Watch Them Listen

Duvall and Harper's 'Tender' Story of Survival

Much has been said about the great actor Robert Duvall, who died last week at the age of 95. I’m so honored to be able to celebrate his work via an episode of Reel Lives that launches Tuesday, February 24.

In the episode, Tender Mercies: “I Don’t Trust Happiness,” Duvall’s co-star Tess Harper talks about his reputation among other actors at the time of the production of Tender Mercies, her debut film in 1983.

Listen to her talk about Duvall:

In the film, Duvall plays Mac Sledge, a washed-up, alcoholic country singer, who finds love and redemption with single Mom and widow, Rosalee (Harper), in a rural Texas town. After he sobers up, they get married, and Mac starts writing songs again with an eye on reviving his faded career. Old wounds surface when his estranged daughter emerges in hopes of reconnecting, but is killed in a car accident. Grief-stricken, Duvall delivers Mac’s infamous garden speech — widely known to actors as the I don’t trust happiness monologue — as Harper’s Rosalee watches and listens. To paraphrase Reel Lives episode guest Silas House, it is surely the scene that won Duvall the Best Actor Oscar that year.

The scene is captured in one take, meaning is it uninterrupted by cuts. Watching Mac working in the garden as he processes this loss and his life choices is a study in great acting. But notice Harper, too, who’s equally powerful as she listens in silence. Watching good actors listen is often so much more interesting than watching who’s talking. In this case, you benefit either way. I think it’s the reason the scene is so often shared and performed by actors in training. See for yourself below.

In the end he was a character actor. Some of his best performances were supporting roles in films like Rambling Rose, Sling Blade, The Road, Thank You For Smoking, Crazy Heart, To Kill A Mockingbird. Even his most iconic roles in film and television reveal an actor who was often a central force inside of a larger ensemble — Lonesome Dove, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather. But no role revealed Duvall’s vulnerability and strength as well as Mac Sledge. Through Horton Foote’s spare, incisive screenplay, Duvall and Harper give us a glimpse of something rare and precious: complex rural characters. As a Southerner, it’s a breath of clean, summer air.

I hope you’ll listen to my conversation with Harper, Silas House and Tender Mercies script supervisor Anne Rapp on the Tender Mercies episode of Reel Lives. Find it on your favorite podcast platform starting Tuesday, February 24th.