Priscilla Pointer and Robert Symonds met in 1954 as young actors in The Crucible at the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, of which Pointer was a founding member. Theirs was obviously a good match, because they worked together for 11 years in San Francisco, and later both moved on to the Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre for eight years, where Symonds was associate director.
The association at that time was a professional one, since both were married to other people. Taking coincidence or karma to another level, both had three children who grew up together as friends and neighbors. (Pointer's daughter is actress Amy Irving.) The couple expanded their professional relationship to a more personal one when they were married 18 years ago, and have continued to work steadily and successfully together and separately in film, television, and onstage.
Pointer's films include Blue Velvet, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Mommie Dearest, and Mickey and Maude, in which she and Symonds were directed by Blake Edwards. Symonds has appeared in Primary Colors, The Ice Pirates, And Justice for All, and William Friedkin's The Exorcist. Their most recent stage appearance in L.A. was the memorable Fighting Over Beverley, Israel Horowitz's delightful play, in which they appeared with Jacqueline Schultz, who, not so coincidentally, is re-united with them again in The Road to Mecca, Athol Fugard's 1987 award-winning play currently at the Fountain Theatre.
Husband and wife met recently to discuss their dedication to each other and to the stage.
Robert Symonds: We've been acting together over 45 years, married 18. It's been a long history.
Priscilla Pointer: We've been very lucky, actually-this year especially. We've had usually one good play a year and usually some TV work together.
Robert: And this past year we were able to play in Paris together; we lived there about three or four months out of the year. We did Outcry, the Tennessee Williams play, at an English-speaking theatre there. As soon as Road to Mecca closes, in April, we'll head back to Paris.
Priscilla: We usually go in the spring. And then we go back to school to speak our French.
Robert: People say, "Oh, you must be fluent." We're functional. There's a company called Dear Conjunction, and we'll work with them. They're mostly for British actors. Most of them are bilingual. We're not bilingual enough to get a French play.
Priscilla: Maybe a short play.
Robert: If you want people to laugh at us.
Priscilla: Often they'll do two versions of it-one for French audiences, as well. Very interesting work. And Pinter has become their sponsor, so that's very nice.
Healthy Respect
Robert: There have been times when it's tough to be separated. I've been on the East Coast a couple of times and you've been out here, then I was down in San Diego and you were at Sundance. But it usually doesn't last for more than a few weeks-and then the phone bills are very high.
Priscilla: I think quite often the "don't marry an actor" thing comes up. In repertory theatre, it's such a difficult thing: You're working constantly and it's not just a single job. You're working one day and it's a small role-once I played your daughter, once you directed me-and it goes on like that.
You've directed me in many plays, and as a result I have a very healthy respect for your views. We criticize each other's work, but in a very nice way.
Robert: I hope it's constructive.
Priscilla: In fact, I ask for your opinion-you don't ask. But I think you respect my opinion, as well.
Robert: Well, you're a very good coach. And you've been called on quite a lot to coach in films and work with actors.
Priscilla: I don't think we've ever irritated each other.
Robert: Maybe a little.
Priscilla: Lately.
Checks for Harold
Priscilla: We met at the San Francisco Actors Workshop. I was a founding member, my husband (Jules Irving) and I had started it in '52.
Robert: I joined in '54.
Priscilla: I saw you.
Robert: You saw me before I saw you.
Priscilla: You did some very nice things in Ashland. Jules and I had gone up and we'd been told: "Watch out for Robert Symonds. He's doing Polonius and lots of different things." You were very good.
Robert: Then I came down to see your theatre in San Francisco. I remember walking into the office and there you were at the typewriter.
Priscilla: I was doing anything and everything. We answered the phones. It was exciting starting out.
Robert: Everybody was doing everything. We first worked together in The Crucible. And that was one of our first big hits there; it played on and on. When it first played in New York, it wasn't that successful, but this was at the height of the McCarthy Era, and The Crucible caught on in San Francisco and played and played and played.
Priscilla: That was the one that Vivica Lindfors saw and she said, "I will do anything here," so she came and did Miss Julie and that was wonderful. That was a very big deal. And then all the other plays that nobody did. We started doing Beckett.
Robert: We did a lot of European drama that hadn't been done-one of the very first Beckett productions in this country. Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party was done in London and didn't last two weeks out there. It was a flop. Somehow or other somebody brought us the play and we did it in our second theatre out there in San Francisco. It caught on and we played it over years. Years later, talking to Harold, he said he was very poor at the time, and he'd get these little tiny royalty checks of $40 or $50 per week, and it was so welcome. And he would say, "What are these people in San Francisco doing with my play for so long?"
Homework
Priscilla: When you're working on a play, and working together, it's a part of you, morning, noon, and night. Somebody's running lines in some room...
Robert: Well, in this play, where we're both onstage so much, we rearrange our living room so that we can go home and continue rehearsal.
Priscilla: The dogs sit on the sofa and watch us.
Robert: People have asked before if we take our work home with us. I think most actors don't make that much of a distinction between their work and the rest of their lives.
Priscilla: Remember when we used to discuss if we were going to play that night? Somewhere in the back of your head, always, you knew you were going to play that night, so really you were never away from it. Everything you did that day, to some extent, had to do with the fact that you would be playing that night.
Robert: We did Mickey and Maude together, and last summer we did a film with Jean-Claude Van Damme; a friend of ours directed it, John Avildsen.
Priscilla: We much prefer theatre.
Robert: Occasionally you will find actors who have simply grown up in it and will say otherwise, but very few stage actors will say they don't prefer stage.
Priscilla: It's a religion. What is your religion? It's theatre. BSW