Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20160525

Really are not part of normal political conversation. I asked him in our interview about the 1993 death of vince foster, the former white house attorney just to see where he was on that, he said it was very suspicious, fishy, he said he wont make a central case in his campaign about it, but its striking we have a republican, Major Party Nominee who edges toward consideration with some of these things. Rose we continue with a streetcar named desire, starring gillian anderson, ben foster and vanessa kirby. It certainly feels insurmountable. It feels impossible. Until you get your rhythm in it, if the play can sit on your shoulders and you are under it and it is a terrifying feeling. Rose accompanying and leading general to syria and iraq, bob costa on donald trump, and a streetcar named desire when we continue. Funding for charlie rose is provided by the following. Rose we begin this evening with the fight against i. S. I. S. , an operation to recapture the city of fallujah led by iraqi forces beginning monday. 15 iraqi soldiers reportedly killed in the assault in anbar province. A kurdishled force led an offensive in syria in territories around raqqa, backed by u. S. Airstrikes and putting pressure on i. S. I. S. Forces in their strong hold. David ignatius is a Foreign Affairs columnist for the Washington Post. He recently traveled to Northern Syria and iraq with the commander of the u. S. Central command. I am pleased to have him back on this program. David, welcome. Thank you. Thank you, charlie. Rose tell me about the trip and what you saw and because this, as you suggested right before we started, was the first time a cent come commander has done this in six years. This was a very unusual opportunity for me and other reporters to travel with the commander of centcom and in that role as overall supervision of our war in syria and iraq against i. S. I. S. This is the first time since, i think, 2010, roughly, that a centcom commander has taken press with him under general austin a predecessor of general otel and madis, that was out. They did not want the press coming along. General v votel wanted to take us in syria with him. We were not allowed to file anything until wed gotten out of the country and were in amman, jordan. It was a rare chance to see u. S. Military advisors on the ground in syria working with the opposition there trying to build and launch against the Islamic State against its capital in raqqa. There are few who write about forwards as well as you but the notion is understanding the basis of information and contacts you have, from that point, what did you learn . What was surprising . What was new . I have been covering the middle east since 1980, so i have been looking at this part of the world for a long time, and the frustrations of trying to move forward in the middle east are familiar to me as all your viewers. What i saw on this trip, id say first, was the overwhelming power that the u. S. Military can bring to bear once it really gets organized, gets authority from the president. This campaign against i. S. I. S. Has had, i think, a slow start, but you could see on this trip that its finally really beginning to gear up. There are just daily operations. I was in two huge operations rooms where the screens display the feeds from surveillance drones, monitoring of air strikes, every operation is taking place across this theater. So that was the first thing, a sense of u. S. Military power. The second thing was the chance, when we were inside syria at a u. S. Training facility, inside the country, to see our military advisors at work. These are just remarkable men and women. Were not allowed to see them. I cant say all that much about i. Not even sure im not even sure where they were. These are amazing people. They are living off land, living rough in simple places and they are working with tribal fighters. The Syrian Kurdish militia, the y. P. G. , the fighters who over the last six months, year, have begun to really push i. S. I. S. Back. It was a chance to see how thats working and the people who were doing it on behalf of the country. The final takeaway for me, charlie, was the mismatch between the military part of this strategy and the political side, which i just found so many contradictory elements as i travel through iraq, syria. Were sort of working on basing this military campaign on what i said in one column is political quick sand in both iraq and syria. So those were the three basics, looking at our military machine, looking at the people doing this as military advisors, and finally trying to think through the politics. Rose whats possible before the Obama Administration ends in january . Well, i think the Obama Administration this year has been accelerating its campaign in both syria against raqqa, the i. S. I. S. Capital in syria and against mosul in iraq. I find very few people who think that the clearing and securing of those two places can be accomplished before obama leaves office, but i think obama, part is a legacy issue and properly in his role as commanderinchief, wants to put hard, using the tools hes now got in hand, and those are the ones i was able to see. The most interesting thing i found in iraq well talk more about syria, but in iraq, i have been focused i was just in iraq on my own three weeks ago and looking at the campaign in mosul and saw a lot of setbacks in the north, but on this trip i was able to see in the euphrates valley that stretches from