Q 13

PLAYBOY: What do you find sexy in someone else?

Frank Langella: Intelligence is enormously sexy. And so is a sense of humor. Physical qualities don't really matter much. I'm not saying it doesn't matter if a person has three heads and four legs. It matters a lot. It's nice that the person you're with is attractive and has a beautiful body, but if the mind and the humor aren't there, the attraction is going to wear thin.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Some people have remarked that you are carrying on the tradition of the ambisexual male star that was started by Laurence Harvey and Montgomery Clift. Has that helped or hindered you?

Frank Langella: Probably both. Because if you do represent someone who has such a duality of persona, it's probably bound to be appealing to some and offensive to others. But I am aware of that quality; and I've never been frightened to display any emotion required for a character, even if it meant calling upon those feelings, sensitivities and emotions that one would normally regard as feminine. As an actor, you must be willing to display every element of yourself, so it would never occur to me to hide any part of myself. However, I don't by any means suggest that I'm always playing myself. As a matter of fact, I rarely ever play myself.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: If you could play a public figure in the world today, who would it be?

Frank Langella: Elvis Presley, because I'm intrigued by the man's life, by his plight and by the obvious manipulation of his life by others. The sadness of the man, the unrealized brilliance of his talent fascinates me. I don't know enough about him to know how or why his talent was never developed. But it was obvious that he had that magic, that indefinable magnetism, long before anyone else--long before the Jaggers or the Travoltas. But it never grew. I would love to try to play Presley to find out just why. I probably wouldn't find out why, but he'd be an interesting character to work on.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: What made you want to become an actor?

Frank Langella: Somebody asked me the other day why there are suddenly so many Italian-American actors enjoying success. I think it had something to do with the combined passions of the kitchen table and the Catholic Church. I grew up in a household where everybody lived at the top of his lungs. Plus being hustled off to church every Sunday morning, where the rituals were so impressive: I'd see the incense being burned, hear beautiful organ music and be mesmerized by the priests in all their robes. To a young mind, the combination of those experiences is so incredibly exciting. So it's no surprise that I always had a great love of majesty and size, heroism and grandeur. The first thing I wanted to be was an opera singer; I was five then, and opera was playing in our house all the time. But I was drawn to it; my brother, on the other hand, was drawn to baseball. Then, for a hot three or four weeks, I wanted to be a concert pianist. But when I was seven or eight, I did my first little piece of acting. And that was it.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: It could be argued that James Dean, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift have male fans who are just as rabid and involved with their fantasy images as the female fans are. Do men find you as attractive as women do?

Frank Langella: I hope not, but there's no way of knowing, because my female fans are more vocal. And, also, it's something I don't much want to explore.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: Have you ever been turned down by a woman; and, if so, how did you feel about it?

Frank Langella: Oh, sure, and you feel differently when you're turned down at 17 than when you're turned down at 30. Rejected, that's how you feel. And it certainly makes you more sensitive and aware of what it's like when you turn somebody down.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: What's the most romantic thing a woman can do for a man?

Frank Langella: Listen to him. And I don't mean obey; I mean to listen--to hear what he says.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: What does one have to do to make romance happen these days? To create that warm and terrific feeling for someone else?

Frank Langella: All you have to do is give your partner as much as you're capable of giving, and as generously as you can, and it will all come back to you.