Steve Martin has accepted that his time as a Hollywood leading man is over.
The 74-year-old stand-up was a major star of comedy movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s such as ‘The Man with Two Brains’ and ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ and although he did appear in box office success such as ‘Cheaper by the Dozen 2’ and ‘The Pink Panther’ in the 2000s he has come to terms with the fact his name is no longer wanted for top billing on movie posters.
In an interview with The Times newspaper, he quipped: "My official statement is, I lost interest in the movies at exactly the point the movies lost interest in me."
Martin first found fame in America in the 1970s with his acclaimed stand-up shows and he has returned to the stage to tour ‘The Funniest Show in Town at the Moment’, his double act with his friend and ‘Three Amigos’ co-star Martin Short.
Martin now looks back at his act – which were immortalised on comedy albums such as 1978’s ‘A Wild and Crazy Guy’ – with bemusement as is unsure why his madcap on-stage antics became so popular because he doesn’t think he was a traditional comic.
He said: "I realised later that what I was doing wasn’t comedy. It was an event … By the end it felt like I had fully expressed an idea. I couldn’t have changed it that much. It was an iconoclastic type of act, it involved a lot of jumping around. It was a moment.
"I look back at it and I think, ‘What were they laughing at? I don’t know, I never did jokes then like I do now. I just ran around and got distracted. I couldn’t do that act again. I have no interest in it."
Steve Martin has accepted he’s no longer a major Hollywood star
