At 78, John Lithgow's acting career is not slowing down. He appeared in the best picture nominee “Killers of the Flower Moon” and starred with Jeff Bridges in the FX series “The Old Man." Recently, the two-time Academy Award nominee and multiple Emmy, Tony and Golden Globes-winning actor played the new kid in school. He learned dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz ensemble with Los Angeles-area high school students. It was filmed for “Art Happens Here,” airing Friday on PBS with the goal of promoting arts education.
Lithgow, who has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and was a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of the Arts, spoke with The Associated Press about going back to school.
Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
LITHGOW: You’ve got to get kids excited about learning and eager to get to school. If there is something at school which is entirely theirs, something that is a creative project where they are really and truly expressing themselves...they’re going to want to get to school. I think arts education is a huge part of that. I also think sports is a big part of that.
LITHGOW: Creating a show like this is to try to persuade people just to wake up. I mean, you’ve got to think about the children, especially after the children have endured two years of a pandemic. Two years of pandemic has been hard on all of this, all of us, but they’ve been catastrophic for kids. Kids are not used to going to school. They lost two years, and two years in the life of a child is an eternity.
LITHGOW: I wanted it to be things that I’m not good at or had very little experience with, if any. I didn’t want to do any theater. I wanted to do things that were technically difficult. I wanted to insert myself into a situation where I still had a lot to learn or a lot to remember. I wanted to be with a bunch of bright kids who were having a lot of fun with the new kid in class and trying to bring him up to speed.
LITHGOW: They weren’t particularly dazzled by my presence. Not a lot of them, to my dismay, really knew who I was, until somebody mentioned “Shrek,” you know? And that was only my voice. But they were very game, and they were such superb kids. Look, these were kids who had decided to go to ceramics class. They had decided to go to dance class. They had decided to go to the LA County High School of the Arts to study voice. They were serious about what they did, and they knew this was well-intentioned.
LITHGOW: It was incredible fun. It was very hard work because these were rigorous things. It’s not easy showing up to do a documentary every morning for two months, but it's fun. It’s a very good thing that we captured my own insecurity. I knew it was important for me to look like the fool and for the kids to look like the experts and...watch me fail and fail until I had a tiny measure of success — and to try to capture that joy. Because joy is what it was all about.
FILE - John Lithgow poses for a portrait to promote during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 28, 2019. Lithgow stars in the new PBS series "Art Happens Here With John Lithgow," premiering April 26. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - John Lithgow poses for a portrait to promote during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 28, 2019. Lithgow stars in the new PBS series "Art Happens Here With John Lithgow," premiering April 26. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)
This image released by PBS shows actor John Lithgow, right, with Estrella at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy during the filming of "Art Happens Here With John Lithgow," premiering April 26. (Antonio Diaz/PBS SoCal via AP)
This image released by PBS shows actor John Lithgow, right, with Yoli, as they work on a screen print drawing during the filming of "Art Happens Here With John Lithgow," premiering April 26. (Antonio Diaz/PBS SoCal via AP)
HOUSTON (AP) — Floodwaters closed some Texas schools on Monday after days of heavy rains pummeled the Houston area and led to hundreds of rescues including people who were standed on rooftops.
A 5-year-old boy died after riding in a car that was swept away in fast waters, authorities said.
Although forecasters expected storms to begin tapering off in southeastern Texas, high waters continued to close some roads and left residents facing lengthy cleanups in neighborhoods where rising river levels led to weekend evacuation orders.
Houston is one of the most flood-prone metro areas in the country. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall that flooded thousands of homes and resulted in more than 60,000 rescues.
In one soggy area of Houston, school officials in Channelview canceled classes and said a survey of their employees found many of them had experienced circumstances that would prevent them from coming to work.
“These folks have suffered much, people," Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said Sunday during a Facebook livestream as he rode a boat through a rural flooded neighborhood. Partially submerged cars and street signs peeked above the water around him.
Areas near Lake Livingston, located northeast of Houston, received upwards of 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain over the past week, National Weather Service meteorologist Jimmy Fowler said.
In Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, a 5-year-old boy died when he was swept away after the vehicle he was riding in became stuck in swift-moving water near the community of Lillian just before 2 a.m. Sunday, an official said.
The child and two adults were trying to reach dry ground when they were swept away. The adults were rescued around 5 a.m. and taken to a hospital, while the child was found dead around 7:20 a.m. in the water, Johnson County Emergency Management Director Jamie Moore wrote in a social media post.
Storms brought 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain in a span of six to eight hours in some areas from central Texas to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Stalley said.
Since last week, storms have forced numerous high-water rescues in the Houston area, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes.
Greg Moss, 68, stayed put in his recreational vehicle on Sunday after leaving his home in the community of Channelview in eastern Harris County near the San Jacinto River. A day earlier, he had packed up many of his belongings and left before the road to his home flooded.
“I would be stuck for four days,” Moss said. “So now at least I can go get something to eat.”
Moss moved his belongings and vehicle to a neighbor’s home, where he planned to stay until the waters recede. The floodwaters had already gone down by a couple of feet and he wasn’t worried his home would flood because it’s located on higher ground, Moss said Sunday.
Stengle reported from Dallas and Associated Press reporter Juan A. Lozano contributed to this report.
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A heron stands as water flows over N. Houston Road, making the road impassible on Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Humble, Texas. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Dorothy and Earl Blevins' temporary home sits off its foundation after it was moved by flooded water and into the new home they are building on property once owned by Dorothy's mother on Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Spendora, Texas. "We've never flooded like this," said Dorothy. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Clouds amass over power lines follow days of storms on Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Humble, Texas. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Dorothy Blevins dries out photos from her home after it was flooded by the East Branch San Jacinto River on Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Spendora, Texas. "These mean the most to me, everything else can be replaced," she said. Two weeks ago, her husband, Earl, closed their storage rental and put everything in their new home. "The timing of this is terrible," he said. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
A mobile home in an unincorporated area in east Harris County near Houston on Sunday morning, May 5, 2024, is surrounded by flood waters caused by the nearby San Jacinto River, which overflowed due to heavy rainfall earlier this week. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
A mobile home in an unincorporated area in east Harris County near Houston on Sunday morning, May 5, 2024, is surrounded by flood waters caused by the nearby San Jacinto River, which overflowed due to heavy rainfall earlier this week. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
A mailbox is partially submerged on a flooded street in an unincorporated area in east Harris County near Houston on Sunday morning, May 5, 2024. The nearby San Jacinto River, overflowing due to heavy rainfall earlier this week, caused the flood waters. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)
Overflow from the swollen Trinity River fills James Smart's backyard as wades the floodwaters to make preparations to his chicken coup to ensure the safety of his livestock, Sunday, May 5, 2024, near Liberty, Texas. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Alvaro Trevino pulls a canoe with Jennifer Tellez and Ailyn, 8, after they checked on their home on Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Spendora, Texas. The family has lived on the property in a rental trailer for two years. "It's really bad," said Tellez, who says they stayed dry during the most recent flooding in February. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