fallujah through ramadi up towards the jordanian border, there really has been a lot of progress made, and there was evidence that i found that the tribal sheiks were very pragmatic, opportunistic, to be blunt, are beginning to think i. S. I. S. May not be the winning bet. Rose wow. So in classic fashion, tribal leaders are beginning, in cases our experts listed for me, and i know some of these tribes over the last 15 years, are beginning to flip. So i thought that story in the euphrates valley was interesting. The battle for fallujah thats now been launched in some ways is the trickiest part of this war because its going to involve shiite militias, the sunnis who were who the sunnis who are the primary residents of fallujah hate, but it will involve the sunni, Popular Militia forces as theyre called. Watching that play out will tell its a political issue. Lis all the really tricky issues on which ultimate success depends that are problematic, i thought, were political. The military machine that the u. S. Is now cranked that the u. S. Has now cranked up, its powerful. And if it has a solid enough political foundation, its going to get the job done. I dont know whether it will be by the end of the year. Who can say what the precise timing is. Sort of like world war ii. You just know this overwhelming power, once started, will so long as theres proper Political Base of support, and just looking at the events last week in baghdad, youve had essentially riots, you know, inside the green zone in the heart of the government. It just shows how fragile rose thats because of Muqtada Alsadr . It is, but a government who cant control the intimate space of its capital is a very fragile government, and if that government crumbled suddenly, all of this military power, all the plans, all the operations that i had a chance to look at, i think, become a lot more difficult. Rose when i saw the president in germany when he had gone to saudi arabia and then to germany, one of the things he said to me was he was making a strong effort to bring support for the Prime Minister of iraq among the european allies to give him as much help as they possibly could to give him strength to go through this because he was facing challenges not only from outside and i. S. I. S. And that but also challenges from inside. Whats happened interesting in iraq was the Shiite Coalition has begin to really fracture. Rose right. You could say iran has had as much as trouble being a hegemon in ike as we did. The iranians have been able to keep their shiite allies all on the same page and going in the same direction. That, over the last month or so, has clearly begun to blow apart, and abadis government is very fragile, as a result. He has been much more cooperative with the u. S. Hes made a lot of the changes that we want. Interestingly, his problem is one that we should have some sympathy for. The iraqi people are fed up with the gross overwhelming corruption of the government, and abadi says hes going to try to fix it, hes going to try to end this sort of warlordism and thieve riof his own party, the dawa party, which has been wooing things. Well see if he political muscle to do that. For now, hes actually reached out to muktar alsadr, the radical popular shiite leader, as a kin kind of ally in some of this anticorruptionle effort. Rose but hes a guy thats close to the iranians as well. The iranians are close to almost everybody in iraq. I must say the iranians work hard to play every side of the street. But that said, theyre having some trouble. You know, its not in their interest that you have rioting in the green zone of a government theyre essentially working with. Rose what role is the ayatollah playing today, sistani . I have told, and i have not been to the najaf camp personally, but im told by people who talked to the leadership is sistani and other leaders are fed up. Rose exactly. They just think the country is corrupt. They bought into the effort to build this new shiiteled iraq. They believed in it, they backed the government. One person cited to me an interesting fact that the religious leadership in najaf no longer delivers political sermons on friday supporting the effort to have a shiiteled iraq. Theyve pulled back. The iraqi, the najaf tradition has always been quietistic, not so political. They have gotten more involved in supporting the government. They have pulled back. Hard to know exactly, but theyre fed up with what theyre watching. Rose i hear you talk about the americans. Its interesting that people have questioned the president and suggested he was not in this fight. He clearly is now, as you suggest. Is there criticism that hes been too much a victim of incrementalism, and all of a sudden realized that, you know, there is more at stake and he had more of an interest in providing a stronger effort . I think that the white house slowrolled this campaign for a long time. Its taken them a long time to authorize the level of commitment, the level of special Operations Forces in syria and iraq, the advisors on the ground, the forward deployment of people, they resisted that for a long time both in numbers and authorities that they gave people. Thats now changing. I think that, in ways that we dont fully understand or know about, i think theyre very aggressive operations now to go after, sort of capture, kill operations to go after i. S. I. S. Networks that could threaten the United States homeland and could threaten europe. I think there is much more of that going on now than there was before. Ive