Streep wows Springfield
(laughs). Oh, I see what you are saying. Certainly in the acting field, yes, Meryl is at the top of her game.
Did you and Meryl talk about her children and yours following in your footsteps?
Meryl and I had our little moments about our kids now and then. My older son ( Leo, aka Liam Springthorpe; Rick’s other son is Josh) is a musician and an actor.
Mamie (Gummer) is amazing. She so nailed the whole love/hate thing that she (her character Julie) had with the parents. I don’t know how it would be to work with your own kid in a movie. They (Meryl and Mamie) did it amazingly. They used it (their relationship) rather than have it stand in the way.
To what do you credit your longevity in the industry?
Injections of young blood (laughs). I have always been very driven. I always want to push myself and this movie was pushing myself, too. I wrote my first novel and I have my 18th record coming out in October. I always want to do new things.
How do you stay in shape?
If you love what you do, if something pulls you out of bed in the morning, that’s the most powerful thing in your life. Music and art—I have always wanted to get up in the morning and do something with it. I am very fortunate to have been able to make a career out of it.
I have always watched what I eat. My dad died early. That made an impact. He died from not eating properly. He was in the war. It was in the 1950s and 1960s and they didn’t really know how to eat well. I have a very careful diet. I work out all the time. I ammentally active.
The film makes a commentary about the pursuit of a career and the sacrifices one has to make. Can you talk about the sacrifices that you had to make?
Everyone has to make sacrifices if they pursue a career out of the ordinary. I actually had a friend in Australia whom I grew up with, who was a guitar player, too, and wanted to do that. He chose a safer course.
I chose a more dangerous course. I had some success in Australia. I look back on leaving Australia and coming to America. It was a pretty ballsy move. But I never saw my dad again. So that was a sacrifice.
How do you make your acting choices?
I like to do things that are unexpected. I did my run of playing the good doctor, dad and husband and that kind of thing. So, certainly in “Califor- nication,” it was Rick Springfield but it was really a character and an over-the-top one. In “True Detective,” I am basically unrecognizable in a completely different character. As an actor, I like to experiment and push it.
How are you able to combine a career and family all these years?
I have been with my wife for 30 plus years. She’s been the rock and I have been able to be the bird flying around. She’s an incredible person. She’s the reason that our family is still together.
What is your relationship to “Jessie’s Girl” now? How do you react when you hear it in public?
I amvery proud of it because I wrote the song. So that’s an extra thing. It’s not like someone gave me a song and they keep playing the damn thing. It’s part of me. Part of me goes, oh great. And part of me goes, well, sh*t, I have got some new music, too.
There’s a double side always to it. Life is like that—yin-and yang. I will have a new record and go on talk shows to talk about it. And they will play “Jessie’s Girl” (laughs). But I am fortunate to have a song like that.
Do you still perform the song in your concerts?
Yeah, of course. Are you kidding? They would lynch me if I didn’t.
(E-mail the columnist rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at http://twitter .com/nepalesruben.)
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