"There were hard times," he said. "We used toeat once a day--we would buy four chicken bags fora quarter, some grapes for dessert and lots ofbread."

His difficult experiences made him a betteractor, said Julia. Arts critics, he suggested,lack that empathetic understanding.

In response to a question from the audience,Julia condemned New York theater critics. "A goodnumber of critics--I don't get that they have lovefor the theater," he said. "I don't get that theyhave compassion."

"A critic is a gimmick created by a newspaper,"he added to audience laughter. "A lot of thesecritics, I don't know where they're at, but Ithink they're at a very low level of existence."

While Julia often tries to make politicalstatements through his art, he said that he didThe Addams Family, his last film, "for alaugh."

"It was just pure fun," he said. "I wanted todo it, so I did it--and got good money for it,too."

Julia's visit was sponsored by the HarvardFoundation for Intercultural and Race Relations