INT: How did you get first professional film job?
RA: When I got out of the air force, my family in CA, I moved into his house in Malibu. House split in two. Downstairs, young couple GEORGE W GEORGE. He was RUBE GOLDBERG's son. His uncle was b film director EDDIE MARIN, we became friends. We should do something together. So we wrote a treatment for a film called BODYGUARD and we sold it to RKO with LAWRENCE TIERNEY and PRISCILLA LANE, really a B film. Also wrote CHRISTMAS EVE and was ANNE HARDING's last film. Episodic story which I've continued to do. BODYGUARD started being shot, wouldn't let me on the set. I decided I would be a playwright and go to NY, so I wrote a play, family smartass things, drove to NY, stopped in Kansas City. Met guy in bar, BOB WOODBURN, working on film company here. I exaggerated my experiences and they hired me for 250$ a month, Calvin Company, building my grandfather built, to do industrial films. I didn't know anything, faked my way, I'd leave come to Hollywood, try to get job, almost a directing job on GROUCHO MARX show, went back to Kansas City, 3rd time I came out here....

INT: What happened?
RA: I went around, trying to get film job or television, last time in Kansas City, at CALVIN Company, guy who owned chain of theaters, RODIN, wanted to make a delinquents movie. So I wrote it in about 3 nights, derivative of all those thing RYDELL, CASSAVETTES and POITIER were doing. For 60,000 I shot this movie called THE DELINQUENTS. My friend GEORGE said, you know JAMES DEAN, let's do documentary film about his death. I didn't know anything about him. We did a faux documentary film called the JAMES DEAN STORY. Using stills, like an animation stand, interviews with people who knew him. Warner Bros released it. HITCHCOCK saw THE DELINQUENTS, impressed and called me for meeting. I had shot these films on practical location. He said, we're starting series. Would I show them how to shoot on location? I'll help, I won't take any money or credit. I don't want to be a production manager, I'm a director. I did, then they offered me a HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, I did 2. Gave me the 3rd one and saw NORMAN LLOYD and JOAN HARRISON, I said you don't want to do this. They didn't have me back.

RA: Got an agent on basis of those HITCHCOCK's. They got me job on WHIRLYBIRDS. Series about 2 guys who had helicopters. Half hour. We shoot them in 2 and a half days. Hire director to do 6. 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off preparing. Then I got into the television things, BONANZA, ROARING 20s, became one of the guy they used. SIDNEY POLLACK, myself. MARK RYDELL had one CANADIAN GIRL with SANDY DENNIS which was to me kind of a big picture. MARK was in that whole thing. Then COMBAT came along, did a pilot for war series called GALLANT MEN at WARNER BROS. Hire me to do COMBAT, I produced and directed it. Started to do anthologies, BUS STOP I was one of the top television directors, developed along the lines of that.

INT: Was the style that you used then a documentary style?
RA: No [INT: What was the style you used?] I just imitated things that I'd seen. COMBAT gave us the chance to do a lot of looser stuff, hand held material. Scenes weren't so ordered. Started out long shot, medium shot close ups. I stopped doing that early on. I finally figured out how to do a scene, say in ROARING 20s, rehearse scene and do it in one scene, but it would be like a 5, 6 minutes scene without a cut. Figure out on cutaway so if they had to truncate the scene they could do it that way. I had a lot of people arguing with me but basically it was acceptable. I got along with actors in most cases. Went from one thing to another. I became a successful television director.

INT: Were you interested in performance, or changing the way that you were…?
RA: I don't think I ever thought of changing anything. I just did it the way it occurred to me. Going back to SHERWOOD ANDERSON, truth, let it float, let it be there, you can't manipulate it. People asked me what director has the most influence on your work, well I don't know their names but most films on television I'd see and were really bad and I'd say I'm never going to do that. Influence from a negative side instead of imitating side.

INT: What film makers did you admire?
RA: BERGMAN and FELLINI, KUROSAWA, three giants in my, a lot of the French directors. I was more interested in European films than American.

