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Saturday, Nov 28, 2009
You mentioned earlier regarding your performance in "Murder in the First" that you were able to "tap into something dark." My take on your career is that you broke out as a fresh-faced hero with "Footloose," but I've thought that your finest stuff completely went against that typecast when you played unscrupulous, slimy characters. Maybe you could comment on the gallery of creeps you've played over the years.
Sure.
Let's start with Willie O'Keefe from "J.F.K."
"J.F.K." was one of those times that you can look at a specific point in your career and say things changed because of this. It was really like a benchmark kind of thing for me. When I became an actor I wanted to do edgy character parts. I wanted to do people from all walks of life. I looked at Meryl Streep and thought, "That's an actor," i.e. someone who could wear different hats and make it believable. The last thing I wanted to be was a pop star, and then, all of a sudden, I was. In the years between "Footloose" and "J.F.K.," I was spinning my wheels. You know, I was trying to do independent films and hope they'd break out, but nothing was really happening. And then came "J.F.K." It took me four days to [do my part]. When I was making it, did I think, Oh my God, I can't believe I'm playing this character? Not at all. I had already done similar types of guys on stage. I already had played a male prostitute in a stage play called "Forty Deuce," that later became a feature film. But that movie completely changed things for me.
In terms of more phone calls, better scripts?
[The phone] just started ringing for different kinds of characters. It led directly to "A Few Good Men" and "The River Wild" and "Murder in the First." It just changed things ... thankfully.
OK. How about Sean Nokes from "Sleepers"?
Up until that point Barry [Levinson, director of "Sleepers"] was the only person to hire me twice. He sent me the book, and said that he'd be curious to see what my take would be on this guy. I knew nothing about the character. As I was reading it, I was seeing all of these great, cool parts -- the lawyer, the cute writer, etc. -- and then I get to Nokes, the guy who was molesting the kids, and I said, "Oh, of course, that's me." [Laughs] Gimme the child molester. But then I just viewed it as an interesting role with a director I like. I guess there's people that can't do this, people who would say, "No, I can't ask a 10-year-old kid for a blow job in a movie. What would my fans think?" I don't know. I just don't think in terms of image or things like that. I really think in terms of character.
How about Billy Magic in "Telling Lies in America," another of your films that more people should have seen. He's another of those shady guys.
Yeah, but Billy is cool, though, because he's one of those guys -- unlike Nokes in "Sleepers" or the guy in "The River Wild" -- who kinda has a heart of gold. He's not fundamentally evil. He's made some mistakes, and he definitely cut some corners in his life, but there's also something a bit tragically sympathetic about him.
Would you say the same about the crooked cop, Ray Duquette, in "Wild Things"?
God, I love that movie, and that character was fun. When I first read the script, I said to my wife [actress Kyra Sedgwick], "This is the worst piece of shit I've ever read -- and I love it." That was my take, and some people got that that's where we were going with it. But most people just saw it as being over-the-top. It was an attempt at something very specific, which was to take a sexy, "Peyton Place"-type ... I don't even call it film noir, because that implies a darker, more serious tone.
Yeah, it's more "camp noir." So, this leads us to your latest role, Sebastian Caine in "Hollow Man." Describe him.
Evil, evil, evil character. Caine starts out megalomaniacal. He is a very self-involved, vain, voyeuristic, childlike, power-hungry, but brilliant guy.
So he's a lawyer ...
[Laughs] Yeah, right. But he's not a killer and he's not a rapist. But when he becomes invisible, the power that that gives him is so seductive that it eventually pushes him over the edge. He becomes a monster. My feelings are -- and Paul may disagree with this -- if everyone had an opportunity to become invisible, they may sneak into a women's locker room, or they may steal something in a store, but they wouldn't necessarily go as far as this guy does. But the seeds were planted in this guy.
And Verhoeven sees that differently, that inherently people would just go nuts and ...
Yeah. I think he does. [Laughter.] He has less trust in the fundamental good of human beings.
God bless him. So, what's it like working with him?
It was great. It was a very, very hard shoot for all of us, but Paul is a perfectionist and he's a genius. And he is incredibly well prepared and passionate and committed and tireless. It can be a little overwhelming sometimes, but I also found it kind of infectious. In a lot of ways, I really needed that to get through it because it wasn't an easy character or an easy experience.
What attracts you to a script -- like "Hollow Man" -- these days? Are you choosier now?
Yes, because there's a lot of other stuff that's happening right now -- my band, my wife, her career, the kids, the kids' school. When I was younger, it was very easy for me to just pack my bag and go, and as a result, I did a lot of movies. I worked all the time. I don't want to be that way anymore ... [sighs] I just can't. It's actually good. And it's definitely made me more choosy. But you're only as choosy as you can be based on the amount of money you need to keep yourself afloat. It's hard to say why I decide to do something, but it's easy to say the reasons why not to do something. I don't base my decision on the size of the part, or the size of the salary, or the size of the budget, and I feel that once you take those three things out of your decision-making process, then the sky's the limit.
If you could rewrite your career, would you do anything different?
Hindsight is 20/20. [Long pause]
Would you have, say, dodged "Footloose" because of the stardom and the pigeonholing that accompanied it?
I dunno. That's a hard thing to say. I'd say no. All in all ... look, you take one piece out of the puzzle, and who knows whether I'd still be working now. I've been lucky. It's still a struggle, and there's a lot of things about it that beat me up but I feel like I'm still lucky to be able to make a living doing something that a lot of people don't get a chance to do.
