'Eugene the Marine' Courtesy of the Oldenburg Film Festival Scott Glenn is the ultimate "that guy" of American cinema. The journeyman actor has built a five-decade career out of disappearing into the margins-rarely the lead, but always unforgettable. He's shared the screen with Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman and Jodie Foster, and worked under the directing top tier: Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now) and Robert Altman (Nashville), Clint Eastwood (Absolute Power), Ridley Scott (The Keep), Ken Loach (Carla's Song) and Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs). When Glenn walks into frame, he makes an impact. Many of his roles amount to just a few lines of dialogue, yet they sketch entire lives in miniature. A Glenn character feels lived in, tough, scarred, unshakably authentic. Glenn brings the same commitment and obsessive research to a role, however small the part. For Urban Cowboy, he practiced a bull rider's glove ritual thousands of times until it became instinct. For The Shipping News, he gutted cod nightly in a Newfoundland kitchen. For The Silence of the Lambs, he immersed himself with FBI profilers and listened to tapes so disturbing they still haunt him. Related Stories Movies 'Eugene the Marine' Review: Scott Glenn Is Riveting in an Old-School Horror Film That's Not on His Level Movies 'Degrassi: Whatever It Takes' World Premiere Hits Legal Hurdle That discipline comes from the Marine Corps, where Glenn served before becoming an actor."You learn a degree of mental toughness in the Marine Corps for the rest of your life," he says. "Failure is not getting up when you get knocked down. Success is getting back up." That toughness has sustained him into a late-career resurgence. Glenn's scene-stealing turn in Mike White's The White Lotus as mysterious resort owner Jim Hollinger - another barely-there role - earned him his first-ever Emmy nomination. He has a recurring role, as Vince Vaughn's hippie dad, in AppleTV+ series Bad Monkey. With Eugene the Marine, which opens this year's Oldenburg Film Festival, Glenn finally steps into the spotlight. He's in nearly every scene of Hank Bedford's indie drama, playing a retired soldier battling irrelevance. At 86, it's a role that cuts close to home. "Everybody wants me to think my best years are behind me," Glenn says. "But I still got a lot of gas left in the tank." Oldenburg is honoring Glenn with a career retrospective, a fitting tribute to a character actor's character actor - an uncompromising talent who has left behind a gallery of indelible performances without ever demanding the spotlight. Glenn spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about getting his first break from Gene Hackman, (possibly) saving Francis Ford Coppola's life on the set of Apocalypse Now, and the Marine Corps discipline that has guided him through his life and career. "I was, am, and will be past the grave, a United States Marine." Am I correct that you were an actual Marine-you served in the Corps? Yeah, I was a reservist in the Marine Corps. Did active duty. When I got hired for this part [in Eugene the Marine], though, the producers had no idea that that was true. But I was, am, and will be past the grave, a United States Marine. What did that training give you, either in your craft as an actor or in your life? That failure is not getting up when you get knocked down. Success is getting back up. You learn a degree of mental toughness in the Marine Corps that lasts for the rest of your life. Being in the Marine Corps got me my first start in acting. I was in New York and I'd started acting but I didn't know how to go about having a career. I was working as a stage manager in an off-Broadway play, running props. I was with a couple of friends - he was a model, she was a dancer - having a couple of drinks at the bar. When I walked in, they were talking to a guy sitting there, who was obviously in a bad mood. As he talked, he kept looking at me, and finally he said: "What do you do?" And I said: "I'm trying to be an actor." He said: "What did you do before this?" I said, "I was in the service." "What branch?" "United States Marine Corps." "Officer or enlisted?" I said: "I worked for a living-enlisted." He laughed. He took out a notebook, wrote something down and handed it to me. "The number is Bob Barry. He's an agent. He'll start sending you to things. The second is [acting teacher] George Morrison. Go to his class." He looked at me, said [the Marine motto] Semper fi, and walked out. That was Gene Hackman. He started me on my career and we later became friends. When I was doing this film, I found out the name Eugene the Marine came, in fact, from Gene Hackman. Every now and then, stuff loops back on you in ways you never expected. Looking back, what do you see as the turning points in your career? The film that changed my life, for sure, was Urban Cowboy. Jim Bridges, who had directed me in the first film I ever did in my life, a thing called The Baby Make