, BAFTA and the Independent Spirit Awards.</p>
<p>
While the “Little Miss Sunshine” cast won SAG’s ensemble prize on Jan. 28 and Arkin took BAFTA’s best supporting actor on Feb. 11, it’s the work, not the awards, that interests him.</p>
<p>
“I’m not crazy about the idea of competition; I don’t think it’s healthy,” he told The Journal.</p>
<p>
Healthy or not, Arkin earned his first Academy Award nomination in 1966 for his feature film debut in the commie comedy, “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.” Oscar recognized him again two years later as best actor for his touching dramatic portrayal of a deaf-mute in “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” Although he is rarely cast in a leading role, Arkin consistently stands out in an ensemble cast, even among a cast of outstanding actors like Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino, with whom he co-starred in David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.”</p>
<p>
Over his 40-year career, the consummate character actor has played a variety of ethnic roles, including several Jewish characters in films such as “The In-Laws” (1979), “Joshua Then and Now” (1985) and “The Slums of Beverly Hills” (1998). As actor and director, Arkin also racked up numerous accolades for his extensive work in theater and television, found time to write and perform popular music, as well as author a few children’s books. Alan Arkin may have started out as just another Jewish kid from Brooklyn, but the cultural influences that fertilized his impressionable young psyche cultivated a modern renaissance man.</p>
<p>
<b>Jewish Journal:</b> As an accomplished actor, director, author, musician and composer, do you consider yourself compulsively creative?</p>
<p>
<b>Alan Arkin:</b> (laughs) Not anymore, but I guess I used to be.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> Is it true that you began studying acting when you where 10 years old?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> Yes, but I wanted to be an actor since I was 5.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> What influenced you at that age?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> I spent a lot of time with my father, who took me to the Thalia movie theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I practically learned how to read watching foreign films. I watched Russian, German and Italian films, and it became clear to me to me at a very early age that we’re basically all the same. There are cultural differences, but the similarities between people were much more important to me than the things that separated us.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> And it’s that realization that drew you to acting?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> That and seeing that my father was enormously affected by the movies we’d see. He was so affected, he used to yell in the movies. I think one of my deepest desires was to have an affect on him.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> And did you?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> Not that I was aware of, but he lived long enough to see my success.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> Did your parents emigrate here from Europe?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> My parents were born here. My mother’s father came from Odessa and settled in New York, in Brooklyn. I lived there with my parents till I was 11, then we moved to Los Angeles.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> Where did your musical influences come from?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> There was music in our house all the time. My mother played the piano and my uncle was a pretty well-known composer. There were people coming over to our house all the time; they played guitars, piano and sang. Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Paul Robeson were all at the house. I met all these people. Music was part of our everyday life.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> It doesn’t seem like you were raised in a traditional Jewish household.</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> No I didn’t have a traditional Jewish upbringing. There was no emphasis on religion. My grandfather used to read Sholom Aleichem a lot. There was no running away from the fact that we were Jewish, but no big emphasis on being Jewish. We had people of all races and all religions at the house at all times. I was aware of myself as being Jewish, but also aware of myself being part of a larger worldwide community. I grew up being part of a kind of international family.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> Did that help in your ability to play a diversity of ethnic characters?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> I suppose growing up with all kinds of people I knew with the help of my parents, my focus was on the things that we all have in common, other than the things that separated us. I focused on the things we had in common with everybody everywhere.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> Did you purposely seek out ethnic or Jewish roles?</p>
<p>
<b>AA:</b> I haven’t purposely sought out anything. I suppose I received roles that were Jewish. I take the most interesting parts to come along. I look for good directors, if I can find them. I care more about being in a piece that has integrity, a sense of something that makes a positive statement more than I care about anything else. I like films that can’t be easily categorized.</p>
<p>
<b>JJ:</b> Like “Little Miss Sunshine?”</p>
</div>
</div>
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