Please note: This feature was written by Jon Voight. The views and opinions expressed in it do not necessarily reflect those of Blockbuster.co.uk. We would be interested to hear what you think, please click here to send us feedback.

Hello again, it's Jon Voight, back for my final Christmas blog here at Blockbuster.co.uk. First let me say with Christmas upon us I encourage those families who need gifts for their young ladies to consider Bratz: The Movie it has terrific messages for young children and it's full of fun, rousing music and it's the kind of film that the film will play over and over again, I recommend it.

There is another film of mine that is out this year, it's a new DVD of John Boorman's great film Deliverance. This hi-definition version is complete with commentaries on the film from the leading performers and John Boorman himself. It gives a fan of the film, many unique insights into the making of deliverance.

In my body of work Deliverance stands out in many ways and it's appropriate for me to talk a little about the making of that film and my relationship to John Boorman. I first met Jon at the BAFTA's, I was there for Midnight Cowboy, I had seen some of his pictures, Point Blank and Hell in the Pacific both with the great Lee Marvin. We were introduced and I said "I would like to work with you" and he said "I would like to work with you". That was all I remember of our conversation and then we moved on to talk to other people as it is with those events. And then a year or so later I received a call from John saying he had this picture Deliverance from a great book by James Dickey. He wanted me to do it and he sent me the script.

In retrospect it seems crazy that I wouldn't have immediately jumped at the chance to do Ed Gentry in movie but as it was at the time I was trying to be very careful with my career and I had the Hamlet syndrome of thinking too much. Whenever I tried to read the script I always stopped at the famous sodomy scene, and my apologies to people who haven't seen the film, but it is an acknowledged classic and I recommend it. Then I received a call from John asking "Are you going to do it" and I said "I didn't know I needed a few more days". He called me a few more days later and he asked again "are you going to do it" I hesitated. Then he got the picture and said "read it tonight, I'll call you tomorrow or else I will go with Gene Hackman." I was going with a young lady who was only 20 named Marcheline Bertrand, it was a new relationship at that time but I asked her if she wanted to spend the night reading a screenplay out loud. She was delighted to do that and so that evening we sat in my little living room in Hollywood and read the screenplay page by page. When we got to the sodomy scene she didn't blink, we passed through that section and went on through.

At the part that Ed is climbing a cliff to protect his mates from an attack by one of the hill people, he pauses half way up the treacherous cliff face and looks out over the view. It is a bright moonlit night and the light of the moon is dancing on the waterfall below and Ed says "Christ what a view!" As I read that passage I could see my face in the scene, saying those lines, and from then on I identified myself as the character of Ed Gentry. When I finished the last page I looked at Marcheline "What do you think?" I said and she said "I think it is terrific!" "You do" I asked "Absolutely" She said. The next day at the appointed hour John called me "Well are you going to do it?" and I said "I don't know" and he said "Look I am going to count to three, if you don't say yes by the time I get to three I am going to go with Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando. One.. Two" and I said "Yes". This description of our conversation is a somewhat shortened version of the dialogue between us. John told me that he said he was going to count to twenty and I said that is a totally arbitrary number. He said "Are you going to do it or not" and I said "If I have to say it right now I have to say I cannot do it." He hung up the phone and I called back and said "I'll do it" There are other versions of this interchange between us but the essence is always the same.

It was very fortunate for me that I said yes because Deliverance became one of my signature movies and working with John Boorman was one of the great pleasures of my life and I have to say that moment with Marcheline was very important in my final decision and as it turned out Marcheline and I were married not long after the shooting of Deliverance and she is the mother of my two children.

John Boorman shoots a movie in a style different from most of the filmmakers of today. He designs a scene with great grace and economy, there is a story of when he was making Point Blank that because the studios threaten to manipulate the footage he would put his hand in front of the camera when the scene was done for him and that determined the editing whilst making it. Most films today are made with a huge amount of footage and the story is finally determined in the editing. John shot only what he needed, no frills. In the viewing of Deliverance, afterwards you enjoy the story and experiences, go back and look at some of your favorite sequences and you will be surprised to find how few cuts there are in so many important sequences.

