Christopher Plummer Recalls 'Awful,' 'Gooey' 'Sound of Music' Role (Video)

Asked about his most challenging role to date, Christopher Plummer gives a surprising answer.

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“I think the part in The Sound of Music was the toughest,” the actor said during The Hollywood Reporter’s exclusive actors roundtable interview.

Joined by fellow award contenders George Clooney, Albert Brooks, Gary Oldman, Christoph Waltz and Nick Nolte, Plummer offered his thoughts, expertise and experience with the craft. The actor, now approaching 82 years of age, has played King Lear, American journalist Mike Wallace, Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and most recently, an elderly gay man who comes out late in life in Beginners. Yet it was his turn as Captain von Trapp in the 1965 musical that was the most difficult to perform.

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“Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey,” he explained with a laugh. “You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some miniscule bit of humor into it.”

The Robert Wise-directed film, which also starred Julie Andrews, went on to become an iconic piece of work. At the time of release,Plummer was 36-years-old.

“It’s a very good picture [for] what it is,” he said. “But somebody had to be Peck’s bad boy and I chose myself.”

Plummer went on to discuss his transition from stage to screen and why the “drunk stage” of his life provided the most rewarding projects. Watch the video above and for more from THR’s actors roundtable, click here.