Page 49 - Peter Farrelly Issue

Farrelly: (laughs) That’s okay. 2.0. Four years account- ing at Providence College. I didn’t really start writing until I was about 24, and before that—that’s just one of those things. These kids who have to make up their mind what they’ll be when they’re 17, 18, I had no clue. When I started college, I remember my advisor said, “What’s your major?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “Well, you have pretty good math boards, how about accounting?” I said, “okay,” And that was it. That was all the thought that went into it.
smoked three to four packs a day, as a doctor, by the way.
Cooper: That sounds just like me. I asked the counselor when I was getting out of high school, “What’s the toughest thing you have.” They said, “Probably medi- cine.” I said, “What does that mean?” They said, “Biol- ogy, probably.” I said, “okay.” So, I got my degree in biology just because I had no idea what I was doing.
Farrelly: My father smoked all day. Every year for the holidays, at Christmas, I’d make him an ashtray when I was a kid. That was what we gave him every year. He had ashtrays at work, on the kitchen table, next to his chair. He was always smoking. He never stopped, even while he was eating dinner, he’d have a cigarette going.
Farrelly: At least you were ambitious, to go for the toughest thing.
Farrelly: Yeah. I have friends who were heroin addicts and were addicted to cigarettes, and they said quitting cigarettes was way harder.
Cooper: So, you’re up in Ojai?
Cooper: It’s so difficult when you have an addictive per- sonality.
Farrelly: I do live in Ojai, but I’m going toward LA right now. I’m going back East tomorrow. I’m from the East Coast, so I’m going back for a couple of weeks.
Farrelly: I have a friend who was a bad alcoholic, and one day he woke up in his 40s and he’d had enough of that experience, something had happened, and he quit cold turkey, cigarettes and booze, the same day, never went back. Now he’s 78 years old. Never went to a meeting, just said, “That’s it.” Done. Boom.
Cooper: You’re from Massachusetts, right? Farrelly: Rhode Island.
Cooper: I’m sorry, is that a negative thing to say?
Cooper: Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had that capa- bility?
Farrelly: No. I have a lot of asshole friends. Rhode Island and Massachusetts are not that different. We always went to Cape Cod in summer, which is Massa- chusetts. I definitely feel connected to both.
Farrelly: Yeah, that’s rare.
Cooper: Are you going back for vacation or work?
Cooper: I just pictured him looking outside the window, it was wintertime and there was a turkey looking in at him going, “Why?”
Farrelly: Vacation. 4th of July and also my mother’s— We’re having a 90th birthday party for my mother. She’s 90 goin’ on, like, 50. 90 is the new 50; for her it is. She still plays golf two or three days a week. She plays bridge two or three days a week. She teaches bridge. Every night I call her and if it’s after 5:00, she’s either at or on her way to a cocktail party.
Farrelly: (laughs) And by the way, just for anybody, he became smashingly successful after he quit all that stuff. It does help your brain and your focus.
Cooper: (laughs)
Farrelly: Not really. I never smoked cigarettes. I didn’t do it because I had younger brothers and sisters and I thought if I smoke, they would see me and they would smoke. It didn’t matter, they all smoked anyway. They got off it eventually. No, I never—it’s in my family, though, there’s a lot of alcoholism and all sorts of things. I don’t think I have an addictive personality. Like, for instance, I pretty much don’t think of weed, marijuana at all. If I’m at a party somewhere and some- one passes me a joint, I’ll always take a hit off it, but I don’t think of it in between.
Farrelly: When we do her 90th birthday, we’re like, “Mom, do you want to invite some friends? Give us a list.” 120 people.
Cooper: (laughs)
Cooper: Is your father still alive?
Farrelly: No, he passed away about 10 years ago. He was unfortunately a smoker. That’s what got him. He
Cooper: But you were around Woody for years.
Cooper: Isn’t it something? Back in the day when the doctors would say—a tobacco company would use a doctor to say, “They’re the best, Camel is the best doc- tor-preferred.”
Cooper: Wow! Such a strong addiction.
Cooper: Did you ever get in trouble with too much or abuse?
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