INT: What are essential qualities of a director?
RA: You have to be a bit of a charlatan. You're not really doing any of it. You're overseeing it and trying to inspire it and to get it done. But the other people doing it are the artists, actors primarily. I've always been totally dependent on the actors, felt my job was to get them to a point where they could do what it is that we end up doing.

INT: Have you ever worked with an actor where you expected them to give a performance that wasn't coming for you and you had to find a way?
RA: I never fired an actor. Not on my film, I produced a film that BOB BENTON directed, fired an actor. I never felt that I could fire an actor, I felt the actor was part of it, like firing the script. That's the material I had to deal with. I didn't think there was such a thing as a comparative, another actor could do this better. I think that what I just said is a big reason why I've gone into so many multi story type of things. If this doesn't work, I can always cut to this. If an actor is in a bad scene, you can't blame one person. I always had to learn to use the material in the most efficient way I could. Use a different color. I can't change what it is. I can't make it better, I can try to make it the best it can be but it has its own DNA.

INT: So you put your faith in casting?
RA: In the WHIRLY BIRD days, I had nothing to do with the casting. TOMMY THOMPSON, my AD, pick me up in the morning, go to valley, and say what are we doing today. I would just come out and do that. I could tell who leads were by how much they got paid. Shoot Monday, Tuesday, half day Wednesday. I would get list of actors with how much money they are getting paid. One thing, murder mystery, I looked down, here's this guy getting 150$ and I think he's the lead and I didn't recognize him. This guy's standing in the background, his wife killed, this guy's getting $150, get him forward in the light. After that, nothing to do. Must be friend of producer. Next day, guy still had nothing to do. 3rd day, we're out on location. Let's use this guy. I had shot this whole thing and I had thought a different guy was the murderer. If I was fooled, audience will be fooled.

RA: We did a WHIRLYBIRDs, we got so we were efficient. I get out there and sometimes we'd be finished by lunchtime. Let's go back to studio. But studio would take crew and put them on other shows so we started softball games. One time, helicopter had been stolen, 2 guys had to walk through the woods. That's the scene, with some dialogue. I looked up in back of prop truck and I saw phone booth, I got an idea, we had plenty of time. Put phone booth in middle of woods, where it's impossible for it to be. As you walk through woods, stop to make a phone call, joke for producers and editors, nobody said anything. I forgot about it. about 3, 4 weeks later, watching the series and they cut it in. I said, how can this be, nobody paid attention to these things. Then I realized well I can do anything because nobody really knows what's going on so I just started playing.

INT: So did you answer what are essential qualities of a director?
RA: No and I won't.

INT: What are the elements of a good story?
RA: I don’t know what a good story is. It's all very subjective. What I look for is visceral. If I read a script and I go, oh this is good, I get it, I could do this, something that moves me and something I can relate to. It's like a painting, what am I going to put on this canvas. Oh here's an idea.

INT: What role do you play in developing the screenplay?
RA: In most of my films I've co-written, post written, never cut and dry thing. Not like television. When we were at Warner Bros, shooting ROARING 20S and those thing, if someone wanted to change a line, you had to get permission, and guy would come over and say no. I made some bad things doing that, so I stopped asking, nobody checking what you do. They just want to say that the machine keeps working. Nobody ever came and bothered me. [INT: Is that where improvisation started coming from?] I'm not quite sure.

RA: First film I did after television was COUNTDOWN, about going to the moon, WARNER BROS, JACK WARNER out of town, reluctant to hire me, didn't like my work style, thought I was a smart-ass. Told me so. Out of the country whole time we shot. Last day of shooting he came on the set at lunch time, I wasn't there and I never saw him. Finished that evening and on Sunday morning the phone rang and it was BILL CONRAD, producer, he said don't come in Monday because they won't let you in the studio. JACK WARNER called for your dailies and he's barred you from the lot. I get first cut, but nobody's going to look at what you do and he's going to be changed. I got fired for overlapping dialogue. HOWARD HAWKS films. film called THE THING. It just occurred me to me that nobody listens to what other people say, film should be more related to painting than literature.