Sunday, Jul 20, 2008
Stephen Dorff and Alicia Witt discuss the lens licking and depth of "Cecil B. DeMented," John Waters' most recent lunacy.
Aug 11, 2000 | Stephen Dorff is ashing his cigarette into the orchid pot and talking about how you don't get rich starring in films like "Cecil B. DeMented." It's the first leg of the movie's press tour and the much-maligned young star is living up to the dubious reputation he established with his first interview ever, in which he claimed his superiority to most of his contemporaries -- and then went on to name names.
Take a good look at Dorff's track record and you'll find that, at 27, he not only has worked with some of the best actors around -- Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Susan Sarandon -- but has consistently taken interesting and risky roles, most notably with his performance as transvestite Candy Darling in "I Shot Andy Warhol." When he tells me he does these films not for the money but because they challenge him, it doesn't sound like the usual actor's rhetoric.
There is something charming in the earnest way he tilts his head as he speaks, in the flush of his cheek, in the way he sits eagerly at the very edge of the linen-covered couch as he talks excitedly about his new role. Under the hard-shelled veneer of 10 years in the Hollywood gristmill, I glimpse something that looks surprisingly like innocence.
It must have been just this mix of pomp and sincerity that John Waters spotted when he was forming Cecil, which the director wrote with Dorff in mind. Playing the leader of a group of radical cinema terrorists, Dorff shines as the movie's title character, a man driven by a rabid passion for cinematic purity and an unstoppable lust for the perfect shot. "Cecil" promises to put pie in the eye of anyone who scoffed at Dorff's talent. And the girls are sure to swoon because, damn, the man looks great in jodhpurs.
How was it working with John Waters?
He's awesome. I met him four years ago and he always said he liked me. And then I was making "Blood and Wine" with Jack Nicholson and he offered me Cecil, and I wanted to do it. But it ended up falling apart; I think he wanted $20 million to make it. I would see him once in a while and he would say, "We're going to make it!" He was just really loyal to me; he said he wrote it with me in mind.
The character of Cecil is really funny. The challenge was to not make it camp, but to believe in everything I said. I really got a kick out of it. Some of my representatives were a little nervous, but I think most of those people aren't very creative. They're probably better at putting deals together.
How do you feel about big Hollywood films?
What's great about John is that even when he trashes a film like "Forrest Gump" or "Patch Adams -- The Director's Cut," he instills such humor in it, I think the filmmakers would understand it.
John is the first person to admit that he loves Hollywood movies. I think "Magnolia" was John's favorite movie last year. If it weren't for Hollywood, he wouldn't be able to make this movie.
Were you familiar with the directors that each member of the gang [in "Cecil"] has tattooed on their bodies?
No. I knew the obvious ones, Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Peckinpah. The one I wasn't familiar with was the one I wear: Otto Preminger. I had never seen any of his movies. I asked John who he was and he said, "He was a dictator; he used to beat his actors!" And I said, "Oh, OK."
One thing in the script, which I was a little weird about, was licking the camera. And that's the ending shot in the trailer, the whole look for the film. When I first read that in the script I was like, "You want me to lick the camera?" and John said, 'That's right, I want you to lick the Panavision logo and then give a demented look." And I was like, "OK. Can I get some Windex?" But he had this image in his head and he really wanted me to do it. I actually like it now.
Had you seen John's other films?
I had seen "Pink Flamingos" and "Hairspray" and all the later ones. [Waters'] whole story is amazing ... John's parents financed his first films. They believed in him and supported him, even though he was making the craziest shit anybody had ever seen, coming up with the most brilliant stuff ever.
I enjoy making movies for people like that. I mean, you don't get rich from this kind of stuff, but that's not what's important to me.
They'll just hire anyone to be in movies these days, where before it was the same five or six guys you'd always go up against. It would be me, Leonardo, Ethan Hawke, a few other guys. Now there are 18 billion kids from the WB. Great actors, like my friend Joaquin Phoenix, who I think is one of the best actors around -- we're both losing parts to kids we've never even heard of. Things have changed. But at a certain point you have to sit back and look at what you've done and have faith that the directors that you want to work with will want you.
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