In his new movie, A Civil Action, about a small town where children have

been devastated by industrial pollution, Robert Duvall plays one tough

lawyer -- which is fitting for a guy who speaks only the bald truth

The setting couldn't be more bucolic: a rolling 360-acre farm just outside

The Plains, Virginia, a one-horse town of clapboard houses and rambling

roses. And the man on the proverbial soapbox couldn't be more revered:

Robert Duvall, the Academy Award-winning actor who has gained legendary

status for his stunningly precise performances in at least a dozen of the

most important films of the last century.

Dressed in faded black jeans, black zippered boots, and a black Patagonia

sweatshirt, Duvall sits on a white couch in the living room of his

picture-book, Ralph Lauren farmhouse, amiably grousing.

Duvall admits his own political radar has been more sensitive since he

stared into the maw of Sam Donaldson across a rope line. "Mr. Duvall,"

Donaldson barked, "tell us about the president's mood!" It was three days

after the Lewinsky scandal broke, and Duvall was at the White House for a

presidential screening of the film The Apostle -- his 13-year labor of love,

which he wrote, directed, starred in, and financed. He says Clinton reminded

him of a high-level Pentecostal preacher, not unlike the flawed evangelist

Duvall played in the film. "Clinton's a wheeler-dealer, and from afar he

repulses you, but one-to-one he's different," Duvall says. "There's

something about his wooing of Hollywood that is so rife, yet when you meet

the guy, he's interesting to sit down and talk to."

That night, the guests at the screening seemed to fancy themselves the Dian

Fosseys of political primate study. They debated what it meant when Bill and

Hillary Clinton held hands during the movie. When asked about the

coincidence that Farrah Fawcett, who played Duvall's cheating wife in The

Apostle, and Clinton took a bathroom break at the same time, the actor rolls

his eyes and whistles. "Well," he says after a long pause, "you know what

Tommy Lee Jones, says about all this. He

says, 'I'm for pussy. What's wrong with more pussy?'" Duvall leans back and

breaks into laughter.

MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

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