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Most recently, and perhaps most familiarly, he played General George S. Patton, the flamboyant commander of the 3rd Army in World War II. It was a performance that transformed a rather ordinary war movie into an astonishing personal tour de force and won him an Oscar nomination. Characteristically, he declined Hollywood's gilded accolade. He professes as much indifference to screen acting as to its awards. "Film is not an actor's medium," Scott says. "You shoot scenes in order of convenience, not the way they come in the script, and that's detrimental to a fully developed performance. There's the terrible tedium and boredom involved in waiting around for the camera to be set up, and then you have to turn on and off when they do the scene over again. When you see the rushes is the first time you begin to judge your performance. If you get 50% of what you hoped for, you're lucky." Although Scott's batting average, even in his off moments, is generally a good deal higher, he maintains that his real commitment is to the legitimate theater. Even now, when he is filming a movie entitled The Last Run, about an over-the-hill hood ("I'm doing it because it reminds me of old Bogart pictures"), he is reading the script for Neil Simon's new play, God's Favorite, and eagerly blocking out his schedule so that he will be able to star in it come the fall of '72.
Despite his tempered disdain for movies, Scott is devoted to acting—in any medium. And like many who excel at what they do and are aware of their excellence, Scott sometimes speaks offhandedly of his art. Still, his comments add up to a valuable handbook for actors (see box, page 66). No matter what part he plays, Scott surrounds himself completely with the assignment. "If you get enough around you, like a cloud," he says, "some of it's got to rain through."