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By Tom O'Nell
You really seem to enjoy those cigars.
How do they go over with the missis?
[Leaning back, balancing a stogie between his teeth]. Can't smoke in
front of Kim. Nooo smoking in front of Kim. She hates it. Hates it. I
get all my smoking in before Kim comes.
When you read the script for Bookworm did you say, "Oh, this is
great! I really want to play another bad guy and work in a freezing
climate with ice up my jeans!"?
Tony [Hopkins] and I always joke with Harold Perrineau [the third male
lead, a New York City native] about that. We say, "This script sure
reads different when you're snuggled in your bed in Brooklyn, eh,
Harold?"
But I've always been happy to play a certain role regardless of how it
reflects on me. I didn't always have to play the hero or the good guy. I
just read the script and say, "Do I want to be in this movie?" And I
didn't think about it. I will say that after doing this one, I won't
play this kind of part again. I'm really fed up and tired of it.
So why'd you sign up?
Two reasons: David Mamet [who wrote the screenplay] and Tony [Hopkins].
I think Tony's probably the greatest English-speaking actor alive today
who still works. I mean, how much longer am I going to do this for a
living? I don't know. So I asked myself what chance would I get again to
do a movie with Anthony Hopkins.
Another of your heroes is Marlon Brando. Did he go to see you when
you did A Streetcar Named Desire?
[Wistfully] No. We had our antennae out, but he didn't come. I would
love to meet him. Just the other day. Kiln and I got offered Cat on a
Hot Tin Roof for TV. We wanted Brando to play Big Daddy, but he wouldn't
do it.
I have a feeling you'd do the dictionary with Brando if he said yes.
We could celebrate our birthday together. We have the same birthday:
April 3. It's also Eddie Murphy, Doris Day and Wayne Newton! When's
yours?
March 20.
[Excitedly] You're an Aries, too!
No, I'm a Pisces. Speaking of signs: What do you predict the next
four years are going to be like for President Clinton?
I believe that the people who run the Republican Party in this country
are really rotten, nasty, horrible human beings and they want to hurt
him. They want to bash him; they're pissed. The forces of darkness are
going to try to give it to him bad.
The Shadow speaks! Who are these evil men?
Newt Gingrich, who calls [Clinton] a lying scumbag every chance he gets,
and Al D'Amato, the paragon of senatorial virtue.
I saw your mom kissing D'Amato last week on television at a rally
for breast- cancer research.
[Wincing] He kissed her! Please. Be very careful when you say that.
D'Amato raced up to my mother. My mother was horrified. She was hiding
in a corner. The fact that he was using this [rally] was really kind of
shameful.
Which are you more passionate about: politics or acting?
I don't know.
Well, why not get it over with
already and run for something?
No money in it.
You've got enough money. Just put it in the bank, invest it, then
the wife can continue working.
That's an idea. I never thought of that.
Or she could be the first lady. Would she like that?
No. She'd be a good one, though. I think Kim is good whenever she's
involved in public life, [but] she's very private, very reclusive.
People don't know her, really. She doesn't do a lot of self-promotion.
But when she does… [drifts off, looking like a lovesick puppy].
People are charmed?
Yeah, they fall madly in love with her. She's very, very adorable.
I understand she called yesterday, very upset because there was a
picture of you and the baby in a tabloid.
Yeah, well, that we had somebody on the set with a camera like that was
very upsetting. Uninvited people taking photographs of my child has been
an issue before [laughs].
Do you think your case caused a re-examining of the way tabloids
pursue celebrities? Look at George Clooney's boycott of 'Entertainment
Tonight.'
Well, Clooney's is a separate thing because he had a written agreement
with Frank Kelly [president of Paramount TV, which owns ET and Hard
Copy] that they would get off his back. And they violated that
agreement. That's wholly different.
'ET' is coming to the set of Bookworm. Did Clooney call and ask you
to join the boycott?
Yeah, I talked to George on the phone a couple days ago. I don't do very
much publicity to begin with, [but] one of the things I had pre-agreed
to do on this movie was ET, because they've always been very nice to me.
So I said, "George, I'd be happy to talk with you about how I could be
of some help to you, after I fulfill this already arranged situation.
But I can't back out of it now." He was cool about it. He's a wonderful
guy.
In an interview recently, you said that one of the reasons you felt
you'd had trouble landing choice roles is because of your outspokenness
- or more precisely, your political activism. And you named five stars:
Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone and… ?
