Timehost: Hello everyone... welcome to our TIME chat with Sir Peter Ustinov. You all know him as a great actor, the star of such movies as "Spartacus," "Topkapi," "We're No Angels," "Lola Montes," and "Lorenzo's's Oil," just to name a very few. We're talking to him on the day that his new series for PBS airs here in the US. It's called "On the Trail of Mark Twain". He also has a new movie opening this week called "Stiff Upper Lips." He's joining us from England. Welcome, Sir Peter.

Sir Peter Ustinov: Thank you.

Timehost: Can you tell us a bit about "On the Trail of Mark Twain"?

Sir Peter Ustinov: Yes. "On the Trail of Mark Twain" is a four-part television series, four hours long, which followed Mark Twain around the world. He wrote a book just over 100 years ago, called "Following the Equator." He, of course, hardly ever followed the equator, but crossed it quite frequently. We started the trip in Hawaii, Fiji, Kiribaque (pronounced Kiribass because one of the founding fathers had a defective typewriter), and then we went on to New Zealand, Australia and from there to India, and from there via Mauritus to South Africa. Probably of all those visits, South Africa was the most challenging because more has recently gone on there than anywhere else. And Mark Twain was there 100 years ago between two Boer Wars. Therefore, it was considerably less exciting than it is today. But all of these regions have their fascination, and their problems are very human ones. In Twain's day, they were largely picturesque. Today they have become social and socially conscious. And from that point of view, I think probably the human intelligence has advanced a great deal in the interim. As a consequence, we met personalities who are perhaps less picturesque than in Twain's day, but certainly humanly more advanced.

stanton11 asks: Mr. Ustinov, I wondered if you had some thoughts on the late Stanley Kubrick, who directed you to an Oscar. What about his style was most striking to you personally?

Sir Peter Ustinov: I knew Stanley Kubrick only during the making of "Spartacus". He came in to replace Anthony Mann, who directed the first two or three weeks of the film, and whose material is still included in the final result. I never saw him afterwards, although we became quite close during the making of the film because we saw eye to eye on many different things. But he was always rather secretive and I think he was using quite rightly "spartacus" to push him into the big time because we all knew that he had a huge amount of talent, if not genius, because he had done "Paths of Glory," which may not have been a commercial blockbuster, but which was a an utterly remarkable film, and probably a landmark. I wrote about him in my autobiography that he seemed to me to have none of the virtues and none of the vices of youth, In other words, one didn't really know how old he was, or how young as he was. But he had a very good sense of what he wanted within the limits of a super production of that sort. After that, and "Lolita," he was able to express himself with all the freedom he desired. Our wives had a race ; they were both pregnant at the same moment, and both booked into the same hospital, so we had other mutual interests. I forget now who won the race. But it's strange that I never saw him again. Except now I've been asked to say some words at a memorial service, which I will certainly do if I'm free. I'm very touched because his wife was a very pleasant person and evidently it must have been her choice, I imagine. Anyway, I was full of admiration for what he did and how he did it and I very much regret, although I quite understand why, that we never met again. He wanted his entire freedom.

mccboy asks: Does Sir Peter enjoy traveling as much as Mark Twain?

Sir Peter Ustinov: I said at the beginning of this series when I was still sitting comfortably in my garden, just over a year ago, when the weather was superb, "Why on earth do I accept this when my son's friends are all taking early retirement?" I can't answer that but certainly the wanderlust is very strong in me. Over all, I prefer writing to traveling, but I was very stimulated by Twain's book because aside from being a brilliant novelist, he was a first-class journalist, and his perceptions reflected that and it was a privilege to follow in his footsteps.

Salome_F asks: Mr Ustinov, I have great admiration for your work. I often wondered what it was like working at the Theatre Royal Haymarket London. Would you say the theatre is your first love?

Sir Peter Ustinov: Not necessarily. In a sense, I feel I've outgrown the theater. It's not to belittle the theater, but I'm interested in too many things to restrict myself to just the theater. I can't even say that the theater was my vocation because I never understood from the beginning how actors remember all their lines. I've now played King Lear twice in Canada, at Stratford, and I still don't understand how they remember all their lines. And there was a memorable moment in Stratford when I got one line wrong, and in Shakespeare that's very sad, but it does happen occasionally, and I rushed in the interval to see what I'd gotten wrong, and I regret to say that I thought my word was better than what Shakespeare had chosen. I never got it wrong again, but I always regretted having to say the second best word. It's "The Punishment of the Gods." I've forgotten what word it was. But at the Haymarket, you're referring to my one-man shows, which I've done three or four times for limited seasons. And that's a completely different technique from working in plays because you're addressing the audience personally; you're sweeping across them with your gaze like a searchlight on a prison and they have the illusion that you're actually talking ot them the whole time. The secret is to make the auditorium much more intimate than it actually is. I had to perform once in Australia in an auditorium with 5,000 people, and it's possible even under those conditions.

ffalls asks: What work was the most fun for you?

