Paul Williams chats with Closer about Barbra Streisand, his sobriety and more.
The Oscar winner opens up about working with Barbra and Burt — and how getting sober saved him
The irony is not lost on Paul Williams that he’s made a huge acting comeback on a show called Goliath. The diminutive singer has always poked fun at his short stature. “It started out defensively,” he tells Closer. “I was always the littlest kid in school, and I quickly saw that when people laugh, they get comfortable.” He became an Oscar-winning songwriter and a constant presence on TV in the ’70s but hit hard times due to his addictions to alcohol and cocaine. On Amazon’s drama Goliath, he co-stars with Billy Bob Thornton as a lawyer who once battled valiantly for justice but dropped out of the rat race when he proved unable to save a condemned client. “The character is interesting to me because the real person emerged after he got his ass kicked by failing,” Paul says. Now 28 years sober, he similarly found late-in-life bliss with his wife, Mariana, and two grown kids. “I’m loving my life exactly as it is right now,” he says. “I’m grateful for everything, including this conversation.” — Bruce Fretts
You started out acting before finding fame in the music industry. Do you feel like you’ve come full circle?
At first, I couldn’t make a living as an actor. The universe slams one door and opens another, and I became a singer-songwriter. But acting was always my first love. The only time I feel like an absolute kid again is when I walk on a TV or movie set.
How did you first get into acting?
My dad was killed in a car wreck when I was 13. He’d been drinking.
Suddenly, all I wanted was to be somebody else. The trouble was I felt like Montgomery Clift, but I looked like Hayley Mills. I looked like a kid until you put me next to real kids, then I looked like a kid with a hangover.
Were you ever given a medical explanation for your small size?
They gave me hormone shots when I was 9 to try to make me grow, and all it did was shove me into early puberty. All of a sudden, instead of my toy chest, I was interested in my Aunt Edna’s chest. They took me off the hormones, and it really slowed my body clock down. Now I’m 77, and I feel 34!
You wrote hits for The Carpenters and Helen Reddy before becoming known as a singer yourself. Did that bother you?
I love singing my own songs, but if I was the only one who sang them, I would be walking horses for a living right now. I’m a songwriter. That’s at the headwaters of everything I do.
What was it like co-writing “Evergreen,” the Oscar-winning song from 1976’s
A Star Is Born, with Barbra Streisand?
At the time, I was totally intimidated, but we only had seven weeks to write the entire score, so I just dove in. Barbra very meekly
played me this beautiful melody — she was just learning to play guitar, so she was looking for the chords. I said, “There’s your love theme!”
Why do you think “The Rainbow Connection,” which you co-wrote with Kenny Ascher for 1979’s The Muppet Movie, has endured as a classic?
The goal we set for ourselves was “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Because when Jiminy Cricket climbs into that window and looks at the stars, you’re taken to a place of spiritual heights. My favorite lines in “Rainbow Connection” are “Who said every wish would be heard and answered if wished on the morning star? / Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it / Look what it’s done so far.” That says everything I’d ever want to say about the power of faith. And the fuel to the whole process is kindness.
Your theme song for The Love Boat has also endured. Any regrets about that?
Charles Fox and I hadn’t seen the show when we wrote it. We called Jack Jones and said, “This is about a cruise ship. We don’t think it’s going to last four weeks. Would you sing it?” If I’d known it would run 11 years, I would’ve forced my way in there to sing it.
Your acting career took off after you costarred with Burt Reynolds and Sally Field in 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit. How did
you get along with them?
Sally is the sweetest, most authentic, downto-earth human being. My first day on the set, I walked by her trailer, and she was down on her floor looking for something.
She saw me and said, “Paulie, come give me a big hug!” She was on her knees, and I was standing and we were about the same height. And Burt was the consummate movie star.
Do you think you used alcohol and drugs to alleviate your nerves about working with big stars like Burt and Barbra?
In the beginning years, I loved the process, but the undercurrent of emotions, whether it was feeling overwhelmed or fearful, were kept at a distance by having a drink. Addiction is a progressive disease, and by the end of the ’70s, that clarity was beginning to slip away. And the ’80s…. You know you’re an alcoholic when you misplace a decade.
When did you get sober?
March 15, 1990. Everything changed: my relationship with my wife, Mariana, and my kids and my career.
You were divorced twice before you met Mariana. What have you learned from your marriages?
The same thing that’s made me a better actor: I’m learning to listen. And it’s proof
the Big Amigo has a sense of humor, because as soon as I learned to listen, I started to lose my hearing. I wear aids now.
“Don’t try to think
your way into something that has heart. Just be quiet.”
— Paul
How’s your health otherwise?
I ran three-and-a-half miles this morning. I weigh 130 pounds. When I quit drinking, I weighed 187. I’m hoping to put a lot of pages on the back end of my calendar.
Are there still goals you want to achieve?
I’d like to walk off a golf course with a look on my face other than absolute shame. But I love what I’m doing. I hope I get to do it for a few more years.
How has sobriety changed your life?
The missing ingredients were gratitude and the sensibility to look at the world and say, “How can I be of service?” Forgive me for quoting one of my lyrics but you give a little love, and it all comes back to you. That turns out to be as true as anything I’ve
ever written.