always thought the president is better as a covert commanderinchief than as a public, overt commanderinchief. Its just strange. Heres the president who can now say, well, you know, i killed Osama Bin Laden and i killed mullah mo mansour, the head of e taliban. Both very difficult operations conducted in afghanistany territory. So on that level, the president has been aggressive. Hes allergic to syria. He has not wanted to do syria from the beginning. Hes found a level of commitment hes now comfortable with, which is training and deploying these ferocious Syrian Kurdish fighters i met who broke out of kobani, theyre the toughest fighters in that part of the world that people have seen. I mean, they are really the match for i. S. I. S. I met the womens militia of this Syrian Kurdish group the y. P. G. , women who i was told by the u. S. Military advisors wear suicide belts when they go into combat because if theyre taken prisoners by i. S. I. S. They knee they will be turned into six slaves so theyd rather blow themselves up. Theyre remarkable fighters. Talking to these women was really a revelation in that part of the world. To see women in trenches alongside the men which is the way theyre said to fight, thats different. Rose the coalition, how engaged is the rest of the coalition other than the United States and the kurds . The last stop on our trip was the air base in turkey where the turks allowed the u. S. And other Coalition Forces to operate. I was told by the commander of the a10 squadron the a10 is the sort of workhorse planes used to do the targeting in syria, especially i was told there is roughly equal Coalition Commitment there as the u. S. I didnt see the evidence of that directly but was told that on the record by the commander. So theyre there. You know, the pattern of daily air operations over both iraq and syria is pretty intense. When you go to these command centers where they display the combat information across the theater, you just see that this is basically a 247 operation, and that theyre you know, when were going through our days, they are targeting these people everywhere. Its very tough and dangerous to be an i. S. I. S. Member now syria and iraq. Rose and the russians . The russians remain the interesting x factor here. The situation in western syria along the coast in lada kia where i. S. I. S. Staged horrific attacks this week, they managed to penetrate and blow up lots of car bombs, the situation in aleppo, the northwest and then the corridor down through homs the russians have been trying to bolster Bashar Alassads forces, the regime in pushing back the Islamic State rebels, the alnusra front which is the al quaida affiliate of i. S. I. S. , but also some of the Islamist Groups the United States and qatar have been supporting. That battle space is very conflicted. I think both the u. S. And russians now are playing for some kind of dim pact resolution. I think the russians looking at this realized what a brahamable bush this is and would actually like to see the diplomacy work if they could find a way. Rose and what is the way . Well, in theory, the way is the geneva process our secretary of state john kerry and the russians have been working on, which is to get the opposition around the table with elements of the Syrian Regime and with the support of saudi arabia, iran, turkey, all the feuding neighbors and hammer out some kind of process for political transition. I think the problem is that Bashar Alassad thinks hes winning. Why should he come to the negotiating table. He and his russian friends are more powerful now than they have been for the last few years. Why should they make concessions in a negotiating process . So its gotten stuck. Whether secretary kerry can unstick it, well see. I dont see in the west, i honestly dont see a strategy for military success. I mean, you need to sort of get feuding factions together and then go after i. S. I. S. I. In the northeast area, there seems to be a clear tragedy led by the syrian kurd y. P. G. That the turks hate but are letting operations go forward. Rose david, thank you so much. Thanks, charlie. Rose David Ignatius from washington, just returned from syria and iraq. Back in a moment. Stay with us. Brrveg rose we now turn to politics. Recent polls show donald trump is competitive in the general election against Hillary Clinton as he unifies the republican partys base. Trump has escalated his Campaign Tactics against clinton. Monday released an Instagram Video attacking bill clintons character and raising Hillary Clintons record on women. Meanwhile the long primary battle with Bernie Sanders has hurt clintons standing in the polls. Monday trump met with senator bob corker amid rumors he may be a possibly running mate. With me bob costa of the Washington Post. Bob, thank you for doing this. Good to see you. Good to join you. Rose tell me where you think the Trump Campaign is at this moment, in terms of their assessment of the general election to come. The Trump Campaign at the moment based on my report is in a moment of transition but also one of surprising ease. Theres a sense inside of trump tower that the money is coming in from the republican establishment. The Party Leadership is on board and they see the party base reflected in the polling is also come along. So theyre fullbore right now into the general Election Campaign. Rose theyre launching escalating attacks against bill clinton. They are and that comes from sat down with him at trump tower a few days ago and have been in