I especially recommend your attention to the camp fire scene and the scene where Ned Beatty meet the hill people for the first time and are abducted. John is a remarkable film maker in many ways as he participates as a writer and a producer in all of his films. He knows the job of all the major technical people perhaps as well as they do and so he is greatly respected by his crews. He has a delightful sense of humor and a tremendous physical energy and I am very fortunate to have worked with him. So as I count my blessings on this Christmas season, high among them are my artistic association and friendship with Jon Boorman. I am very proud of Deliverance because there are strong themes that are relevant today.

One theme is the importance of the natural world and another theme is the difficultly of civilized man in his confrontation with evil. I have to say that our present war against terrorism is something that so many of us wish to push outside from our daily thoughts and we leave it to our soldiers to fight but we need to be more involved and more alert and certainly more appreciative of our military. At this season especially we should be mindful of the sacrifices of our troops and their families. We must give them all our love.

The alliance between the Americans and the British has been a great blessing to the world and has never been more evident than it is at this hour and I have no doubt that we will be victorious in this current challenge. I have enjoyed speaking to you in these blogs, I hope it has been entertaining for you all and that you feel in each of my communications my deep gratitude for the British contribution to my career and my love for the British people. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and if I don't see you on the streets of London I shall see you in the movies.

Jon

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Hi everyone, Christmas correspondent Jon Voight here, back for my third week of Blockbuster.co.uk blogging. People often ask me if I'd always wanted to be an actor, and if I'd ever had some sort of grand plan for my career, With a new year fast approaching, it's only natural, I guess, to reflect on the journeys I've taken in MY life.

Now it took me a long time to decide to be an actor. When I was three years old I knew I was going to be painter. I had paintings and drawings all over the floors and I did nothing but paint in our apartment in Yonkers, New York.

At three years old I was dubbed the artist of the family and I was deeply content in the knowledge that this was my vocation. Then when I was five, I saw movies. My dad loved movies and began taking my brothers and I to the cinema every Monday, which was his day off.

Movies amazed me and soon I began to realize that this new majestic art form rendered my two dimensional art obsolete so I retired from painting when I was six. The fact of the matter is that I really did feel an identity as an artist and felt a great loss when I realized that it was not for this time. It took me a long, long time to fill the emptiness that was left when I gave up painting.

Then something happened when I was in the 8th grade. My classmates wrote a musical play and asked me to be the comedy lead. I was a playful fellow and they thought I might be able to do it. I remember taking the requests quite seriously and set about to write a part that they needed to fill in their storyline. When we performed the show I was delighted and surprised to find that people found I was a great success. But I didn't immediately recognize great significance in this moment.

Then almost an identical series of events happened in my junior year of High School, but it was finally my last year at college when I was 20 that I made a decision to take a serious career in acting. When I made that decision, I was suddenly completely comfortable in this new identity; just as I had been comfortable as a painter at 3 or 4: I knew acting was for me and I wasn't going to quit.

And of course my parents were concerned because they didn't know if I could make a living, and they were very right to be concerned because it's a very treacherous business, but I'd found my path in life and had to follow it.

After college I went to New York to study acting with the great Sandford Meisner, and after two years of study, a series of ups and downs, a few successes and lots of hard work, I was finally offered the role that would change my life forever. John Schlesinger offered me the part of Joe Buck in the film Midnight Cowboy.

I'd done a little TV which prepared me for working in front of the camera, and although I suppose I could have been daunted by the prospect of making my first big feature, I guess I felt that I had paid my dues and I was thrilled to be working with such amazing talent as Dustin Hoffman and John Schlesinger. John was one of the finest filmmakers of that, or any time and he was just coming off an Academy Award for the film 'Darling' with Julie Christie.

I don't know if John went to acting classes but he spoke the language of actors and he was a very demanding perfectionist and that suited me perfectly. All through filming there was a sense that we were making something special. I was very, very fortunate at the beginning of my career to have been part of something so extraordinary. The great personalities such as John and Dusty have relentless attention to detail and coupled with a joy in their work.

