“I came to acting late in life,” Christopher Lawford explains. “I was 30 years old when I started. So I have not been schooled in the theater. I wasn’t a childhood actor. I don’t know how to sing. I don’t know how to dance. I’m not multi-talented like a lot of those guys were back then,” he says while referring to the 1950s and 1960s. “My father knew how to do a lot of things and he was really good at a lot of things and he had shows with the Rat Pack.”
Chris is quick to point out that his love of acting keeps him doing what he is doing. “Listen, my dad was really good but it was a different time. I would be happy to be able to find a little niche . . . I can do some things pretty well, and I’m certainly good enough to work in a variety of arenas. And I’d like to continue to do that. I never needed to play Hamlet. I don’t need to win an Academy Award. I like doing the work. It’s fun.” Unlike other second and third generation actors, Lawford does not think his career will be compared to his father’s. As he says, it was a different time.
Acting is his Passion
Although his resume includes parts in many films and TV shows, Chris’ role in The World’s Fastest Indian afforded him the chance to work with an old friend, Sir Anthony Hopkins, whom he describes as “arguably the greatest living actor.” In some ways the film was a cathartic experience for Lawford because it focuses on the sport of speed and setting land speed records. Anyone who has ever read anything about the Kennedy’s knows that the family lives life on the edge. As he says, “I’ve grown up with a real passion for pushing the envelope and for skiing fast or sailing in hurricanes or doing dangerous things. What it is is really kind of this lust for life that is embodied by all of my uncles and aunts and probably came from my grandfather.” His grandfather, Joseph Kennedy, was a strong force in his family for many years.
While filming this movie at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, Lawford once again pushed the envelope. He heard a story that Ray Charles had once wanted to experience driving a car so he was taken to the Salt Flats where he could drive without the fear of running into anything. “After I heard that story I took the station wagon out and drove it 120 miles an hour with my eyes closed!” He grins as he relates his experience. “You have an instinct to open them but if you keep them closed you really have to trust that you’re not going to run into anything. And you know that you’re not going to, but there’s something about it that doesn’t compute.” The Bonneville Salt Flats encompass over 30,000 acres. “You can’t hit anything. It’s impossible to hit anything. . . . There’s nothing bad [that] can happen. But still you’ve got to trust, because there’s something odd about driving 120 miles an hour with your eyes closed.” Yeah, that definitely is odd, to put it mildly.
When asked if he has any desire to direct, he quickly responds, “Yeah. Because what I learned as a writer is I like having control and as an actor you have absolutely no control.”
Chris is the product of Peter Lawford who was part of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, and Patricia Kennedy, a sister to President John Kennedy and Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy.
Source: Two interviews with writer Francine Brokaw in 2006
Read the article Christopher Kennedy Lawford - The Activist
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