Walken on "Around The Bend" and more...
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From the Boston Herald:
Walken rounds `Bend' with complex character
By Stephen Schaefer
In person, Christopher Walken is neither scary nor stoned.
The Oscar-winning actor - whose speech, hair and intense performance style have sparked imitators and parodies - gives a sober, sweetly affecting performance in ``Around the Bend'' as the most troubled of a family's four generations of men.
Known for his reluctance to do interviews, Walken nevertheless seemed relaxed.
Walken also is known as one actor who likes to work - no questions about whether the film looks like a good career move, whether the character makes sense, and no worries about what the public reaction might be.
``I usually just say, `Yeah, I could play that part,' or I say, `I've been looking at it and I just don't know what I'd do here,' '' he said. ``But in my case, I don't do that too much; I like to work. So usually I'll say, `We'll figure it out later,' which I think I'm a little unusual in that respect, but I am a kind of kamikaze actor.''
Since he debuted opposite Sean Connery as an ultra-cool thief in 1971's ``The Anderson Tapes,'' the 61-year-old veteran has formed a wildly uneven resume, from being the only Bond villain to have an Oscar to playing killers both good (``The Comfort of Strangers'') and lamentable (``Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead'') to his recent Oscar-nominated performance as the con artist dad of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in ``Catch Me If You Can.''
For the public, it's the scary Walken that resonates.
``When you play a villain, and I have a lot of experience, generally it's not slice of life,'' he said. ``It's more or less extremes of human experience, and I play a lot of people who want to take over the world. And I don't know really anyone like that.''
``Around the Bend'' is more in the ``Catch Me If You Can'' mode, an ensemble piece written and directed by Jordan Roberts that considers four generations: Michael Caine is the aged patriarch, Josh Lucas (``Undertow,'' ``Wonderland,'' ``A Beautiful Mind'') his crippled grandson Jason Lair, and 6-year-old Jonah Bobo as Zach, Jason's son. Walken is Turner Lair, just out of prison and coming home to make amends - or at least a truce - with his troubled son, who has walked with a limp since the childhood accident that killed his mother.
``Around the Bend'' - which won Walken the Montreal Film Festival Best Actor prize last month - already is prompting buzz of another Oscar nomination.
``I knew, of course, that it was a good part, and also it's a different kind of part for me,'' he said.
How different?
``Well, it's a - what do you call it? - person. I play a lot of monster people, and this was a person and a father and, in fact, a grandfather. That's the first time I've done that. In fact, when I saw the movie, I was all alone in the theater. And, naturally, the first time I see a movie, I'm looking at myself. But someone just said to me that it was funny. And I'm sitting in the theater by myself. So I don't know it's funny. So that was a surprise.''
Unlike other stars, Walken doesn't bother with stipulations about casting approval. And, surprisingly, he had never worked with Caine.
``We're not old friends,'' he said. ``But I had met him occasionally at dinners in L.A. I've gone over to someone's house for dinner and I'd see him. Michael, of course, is way too young to be my father, but he had on the rubber stuff (to age), and he actually does look great in the movie.''
As for what he thinks about the impersonations: ``It's flattering. It is for me, anyway. I have a friend who does me on his answering machine. So when I call him up, it's me.''
–--
'The only way to avoid getting crushed by absurdity, is to humbly include the absurd in our calculations.'
Reg
(view)
From the Boston Herald:
Walken rounds `Bend' with complex character
By Stephen Schaefer
In person, Christopher Walken is neither scary nor stoned.
The Oscar-winning actor - whose speech, hair and intense performance style have sparked imitators and parodies - gives a sober, sweetly affecting performance in ``Around the Bend'' as the most troubled of a family's four generations of men.
Known for his reluctance to do interviews, Walken nevertheless seemed relaxed.
Walken also is known as one actor who likes to work - no questions about whether the film looks like a good career move, whether the character makes sense, and no worries about what the public reaction might be.
``I usually just say, `Yeah, I could play that part,' or I say, `I've been looking at it and I just don't know what I'd do here,' '' he said. ``But in my case, I don't do that too much; I like to work. So usually I'll say, `We'll figure it out later,' which I think I'm a little unusual in that respect, but I am a kind of kamikaze actor.''
Since he debuted opposite Sean Connery as an ultra-cool thief in 1971's ``The Anderson Tapes,'' the 61-year-old veteran has formed a wildly uneven resume, from being the only Bond villain to have an Oscar to playing killers both good (``The Comfort of Strangers'') and lamentable (``Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead'') to his recent Oscar-nominated performance as the con artist dad of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in ``Catch Me If You Can.''
For the public, it's the scary Walken that resonates.
``When you play a villain, and I have a lot of experience, generally it's not slice of life,'' he said. ``It's more or less extremes of human experience, and I play a lot of people who want to take over the world. And I don't know really anyone like that.''
``Around the Bend'' is more in the ``Catch Me If You Can'' mode, an ensemble piece written and directed by Jordan Roberts that considers four generations: Michael Caine is the aged patriarch, Josh Lucas (``Undertow,'' ``Wonderland,'' ``A Beautiful Mind'') his crippled grandson Jason Lair, and 6-year-old Jonah Bobo as Zach, Jason's son. Walken is Turner Lair, just out of prison and coming home to make amends - or at least a truce - with his troubled son, who has walked with a limp since the childhood accident that killed his mother.
``Around the Bend'' - which won Walken the Montreal Film Festival Best Actor prize last month - already is prompting buzz of another Oscar nomination.
``I knew, of course, that it was a good part, and also it's a different kind of part for me,'' he said.
How different?
``Well, it's a - what do you call it? - person. I play a lot of monster people, and this was a person and a father and, in fact, a grandfather. That's the first time I've done that. In fact, when I saw the movie, I was all alone in the theater. And, naturally, the first time I see a movie, I'm looking at myself. But someone just said to me that it was funny. And I'm sitting in the theater by myself. So I don't know it's funny. So that was a surprise.''
Unlike other stars, Walken doesn't bother with stipulations about casting approval. And, surprisingly, he had never worked with Caine.
``We're not old friends,'' he said. ``But I had met him occasionally at dinners in L.A. I've gone over to someone's house for dinner and I'd see him. Michael, of course, is way too young to be my father, but he had on the rubber stuff (to age), and he actually does look great in the movie.''
As for what he thinks about the impersonations: ``It's flattering. It is for me, anyway. I have a friend who does me on his answering machine. So when I call him up, it's me.''
–--
'The only way to avoid getting crushed by absurdity, is to humbly include the absurd in our calculations.'
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Walken on "Around The Bend" and more... – Reg on October 15th, 2004
the reviews out of Boston for Around the Bend – Reg on October 15th, 2004