Guest Picks: Actor Tom Skerritt

The collective experience of audiences in a cinema watching great films is what Park Circus is all about. Shared stories, escapism. We love movies. Until we’re back together, in an auditorium, we've asked some of our friends from across the film industry to take their pick of our 25,000-strong catalogue, and offer us their suggestions for audiences around the world to watch at home until we're back together in cinemas once more.

First up is legendary actor Tom Skerritt, star of over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962, including Alien and Top Gun.

"Thinking to be a writer, I was an English major at UCLA. A film study class screened Citizen Kane. It set a standard to write and direct to the level of Kane.

To write for an actor, I should act to know what it is, like touching a hot object to know what ‘hot’ is. What began as an exercise became mentoring from great directors prior to their elevated status.

I met and was mentored by television director, Robert Altman, prior to him bringing me into the thickness of MASH. It remains the most joyous schooling experience of my career.

Soon after the unexpected success of MASH , I met and was mentored by another rebellious genius, Hal Ashby, Academy Award® editor–turned–director.

He was in pre-production with Harold and Maude, another film which has now obtained cult status. Hal considered Elton John to play the role of Harold, but then felt Elton was ‘too English’, he said with a smile.

The Turning Point was a wonderful film, now lauded in the ballet community.

Soon after that I saw The Duellists, Ridley Scott’s first masterpiece.

Then followed an offer to be in Alien, to be directed by Ridley Scott. I followed Ridley like a puppy, picking up bits and pieces of his directorial skills. His brother, the late Tony Scott, was to direct Top Gun, a few years after Alien. Another offer I couldn’t refuse. Tony was as illuminating as Ridley.

And the one film I’ve seen often and moves me, always, to a deeper place is Bob Redford’s classic A River Runs Through It.

This is my small list and personal experience: Citizen Kane, MASH, Harold and Maude, The Turning Point, Alien, Top Gun, A River Runs Through It – and I will add Steel Magnolias to that.

Also Contact, a counter to Alien in its optimistic view of space as a positive encounter.

In both Alien and Contact the wonderful John Hurt played a character that, ironically, dies in a space vessel, is wrapped and vaulted into outer space. What are the odds on that…?

There are more, of course, but personal good fortune must be shared as a blessed career of learning as I made a living, working and watching the very best.

Finally, I’ll throw at you a recent viewing of Terence Malick’s unnoticed A Hidden Life, and Sam Mendes' 1917.

I am still learning, reaching for Citizen Kane. More importantly, let’s take care of ourselves and look beyond ourselves to launch the positive into the air."