Craig T. Nelson has been a fixture on TV and movie screens since the 1980s, but before that, he was living a simple life in an off-grid cabin in Northern California.
“It was a search for meaning. And I had lost it in Hollywood,” he told Fox News Digital.
In the early 1970s, Nelson tried his hand at stand-up comedy. He was an early member of The Groundlings and even appeared at The Comedy Store.
But in 1973, he left that world and, with an inheritance from his mother, decided to purchase land near Mount Shasta in Northern California with no electricity or running water, and began building a cabin there with his young family.
“And that was a seven-year journey of absolute struggle, having never built anything before,” he said.
A friend gave him a book on building log cabins that “showed me a weakness and a character defect that I was carrying, which was a lack of patience. And I have no knowledge of how to do this. And so I had to learn. And you learn with a family. I had two kids at the time. Noah, my youngest son, was born there up in the mountains.”
He continued, “And eventually it got done. It got done with community, it got done with help from people that you normally wouldn’t go to and or ask for help. And I learned, and so I was an apprentice plumber. I was a surveyor. I logged. I was a janitor. I taught school. I mean, I did anything I could to make some money and ended up on food stamps, of course, and had to eventually hitchhike back to Hollywood and try to establish myself as some kind of actor.”
Nelson’s did just that, becoming a household name with films like “Poltergeist” and later his sitcom, “Coach.”
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Taking those kinds of risks that he did in his life and career helped Nelson connect to his character in the new film, “Green and Gold.”
The 80-year-old stars as Buck, a struggling farmer who’s about to lose everything when he makes a bold bet on the Green Bay Packers going all the way to the Super Bowl. As he takes that chance, his granddaughter, played by Madison Lawlor, looks to leave the farm and pursue a musical career.
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Nelson connected with his character through their respective struggles to find success.
“The early career is all about that. It’s, you know, evading bankers, really, hanging up on the collection people and finding ways of talking to them, which gives you some insight into how vicious that can be,” he said with a laugh. “The struggle, I think, is where you can certainly find identification, at least in terms of the various jobs that I had to perform to just get by and make a living while I was trying to become something I had no idea what I was trying to become.”
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“It’s the beauty of achieving a dream,” he added. “But imagine, I think also, generationally, the families have inherited this beautiful richness and tradition, and there’s a lot of myth around that also. But I think trying to keep that going and the kind of pressure that puts on somebody to try and make it work, especially now where they’re finding difficult[ies]. I think all of that is so identifiable.”
Nelson said farming is “in my family’s blood for sure,” going back to the mid-1800s, and he felt a deep appreciation for farmers through his work on the film, saying their hard work goes into “feeding our country and trying to make a living at it.”
“And the margins that they’re living on are so small. And so you identify with the struggle, and the beauty of that is, is that within that there is a humor and there’s a reverence and there’s a sense of community and… American values, traditional.”
“Spend a couple of weeks on a farm and, you know, you’ll find out quickly where your heart lies,” he added.
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Nelson also feels that “Green and Gold” is a bit of a love letter to America.
“We hear so much about what we’re losing and what we need to recapture. And it’s all there. It really is. It just needs a sounding board,” he said. “There needs to be a resonance to it that we hear and listen to. And I think in witnessing the people, the farmers themselves, and shooting the film in Wisconsin and Door County and getting to know them and getting to know their families to a certain degree and what they go through, I think was not only reinvigorating, but it was certainly inspiring.”
WATCH: CRAIG T. NELSON FELT CONNECTED WITH HIS FARMER CHARACTER IN HIS NEW FILM ‘GREEN AND GOLD’
The “Incredibles” star also got the chance to live out his dreams as a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan when he sang the national anthem at Lambeau Field on Jan. 5.
“I’m such a fan, you know, I really am. And the players, dude, it’s unbelievable. I’m over on the sidelines and it’s cold… But you don’t feel it. It’s like the fans are, like, screaming, and they’re packed in, and it’s like, ‘My God, Lambeau Field,’” he said with excitement.
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By his side through many of his ups, downs and dreams come true has been his wife Doria, whom he married in 1987.
Reflecting on their nearly 40-year marriage, Nelson said one of the keys to their success has been, “realizing that I have a friend who has my self-interest at heart. And I have to learn to listen.”
He continued his praise, saying, “See, I’m married to somebody that’s so extraordinary that she’s bewildering as I keep discovering things about her that are magical. [She has] a sense of wonder about life that just keeps me intrigued. I have a completely different view. I mean, I can be there. I can go with her, and I can tolerate that kind of thing. And I say tolerate, for a while, but then I have to go off on my own and get very despondent and start thinking. And I do that primarily to get away from any kind of reality. But she keeps me focused, and she keeps me in love.”
Nelson has three children from his first marriage to Robin McCarthy, and has multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren he does his best to keep up with, or as he put it, “You don’t keep up.”
“You know, because at 80, I’m not moving as quickly, and I’m not as threatening, so I don’t have that going for me. Speak softly and carry the big stick? I can barely lift it,” he joked.
But Nelson said he finds connection with the multiple generations in his family.
“It’s so intriguing that I’m able to speak to them and to what they’re going through and hopefully be heard. If I have some sort of communication skills that will allow me into their sphere for a while,” he said, adding that it is difficult to “break through” the phone addiction.
“I don’t have that because I wasn’t raised with it, so I don’t quite understand it. However, I do get it,” he said, joking that he will “steal their phones” and watch them “go into some kind of decompression and jonesing for their telephone.”
And then when they complain about not being in communication with friends, he said with a laugh, “Yeah, that’s why you’re here talking to me!”
“Green and Gold” is in theaters Jan. 31.
