No forced smiles for ‘Muse’ writer/star Albert Brooks

Luaine Lee

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 9:07 a.m.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Albert Brooks doesn't worry about whether he's funny. That's unusual for a man who has made a living with his insightful humor since he was a dewy college kid.

"I like to deal with the scariest parts of what is in my mind," he says.

"One of the earlier bits I did on 'Carson' -- my favorite bit -- was when I supposedly ran out of material. And I sat there and said, 'Y'know, I have no more material left. I could've done this, but that's not who I am.' And I wound up doing it, (doing) anything, and dropped my pants, poured ice cream all over my head. Just the idea of facing those fears makes good comedy."

Uncorking laughs on stage was never what Brooks wanted, although he did it successfully for five years.

"I was like 19 years old and all I really wanted to do was act," he says. "At that age Richard Dreyfuss was the only one getting any parts. This agent at the William Morris Agency said to me, 'You're funny. You go ahead and start doing standup, you'll get every job you can and you'll jump right to the head of the line, and you'll get all the acting parts.' And that just wasn't true."

Brooks wanted out, but he didn't know how to get off the stage. Finally, he says, nature forced him to quit.

"One night in Boston, after years of this, I had sort of a breakdown. I just said, 'I can't do this anymore.' I went home and got in bed for six months and then I emerged in a new career."

That new career turned out to be filmmaking -- not just acting but writing and directing as well. Although Brooks earned an Oscar nomination for his role as the cynical announcer in "Broadcast News," he mostly writes his own movies such as "Life in America," "Mother" and his newest, "The Muse"

It was his refusal to host the then-new "Saturday Night Live" show that eventually turned him into the Woody Allen of the West.

NBC had asked him to host their new sketch comedy show. Brooks refused, suggesting that they alternate guest hosts instead.

"I didn't want to be in New York. I didn't want to stay up till 11:30 and wait to do a show. It just seemed too crazy. By the way, all those people who did get 'crazy,' I knew I'd be one of them. I didn't want to do that.

"So they came back again. ... They said, 'We want you attached to the show. What do you want to do?' Two years before I'd written an article for Esquire, 'Albert Brooks' Famous School for Comedians,' and made that into a short film for PBS, 'That Great American Dream Machine.' That was the first time I'd ever gotten a taste of what that might be like.

"I said, 'I want to make short movies,' " he recalls. "So I got this amazing opportunity to make all these films in a short amount of time. I was writing one, editing another, casting a third and I made those six films and that got me the knowledge and ability to make my first feature."

Since then he's been able to parlay those talents into films that are both unique and perceptive.

In "The Muse," Brooks plays a blocked screenwriter who finds a real, in-the-flesh Muse to help him overcome his fallow period.

Brooks, 52, not only coaxed Sharon Stone into being his muse, but snagged people such as Martin Scorsese and Jim Cameron for wicked little cameos.

He says he doesn't have any trouble lining up performers for his films. "I've been very lucky. Anybody I've ever asked to be in a movie has wanted to do it. I think that's because actors are not saying, 'Will 11-year-olds like this?' They're saying, 'Will this be a great artistic opportunity for me and am I in safe hands?' "

They've always been in safe hands with Brooks, now more than ever. Two and a half years ago he married the former Kimberly Shlain and he's the proud father of a 10-month-old boy.

Marriage filled a part of his life that he felt missing. "I feel a lot more grounded just in the world," he nods. "One of things about comedy is when people -- more than any other art form -- when you make people laugh, you have this artificial love-relationship with them. Once the show's over they're gone. You're left there alone. When you have at least one person in your life that you really feel that's real with to me it's glorious."

It took him so long to marry, he says, because he just couldn't find the right person. "I read that people start out with therapy. I don't think that's what you should be doing. Life is tough enough. If you start out with problems, where do you go? So this was a woman that it was just effortless. It felt right, so it was time to do it. If you saw our little kid, it's an indication that we did right," he says with a grin.