touch with his top advisors. He for many Years Associated with roger stone who dabbled in conspiracy theory, wrote books about it. Trump had lunch with edward klein the normaller New York Times Magazine Editor that writes the clinton books, these are the people in trumps circle at this time and trump believes hell go with no limits in the Election Campaign in bringing up ugly political chapters from the 90s people have forgotten or shelved in their mind. Rose what does that say about donald trump to you . It says this is a candidate who sees the general election and strict rion the horizon but believes he has to battle to get there. He needs to bring up things that are not part of normal political asked him in our interview about the 1993 death of vince foster, the former white house attorney, just to see where he was on that and he said its very suspicious, he called it very fishy. He said hes not going to make a central case in his campaign about it, but its striking we have a republican nominee, a Major Party Nominee who at least edges toward consideration of some of these things. Rose these kinds of opinions, theyre held by roger stone andthers, but theyre not held by the vast majority, you know, of the political community. Theyre not. Thats exactly right. And the republican party, talking to consultants here in washington, are already uncomfortable, but they do sense trump has a strategy here. Its not so much to have just an argument of populism, on policy, but to destroy the clintons, to really sully their brand, to bring up her negative numbers even more. Rose so will they go deeper and wider and nastier . I think trump has a lot of things on his radar. I think if you look at all the accusations of sexual impropriety and different kinds of relationships, even Juanita Broderick who accused bill clinton of rain in the 1970s, these are part of conversations in the country. You see talk radio show hosts having some of these accusers on this week. This is a bubble thats about to burst into the heart of the general Election Campaign because trump is encouraging it himself. Rose right now the Clinton Campaign and the former president and the former secretary of state are both in a sense theyre not ignoring it, but theyre not trying to attack every attack against them. Thats right. Theyre not trying to relate gat it and they dont want to get in a position where they have to respond. Talking to clinton advisors and clinton allies, my sense, is charlie, they believe they have to show hes unqualified, in their mind, that hes just not ready for the white house. But they also dont have a candidate whos ready to engage moment by moment on social media on the airways. The only concern based on reporting is the saturation by trump on cable and facebook and twitter could be a problem in the long run because it dominates the National Political narrative. Rose is that part of what trump understands about media . Hes running a media campaign. This is not a candidate whos right now really hes having fundraisers but hes not planning an onout advertising assault on the air, hes not looking at all the different states, grassroots organizing doesnt matter. This is the first time weve ever seen a true media candidate, someone who everyday is calling into reporters, going on social media and cable as much as possible. Its a totally different paradigm unfolding before snys and tweeting about everything before he goes to bed. Everything. All hours a day he wakes up, dictates tweets, goes to bed hee dictates tweets. He reads every article about him every day. You could argue its narcissism and it is but at the same time its part of his strategy where he wants to be in the ecosystem of everything trump and have his own voice be part of it. Rose are you primarily covering him . Is that the responsibility you have in this campaign . Im not after trump reporter. I cover politics. Rose i know but youre doing revealing interviews along with bob woodward, in some cases of trump, not clinton. Clintons not as accessible. Ive always told clinton sources a and advisors, i would welcome a phone call from her every day. Trump makes himself accessible. If you put in a request to trump and hes game to talk about the story, it may take under an hour to get him on the phone. My sense of trump, i have been covering him two years ago, even going back further than that, this is a candidate who lives on media and if you can come to him with the news of the day, hes usually willing to have conversation. Rose absorbed by media . Obsessed by media. Rose obsessed. This is someone who grew up politically, professionally in the tabloid culture of new york in the 1980s. This is someone who knew then how his public image was everything. It was everything for his companies and thats how he sees his brand now. Rose what else do you think he understands about media . I think he understands that as bad as one day can get, its only a day. Hes not rattled by something that consumes the news cycle on a wednesday. He thinks thursday he can have a tweet or call into morning joe or change the whole context and the debate within hours. This is someone who sees media as someone whos not only going to be focused on a specific story but can move quickly. I think he understands that instinctively. Rose i assume choosing a Vice President nominee is one of the biggest decisions he faces. Can you tell us what his thinking is about that . I think Corey Landowski in cbs hit on what trump is telling people behind the scenes, he wants an