THE CULTUREPULP INTERVIEW: Bruce Willis


Here's a slightly longer version of today's Oregonian interview with Bruce Willis:




Bruce Willis sounds like he's been gargling battery acid.

"I'm a little hoarse," the actor coughs. "I was in Las Vegas singing with The Accelerators" -- his blues-rock band -- "and I just got back in town last night."

Unfortunately, Willis is obligated to yap: He's got a couple of movies coming out. He should take some consolation in the fact that at least one of them is really, really good.

"Hostage" (opening today) and "Sin City" (opening April 1) mark a return to the sort of two-fisted filmmaking that made Willis an action star in the late '80s and early '90s. In "Hostage," directed by French newcomer Florent Emilio Siri, the actor gives one of his finest performances as Jeff Talley -- a hostage negotiator forced to play two sets of kidnappers against each other during an all-night siege. It's a gorgeously shot thriller that unfolds like an exponentially more complicated "Die Hard," and Willis' anguished turn represents his best work since "Unbreakable."

Then, next month, he joins the ensemble cast of "Sin City," an adaptation of three of Frank Miller's lurid crime-noir comic books. Willis plays John Hartigan, a scarred cop who comes to the rescue of a stripper (Jessica Alba) menaced by a grotesque "Yellow Bastard" (Nick Stahl).

We sidestepped the usual barking questions about the actor's tabloid life -- specifically, questions about his complicated relationship with ex-wife Demi Moore and her boyfriend Ashton Kutcher -- because, well, we had some good (and theoretically good) movies to discuss. (That and he doesn't really tend to answer those questions any more.) An edited transcript follows the jump.

(Continued....)

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Q. I really enjoyed "Hostage." As an action-movie fan, I must say: It’s wonderful to see you in this kind of movie again.

A. I'm not sure that I'd strictly classify "Hostage" as an action film. It has more of a thriller feel to it than anything else. It also has a family theme to it -- not just my family, but also the broken home these three young men are holding hostage.

Q. One thing that [director] Florent Emilio Siri really shoots well in “Hostage” is the human face. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that stared this deeply this often into people's eyes as they died.

A. We always meant to have a strong film-noir look -- very dark and moody. We had a great DP on this film, Giovanni Coltellacci.

Q. And then there's that great moment where you stare down Mars, the homicidal hostage-taker, as you're loading Kevin Pollak on an ambulance -- in your boxer shorts.

A. Scary. And freezing cold. One of the coldest nights that we've had in Topanga Canyon for a long time.

Q. Were you a fan of Siri's earlier film, "Nid de guêpes" ("The Nest")?

A. I saw that film and called him up and told him, "If you ever get to Hollywood, look me up." Which he did. We had some lunch and talked and talked. I took a producer credit on this film ... and I just kind of put this thing under my wing and saw it all the way through.

Q. "Hostage" is full of weird small moments -- the way you're combing your beard in the opening scene, say, or the way the masked kidnapper wipes drool off your chin after showing you your captive family.

A. Those were both kind of impromptu. In growing out that beard, I'd actually starting walking around the house, combing it out. Florent saw me do that one day and he said, [mimics French accent] "Ah, we should put this in the film." And a really wonderful actor named Kim Coates plays the kidnapper in the mask, and he was generous enough to wipe up the ... uh ... drool. That was a pretty serious night's shooting.

Q. I'll bet. That was my favorite scene in the movie, actually -- the way the kidnapper gingerly puts on your seatbelt and negotiates with you through the process of handcuffing you to the steering wheel and putting you in a neck-lock ... and then, finally, shows you your family.

A. Yeah, there are a lot of hostages in this film. And I think my character is one of them.

Q. Every single male in the film is engaged in a negotiation -- and they're not all hostage negotiations.

A. That came out of a really well-written screenplay by Doug Richardson. It was highly collaborative with Florent and Doug, who was on the set every night. And I had a lot of input.

Q. "Hostage" almost feels like a response to your iconic work in "Die Hard." It takes the familiar siege scenario -- the format that "Die Hard" resurrected -- and compounds it in unexpected ways.

A. They're two very different kind of cops, though. John McClane is kind of a singular animal. Jeff Talley in "Hostage" is far more vulnerable -- more vulnerable than I've ever been.




