Craig T. Nelson has been a fixture on TV and film screens since the 1980s, but before that he led a simple life in a hut outside the grid in Northern California.
“It was a search for meaning. And I had lost it in Hollywood,” he said Fox News Digital.
In the early 1970s, Nelson tried his hand on stand-up comedy. He was an early member of the Groundlings and even appeared in the comic store.
But in 1973 he left that world and decided to buy a country of land in the neighborhood of Mount Shasta in North California without electricity or running water, and started building a hut with his young family.
Craig T. Nelson left Hollywood before he even started his career to lead a life of the schedule for a few years in North California. (Michael Tullberg/Getty images)
“And that was a seven -year trip of Absolute Battle, after he had never built a little before,” he said.
A friend gave him a book about building Houthutten that showed me a weakness and a character defect that I was wearing, which was a lack of patience. And I have no knowledge of how to do this. And so I had to learn. And you learn with a family. I had two children at that time.
He continued: “And in the end it was done. It was done with the community, it was done with the help of people you would not normally go and if you would ask for help. And I learned, and so I was a student – Plumber was a surveyor.
Nelson did exactly that and became a household name Movies such as “Poltergeist” And later his sitcom, “coach.”
Nelson, with his “coach” co-star Kenneth Kimmins, Shelley Fabares, Jerry Van Dyke and Bill Fagerbakkes. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
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Taking those kinds of risks he made in his life and career helped Nelson to make contact with his character in the new film, “Green and Gold.”
The 80-year-old stars like Buck, a struggling farmer who is about to lose everything if he has a daring bet The Green Bay Packers Go all the way to the super bowl. While he takes that chance, his granddaughter seems to be played by Madison Lawlor, leaving the farm and to pursue a musical career.
View: ‘Coach’ Ster Craig T. Nelson says that time on a farm is the key to finding ‘American values’
Nelson connected with his character through their respective struggles to find success.
“The early career is completely about that. It is, you know, bankers avoid, real, hanging the collection people and finding ways to talk to them, what gives you some insight into how malignant that can be, “He said with a laugh. “The struggle, I think, is where you can certainly find identification, at least in terms of the different jobs I had to do to just make ends meet and earn a living while I was trying to get something, I had no idea what I was try to be. ”
Nelson’s own early career wrestings ensured that he felt connected to the struggles to survive with which farmers are confronted. (Bob Riha Jr./Getty Images)
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“It is the beauty of achieving a dream,” he added. “But imagine, I also think that the families also inherited this beautiful wealth and tradition, and there is also a lot of myth around it. But I think it is trying to keep that and the kind of pressure that someone sets up to try and lets Working, especially now where they find (IES).
Nelson said that agriculture is “certainly in the blood of my family”, back to the mid -19th century, and he felt a deep appreciation for farmers through his work on the film, and said a life in it. “
“The fight, I think, is where you can certainly find identification.”
“And the margins they live on are so small. And so you identify with the fight, and the beauty is that there is a humor inside and there is a respect and there is a sense of community and … values, traditional. ”
“Spend a few weeks on a farm and you know, you will soon find out where your heart is,” he added.
In his role as a farmer in “Green and Gold”, Nelson praised that the home farmers do and said, “There is a sense of community and … American values.” (Child Productions)
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Nelson also feels that “green and gold” is a bit of a love letter to America.
“We hear so much about what we lose and what we have to recover. And it’s all there. It’s real. It just needs a sounding board,” he said. “There must be a resonance that we hear and listen. And I think by witnessing the people, the farmers themselves, and the film in Wisconsin and by shooting County and getting to know them and getting to know their families To a certain extent and what they endure, I think it was not only revived, but it was certainly inspiring. “
View: Craig T. Nelson felt connected to his farmer character in his new film ‘Green and Gold’
The “Incredibles” Star also had the chance to live his dreams as a lifelong fan of Green Bay Packers when he sang the national anthem in Lambeau Field on January 5.
“I am such a fan, you know, I really am. And the players, guy, it’s incredible. I’m on the sidelines and it’s cold … but you don’t feel it. It’s like the fans are being , like, screaming, and they are packed, and it is like, “My God, Lambeau Field,” he said with excitement.
Nelson had the honor to sing the national anthem during a Green Bay Packers game on Lambeau Field. (Patrick McDermott/Getty images)
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By his side by many of his ups, his Downs and Dreams, his wife Doria, with whom he married in 1987, end up.
Think about them Almost 40-year marriage, Nelson said that one of the keys was to their success: “Realizing that I have a friend who has my self -interest in heart and soul. And I have to learn to listen.”
“Spend a few weeks on a farm and you know, you will soon discover where your heart is.”
He continued his praise and said, “See, I am married to someone so extremely that she is staggering while I keep discovering things about her that are magical (she has a sense of wonder about the life that just keeps me intrigued. I mean a completely different view.
Nelson has three children from his first marriage to Robin McCarthy, and has several grandchildren and great -grandchildren who he does his best to keep track of, or as he expressed it, “you don’t stop.”
Nelson and his wife, Doria Cook-Nelson, have been married since 1987. (Joshua Blanchard/Getty images for Paramount Pictures)
“You know, because I don’t move so quickly at 80, and I am not so threatening, so I don’t have that for me. Speak softly and wear the big stick? I can hardly lift it,” he joked.
But Nelson said he finds a bond with the several generations in his family.
“It is so intriguing that I can talk to them and what they go through and hopefully heard. If I have a kind of communication skills that allows me in their atmosphere for a while,” he said, adding that it is difficult to make the telephone addiction ” break through “.
“I am married to someone who is so extraordinary that she is staggering while I keep discovering things about her that are magical.”
“I didn’t because I didn’t grow up with it, so I don’t fully understand. I do get it,” he said, joke that he “will steal their phones” and looks at “go” go in a kind of decompression And Jonesing for their phone. “
Nelson joked that at 80 he does not always keep track of his grandchildren and great -great doctor, but likes to make contact with them. (Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUIVERSAL SALE VIA GETY BEOTELYS VIA GETTY BECIRES)
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And when they complain that they are not in communication with friends, he said with a smile, “Yes, that’s why you can talk to me here!”
“Green and Gold” is in theaters January 31.