[Warily] I don't remember. [Pause] Mel Gibson.
Right. And you lashed out at these five guys for not taking stands,
for being safe and apolitical.
I think you're mistaken when you suggest that I lashed out at them. But
what I did say in that article, I'd be happy to restate now: The biggest
people in the business tend to be apolitical publicly. These people may
give untold millions of dollars to political causes privately, but you
just don't see them stepping out. I'm not suggesting that they don't - I
don't know what they do. It's none of my business. But I do know that
there are people who are much more public, much more front and center
for political causes, and it does - I take it back, it can - backfire on
you. I'm not saying it has on me, but it can.
Well, my reading of your statement was that you felt your
outspokenness had backfired on you; otherwise, why would you have made
the statement? And you seem angry at these guys for shirking what you
consider their civic responsibility.
No, I'm saying that I find it interesting that they have that in common,
that the only way you can make contact with them, as an audience, is to
buy a ticket and go see them in a movie; otherwise, they're [invisible].
You don't see very much of them, which I admire, actually. If I had it
to do over again, maybe I would have done that [laughs].
Do you feel that you've been punished in any way for being
outspoken, for taking stands?
No, I don't think I've been punished, but on the other hand, I wouldn't
be surprised if there are people who, if they had to choose between
going to see a movie of mine and going to see a movie of somebody else's
who was less opinionated than I was, won't see my movies because they
think I'm a commie.
I was actually referring to your being punished by the industry, not
the public.
[Sharply] Now, when you say "by the industry," you mean what?
I mean, are there studios who don't hire you because they think you
might be difficult or they simply disagree with your politics?
No, I think the studios hire you if your movies make money. It's that
simple. They really don't give a shit what your politics are. Rupert
Murdoch [the ultraconservative owner of Twentieth century Fox] is about
as antithetical to me politically as you possibly can be, yet he's
paying me a lot of money to come up here and make a movie for him.
All right, another question about politics –
[Tersely] Just let me just ask you a question: Why do you ask me those
questions about politics? Why does anybody who comes into this kind of a
forum with me feel that it's necessary to open up that door?
Because it’s very much a part of your public persona. I'm trying to
figure out where it comes from. Where does it come from?
I went to college. I mean, (politics is) what I wanted to do. What I'm
doing now is not at all what I wanted to do.
You lost a student-body election at George Washington University and
then decided to try to be an actor, right?
I lost that election, and then I'd gone to [New York University] to
visit friends and a woman said to me, "I think you really have the
personality to be an actor." I'd been taking an acting class at G.W just
as a thing to fill my credits. I'd always thought about it because it
was something I wanted to do, but I thought it was something you never
studied in college. When I went to [visit] NYU, I remember saying to
myself, God, law school - because where I was headed was law school - I
can't do that. That'll always be there. If I want to come back and do
that someday, I can, but I think I really want to try this. [Long pause]
You know, I can see why I was so uptight as a person, because I was so
locked in. I was white-knuckling this image of what I wanted to do or
where I wanted to go. I was just going to shoot myself like a missile
into politics.
Who were you trying to phase, then ?
[Pause] Probably my father.
I know your father wanted you to fulfill some of the dreams he never
realized - becoming a lawyer or a politician. In order to feed his
growing family, he dropped out of law school to become a teacher. He
died in 1983. Did he ever get to see you be a success?
Not really, no. That's one of my biggest sadnesses. Because my father
was somebody who I really respected and really liked. He was a good guy.
And he was very tough.
Was he harder on you than on the others because you were the eldest
son?
He was pretty tough with everybody, but I was his first son, so I got a
little bit of a pass on that one. He worked Danny over pretty good
[laughs]. Gave him a hard time. Danny was pretty wild - Danny and
Stephen. Billy and I are more alike temperamentally. [But] you just
didn't bother trying to pull any shit on [my father]. He was a
tough-looking guy, too. You knew he would just kill you.
Is it hard not having him around for advice?
It's very hard. Years ago, I saw myself unconsciously making father
figures out of people I knew. There was a guy who was my agent for years
- he became my closest friend. Finding male friendship with people who
could counsel me was a preoccupation of mine unconsciously for a long,
long time.
You must have been scared when you found out your mother had cancer
a few years ago.