Although many people contributed to the final result, as it is with every motion picture; Midnight Cowboy was John Schlesinger's film. John loved the craft that he had developed over a lifetime and Midnight Cowboy seemed to be the perfect vehicle for all his great gifts. Although John could be cranky at times, he had the most refined sense off humor. I remember at the ened of shooting when John and I finished our work in Texas, he had a screening of some of our final day rushes in a little theatre in Big Spring. During the playback of the film that we shot, which included a big close up of me, John stood on the stage with my image across his body and made his speech ala Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, he was shouting madly from the stage to nobody in the audience but myself. "I gave you Alan Bates, I gave you Julie Christie and now I give you my newest discovery Jon Voight"

I fell off my seat laughing, it was a kind of magical but silly moment of shared fun. Of course through the laughter I hoped that there might be some truth in what he was saying. So it was a great British director giving me my career in the film business because, of course, everything happened after that film.

Eventually it won three Oscars, for Best Picture, Director and one for Writing, and was nominated for another four, including Best Actor nods for Dusty and I.

Join me next week for my fourth and final Christmas blog, when I'll be talking about another great director, one I'm proud to call my friend, John Boorman. In the meantime, go out and buy (or rent) the DVD of Bratz: The Movie for the children in your life as it's full of good messages for the holidays and the kids will play it over and over.

I'll see you soon, then, and Merry Christmas!

Jon

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Hello England, Jon Voight here, official Christmas ambassador for Blockbuster.co.uk. In many of my early memories of Christmas I have an image of English scenes, probably because of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which I listen to year after year on radio in the United States. Lionel Barrymore would read on radio and our family would listen to it as part of our Christmas tradition.

He seemed to be the perfect voice for Ebenezer Scrooge and for narrating the journey from a crotchety miser to a man who deeply appreciates the Xmas sprit. It was very moving of course to come to the ending and hear Tiny Tim cry out from his place at the Xmas table, 'God bless everyone'. And so this great gift of England, Charles Dickens, has touched many hearts all over the world, especially when this season comes around. I think people the world over may try to replicate the Xmas feast that is described so beautifully in A Christmas Carol. I know my family does.

Another more recent image of Christmas for me has been the decorations at Harrods, especially the splendid display and the seasonal celebration which I shared with my mother before she passed away. Our visits to Harrods and the excitement that bought are very much with me, always.

These days I sit at a lot of different dinner tables over Christmas, as I have a lot of family to visit. I have a niece in Colorado Springs, another niece with my brother in Pennsylvania, another with my younger brother in New York, and each has a child of two, and they happen to all be girls. So I spend a couple of days here, a couple there, and we have great fun. I'm the exotic guest because I come from afar with gifts and stories and I love to play with the kids. I think I see their growth more than their parents who are there with them daily, and when I see them they have suddenly developed new aspects to their personalities, it's magic. My films this year happily include themes that the whole family can enjoy: Transformers, Bratz: The Movie and National Treasure 2.

Bratz: The Movie was a wonderful film to give young girls, a special movie just for them, with good values and little lessons. It touches your heart and makes you appreciate family and friends. I am very aware of the lessons in the films that I do, Transformers, which is probably more of a boy's movie, teaches the importance of fighting evil. Everybody's got to pitch in, and sometimes the young know better than the old. There is an important message in that for today when we are facing this neutral totalitarianism, with this new evil we have all got to pull together.

Of course, Transformers is a great, big action adventure, and so is National Treasure and in these kinds of pictures actors are asked to some stunts that can be a lot of fun. Stunt doubles however are a very precious commodity and I have a great regard for them. So many actors feel the need to do stunts and there is a certain ego attached. You have to be careful with that as it can end up giving you more than a few bruises and the stunt doubles will make you look better anyway.

One of the great joys in making National Treasure: Book of Secrets was the chance to work with Helen Mirren. It was a great blessing for our movie that Helen signed on with us. Helen had just come off winning an Oscar, for The Queen, and an Emmy, for Elizabeth I. It was really one of the most spectacular years any actor has ever had in the category of Best Actress, so when she said she'd do Book of Secrets, it was a great coup for our film, and it was very exciting for me.