insider. He thinks he can win a general election and if he wins, he doesnt have experience. I think corker on paper, it was about foreign policy, but you see corker, committee chairman, Foreign Relations committee, has insights to how capitol hill works. If hes not on the short list, hes on the longer hist. List. Rose who else on the short list, Jeff Sessions . I think sessions, but he brings credibility on populism, immigration, conservative issues trump already has. Trump has session voters. Trump talked about kasich behind the scenes to his friends. He thinks kasich having house experience could bring a swing statement you have to look at rick scott who has been an ally of trump. Another person im hearing from temperature associates is john thune the senator from south dakota, someone from senate leadership. I think trump likes someone who can work with mcconnell and speaker ryan. Rose i know this is a broad question what is it you think we dont understand about donald trump at this scwungture, even juncture, even though we have been covering him every day, writing about him in every magazine, newspaper. Hes been at the center of News Coverage and politics in america science the primary campaign began, if not earlier. I think the thing thats most misunderstood about trump is hes not running as part of an ideological project. Its not someone who comes from the right, and thats unusual in republican politics. What this means is we have a candidate who doesnt play by the rules in traditional republican politics or traditional politics. He relishes the fight. I think this is often underplayed with trump. He loves the fight politically, personally, and he thinks if he can outlast you, he can outpace you, he can be relentless, eventually hell win. Thats been his strategy in business if you read the biographies and hes approaching it this way with Hillary Clinton, outlast, be relentless and go beyond the limits. Rose youre a reporter for the Washington Post. Why doesnt he release his taxes . Its not because of the audit. Certainly not because of the audit, though that is the reason he cites. When you talk to people in real estate, especially in new york, there is a sense many real estate moguls in this city and elsewhere rarely pay much in taxes. Theyre getting tax breaks and sometimes theyre not paying much at all. So his return could be very small, and i think thats part of why hes uncomfortable with releasing them. Rose he hasnt paid as much as people might think . Or not at all. The Washington Post has done reporting that at least earlier in the 80s, he didnt pay much taxes at all. Rose does that correspond to the time when he wasnt doing as well in business and tottering on, some say, bankruptcy . Thats right, and its also a question about trumps value and his wealth has always been so much of his value and his billions are associated with his brand which he values in the multibillions. When it comes to the actual liquid cash he has to what his assets are worth, so much of it is in property, the tax returns, i think just pays them talking to people close to trump, they dont think its revealing of the scope of his fortune. Thats why hes reluctant to do it, and of course citing the audit. Rose some might suggest when you go to Financial Institutions to borrow money, you have to have real facts. You cant simply say im worth this or believe me or my brand is worth this. You have to be able to prove that if a Financial Institution is going to lend you money. The real estate business is all about borrowing money to build buildings. I couldnt agree more and he should release his tax returns. Its irregular for a major president ial candidate to not release their tax returns. The other thing trump has not answered and is lingering as a question is what is this audit all about . Has the federal government actually made a statement to trump requiring a certain kind of settlement if have they said how much he owes in potential back taxes . All these things are out there floating as questions. Rose my point, is you know him better and i asked him once what reporter understands you better . And he said you. What is your sense of this . On the tax returns specifically . Rose yes. Thiit is my sense this is something wes not comfortable sharing. He asserted himself in the last 30, 40 years as a millionaire, now billionaire. He covets that position and he doesnt think everyone understands his fortune and the extent of it and he thinks his tax returns are representative of only a sliver of who he is. Rose but goes to the heart of his ego in terms of how he wants to be perceived and how he has sold himself. Thats right. I mean, i just think back to last summer, charlie, when he started to run for president , he released his Financial Statement and we scooped it, we got it first, and it had his value, the trump name itself, worth Something Like 3 billion, and that just was indicative to me of how much stake he puts in his brand and not so much of his bank account or tax run. Thats how much trump thinks of himself and his fortune. Rose most of the political people you know, are they increasingly political people regardless of what they thought in the past and regardless of their political affiliation, whether their strategy is for one party or the other, one candidate or the other, the center of politics believes therdonald trump can win the presidency. Thats based on all insiders, democrats and republicans. I think what trump saw more than a year ago was a broken republican party, an institutional