Elliott Gould talks faith, family, Barbra Streisand and his new movie

Israeli director Gadi Dar has made a film about the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, but it’s not only the subject that makes it unique. It’s the way he has chosen to tell it.

Rather than conventional animation, Dar tells the story through 1,500 extraordinary paintings by Israeli artists David Polonsky and Michael Faust, who both worked on the Oscar-nominated Waltz with Bashir. The camera travels across their images, creating something best described as static animation of a superior kind.

As Oscar Isaac, who voices central character Ben Batich, explains: “The paintings are beautiful, the music is incredible, and the sound design is amazing. And suddenly, within minutes, I didn’t realise that they were still images anymore. I felt like I was watching Gladiator.”

What audiences will see is Jerusalem tearing itself apart because of inequality, corruption, religious fanaticism and civil war – and that’s before the Romans arrive to finish the destruction. The 2,000-year-old story feels disconcertingly relevant.

Supporting Isaac is a cast includingEvangeline Lilly, Billy Zane, Marilu Henner and, impressively, Elliott Gould, who voices Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai – uncle of protagonist Batich and the man who understands that Jerusalem may be lost but Judaism doesn’t have to be.

An interview with Elliott Gould doesn’t travel in straight lines. Questions lead to memories, memories to philosophy and philosophy back to family.

Gould turned 88 in August and has a lifetime of places to go — you just never know which one a question will take him to. So when we talk about Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, Gould says: “You might have to remind me how to pronounce that.”

I tell him I’ve not quite mastered it, but he has moved on. “What am I in the film? Simply a wise man, a teacher, a rabbi in the picture.”

Did he know much about the destruction of the Second Temple? “As a matter of fact, I did. But I’m thinking that the First Temple was also destroyed. Hopefully there will be no more destruction of temples, but we’ve got problems here in the present – and it’s always about the present for me.”

Politics leaves him cold. “It confuses me because people make things up. I never want to offend anyone, whatever their religion or perspective is.”

Gould comes across as the sweetest of souls and has been famous for longer than some of his co-stars have been alive. In 1969 he was Oscar-nominated for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Was that when he felt like a movie star? “No, that wasn’t a moment. That was a little embarrassing.”

Embarrassing?

“Of course. I don’t want to have so much attention put on me. I’m just a baby at heart. I just want to live and learn, make my way through the world and accept the truth of reality.”

By 1970 he was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. M*A*S*H made Gould’s Trapper John part of cinema history and a defining partnership with Robert Altman, followed with The Long Goodbye, California Split and Nashville, in which he has a cameo as himself.

“I play Elliott Gould,” he reminds me, adding: “My name on my birth certificate is Elliott Goldstein.” Goldstein originally? “Originally,” he says, approvingly. “That’s a good one.”

Gould grew up Jewish in Brooklyn, attended Hebrew school and knew the history depicted in Legend of Destruction. “I heard the stories. I read them. I studied them.”

We return to the film’s magnificent paintings, so brutal with bloodied bodies, burning buildings and Jews killing Jews as Jerusalem descends into chaos. “And look out the window right now,” says Gould. “We are at war.” Not in Echo Park, Los Angeles, but I get what he means.

“I believe in my children, but I cannot believe in one child over another child. I believe that the gift of life, the gift of existence, is for us to share. We have to learn to make peace.”

I dare to suggest that some people don’t want peace. “We have a tendency of blaming one another. I can’t blame anybody. I’m so pleased to be alive, and to have lasted so long, and to be able to communicate with you. The only thing that matters to me is what we have to share.”

It would be easy to describe Gould as spiritual. In fact, I do. “I believe in the spirit,” he replies simply.

So what does Legend of Destruction ultimately teach us? “To continue to learn, to continue to work and integrate and share.”

A surprisingly optimistic conclusion to a film about catastrophe. I tell him I think it is terribly sad at the end. “Well,” Gould corrects me, “there is no end.” For all the destruction in Gidi Dar’s film, Gould sees continuation. That’s why the role fits. Yohanan ben Zakkai could not prevent the destruction of Jerusalem but ensured Jewish learning could continue after it.

What sort of audience will respond to such an unusual film? “I don’t know. I’m not a businessman,” he laughs.

No, I agree. You’re an actor. “I’m an artist,” he corrects me, “and sometimes I act.”

He does, and memorably so as Monica and Ross Geller’s father Jack in Friends and as Reuben Tishkoff in the Ocean’s films. I fish for an anecdote from either, but he is fixed on job description.

Acting is also play, he tells me. “What baby doesn’t like to play? That’s what acting is to me — playing.” The baby is a recurring image, but so are his actual children. His family, he says, is “large and growing. They mean everything to me. More than everything.” His eldest son Jason was born during his marriage to Barbra Streisand; he also has Molly and Samuel from his marriage to Jennifer Bogart.

When I mention Streisand — cautiously — he immediately says “she’s a great Jewish girl” and “I love her always”; then reminds me of the connection that matters. “Jason.”

Whatever happened between the two young performers who became extraordinarily famous, their relationship today is simple. “It’s a family. We love one another.”

That family extends to Streisand’s husband James Brolin. “I saved his life,” Gould announces. He did, too — on screen in the 1978 conspiracy thriller Capricorn One. Gould laughs. So do I.

Work has also given him friendships that outlasted the people with whom he shared them, notably Donald Sutherland, his M*A*S*H co-star. “Donald was my best mate.” Did they remain close? “Oh, sure. We made two other movies together, and we would talk. I love Donald. I still love Donald.”

Sutherland died in 2024, but Gould reaches for something one of his children told him. “One of my babies said to me, ‘It doesn’t matter how long you live, so long as you know you’re living, right, Dad? And you’re not dead until you’re forgotten.’”

In three days’ time he has a birthday. Any plans? “Acknowledging it,” he retorts.

Then Gould as philosopher returns one last time. “I’m so, so happy to be alive, to be able to communicate and share some of my experience, my beliefs and my knowledge. And we’re never too old to be educated.” Perhaps that’s the real connection between Gould and the ancient rabbi he voices.

Legend of Destruction is about what was destroyed almost 2,000 years ago. But Yohanan ben Zakkai’s story is about what wasn’t: knowledge, faith, memory and the possibility of passing something on.

Elliott Gould understands that.

There is no end.

Legend of Destruction releases worldwide across all major streaming platforms on 15 September