We actors are more appreciative of the really fine work of our peers than the ordinary filmgoers, so to work with Helen was a special time because I understood all the greatness and the range of her talent. I knew that she was going to give me an energy that would challenge me to my best work. It was very exciting and the greatest kind of fun an actor can have. Also I should say that Helen has a delicious sense of humor and our days of work were filled with laughter.

So now I have to count my blessings for all that England has given me in this wonderful season. National Treasure 2 will come out here in the States and England will be seeing it shortly after. I've seen the picture and it is just terrific and will be a lovely package for everyone to open this season.

I shall see you on my next blog and in the meantime, much love and merry Christmas.

Jon

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Hi, I'm actor Jon Voight, and I have to say I was delighted when Blockbuster.co.uk invited me to blog for them this month. Christmas is by far my favorite season, a time for families to come together, to catch up, share stories, laughter, swap gifts and eat large meals. So given the chance to talk about all things festive, as well as to reflect a little on my life and career and plug my latest movies, I jumped at it, so here I go with blog number one.

One of the writers at Blockbuster.co.uk, his name's Marshall, he'd done a little research on me and found out that my birthday's on December 29. He asked, "Does that mean as a kid you were cheated out of two sets of presents? He seemed concerned that I hadn't gotten my fare share of gifts over the years, and I had to laugh.

The truth is, whether I got one gift or two gifts or no gifts at all, that sort of thing never was the greatest focus for me. Of course, it's always delightful when somebody remembers your birthday, but I have found that there is a distinct advantage to a birthday on the 29th. At Christmas time the family gathers from wherever they are, and are usually together for a couple of days afterwards too. So everyone remembers my birthday and we are usually together when it happens. My brother Barry, who's birthday is a bit earlier in December, almost never gets a full family gathering, and Chip, my younger brother, his birthday's in March when everyone's all over the place. So I think I've enjoyed the benefit from being born near to Christmas, and certainly Marshall seemed satisfied that there is indeed a positive side to being born near the 25th.

From the time I was a small child I would count the days to Christmas and when it came it never disappointed. It was like swimming in joy and laughter, so many wonderful memories. I had a favorite uncle, who was a very funny fellow and he used to tell me that if I wasn't good I'd get coal instead of presents in my stocking. One year, and I'm sure it was my uncle who engineered this, there were a pile of presents left out for Barry, a pile of presents left out for Wes, who we call Chip now, and instead of my own little pyramid of presents there was a big bag of coal with my name on it! One might think it would have given me some pause but I couldn't have been more delighted, I was so happy to get the coal because it meant that my parents understood I had a sense of humor. That I would get the joke and wouldn't be upset. I was very honored by it really. Eventually they gave me my real presents and I remember some sadness in giving back the bag of coal.

Next year I'll be 70. Can you imagine? I doubt I'll do much to mark the occasion. That's what I told Marshall, but who knows, it is such a big one. Anyway, I've never really celebrated birthday milestones but Christmas I always celebrate and enjoy. My mother loved Christmas and she would decorate the house very festively. As the years went by she would add another touch and eventually the house was filled wall-to-wall with delightful Christmas decoration.

After I received the Oscar for Coming Home 1978, I gave it to my mother, of course. So she set out to get it a proper place in her Xmas decorations. She found a fishbowl, actually a huge fishbowl. She found it at a little thrift shop and put it on a small table with a light underneath it. Then she put marbles in the bottom of the bowl, and Christmas ornaments around the rim, and right in the center she put the Oscar. Whenever anybody came to the house, as soon as they walked through the front door she'd greet them saying, 'Do you want to hold the Oscar? There it is - pick it up! Ok, put it back down. Now you can come in.' She was so funny. She knew it was a kick for people to hold it. It's much heavier than you might think, and that's the treat of it. It actually feels important!

Mum has since passed on and watches over me from above and I feel her presence always, but never more strongly than during the Christmas season.

I don't want to overdo things on my first week so I'll leave it there for now, but I'll be back in seven days and all through the month of December. I'll tell you some stories about Deliverance and Midnight Cowboy, talk about many of the talented actors and filmmakers I've been lucky enough to work with, and make more of an effort to plug Bratz: The Movie, Transformers and National Treasure 2.

See you soon, then, and merry Christmas to you.

Jon

Jon Voight Filmography

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