vacuum he strolled into and because of the concerns of globalization, the concerns with the republican base, they dont think the party is doing anything on immigration and the economy out there, a frustration on the right with president obama, and adding trump celebrity, he consumed now taken over his party. Hes running against an historically might democratic nominee in secretary clinton. A sense that clinton cant make the says that trump is not qualified to be in the oval office or too dangerous. If she cant make that convincing case in the next five months, he has more than a shot of being the next president , and thats a stunning reality for many people here in washington, but in this time of upheaval here in america and around the globe, you see the rise of the far right all across the globe, now there is a sense that it could happen here, a trump presidency. Rose but hes not an ideological guy and you wouldnt call him necessarily of the far right. Hes simply a guy whos been able to persuade the far right to join him. Thats the important distinction. He did not come out of the grassroots on the far right. He associates with elements of the far right, with conspiracy theorists, and that element is there. But he is at the heart of it, hes a businessman who has a nativist view. American first is his foreign policy. Hes antiintervention abroad. Thats who donald trump is. Rose thats who he is and who he means to be . He loves to cut deals. Whether he could cut a deal in washington, who knows, but hes not someone who taught thats why paul ryan is so uncomfortable with him. Ryan grows up in the conservative movement. T one of ryans troops, hess not someone who thinks of reagan and jack kemp like the others and ryan does. Rose bob costa, always a pleasure. Thank you. Rose bob costa from the Washington Post. Back in a moment, well talk ability broadway and a streetcar named desire. Rose the newest production of a streetcar named desire transports the play to the 21st century and finds the cast performing on a transparent, revolving set. The New York Times calls this version a wounding portrait of communal loss. Street car runs till june 4 at brooklyns st. Anns warehouse. Joining me is gillian anderson, ben foster and vanessa kirby. I am pleased to have each of them at this table, welcome. Thank you. Rose how do you approach this character that a number of actors, especially Marlon Brando have i suppose its about actively forgetting that it was marked by kazan and brando. It casts such a long shadow. Benedict an bruce said he wanted to explore the material in an outoftime and was much more interested in the returning soldier aspect and that seemed like a new door we could unpack. Rose is it a role you jump at . I hadnt seen th the film. I hadnt seen the play in at least 15 years. By rereading it, its daunting on paper. Its history is daunting. But mon reading it and talking with benedict, i felt we could find a new way in. Rose is blanch daunting . I dont know about daunting. Exciting, i think. I had wanted to do this for 30 years, and seems like it took that long to realize the production. I trusted benedict enough from the things that i had seen him district in the past to leave everything at the door and walk this completely with fresh eyes and glad that i started with a clean slate because we immediately just started from word one, punctuation one, to dig into it in a really forensic way. Rose whats the difference in a good stage director and a good film director . What i do know about Benedict Andrews is that hes a very, very smart man and he is very his interest is in the truth of whatever piece it is that hes working with. So whether he contemporaryizes it or not, we are always digging into interaction of the text and what its telling us every single moment and we move from truth to truth and fit doesnt fly we adjust it and thats part of the reincarnation is going back in and tweaking the little moments to historically build the relations. Rose vanessa, i think you said stella was avoiding reality. You know, its easy to forget these theyre sisters from the same place and this theyve experienced the same history and theyre just taking different parts and stellas run away in the same way blanch has found herself in an equally destructive situation, but that its more accepted by society. So in stanley, she can avoid and run away and deny the history, you know. She doesnt mention, she doesnt tell him. I always hear it in the scene where he says where are you from, blanch . Laurel. It seems strange her husband doesnt even know really where stellas from. So right from the beginning, i was really aware that she had this history that she wasnt able to face and wasnt able to confront. Rose whats the set that is so revolutionary here . We do it in the round. Its in a rotation. Rose constantly revolving. Constantly revolving at different speeds and directions. Its a transparent set. There are no walls. Its a lean, stark, metal outline of an apartment. Its an xray. Rose what does it say about a play Tennessee Williams is 50 years old, yet its rale vanity, youre putting it in a contemporary setting, a different setting. It simply says it still speaks to all those issues that are part of the human experience, right . Oh, yeah. I mean, its about its fear and shame and guilt and the ways that we rose embarrassment. Yep, and the ways we all try to deny the truth of ourselves, but also is our human nature to fight for ones own survival, whether its stanley fighting for that or