Q. Well, the film integrates your action-hero persona with some of the more pensive work you’ve done in, say, the Shyamalan films. You shoot people and cry like a baby.

A. That little Polaroid that the FBI guy gives me in the van [of Talley's wife and daughter, bound and gagged] -- I carried that in my back pocket every night. All I had to do was take a look at that, and I got right to where I needed to be. I also got to work with my own daughter in this, which I think got me to a much higher point of departure emotionally than I would have gotten to otherwise. [Rumer Willis plays his kidnapped daughter in the film.]
And that moment where I go after the head of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department -- I don't think I've ever done that in a film. [Willis is referring to a scene where he suddenly lunges, enraged and frustrated, at the County Sheriff -- who's played by a woman.] There's that and one other moment, probably the most heinous thing I've ever done as a "good cop": when I trick the little boy into helping me save my family by risking his own life. It's a tortuous scene.
It's a very complicated story -- as far away as you can get from being a "Bruce Willis film" and still have me in it. We had a great cast -- a lot of kids. Of course, I call anybody under 30 a "kid."

Q. Let's talk about your part in "Sin City." Hartigan’s one of the best characters in one of the best "Sin City" comics. Lucky you.

A. I jumped at the chance to work not just with Robert Rodriguez, but ["Sin City" writer/artist, and the film's co-director] Frank Miller.

Q. You're a fan of the comics?

A. Absolutely.

Q. How exactly did the dynamic between Rodriguez and Miller work? Did they both offer directorial notes?

A. Yeah. After every take I would turn to Robert and make sure that we got what he wanted, and then I would turn to Frank and go, "Is that it? Is that what you saw?" And he had a lot to say.




Q. I guess it would be a bit like working with the Coen Brothers. But with more squibs.

A. I think having Miller there allowed us to stay really true to the film-noir books he'd written and drawn -- and it has some of the best dialogue I've said in a long time. Not to mention how dazzling this film looks. We shot it on a soundstage that was completely painted green. The cars were real, and we had a dock that was built, but very few props.

Q. Had you done that much green-screen work before?

A. No. This was, by far, the most I ever did. And while I only worked 10 days on "Sin City," that would be the equivalent of shooting about five weeks on a normal film -- because they were shooting with digital cameras. It was truly amazing. It's a completely new style of filmmaking.

Q. Rodriguez is famous for the insane number of camera setups he does in a day.

A. And that was just my part of it. I haven't seen the other storylines. I'm excited to see the film.

Q. Didn't Quentin Tarantino direct part of "Sin City," as well?

A. He worked a day or two on the storyline with Benicio Del Toro. He and Robert are very close; he initially just came down to see what Robert was up to, and ended up sticking around.

Q. I interviewed The Rock last year, and he went out of his way to praise you for some acting advice you gave him. He said you told him, "There's a real genuineness about yourself, so if you can continue to keep that in your films -- regardless of whether it's an action role, a dramatic role, a comedy -- all of it comes from a place of honesty."
And then he made some self-deprecating remark about how he needed simple advice because he has a short attention span.

A. [laughs] He's gonna have a long career. I just saw him the other day. I'm really proud of him.
You've always got to start at a basic core of honesty -- even if you're lying onstage, it's got to be an honest lie. If it's not honest, I think the audience sees that. They don't always know what's wrong, but they know something isn't right.

Q. Are you doing any more theater in Hailey, Idaho [where Willis keeps a home near Moore and his kids] in the near future?

A. Not in the near future. I've done two Sam Shepard plays there in the last 10 years. If I ever do any more theater, I'll be doing it up there.

Q. You have, for a while now, been bemoaning the action genre in interviews --

A. Well, what I was saying was that I was kind of waiting for the genre to re-invent itself -- and to get a little smarter with the storylines.

Q. You’ve also outlasted your peers who helped create the action genre. Arnold’s switched to politics; Stallone is hosting TV; Harrison Ford is flying real-life search-and-rescue choppers. Why are you still hammering away?

A. Well, I'm still learning how to act. And I'm really fortunate that I get to be asked to be in big studio films and smaller independent films that might not have gotten made had I not gotten involved. I still get a big kick out of it.




Willis still surprises as the last action hero (The Oregonian, March 11, 2005)

Posted: Fri - March 11, 2005 at 12:02 AM        

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