How often have you produced?

Maybe 4 times.  Eve’s Bayou, Cavesman’s Valentine, Formula 51 and this the Cleaner.  Maybe something else.  Not a lot.  Because I’ve been around the script for a long time and I liked it.  I kind of pulled a lot of elements together.  I got Randy to do it which was a joy to see Randy do something other than a big action picture.  I just wanted to make more money off it than they offered to pay me.

That’s an honest answer.  You’re teaming up again I believe with Bruce Willis for something or did I read that wrong in the press…?

They’re shooting that movie right now with Lawrence Fishburne and no Bruce Willis.

See how accurate these notes are? Let me rephrase that. You are one of the hardest working men in show business. Can you give us an update of what you’re attached to in the future?

What I’m attached to in the future? Right now I’m shooting Lakeview Terrace with Neil LaBute.  In October I start The Spirit with Frank Miller.

You told us that at Comic Con.  You play Octopus?

Octopus, yeah.

You said that to us.  Are you tremendously looking forward to having him as a director?

Yes I am.  I’m anxious to get down there and start doing that film.  It’s going to be great.

I was going to ask, has he told you anything or has he alluded to you about the casting of The Spirit?

I keep asking him and he says nobody else has been cast.  I was the only person right now that’s totally locked in.

He said to me he’s having a tough time getting people to audition and he wants to make sure the chemistry is right.

Um.  Well agents do that because they start saying I don’t want my client to read, because sometimes they don’t want you to realize the client can’t act. I’ve never been afraid of that.  It’s kind of like, sure I’ll read.  No problem.

Did he show you the script?  Or did you just know Frank Miller?

I read a script, yeah.  That’s pretty exciting.

So you’re playing in The Spirit.  Is there something past The Spirit or is that the farthest on the horizon?

Right now, yeah.  I have kind of a survival film that I’m trying to get up that may get up. At one point we had the kid who directed Old Boy was attached to it. But something happened last week, something about him not being able to get final cut or something so he fell out.  Now we need to find a new director.

Is the LaBute script one of his pleasant scripts or one of the ones where people may want to burn down the theatre?

Hmm. It’s a script about this nice little inter-racial couple that moves in next door to a racist policeman who’s trying to run them out of his neighborhood.  So, there you go.

I wanted to know for the people who aren’t familiar with The Spirit and the character.  Could you talk about your character in that film, or is it confidential?

The Octopus?  No, I guess if people had read the comic they’ll know who he is.  He’s like the crime kingpin of this kind of city sort of like Gotham City I guess.  They have their own little metropolitan place that this guy is like the crime kingpin of and Spirit is kind of a mysterious character that shows up all the time to save the day like Batman does in Batcity.  The Octopus is indestructible kind of tough guy, psychotic killer.  The kind of thing I’ve been wanting to do for awhile.

I just have to say and I’m speaking for all fans that all of us can not wait to see what’s he’s going to be doing.

Yeah, we love Frank so we can’t wait to jump in there.

I’ve seen homeless people on the street and I’ve given them a blanket or given them… and that’s it.

Yeah, things just happen.  I don’t necessarily know why they happen sometimes but they just kind of happen and fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to talk to homeless people.  So, I’m not saying I understand them or I know but I know everybody’s got a story. They just didn’t spring up out of the sidewalk as a homeless person.  They’ve got a story.  Champ has a identity and that identity for him is as Champ.  I was this guy who was #3 in the world and I was all of this and all of that and da, da, da, da, fought this guy and fought that guy.  When you see him there’s something about him that says ok, that guy was a fighter and you can see that, so he’s too old to exercise so he stays in shape by doing his road work, so he jogs and carries his stuff and kind of moves that way.  That’s his movement.  That’s his fighter’s movement. Now, the voice is another kind of interesting sort of thing that just occurred to me and I looked in the mirror and I started thinking, thinking, thinking, and I heard my grandfather’s voice.  It was my grandfather’s. He had this kind of high pitched whisper that always made me lean over and say what did you say Pop?  It was always he was pulling me toward him with his voice.  I thought it was interesting that Champ would have that and even if people thought he smelled bad or whatever when he talked they wanted to hear what he said they had to get close to him.  It kind of makes you do that in the audience too, I kind of watched people when I saw the film for the first time. He was always saying something that’s interesting.

How much of a strain was it to use that voice consistently?

None whatsoever actually. One of the things that kind of keeps me focused in it and gives me something to do while I’m doing it and to kind of hone in on it ‘cos my wife said when she saw it she was sitting there and she’s going ohhhh as soon as I started speaking. She started shaking her head and I knew what it was and it was her saying to herself ok, can he told onto this the whole picture or when does he go in and out of it.  By the time it was over she was kind of like…he held onto it. Because we’ve watched so many films where people start something and they don’t finish it or they start out limping on their right foot and before you know it they’re limping on their left foot and you’re kind of going wait a minute.  Exactly, yeah.

Was it interesting and did it influence your performance at all to shoot down there with all the homeless people there and did you chat with them and get to know them?

In Calgary? 

Yeah.

Well, yeah.  It didn’t inform the performance you know.  It was kind of interesting watching them react to me or the first time I kind of show up and not knowing it was me, which is kind of rewarding in its own way.  This guy saw me walking by with a cigarette and he went hey….We started talking for a minute and then I move on up.  Yeah, being able to shoot in that shelter lends some authenticity to it especially when you’re in a place like Canada.  You need to do all you can to create an American feel because you know there’s so many times you see people shooting films in Canada and the extras they hire to say something and you go “that’s not American”.

I wanted to ask you a whole other brave question because I am wrong or did MGM totally screw up the marketing of that film?

Do you want me to say that in a recorder? 

Sure.

Yeah, I bet you do!  I don’t know.  I don’t know what happened to that movie.  They released it a couple of times.

Sort of.

Ok, if you say so.  I don’t know. I have no idea what happened.  I showed up for the premiere the other day and I did press for it and I don’t know.  I have no idea.

Diplomatic answer.

Is it frustrating though for you if you do something you really, really love and maybe it’s not…I’m not saying that but anything but maybe it’s just not in your control?

Well, none of it is in my control.  Movies are a crap shoot.  You do them and you hope people like them and you hope people get out to see them.  It’s kind of like…I loved Black Snake Moan.  I loved that picture and I think as much as I liked the poster I think the poster kept a lot of people out of the film.  Then there was some interestingly wrong hitted reviews of the film so that when people did discover it on DVD they were kind of like, “oh man, I loved that movie, I loved that movie” so they’d tell other people.  So I get the satisfaction later on because people did discover it and it’s a shame that it didn’t do box office figures or whatever, but I still hope that by the end of the year those people that get screeners that Paramount will send screeners to people so that Christina can get some sort of recognition for being brave enough to do that particular thing.  That’s one of the things that happens that was the last film of the old Paramount regime. So, the new Paramount regime didn’t feel like they had an obligation to do a lot for that particular film. They were kind of busy pushing Crash…Bennenton…what’s that movie Babel.