stella or blanch. Tennessee talks about i can never remember what the words are, but he talks about the abuse and belittlement of the tender, and those are not the descriptives he uses. Rose but as good a playwright as Tennessee Williams is, just look at the text and say this is all i need here. I dont need to go further. Further into what the text says, going into the past based on what the text says and obviously, you know, the history at that time of the south and womens place in the world and what was expected of females at the time and the patriarchal society, et cetera, et cetera, particularly in the south at that time is all informative but the text is the thing. Rose and i grew up in the south and north carolina. Ive known people like the characters at every stage of my life. There is always someone whos a very strong woman, also a woman who is somehow worldly in terms of her aspirations and in terms of what she reads, what she wants to do. I think, potentially, blanch had that potential, if it werent for the course of events that happened, if it werent for her falling in love with a gay man very young and feeling responsible for his killing himself, and then what happened historically with their house, et cetera, if those events hadnt happened, she probably would have found a way to be a Strong Partner to someone. Shes certainly outspoken enough in this incarnation of it that, even though she would have continued to be dependent upon people and her other half. I imagine she would not have held her tongue. So much of this is about trauma and posttraumatic stress, whether abevent happens or not happens, its how we cope, and this play feels so much about unpacking the ideas of how we have been hurt and how we deal with those hurts and how do we push those wounds into each other. Blanch is coming from a war, it seems. Stanley is coming from silarno and these Wounded Warriors are meeting in a living room, a bedroom. It makes me think a family is only as sick as the secret it keeps. The inability to talk about or express the pain and the trauma and the repression of all three of them from different capacities. And i think the running away from it i think is what the play its like a tsunami that catches up with you and comes over you. You cant run, you know, and thats what the play is looking at. Rose there is a reference of stanley being aprillike. Why are you smiling, blanch . Blanch refers to him as being like an april. Rose then a story of you looked at a video of silverbacks . Well, sure. To turn himself into one. Rose why . laughter well, the play touches on so many ideas, it seemed like a fair place to start. laughter was the beginning of man. Rose you went right to evolution, did you . Thats what blanch says. Blanch says hes like an april. From the stone age. He said stanley ca kawalski, bearing his kill from t jungle. He comes home every day with a package of meat theyre going to cook. Stanley doesnt like being called names. Its also a play of class. Its a play of magic and reality battling each other. Its also a battle of highclass, lowerclass. So having the opportunity to look at apes and call it homework is not a bad life. Rose thats what you said about here el embarrass you you said shes one of the most elegant and savage performers youve ever worked with. Its true. Rose what does savage mean . You need to see it. Rose present. Savage is present. Theres a nimble quality and a ferocity to being present. Anything can happen and staying in the game is you couldnt ask for Something Better with a dancing partner or a boxer. Rose or a boxer . Very lucky. Rose do each of you know each others lines and do you have to . I do now, i think. Ive heard it so many times. Rose just by osmosis. Yeah. I said we dont have to worry which we dont anymore because its in our bodies. laughter no, i think we are so it feels so supportive, it feels so connected. Im never off im offstage once when im in a bathtub, but im in a bathtub on the set so the scene is happening right on the other side of the shower curtain and i realized how many times i actually do know your guys lines without trying to, without realizing. I didnt know that. Rose is the london audience different than an american audience . Yeah. Very. Rose why . How . You look like you dont want to tell me. I prefer the american one. Rose you prefer the american one . Yes. They seem less ready to judge. Its so funny, actually. I just finished a play myself the week before and came over. I really sensed the difference between the audiences. Also as a company or the relationship, the dynamic between audience and actors, i think, is so its the vital its like the arteries for the play, isnt it, the show. Weve become one animal. Were talking about they as one. Its incredible. Its amazing how the minority can affect the majority and the particularly vocal group can spread and they will engage and become vocal. Sometimes they feel standoffish. I wonder. But theyre very sensitive. Its a very visceral and sexual production as well. There is a scene where these two were making love on the bed and the floor and blanch and mitch are on the stair case. And in london, i was aware of the fact more of the audience was wuching us on the stair case. In america, the audience are watching the two on the bed. In england, it was a little like yeah. Rose does every good play affect you in a sense that somehow gives you insight about life that you didnt have, perhaps . Yeah,ist a privilege of having an allotted time to meditate on a said material