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Boston Globe
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Sam Waterston talks Great Gatsby, wealth disparity, and other favorite topics
'I've been asking myself, 'Why are you saying yes to all these things?' And I think the real motive is: it's an opportunity to say thank you,' the 84-year-old said. 'You get to the end of the play, you bow and the audience applauds. I get to thank the audience for applauding.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Born in Cambridge and reared in North Andover, Waterston spent some childhood summers in Rhode Island, and has a home near Buzzards Bay. Advertisement Sam Waterston attends Oceana's 2022 New York Gala at The Rainbow Room on September 13, 2022, in New York City. Santiago Felipe/Getty With his characteristic avuncular manner, Waterston talked by phone from a home in Connecticut about F. Scott Fitzgerald, climate change — he's a What first drew you to acting? The first play I was in was directed by my father at the school where he taught. It hooked me. Advertisement I know your first love was Shakespeare. You eventually landed TV and film roles. It must've been huge to get 'Gatsby.' Oh, I wanted it. My teeth hurt. It shows when you want the part badly. I'm convinced that's among the most important factors. If your eyes are bleeding and you're still able to play the part, it's persuasive to the director. What drew you to Nick instead of Gatsby? Oh, everything. Plus, the part was already cast — Robert Redford had it. But Nick is such an interesting character. 'Gatsby' is one of those books I need to read every year, because I get something new from it every time. It's so full of humor and irony. Have you seen other versions of the movie? I haven't. The one I really want to see is the 1949 version, [starring Is there anything specific you're looking to discuss in Newport? We are now 100 years away from the world Fitzgerald was describing, and the fundamental question— How much wealth is too much ? — is still alive and well in this country. You work with , Earth's oceans. You were at . You know, the world's enthusiasm for saving itself ebbs and flows. Oceana has been steadily making a difference for 25 years. I don't know whether anybody will ever say thank you. Advertisement I was in France making a movie once. We were at the beach. There was an undertow. You could feel the tug. Further out than I was a little kid crying for help. I went out and grabbed him. In a dip between waves, I threw him towards the beach as hard as I could. He ran onto the beach and never looked back. I think if we get out from under this climate thing, we will never look back. We will just have been so frightened. You still have a house in Buzzards Bay. How long have you lived there? My great-grandfather at the end of the Civil War, when you could buy houses down there for 10 cents in the dollar because the whaling business had collapsed — cities were getting sooty, people were trying to figure out how to get their kids out of the city for the summer. He was one of those people. My mother's family has been here for a long, long time. My Uncle When you got 'Law & Order,' you must've had no idea what it was going to become. No. And I didn't think I'd stay long. Career planning is not my strong-suit. How do you decide what work to take at this point? I'm not looking as obsessively as I used to, which is probably not such a great thing for career advancement, but it's awfully nice for life. Advertisement What do you do for fun? Well, I write to myself. For a book? One day, maybe it'll get organized into something. But so far it hasn't really shown any signs of that. I sit in my tower, and I pretend I'm Montaigne. And that might be plenty.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Salman Rushdie Attacker Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison
The man who left Salman Rushdie partially blind after stabbing him at a lecture in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday, May 16, The Associated Press reports. Hadi Matar, 27, was convicted of attempted murder back in February, and the 25-year term handed down is the maximum penalty. Matar will also concurrently serve a seven-year sentence for his conviction on an assault charge, related to injuries inflicted on Ralph Henry Reese. More from Rolling Stone Salman Rushdie Attacker Found Guilty of Attempted Murder Man Charged With Stabbing Salman Rushdie Rejects Plea Deal Salman Rushdie Makes Surprise Appearance at New York Gala: 'Violence Must Not Deter Us' Matar spoke briefly at his sentencing hearing, calling Rushdie a hypocrite and a bully. 'Salman Rushdie wants to disrespect other people,' he said. 'He wants to be a bully, he wants to bully other people. I don't agree with that.' Rushdie was not present at Friday's hearing, though he reportedly submitted a victim impact statement for the judge to consider. A rep for Rushdie said the author did not intend to comment further. In pushing for the maximum sentence for Matar, Jason Schmidt, District Attorney for Chautauqua County, told the judge that Matar 'designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr. Rushdie, but upon this community.' Matar's public defender, Nathaniel Barone, pushed for a 12-year sentence, pointing to his client's clean criminal record. At a press conference after the hearing, Schmidt said he was 'pleased with the sentence that was imposed.' Barone did not immediately return a request for comment. Rushdie was giving a lecture at New York's Chautauqua Institution on Aug. 12, 2022, when Matar stormed the stage and stabbed the author more than a dozen times, blinding him in one eye. During the trial, Rushdie testified about the attack in great detail, saying at one point, 'It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought.' Along with Matar's criminal case, he's also facing federal terrorism charges, with a grand jury indicting him on three counts last July (he has pleaded not guilty). The federal indictment came down after Matar rejected a plea deal that would've covered both the state and federal cases and seen him serve a concurrent sentence of between 30 to 40 years in prison. The federal case against Matar ties the attack back to the infamous fatwa that Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued against Rushdie in 1989 over his depiction of the prophet Muhammad in his novel The Satanic Verses. The federal indictment alleges that Matar was partly motivated to attack Rushdie after watching a 2006 speech from a Hezbollah leader endorsing the fatwa calling for Rushdie's death. Best of Rolling Stone Every Super Bowl Halftime Show, Ranked From Worst to Best The United States of Weed Gaming Levels Up
