I see Fox Sports News picked up on my Gary Lockwood (2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek) interview that I conducted a few weeks ago for Sci-Fi weekend at the Music Box Theater. I'd imagine they were interested because Mr. Lockwood played football for UCLA, and he and I actually joshed each other about this at length. Due to space constraints, however, some of the more candid moments didn't make the final cut, like this:
GL: Aikman was great, but he wasn’t Knox.
S-T: Well, you Pac-10 folk have always seemed a little off to us Big Ten people.
GL: You guys can eat sh--. [laughs] You used to beat us but not anymore. How about Ohio State, always getting their ass kicked on the big stage.
ST: Puh-lease, your conference is USC and nine patsies. Plus, we have to play an away game everytime in the Rose Bowl.
GL: So? You guys get to come out here and eat sushi. You can’t eat steak everyday.
Later, I dragged my girlfriend to the screening of 2001 and Mr. Lockwood generously spoke to the crowd afterwards. He's 72, hilariously unfiltered and has lived a charmed west coast life. He's worked with Elvis numerous times. As an architect, he helped draw up the plans for one of Bob Dylan's homes. John Lennon even told him that he loved 2001 so much that he bought up a year's supply of tickets to give away to Londoners. Even more remarkable, Lockwood told a story where he may have been responsible for coming up with the most dramatic scene in the entire film: the unnerving lip-reading sequence right before intermission.
(Note: this interview originally appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times)
