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"It's been a wonderful life, and I hope I have a good deal of life left. But it always comes back to memories of Chicago." 25- or 26- or 27-year-old Mandy who said those words didn't have any idea what they meant. That line to me is much more iconic than, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father; prepare to die." I wish that boy had heard that line then the way he heard it in his 50s. So that was a powerful moment for me. My father died at 52, and you know I'm 60—I've already had eight years more on this planet than he had, and every day I'm with my sons, my friends, my wife, my work, I always think of that. That's the day my father didn't get. Homeland has made such an impact in popular culture. Did you imagine when you started filming that it would have this much success? Oh god, no. You don't know. If anything, I knew Homeland was wonderful material, I knew Claire Danes was extraordinary, and I knew these writers were extraordinary; the material started coming in when we were filming it. Literally we were saying to each other, "Hey, who knows what's going to happen, but this kind of stuff doesn't come along every day." That's a shut-up-and-have-a-good-time-and-keep-swimming. I was in love with it from the beginning. We were about three quarters into the first season before anybody saw it. And people started having this reaction like "Oh my god." I remember when I was in my 20s, 30s, and even 40s, every time I was in something I was always very anxious—"How can I capitalize on this? How can I use this for furthering my career?" And now at 60 years old, I feel just the opposite. I don't want the day to end; I don't want the scene to be over; I don't want the script to be finished; I don't want the season to be completed. I want it to last forever. But in fairness to that thought, that's exactly how I felt during The Princess Bride. When we did those sword-fighting scenes, every time Rob Reiner said, "Cut and print," my heart dropped because that meant we weren't going to do that sequence anymore. And I was just—I couldn't say goodbye to it. Rob sort of felt this, so when we finished doing all the coverage he pulled the cameras up to the ceiling and he said, "Okay guys, let's do a take all the way through," and we ran the whole sword fight once or twice all the way through from the beginning to end, and we just had a blast. What about the role of Saul on Homeland do you enjoy? I love the connection that he has with this child Carrie Mathison, played brilliantly by Claire Danes. I love the connection. I love being with Claire. I love her artistry. I love her humanity and the love Saul has for her and his faith in her and the symbolism that she holds for him in terms of the prayer for peace he wishes for all humanity. That to me is the real connection issue. It is his love for humanity, for the human race, and his belief that this particular gifted soul named Carrie Mathison is the key to bringing peace to this world through her savantlike abilities of understanding human nature. His quest to preserve her gift so that the possibility of humankind being able to live together in peace might one day might be realized—that is what drives Saul. Another strong female connection you have is with Patti LuPone—you've toured together, you've performed together. What is it about that relation- ship that has made it so fruitful both professionally and personally? We were kids in 1979, 1980 when we did Evita—we were scared, we didn't know what was going on, and it got all this attention. There was a moment during that run in Los Angeles before we brought it to New York where Patti was very scared and she was having some vocal problems. I went to her room, and she didn't want me to come in. She was crying, and I said, "Please let me in." She let me in, I closed the door behind me, and I said, "I'm not leaving this room until you know that I'm your friend forever." Then she broke down, and I held her because she was just scared. Then she held me, and then the next 30 years went by. We became friends forever in that dressing room. The show—this possibility—came about, so I asked her, "What about creating a show for us," and she said, "Go ahead, doll." We've been doing it for over 10, 11 years now. When I'm with her on stage, I'm immediately 30 years younger—I look in her eyes, and it's a time machine. She's one of the greatest artists who has ever lived, and I get to be up there with her, which is just beyond my imagination. When I'm singing with her sometimes, I literally say to myself, "Are you paying attention, man, to where you are and who you're with? Are you looking in this lady's eyes? You know, don't miss this." I love her, and I'd do anything for her. Are there any other performers working today who you find inspiring? All kinds of performers, not just in show business, but in the arts, politics, and science. I mean, everybody's a performer, and I'm inspired by countless people, though at the top of my list would be my sons, Isaac and Gideon, and my wife, Kathryn. It's how they stand by me; it's what they do with their lives; it's just the time and commitment we have to each other. Really, I think about the definition of what inspires a person. It's hanging around to see someone's life, not just the successes. Gene Kelly said to me years ago—when I was a young kid I had a meeting with him—as corny as it sounds, he said, "Let me tell you something, kid. We never learned anything from our successes; successes pat you on the back and send you on your way. But our failures turn us inside out and upside down and they teach us everything we know." You've had a career that's spanned stage, film, and TV—you're both a concert performer and an actor. Why do you enjoy performance? What I enjoy most about performance is living in imagined reality. I've spent more time of my living life in an imagined state of reality than in reality itself. And I love that. I love imagining my father being alive again. Imagining the moments when I met my wife, when our children were born; I love imagining the future of grandchildren running to my arms. I love imagining anything and everything I can think of. Imagination is the greatest gift of performing, and what I long for is to get lost in that imagined reality where I don't even remember where I was, sort of like when you wake up from a dream. You were just there, but you can't remember it. That to me is living. MA 114 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 110-115_MA_FEAT_CoverStory_October13.indd 114 9/17/13 11:52 AM