Sir Peter Ustinov: That's very difficult. I've done so many different things; I'm now chancellor of a fine university in England. It is Durham University, which is linked to Duke University in North Carolina.Since I never went to university myself, I said, when I was inaugurated in Durham Cathedral in my medieval robes, that my father would have been so proud that I'd managed to sneak into university at last. So I'm not only the chancellor, but the most recent student. And that contact with a new generation and all the new technologies available today have given me enormous pleasure. They've even managed to instruct me in the use of the Internet, which is used by many students in various departments, and thanks to them, I've discovered about myself something I never knew before; which was that I'm left-handed. I've since tried to use my left hand to write with, but I'm afraid I still can't. Apart from that, I'm still ambassador to UNICEF, which I've been for the last 31 years, and that's work which gives enormous satisfaction. I spent one recent field trip to China and one to Cambodia, which are endlessly fascinating. One German cynic asked whether I thought that the whole operation of UNICEF was just a drop of water on a hot stone, which is a German expression, and I said, "No, it's better than that. At the worst, it's a drop of water in the ocean. It doesn't get lost."

mohan62 asks: You were present when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated weren't you, sir?

Sir Peter Ustinov: I could hear it. We were prevented from seeing it because we were waiting for her and the cameras were fixed in the direction of her and myself and we were also linked by sound. She wasn't yet; but I was. And in order to reach the garden of the public building which she used for receptions ....she had selected the place herself under a tree because she was sensitive to the sun... in order to get there by foot from the residency, which was next door, she had to go through a gap in a hedge. And it was there that she was shot three times and the Indian cameraman said to me "Firecrackers. "We're a very youthful people and can never resist letting off firecrackers if there are some left over from a public celebration." Then there was a round of machine gun fire and it became clear that they weren't firecrackers after all. I had no time to move any cameras, but I recorded the whole thing sound wise. We heard the ambulance arrive with great alacrity and speed away. And then after about seven minutes, there was another burst of machine gun fire further away and it was quite clear that there had been a settling of accounts, probably in the guardhouse: The revenge of the gurkas, the frontier troops who were her bodyguard and who weren't there on this occasion, against the Sikhs who were responsible for her murder. This was at 9 a.m. in the morning. She was a bit late, and we weren't allowed to leave until 3 p.m. because they didn't want rumours to trickle out before the news had spread, which gave them time to put up some appearance at least of protecting Sikh property against people taking revenge. What struck me as almost incredible was the activity of squirrels and vultures in the garden. They went on through the whole unpleasant business without interruption as if the animals and birds knew instinctively that the shots were not aimed at them. That's about it.

Timehost: You deal with the incident in the program tonight?

Sir Peter Ustinov: No, not at all. There's no mention of that and India has such a long history. I suggested in an interview I did with Rajiv Gandhi, the son of Indira Gandhi and subsequent prime minister who was also murdered, that perhaps the theories of non-violence which were spread by Mahatma Gandhi, were a direct consequence of the volatility and excitability of the people. And he said that he'd never given the matter thought, but would think about it in the future. Well, these tragic events in India always seemed to happen in gardens; Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were all killed in gardens. Rajiv when a bunch of explosive flowers were offered to him. But with a country so large and with so many facets, these events don't mark as strongly as in a country where less goes on. What is fascinating about India is that it's the only country that can rival China population-wise and is destined to overpass China because it has no birth policy. Everything has to be seen .....if you're driving with a taxi driver who doesn't hesitate to drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid a holy cow and just keeps on saying "No problem," it's really an alarming experience. Whenever there's a catastrophe in India, there're always more people killed than elsewhere. It's on a completely different scale and with an extremely different sensibility toward things in general. At the same time, a very civilized outlook on life is often apparent. What is nostalgic to us is that they have been more unwilling to let go of British traditions than the british. They even use words which are not in general usage elsewhere anymore. I remember the Congress Party being interviewed on TV when we were there and the interviewer said that "What you have said, Your Excellencey, is very different from the view of your party." And the man said , "Well, I opine differently."

CHANNEL_1999 asks: When did you start to act?

imacman456 asks: How did you get to be in the movie business?

Sir Peter Ustinov: Well, I think I must have started very young because in some family album, which I am eager to keep hidden, there's a picture of me with nothing on a beach but my father's hat, a stiff collar, and a walking stick. And it says underneath "Bonar Law," who was the British prime minister in 1923. It was my first major part. How I got into movies was because I bore a resemblance to the syphilitic gentleman who set fire allegedly to the Reichstag, and so I played him in a film called "Mein Kampf, My Crimes," which was a terrible English documentary of the early days of Nazism in which I appeared in the dock, shackled, with a prison costume on, and was too idiotic to answer any questions. So I never spoke. But they chose me as a cutout for the cinema at Marlborough Arch in London and I must say, I thought I had arrived. That was in 1939, I think.

Eoganachta asks: I love "Billy Budd." Did it or you win any awards?