Yes, because we would all joke to each other that my mother was going to
live to 100: "She'll be around forever." It was just something that
intellectually I never could conceive. I never could conceive of my
mother dying. Never. I didn't conceive my father was going to
die, either; but he did, and.. .it was like somebody shot me. I just
couldn't believe it. He was 55 years old. I just think of all the things
I would do for him if he were here today. I wouldn't hesitate to give
him anything he wanted to make him comfortable… [trails off]. When my
mom got sick, I thought, oh, man. I wasn't ready, but in a way, I
secretly knew that she wouldn't [die]. My mother's very tough.
And she's fine now, right?
Yeah.
Now that you're a dad, are you more diligent about taking care of
yourself so you're around to take care of your daughter?
I think I must be very much like a lot of people who have a kid and then
put their seat belt on all the time. One of the first things that
happened to me when I knew Kim was pregnant was I thought, oh, I've got
to work! I've got to make money! I've got to do five movies in a row. I
may die tomorrow! I've got to leave my wife a lot of money if I drop
dead. I've got to leave my kid money.
Did you tell Kim this?
Yes! One day I just started thinking about work and obsessing about
work, and she said, what is it? And I made the discovery right there in
that moment. I said, "Well, God, we have a kid now! I have to work! I've
got to make money! " You have this kind of momentary panic.
Her reaction was?
I don't think she bothered trying to tell me anything. She just said,
"OK, you go do what you want to do."
Is that how your relationship is?
[Grins] Yeah, she endures my behavior.
Share something with me about your life together.
You know, when I met my wife, I was living in New York and she was
living in L.A. She lived by herself; she was divorced. It was just her
and 11 dogs that she had. She had a big dog and 10 little dogs. When I
first came to visit her, I was kind of taken aback. I said, "It's just
you and the 11 dogs in this little house in the valley?" And she was
like, "Yeah, that's it." She lived this very simple life.
Was it scary being faced with that brood on your first date?
The dogs were very territorial. I definitely got this vibe from the dogs
like, "The boyfriends come and go, Alec. We're here forever."
Have you consolidated your households ?
[Nods] When she got pregnant last year, we [thought], well, now, how are
we going to live the rest of our lives? So we bought this house back in
New York. It's really a dream for me. I'm just dying to settle in
somewhere so we'll be able to live in just one place. Hopefully, I'll
die there.
How many bedrooms?
Seven.
You going to have six kids like your folks?
No, but I do think we'll have another one, hopefully. Adopt one or more.
I'll be honest with you: My wife and I had kids later in life, and I
just don't see it as possible for us to have as many kids as we might
want, now. I'm happy with the way it worked out, but I certainly
would've liked to have had six or eight or 10 kids; I wouldn't care.
Let me ask you about something that actors are often superstitious
about; winning an Oscar. Well? Wouldn't it be nice?
I'll make a prediction: I'll never win an Oscar [laughs]. I just don't
think I'm the kind of person who would win an Oscar.
Why not? Do you think them are evil forces that don't reward talent
alone?
No. I don't think there's anybody more talented than Torn Hanks. I think
he definitely deserves all the recognition he gets. Just think of the
people who've won the Oscar in the last few years: Tony [Hopkins],
Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons...
You don't think you're in the same category as those guys?
No, it's tough. I mean, a movie like Rob's, a Ghosts of Mississippi,
maybe that's the kind of I movie that people want to celebrate. Maybe
that's the kind of movie people want to reward. I've done a lot of
movies that I don't think they'd want to. I mean, I don't have any
shortage of people who tell me that they like what I do. I'm very
grateful for that. But I think that, in order to win an Oscar, you have
to do a certain kind of movie; and I've yet to. [Pause] Well, Rob's is
the first, maybe. Lately, anyway.
That said, everybody has a secret acceptance speech. Who would you
thank?
The people who made me love acting. And my dad. My father was somebody
who infected me with acting. We would watch old movies together forever.
We'd open up The New York Times to the funny little capsule reviews and
read those and watch everything - every conceivable movie that was on.
Just the two of us. Over and over again. [Pause] I remember the day my
father drove me from Washington, D.C., to New York when I transferred to
NYU. It was a really quiet car ride. I think my dad was wondering, you
know, what are you doing? He just kept looking at me, and I turned to
him finally and said, "What do you think it takes to be a good actor?"
And he said, "I think you have to be smart." [Quietly] And I'll never
forget it: He just looked at me and said, "And I think you're smart, so
I think you'll do fine." |
