John C. Reilly shared some very sweet memories about working with Phil and their friendship in a recent interview 💙
He was an incredible actor — I call him a lion among men. He really had this gravitas, even as a very young guy. This presence I was always in awe of: I've never seen someone who had such an easy command of an audience. He could hop on a countertop and get a huge laugh, and I'd look at him and say, 'He's not a clown. Not in the way I am. I know what I'm doing when I'm going for something with an audience' — but he had a way of doing it invisibly. I was fascinated. How does he do it?
We did True West together on Broadway, where we played brothers, switching roles every three performances, so it was this really intense thing, and it forged us together in a way I've never had with anyone else. It was like being in a foxhole together in a war, what we went through together as young men — at the time we were both untested on Broadway, no one really knew who we were.
So I remember that we were in conflict a lot in that play — the brothers are kind of battling each other for each other's identity. And I knew I couldn't feel like I was actually in conflict with Phil. So before every performance, every night, I'd take him in my arms and hug him, and say, 'I love you, brother.' It was a really special thing. I miss him a lot.
