeks ago we were in an Airport and a couple of photographers came up. I did no to want them to shoot her. But they went ahead anyway. I had my arms full of Luggage and could t do anything in time. They ran off Down the stairs. It just Ain t right. Now she a been born into this is lit Quot he a a very private person and a deep person As Well Quot said Roseanne Arnold of Goodman. Quot As stars we re not the most emotionally healthy people. You do lose your private life you absolutely do. Everybody thinks they can control you. He thought he could head off the tabloids by talking to Mem. 1 said. A turn on you you you can to know that until it Goodman a modesty is not an affectation but a Way of squaring his real experience with his popular image of keeping control. When Goodman was 2 years old his father a mail Carrier died of a heart attack. Goodman a brother. Les was 16. His Mother was pregnant with their sister. Later she worked As a drugstore cashier and waitress to try to make ends meet. Quot i started acting in Junior High school Quot Goodman said. A the play was you can t take it with you. In a sure it was an abridged version. I remember the night we did it i forgot my lines and started improvising. I was petrified until they Canie around to me again. The drama teacher gave me a big Goodman a first love was football but he kept returning to the stage. After a year in a local Community College he transferred to Southwest Missoni i state. A i done to know what Drew me to acting Quot he said. A it was fun. It was building something creating something. A Good performance takes you somewhere. I had no other skills and i wanted to stay out of Vietnam. Jesus everyone i know wanted to stay out of Vietnam at the time. I can to understand Why they re jumping All Over Bill Clinton for Goodman had the Good Fortune to come into a top flight if underrated drama program Kathleen Turner and Tess Harper were classmates. He went to new York in 1975 with a $ 1.0 h loan from his brother to tide him Over. Quot i arrived at Penn station went upstairs to get a taxi looked around and thought a of god what am 1 getting myself into a i was scared to five weeks later he landed his first postgraduate role in 1776at a Dayton Ohio dinner theater lie worked Odd jobs which included waiting on tables then did dinner theater in Springfield Ohio and children a theater during the summer. For a while he made a living doing after shave and toothpaste to commercials and nursed his unhappiness Over a stagnant career at card Central an actors hangout. Bruce Willis was one of his friends at the time a they were All doing movies and plays and 1 was Sci line underarm deodorant a Goodman said. Quot a or Luna Tely 1 had the presence of mind to balance it out with heavy Goodman did get his actors equity card and tested the theatrical weather in such vehicles As halt a lifetime and ghosts of the Oaks. He did Shakespeare in the Park and honked up with a Young director named pcs scam if with whom lie travelled West for a Shakedown season at a new theater called the la Jolla playhouse. Goodman played in War babies in la Jollas 19h4 season and then went to new York with big River which started slowly and became a hit. Quot being from Missouri he understood the sensibility of the Hannibal trip Quot Mcanuff said. Quot even then he was waiting to Goodman left big River to make David Byrness True stories. Like Ruth Goodman is driven. Like Ruth he seems beyond his affable veneer Remote. Goodman stands apart from his own Success As though somehow it does no to personally apply to him. Does the absence of a father figure in each instance mean anything Here to sons haunted by a sense of incompleteness a i have no recollections of my dad a Goodman said. A if they re in this role they re subconscious.1 the flatness of his tone suggested that this would not be a fruitful line of inquiry to pursue. Cafes says Tho babe will appear on us in to Tarsi part of August at the earliest. April 19, 1992 lundaf1 a Page 27