Sir Peter Ustinov: I got an awfully lot of nominations for the British Oscars. But I didn't get any awards elsewhere. Not that I can remember, anyway. I remember the movie very well because I directed it and I played in it. I didn't think I was right for the part of a British sea captain in 1790 because I didn't think I looked relatively British. Now, as an old man, it's all right. I was the only actor I could get at the price. I was producing the movie as well. It's wonderful to think it cost $850,000, and that's with stars like Mervyn Douglas. And it was the first film of Terrence Stamp, too. I'm very proud of that. I thought it was my best by far.

funghiman asks: How and why did Sir Peter Ustinov get knighted?

Sir Peter Ustinov: That's like asking why I was invited to a party. You really have to ask the host, not me. Or in this case, the hostess. I only remember that while I was kneeling, the military band was playing "I'm Going to Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair." But being a military band, I hardly recognized the tune.

manolis_varnassinger asks: Peter, is there any role you'd love to play?

Sir Peter Ustinov: I think I've done King Lear twice. That's the sort of thing I've wanted to play since I was youngs. I've now played the Walrus in Alice in Wonderland; I don't think one can go much further than that. Except that I had to play a pig in a forthcoming release of Animal Farm. This wasn't a cartoon, it was a real pig. And I've never had a tougher problem than to synchronize my lips with those of a pig. Especially, when the pig was supposed to speak like Winston Church ill. It's one of the Hallmark series.

abulafiabn asks: Are you planning a new novel?

Sir Peter Ustinov: I've got one coming out in September in America, which is called "Monsieur Rezé." I can just tell you that the hero is 70 years old. I couldn't have written the book earlier in my life and he is the life president of the International Brotherhood of Concierges and Hotel Porters. It's a kind of ...it's the opposite of "Lolita." It's a man who discovers love in all its fullness after 70, but with a woman who herself is no spring chicken. Like all things, it's strictly a work of imagination.

theres_rile asks: What is your favorite Mark Twain story?

Sir Peter Ustinov: Oh, my goodness... Well, I read "Huckleberry Finn" when I was youngs. I like a great deal his articles and his essays on the German language, which are wonderfully penetrating without being at all offensive. And Germans are all mad keen on him in retrospect. One of the things that struck me is that although he was of his period strictly, he was very clairvoyant about all sorts of things and it's very surprising to find in the book an observation that one really didn't expect, but that one heartily approves of, which is that "there's not a square inch of the Earth's surface which hasn't been stolen." This is from "Following the Equator." It's indicative of a mind which is extremely objective and has crept ruthlessly across all sorts of patriotic cant.

theres_rile asks: Where are you scheduled to be on New Years' Eve?

Sir Peter Ustinov: I'll be in Thai land because we always go to the same hotel and occupy the same room every year at that time. And when people ask me how long it took to write my last novel, I can tell them exactly because I began it in that room and ended it one year later, in that room. And even found at the back of one of the drawers, a refill for my pen which had escaped the attention of the meticulous Thai cleaners, and which served to end my novel.

manolis_varnassinger asks: Did you enjoy playing hercules Poirot?

Sir Peter Ustinov: Yes, very much. Although I didn't think I would end my life playing endless poirots. Not that I'm too old, because I believe him, if my calculation is right, to be just over 150 years old now. And it's a character performance because he seems to get his kicks in life by lip reading at a range of 200 yards. I've always preferred something more solid. And he's a confirmed bachelor, which I never have been.

Timehost: Here's a question about your new movie that opens this week...

manolis_varnassinger asks: Peter, what is the subject of your new movie?

Sir Peter Ustinov: Well, it's a good natured, if acerbic , satire on the Merchant and Ivory school of filmmaking, which is a form of admiration, I think. I consider such a satire flattering because those films are extremely well made and especially well acted even if verging on the lachrymose. But this is a rather tougher approach to the British Empire and its decline. And I play a superannuated tea planter who is extremely lascivious. In fact, at my advanced age, it's almost the first lover I've been allowed to play. It's full of surprises and I find it very refreshing. And I've since done another film with the same director, which comes out later this year and is called THe Bachelor.

jackhammer1964 asks: Mr. Ustinov, my family and i still enjoy We're No Angels.

Sir Peter Ustinov: I worked there with Humphrey Bogart and since then I've been asked endless questions about him and I'm always forced to reply, that had I known he was going to become an icon,I would have studied him more closely. He was a remarkable fellow, and he warned me before we started that the director's strong point was not his sense of humor, and that we'd have to assure the humor ourselves. The director, of course, was Mike Curtiz, who was an extraordinary man who'd been in America a very long time, but had never succeeded in fully understanding English. And at the same time he'd forgotten his Hungarian. However, he let us do what we wished. He had a great instinct for the right thing and we controlled ourselves fairly well and did more or less what he wanted, but tried to make sure that what we did was more or less amusing.

Timehost: I think we're going to have to wrap things up... Let me just offer this one comment from one of our online audience members...

neveragainwannalove asks: It's not a question, but I just need to say that I love the way you play!!!

Sir Peter Ustinov: It's not an answer, but thank you!

Timehost: Any closing thoughts?

Sir Peter Ustinov: No, I hope that they just enjoy both the film and the television. The television may be a bit lacking in reverence, but that would certainly meet with Mark Twain's approval.

Timehost: Thank you very much for joining us today.

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