Newly Minted Oscar Winner Kieran Culkin, Bill Burr and the Glengarry Glen Ross Cast Discuss the Legacy of the Film

Some exceptional actors have inhabited the roles of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, on stage and on screen: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Bobby Cannavale, Joe Mantegna, Robert Prosky, Al Pacino again…

At a recent press event for the upcoming Broadway revival of the play, the cast was asked: Is anyone thinking about the responsibility of filling those big shoes?

"Sure," said Bob Odenkirk, who plays down-on-his-luck Shelley Levene (played by Jack Lemmon in the 1992 film). "You can’t not think about that if you saw that movie—it’s very well done. But what can you do about it? You can’t do a damn thing about it."

Here's what the whole cast had to say about the legacy of the film.

BILL BURR (Dave Moss, played by Ed Harris in the film): Forget about it. That’s what you do. Forget about it. Don't watch it. Don't look at it. Just do the thing. You're more just listening to the other person and that informs the choices. I'm just pretending like nobody's seen it or nobody knows about it.

ODENKIRK: It's weird—I'm inspired by the movie. I am not watching it. I won't be watching it at all during all this. I guess I could sit around and be intimidated by it, but I'm thrilled by the wonderful performances in that film, and I think we can't help but be our own version, and we're finding it now in rehearsal. It's just a great piece of writing, so it can go many different directions like any great play.

KIERAN CULKIN (Ricky Roma, played by Al Pacino in the film): I'm in a fortunate enough position to not have seen the movie, so I have no frame of reference. This is all brand new to me, so as far as I'm concerned, this is Shelley, this is Moss. That's it.

HOWARD W. OVERSHOWN (Detective Baylen, played by Jude Ciccolella in the film): It's an amazing piece of writing, but it's also the chemistry with the actors. It really is about the chemistry, the different personalities. And right now, for me, the gentlemen playing the lead roles in this show are completely different than the people that have played it before.

MICHAEL McKEAN (George Aaronow, played by Alan Arkin in the flm): It's all about the leads, is that what you’re saying?

CULKIN: Nice. Clever f–er.

OVERSHOWN: It's nothing like the other productions. I mean, the energy that's happening—the story's the same, but the energy is very different, very unique. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm very excited to see where we go.

DONALD WEBBER, JR. (John Williamson, played by Kevin Spacey in the film): I like to think about the people who haven't seen it. I like to think about the people who will come into our theater and this is the first time they've seen Glengarry Glen Ross. It's the first. They have no other. We are the people. And I think it would just be a disservice to anyone and everyone to try to be whatever was done before. I think the people who are going to come, they're going to see Bob as Shelley and they're going to be like, ‘That's Shelley.’ They're going to see Kieran as Roma. ‘That's Roma.’ You know what I mean? And I think that's what excites me about doing a revival.”

JOHN PIRRUCCELLO (James Lingk, played by Jonathan Pryce in the film): I mean, there's an endless amount of stuff to worry about—like who played it before, and all of you are here filming us and asking questions about it. And the theater's huge. There's a lot of stuff to worry about…

McKEAN: You are worried.

BURR: He's unraveling.

McKEAN: Coming apart before our eyes.

PIRRUCCELLO: But in the end, the answer will be among us. It'll be that we'll just be intimate with each other.

McKEAN: I hope they didn't tune in just at that moment.

CULKIN: We’ll be intimate with each other. All at once.

OVERSHOWN: The midnight show.