An Interview with Martin Sheen | Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg & Thomas Paine

who are you and what did you have with the mo have to do with the movie Gettysburg uh to identify myself I am Ramon Gerard Antonio estevis AKA Martin Sheen and I had the honor of portraying General Robert E Lee the commander of the northern Army of Virginia who invaded this Village that we are now visiting uh uh for about 4 days in early July in 1863 and the world has never been the same you did you have a good amount of time to prepare for this role actually I had hardly any I I remember getting two calls from actors involved one was Tom Beringer of course who played Long Street who called me in a kind of a you know almost a desperate mood you know like like uh did you get the script you really can't turn this down we're we're waiting here we've already begun filming we can't do this without you you've got to come and uh I think Charlie gave him my number because I'd never met Tom until then and then I got another call from Melissa Gilbert uh whose husband was in the film and uh bo Brinkman uh uh was very encouraging and so I didn't know anything about the character only perer from history that he he was the uh you know he had an opportunity to uh to to uh command the army of the pic that Lincoln had offered him the commission he rejected it and as we just heard Ken Burns say earlier in an interview or in a little impromptu wonderful speech by the way that he uh said he couldn't raise a sword against his own people and so you know the the the the die had already been cast and he he so he um he joined the opposition so I yeah I was a late bloomer I had I had to study as much as I possibly could um but didn't have a computer didn't have cell phones or anything like that in 1992 and I couldn't have used them anyway I still can't but uh I got as much information as I could and I called a guy that had a good reputation for um accents you know foreign and domestic accents Regional accents and and I just talked to him over the phone I can't even remember his name but somebody said yeah you got to call this guy if you're going to do a southerner and I got on the phone with this guy and he said um where were you uh from originally I said Ohio Dayton Ohio he says that will never do no that's too flat and too whiny he said you've got to find the the southern gentleman in your character G Lee was a personification of a gentleman even in the worst of times he maintained his his gentlemanly and very scholarly uh attitude M tayor yes sir I want you to deliver this message in person find General Ule telling the federal troops are withdrawing in confusion it is only necessary to push those people in order to gain possession of those High tell him to take that Hill if and so he said one way you can start to practice is to is to speak with with your lips closed because they didn't always like to show their teeth that they weren't so shiny and they didn't like to mispronounce words so that they they they elongated words and phrases and it became uh a rhyth he he talked about the rhythm of the language and so uh never ever be flat whether you're gay or or or uh or somber never it's always the the language is always flowing it never ceases to flow and some sometimes it ends on a high note it ends on a question mark when there's no it's when it's a declaration so I'm getting on and on here talking about it but I had to learn as quickly as I possibly could one of the helps that I had was that I had a full beard pasted on me for uh every day that that I was working here and so that you I could cover my mouth with a lot of hair and you couldn't quite see the technique that I was using but I was told and by one very um knowledgeable source that I had I had gotten the accet pretty close for a buckeye yeah but I I I sort of backed in I I didn't I didn't know about the production until it was underway I had not met uh Ron or any of the participants uh who were already here in assembling I did not like to ride a horse I wasn't very good at it to begin with and that troubled me and I wasn't sure how in present day America I mean in '92 this story was going to work I did read the book on the way to gettsburg I read the killer angels and I thought oh my God this is quite a sensational work and very powerful and I thought okay um well I had already committed by the time I wrote the book read the book but I I didn't have a clue how it was going to work out and I started to get a feel of it when I got fitted for the uniform and when they pasted on the beard and the hairpiece and I thought wow this is uh this helps a lot you know and even sitting on a horse was uh quasy comfortable because I'm never comfortable unless I'm uncomfortable you know so I was very uncomfortable they had twin horses a kid came down from Illinois I wish I could remember his name I can't and he was so delighted they had chosen his horses to play uh traveler and the horses had two totally different personalities one was kind of sleepy and the other was very feisty I think it was a stallion one was on me immediately knew that he you know I was not going to have my way with him he just would not do whatever I wanted and did whatever he want all the time the other one was kind of docile and we used him when we were standing still just sitting on the horse I think he was sleeping most of the time so he enjoyed that the other guy was not happy with me but uh I I couldn't have been happier when I got here and began to feel the energy of of the company and the community I didn't realize how historic this place still was I I had an image of it had never been here our you know greatest uh source of information was a gettsburg address that Lincoln came here in the fall of that year and delivered that extraordinary uh Speech and and so uh but I didn't know anything about the Battle or the uh the I knew the consequence of course because it was a major turning point in the war and in the direction of our country but I I didn't have a clue what happened here and and what was involved and and uh so that that was an education and the camaraderie of the reenactors both male and female because a lot of these guys that came for both sides you know for blue and gray brought their families with them and they camped out here in the the the open field uh in many places you know and relived the this experience and we were just all kind of drawn into this energy of what happened and sometimes it got very uh close and personal and emotional and the lads would sing sometimes you know Ron was a big he knew all the songs of the era and the lads would sing and tell stories and get drunk and weep and they were like real participants in in this event and so