Ingrid Laas
Ed Asner, the award-winning actor and social justice activist, answers questions from an admiring crowd at a Madison fundraiser for "The Progressive" magazine.
Ed Asner has had a complicated relationship with the press. He wanted to be a journalist himself, until a teacher discouraged the notion because of the profession’s notoriously low pay. He played Lou Grant, one of the most beloved editors of all time, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and his own spin-off series, during the glory days of journalism when newsrooms were packed with reporters and advertising dollars were plentiful. Later, he became disillusioned with the mainstream press when he saw little coverage of the 1980 strike by the Screen Actors Guild, a union he would soon lead.
But this December evening he is in Mary Lang Sollinger’s living room on Sherman Avenue, helping to raise money for The Progressive, one of the nation’s oldest magazines and a “voice for peace, social justice and the common good.” Asner, who lives in California, has just gotten back from a rehearsal at the Bartell Theatre, where he will perform God Help Us, dubbed “a political comedy for our times,” three times over the next few days.
The fundraiser was slated to start at 6 p.m. but the guest of honor arrives just before 7:30. Maybe that’s why only scraps are left of the plentiful spread put out by Sollinger. As Asner settles into a comfy chair in front of an audience of about 60, a man directly to his left offers to get him some food. “You must be hungry,” the man says to Asner. “Who are you?” Asner barks back, with some Lou Grant attitude. “I’m Jeff,” the guest says.
Sollinger introduces herself and apologizes for the nearly empty buffet table, saying that this has never happened in her many years of hosting fundraisers.
“What does that have to do with me?” Asner says to laughter. “Where is my food? It’s been picked over. I’m always getting screwed by progressives.” More laughter.
Sollinger asks Asner if she can brag a little bit: “Right here, right where your feet are, a very famous person was here on Oct. 15, 2007. A tall guy.”
“Obama!” a guest yells, stealing Sollinger’s punchline.
“And he changed my life and a lot of the people who are in this room,” adds Sollinger.
“Obama changed your life?” Asner asks incredulously, cocking his head. “God, that’s amazing. He didn’t change my life.”
“Really?” asks Sollinger.
“He tried,” a guest offers.
“He failed,” says Asner.
Awkward.
Asner, who is 90, does have kind words for one president. When asked who has made a big difference in his life, Asner cites Jimmy Carter, whom he calls a “man of integrity” and a “fine man.” But he says he “betrayed” Carter when he supported independent candidate John Anderson during Carter’s reelection campaign in 1980. “It was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life,” Asner says. “I wanted to show what a big liberal I was; what a fool I was. I learned my lesson.”
Asner was asked about his refusal to approve a Screen Actors Guild award for President Ronald Reagan — who had formerly led the Guild — because of Reagan’s role, when president, in hobbling the Air Traffic Controllers union.
“It was quite a tempest at the time, but it passed quickly,” Asner says. “It didn’t last.”
Asner says being the union president was challenging, especially when friends turned on him for not delivering what they expected him to. “To be an equal guide for your people is not the easy job it seems to be described as,” he says.
But Paul Buhle offers that Asner should accept props for challenging the labor bureaucracy on war and U.S. support of Central America, among other things. “I would say that as a labor historian, when the labor bureaucracy was finally toppled in 1995 that you were one of the ones who prepared the way.”
“Well thank you,” Asner says. “I don’t deserve it, but thank you.”
Norm Stockwell, publisher of The Progressive, notes that Asner’s career was in jeopardy because of his political stance against U.S. intervention in Central America and in support of the people of El Salvador.
“I had a show canceled,” Asner interjects, referring to Lou Grant, which was abruptly axed by CBS in 1982, despite its high ratings.
“My question is, you have always chosen to stick to your values and your principles and beliefs rather than accumulate lots of money and become a Hollywood star,” Stockwell asks. “What is it that drives you to do the work that you do?”
“Let justice be done,” Asner responds. “What does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul? I don’t want to lose my soul.”
“I am not a good person,” he continues, pausing. “I am not a good person. But when my faults are pointed out I try to rectify them. And I’m at 50/50 right now. I’ll keep on trying.”
21: Emmy Award nominations
7: Emmy Awards
1: Only actor to win Emmys for playing one character, Lou Grant, in both a comedy (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and drama (Lou Grant)
2002: Wins the Screen Actors Guilds’ Life Achievement Award
2003: Plays Santa in Elf, the blockbuster Christmas movie starring Will Ferrell
2009: Is the voice for Carl Fredricksen in the Pixar animated film, Up
