Tim Robbins, 66, is the Oscar-winning star of The Shawshank Redemption and Mystic River.
In this Sixty Seconds, he opens up about the second season of dystopian sci-fi series Silo, reflects on Shawshank’s legacy, how growing up in a family of entertainers taught him to survive and why he’s made the move to TV after decades in movies.
He also shares his experience working on the original Top Gun early on in his career and why he thinks co-star Tom Cruise is the last remaining movie star.
What grabbed you about taking on Silo?
Its similarities to certain existential questions that we are having now as society in the world and particularly the question of when power takes on a paternalistic point of view and decides that certain truth is not appropriate for the public and how that internal justification happens in people like Bernard, the character I play.
We’ve seen that happen in our own leadership over the past 30 years.
Your Silo co-star Rebecca Ferguson is also an executive producer on the show. Do you think she’s a real leader?
She leads by example. Some of the stuff we had to do was pretty hard. And when you’re a lead actor, jumping into pools and doing underwater stuff and stunts that require a lot of physical dedication, that’s inspiring to see.
Rebecca has learned from the best – her Mission: Impossible co-star Tom Cruise – when it comes to crazy stunts…
The last remaining movie star! Tom is in a class of his own.
You worked with him on the original Top Gun. What are your memories of that?
I went down to San Diego. I did a week of shooting. This was early in my career, before I really had much of a choice about what I could do or couldn’t do. I was just trying to pay the rent.
I got this one week of shooting in San Diego and I was off for 14 weeks – and I got paid for the whole thing.
So I went down to LA and I wrote, directed and produced a play, got it up, did the whole run, finished it, and had another three days of work on Top Gun. Pretty cool job.
Your parents were both entertainers. Was your destiny mapped out from day one?
I suppose so. When you see a father on stage when you’re four years old, getting laughs, it’s pretty intoxicating. And being the youngest of four children, I had to survive at the dinner table. So it was a family life that had culture at its centre and there was always music playing.
There was always interest in drama and movies, so I guess it was a natural progression, much to my parents’ chagrin at that point, but it was a path I wanted to follow.
What did you do to survive at the dinner table, to get attention?
You learn how to be a clown.
Did you ever think about doing anything else? Was there any other ambition?
When I was very young, I wanted to be a cowboy. Then an astronaut and then I wanted to be a baseball player. I’ve played an astronaut. I played a baseball player. I haven’t played a cowboy yet.
This year is the 30th anniversary of The Shawshank Redemption, one of your most beloved films. How do you look back on that experience?
I look at it as a beautiful gift. I was joking with a friend recently. Like, could you imagine if I became famous for some silly comedy like The Magoos or something?
Everywhere I went, people would yell out, ‘Do the Magoo voice!’ That would be a nightmare. But instead, I have just beautiful compliments from people. And it’s not just that they love the film, it’s that the film changed something in them, made a huge difference in people’s lives. That’s very humbling.
Have you enjoyed moving into TV with Silo and horror series Castle Rock?
It’s not that I’ve moved. The industry has moved.
The kinds of movies I was able to make, not a lot of people are doing those kinds of movies.
I call it the last wave of the 70s, the maverick gamblers who tell a director, ‘Here’s the keys to the car, kid. Let’s see what you come up with.’ That kind of approach to film-making doesn’t exist really, within the system itself.
It still exists in independent minds of people who want to work outside of the system but that tends to be more in Europe and other parts of the world.
So do you think Robert Altman got it right when he did Hollywood satire The Player?
I remember in Cannes, when The Player was being fêted there, he turns to me and goes, ‘You know, we were too nice! I think we were too nice. We shouldn’t be getting this reception!’
How do you relax?
I play roller hockey and ice hockey. In between all the projects I do, I always go back to my theatre, too, The Actors’ Gang, and that keeps me fit mentally and physically.
It’s a huge, huge reminder of the process itself and the mystery of the process and to be able to go into a laboratory and work with people that have the same vocabulary and explore a good piece of material has been a godsend for me, because it keeps me honest.
Silo Season 2 is on Apple TV+