or practice it or explore it, hearing these words every night, it feels like a prayer, the way that someone may go up on a mountaintop or sit in a cabin or in the builderness, we go into a dark room every night and we consider these words in a tack tile, visceral way, and we may know each others lines but in many ways we try to forget them to hear them anew. Rose and to hear the differences in the nuances and everything else. The awed yips affected by your mood and everything. By each other and the exchanges. Some asked me, dont you get bored doing the same thing night after night . You cant because every moment is new and every night something is different about what happens. And still finding stuff. Truths in the moment and feeling like, you know, thats the way to say that particular line or going back to the text because somethings not working and realizing that the pung punctuan is different than i had been saying it. Rose is it written better as a play than a film. Yeah, i would say so. Rose having said that, Marlon Brando in a scene from the 1951 film. Hey, stella you quit that howling down there and go to bed i want my clothes down here you shut up youre going to get the law stella theyll haul you in get down here you hey, stella rose mr. Foster what a mug. What a mug. Rose hes a good looking guy. Oh, my heavens. You cant beat that. Youve got to go a different way. laughter rose you dont want to be thinking about that when youre going your way. How is this more sexier . I like the idea. One of the things our director was playing with and one of the ways stella escapes is they have a very, very tangible sexual relationship, stanley and stella rose tangible and tack tile. And the fact both women found comfort through sex. Ill let you speak to that. The minute stanley and blanch are in the room together, its tangible. She undresses purposefully in front of the poker players and stands in front of the light and shes con straintly flirting with stanley and these guys and they have a tangible, tactile, sexual relationship that plays out through the whole thing. Im very blessed on the set. Rose sometimes you will watch a film and people will say there was nothing there, i couldnt feel why they were connected, how they were connected, what was going on. You just said the reverse of that, you can see. You have to provoke yourself in certain ways. Every night is a new its really fortunate to work with people that are appealing and energetic and have a life within themselves. Thats appealing. I prefer it when we have chemistry. Its less work for you to do when you dont have it. Rose heres a clip from cate blanchette on the program talking about the cultural significance of a streetcar named desire. She blade blanch in the sidney theaters production in 2009. Here it is. I think there are very few theatrical works, very few plays which exist as absolutely in the world of cinema as they do in the theatrical world, and this is a masterpiece in both works, and his work was clearly groundbreaking but also the performances that were elicited. I think its a play that we all theyll we feel we know perhaps better than we do because it exists in the shadow of the film. Rose hmm. Its interesting because what was your question about whether this would exist as strongly in film. I was thinking about whether this particularly version of this particularly production could have the impact on film it does in the theater. I mean, people leave in tears, balling their eyes out, they cant leave their seat. Theyre completely racked. I dont know whether a film version would deliver an audience to that same place, and thats part of the tragedy of this and the nature of this particular production, and if you cant do that, then really whats the point . The point is this moment of it here, life for the audience to experience. And i would question whether it would. Rose how would you measure this opportunity against all the other things you have done . This is probably the hardest. Rose hardest. Yeah. I mean, shes supposed to be hamlet for women, and at the beginning it certainly feels insurmountable. It feels impossible. You know, until you get your rhythm in it, the play can sit on your shoulders and you are under it and that is a terrifying feeling. Rose thank you all for coming. Its a pleasure to have you here. I cant wait to get to the theater. I dont have that much time but ill get there. Its a magnificent production and will be there till june 4. I have one silly question, is this story about james bond . Because im looking and saying am i looking at the next james bond . It was started by somebody creating a pretty cool poster with me and its just got an lot of attention. It means absolutely nothing at all. Rose means its not going to happen. Thank you so much. Thank you. Rose thank you for joining us. Well see you next time. For more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Rose on tomorrows pbs newshour, Hari Sreenivasan asks the head this is nightly business repoit Tyler Mathisen and sue herera. Raise the roof. Americans are buying new homes at t fteace ht years. As the spring selng seaso picks up momentum. Borrowing is up for the things we need such as houses and cars andeducation. But are cme taking on too much debt . Power and speed. Theyre iconic. Theyrefast. But are muscle cars song enough to protect you during ollisions . Those stories and more tonight on nightly Business Report for im Sharon Epperson i f sue herera. Imylmathisen. A powerful rally on the street and it wasn