uh I I I got in I got into that flow but I had to maintain the decorum you know I I uh I had I always I always lived in that image that he was a gentleman and and a Virginian and that the core of his character was in his spine you look at him on the horse he's never slouched he was always set ight and you know when people talk about him and they quote him uh you get a sense of his language and his uh his speech patterns and and that I I I think you know I that he was actually a very shy man he was not a a good public speaker he did not enjoy that but I think if I'm not mistaken he was number two in his class at West Point and I'm just listening here to Ken Burns a few minutes ago he was he was just uh he was talking about the he's doing a a new story about the Revolutionary War and what the foundations of that were and he was talking about there was no you know photographs or news footage or any personal uh uh you know memories and so the history of that war and why it was fought as extraordinary and it's it's another lesson for our country who we who we were who we are how we got here gettsburg is right in the middle of that and he made that clear I didn't realize that that the settlers here were uh uh from that those original uh those first six uh generations and he talked about they took the land from the people who were here for 600 Generations the Indians the Native Americans and I think we're we're going to get uh another history Le a very necessary history lesson in uh Ken Burn's next uh next episode you know we have libraries full of information from all different points of view about our history and and all and yet I remember so distinctly that the nation came to a a slow momentous pause and reflection and for those four days I think it was 1990 if I'm not mistaken when the Civil War played and we witnessed a part of our nation that we could never have imagined any other way and he did it with still photographs and music and narration and it was the most stunning and probably the most important movie making in our entire history because it it went to a place and it and it evoked a a history an an a deeply personal uh story that affected all of us and still affects us today if I'm channel surfing so far and I land and I hear that you know the uh the that beautiful tune the [Music] farewell It just strikes a course and it evokes an emotion that you cannot ignore and we had that simultaneously as a nation north and south east and west black and white old and young rich and poor everyone literally glued to the next episode and one of those episodes was this one not this movie but gettsburg and that was the turning point and I think historically it was uh it was judged as so that the Battle of gettsburg was so horrible so magnificent so historic so deeply personal that the the cost and the willingness to pay it on both sides was shown so clearly and and so immaculately in the Bloodshed in the horror of that battle and and it didn't it wasn't limited to the men but to the animals to the environment and to our our our Collective history well I I asked you one question and you answered 13 of mine so you're the ultimate interviewee no I'm just an old wind I I I know we might be switching interviews soon but I I have to ask so you you referenced the land and the environment what what place does a battlefield like this have in terms of it being still a place where people can go after they see the movie or watch the Ken burs Civil War series what what place does the battlefield have well it's it's the it's the room where it happened to quote uh the Hamilton musical it's we we walk into this hollowed very sacred ground which was baptized in the blood of the participants so it is sacred it it uh and and it's it's the one Battlefield now mind you I haven't been to a whole lot of others but is the one Battlefield that that this place needs to be here and that we need to know that we can go there any day of the week any time of the year it it's it's present to us it's like Lincoln said in that speech you know the the world would little remember what we say here but they will never forget what they did here and and it's like no we we we are forbidden to forget Mr Sheen you Martin well I appreciate or Ramon Martin you played a lot of iconic characters throughout your career if you had the opportunity to play one historical character who would it be uh I almost I almost played the the one guy that I had uh most admired uh in the in the foundation of the country uh U now I can't remember his name no if I had and and I I might just back up a little bit when I was I was doing a um I was doing Gandhi uh in India with sir uh Richard B uh Richard attenburrow and we had to go from one location to another on a plane and I never comfortable on a plane and this is really a puddle jumper and it was in third world country and I was terribly uncomfortable and he was sitting next to me and there was only about eight or 10 people on this little plane and uh so he he started talking to me I it became real clear to me he was concerned about my concern and he was trying to calm me and so he was talking to me and he was asking me who my heroes were and what you know what how you know how I was doing in my life and my career and family and all of that and and he asked me well who are some of your Heroes and I said well you know I said but you know John Kennedy Reverend King and Bobby Kennedy and and so many more and and he said well what about the the people from the past you know got and I said one person that fascinates me and that that I would be if if I was asked who I could meet in the period of the of the American Revolutionary War without hesitation I said Thomas Payne and he said funny you should have that he says I'm doing a movie about Thomas Payne he said did you know he was British I said I had a suspicion he wasn't American uh because he was never a citizen and he was never granted a citizenship even when he died new Rell New York where he's buried and uh uh and he said yes and he said uh and I'm wondering if you now I see that you would be interested to I said I would do it in a Flash he said and you're the right age too at that time I was 41 and uh so he he we stayed in touch and he he got involved with other projects and it it never came to pass but I I I always regretted that I never got a chance to play Thomas Payne that's a fantastic answer yeah well thank you for your time we really appreciate you sitting down with us no I got a whole lot of more people that I want to talk about uh besides we've had such fun with these guys hello this is Trace Atkins to stay up to date on all the latest and coolest videos please subscribe to the trust YouTube channel preserve educate inspire