美国国家公共电台 NPR From Post-War Germany To Hollywood, A Soap Star Dishes On His Journey

 

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

The voice, the hair, the mustache, my God, the wives, the scheming...

(SOUNDBITE OF "THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS" MONTAGE)

ERIC BRAEDEN: (As Victor Newman) You think you've won. You don't begin to understand the power of Victor Newman.

What exactly did you hear her say?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) She said you're my daddy.

BRAEDEN: (As Victor Newman) If I kiss you again, it can't stop there.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The character of Victor Newman has been, to say the least, a pillar of CBS's daytime soap "The Young And The Restless." The dynamic, sometimes evil, but always enthralling¹ business magnate is played by none other than actor Eric Braeden, who's just released a memoir² tracing the twists and turns of his own life. He told me that he still found Victor, whom he's played since 1980, the most complex character he's ever had to portray³.

BRAEDEN: I have always, in acting⁴, been attracted to turning something that someone else wrote and making it real. It's a challenge that I've not tired of yet. I can't say that I'm bored with it. I get a kick out of doing a scene. The simplest scene is the most difficult to do in a realistic way. And the very dramatic scenes where you shout and anger and all that, those scenes are really not that difficult.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Let's talk about the plotline of your own very interesting life, the subject of your new memoir. You were born in Germany during World War II in difficult circumstances.

BRAEDEN: I would say. I was born in 1941 in a town called Kiel on the Baltic Sea. And that was a center for building of warships⁵ and submarines, and hence it was obviously a target of allied⁶ bombers⁷.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tell us a little bit about your father - very revered⁸ figure for you. He died when you were very young. But you also reveal in this book that he was a Nazi⁹.

BRAEDEN: He belonged to the party. And he was mayor of the town that I grew up in, which was outside of Kiel. And as far as I knew, a very loving figure. I never saw him in uniform. I just was devastated¹⁰ when he died at the age of 12. Then I found out in 1961, '62 - here in Los Angeles on Beverly Drive and Wilshire Boulevard was a movie theater, and they played a documentary called "Mein Kampf," a Swedish documentary. And I went because I was kind of homesick. I said, oh, that's a German title.

I honestly had not grown up knowing anything about "Mein Kampf" or really the Nazi era except that Germany had lost the war. My early impressions were of English tanks coming through the village and arresting my father. So that was arguably the most shocking and I would say epiphanous moment in my young life and awakened¹¹ an enormous interest in history and politics.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You didn't know about the Holocaust¹², necessarily, you're saying.

BRAEDEN: No, because the second World War was not discussed in German history classes until the '60s, and I left in '59. And in the middle '60s, they began to really become aware in Germany of the dreadful stuff that happened in concentration camps. Before then, it was not discussed. I don't remember discussing it except once when I was a teenager. I walked home from school with a schoolmate and he said - I was about 14, I think, 15 - and he said, I got to tell you a secret. I said, oh, what is it? He says, I'm Jewish. And I didn't quite know what to do with that. So I went home to my mother. My father had been dead by then about two or three years. I said, so-and-so Oudabourg (ph) said that he was Jewish. What does that mean?

And she just made a big sigh. And she says, oh, what one did to the white Jews is unforgivable. By that I assume she meant the German Jews. That is the extent of my conversation about that subject matter until much later.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So after you see this film and you have this awakening¹³, you talk in the book at length, during the many periods in your life, about how you tried to engage with that history.

BRAEDEN: You can't help it. You either become very defensive¹⁴ and deny it happened, as many Americans will deny, you know, 400 years or 300 years of slavery. Or, as many of us have - my generation have done, you fully¹⁵, obviously acknowledge what happened, are horrified¹⁶ by what happened and want to make absolutely sure it never happens again.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I want to talk about - you know, you came to America after the war. You had an enormous sense of adventure. You traversed the Salmon¹⁷ River, which is amazing. And then you ended up in Hollywood. You worked, of course, in a lot of TV shows and films. But I want to come back to the daytime drama because, of course, that is what has given you such prestige. What do you love about daytime dramas? What do you think keeps the audience coming back to your show? It's the number one drama on daytime...

BRAEDEN: That is a very good question that I can't answer. I will just say that the characters established by Bill Bell, who originated the series, are very strong characters. The reason I stayed was after about five years, I think, I became increasingly disgruntled with playing this rather one-sided character. And then Bill Bell, the head writer, came up with a storyline for me that I played on a Christmas Eve show with my then early wife Nikki, played beautifully by Melody Thomas Scott still.

And she sort of asked this mystery character Victor Newman about his childhood and about Christmas. And he has reluctant feelings about Christmas, and then finally kind of breaks down and tells her that he grew up in an orphanage¹⁸ where he was left at the age of 7 by a destitute¹⁹ mother who had been left by a drunken father. And once I played that scene, I walked into my dressing²⁰ room and I said, now I'm staying because it opened up a huge world of possibilities and complex storylines.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You're talking about complex storylines, but one of the bits that I love in your book is when you're actually talking about all the things that annoy you about some of these plotlines. And you write - and it made me laugh - (reading) apparently²¹ any idiot can get past security at the Newman Ranch²² since anyone, everyone and their grandmother often show up at the door.

BRAEDEN: It's a much-vaunted security system.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

BRAEDEN: Victor Newman sits behind his desk, supposedly one of the most powerful businessmen in the world and runs a huge corporation. And suddenly someone knocks at the door - an enemy, perhaps - and they obviously got through security. And for budget reasons, they even got rid of the secretary to announce that guest. So we have addressed that problem. Now they do usually come in after having been properly announced.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Eric Braeden's new book is called "I'll Be Damned: How My Young And Restless Life Led Me To America's #1 Daytime Drama." Thanks so much for being with us.

BRAEDEN: You're very welcome. I enjoyed it.

(SOUNDBITE OF BARRY DE VORZON AND PERRY BOTKIN'S "NADIA'S THEME")

1 enthralling   

迷人的

参考例句：

• There will be an enthralling race tomorrow. 明天会有场吸引人的比赛。
• There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence. 在这样地施加影响时，令人感到销魂夺魄。

2 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

3 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

4 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

5 warships   

军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只

参考例句：

• The enemy warships were disengaged from the battle after suffering heavy casualties. 在遭受惨重伤亡后，敌舰退出了海战。
• The government fitted out warships and sailors for them. 政府给他们配备了战舰和水手。

6 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

7 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

9 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

10 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

11 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

13 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

14 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

16 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

17 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

18 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

19 destitute   

adj.缺乏的；穷困的

参考例句：

• They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
• They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。

20 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

21 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

22 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。