"Charles Laughton plays an English butler whose British lord loses him in a poker game to a cowboy from Red Gap, Washington. Ruggles is the butler, a manservant, and he’s forced to move to America, and this cowboy doesn’t [Heaton goes into cowboy twang] feel comfortable having a manservant because it’s ‘Merica and every man is his own man and we have freedom. He tries to help Ruggles become a free man and Ruggles’ family’s whole tradition was being menservants to people. He finds it very hard to embrace American freedom. It has really funny, terrific, and moving performances, and not very many people watch it — or have even seen it or heard of it. I make my boys watch it every Thanksgiving. I’m like, “Boys, it’s that tiiiime!” and they’re like, “Noooooooo, not Ruggles.” but I think they’ll come to appreciate it."

"What touched me about that was the friendship. In a very weird sort of way there are some similarities between my films — probably pretty-much The Firm — and Midnight Cowboy, only inasmuch as it’s a hard world but soft characters. There’s something about that friendship with two people that transcends where the film’s set. I have friendships where you’re like two old women, nagging away at each other, and you kind of hate each other in a lot of ways but you’re inextricably embroiled with one another. That’s what true friendship is, you know. There’s such a tragedy about Midnight Cowboy as well and there’s such an amazing smell of New York in the 70s. It’s one of the few films where it transports you there and you can feel the environment."