September 2004 By Philip Berk
Melancholy, mournful, mystifying,
That’s Michael Madsen at his press conference for Kill Bill Chapter 2.
He’s always been someone I admired, but looking over his resume you almost have to ask yourself, whatever happened to?
His unforgettable turn as Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs will forever link him with Tarantino.
But that was twelve years ago.
In retrospect I shouldn’t have started the interview by asking him if it’s good to have Tarantino as a friend.
They hadn’t worked together since.
But now he’s playing Bill’s brother Bud in Chapter 2.
Fortunately he doesn’t take offense, and my follow-up question is benign.
Do they keep in contact? I ask him, and in a soft monotone — notice the alliteration — he replies.
“We try to stay in touch on the telephone. I send him a lot of faxes. I’m one of those letter writers. I try to keep him updated on what’s going on with me. Then when I see him, we catch up with each other and talk about the world around us. We had been out of touch for a long time before Kill Bill, but then we just started hanging together right before he gave me the script.”
Did he write the role with him in mind?
“He wrote a role of Mr. Barrel for me. The guy had only one scene in Beijing with the Bride. He was kind of a swordsman there to protect her in the situation she was in with Crazy 88. At the time I was up at Quentin’s house, we were just hanging around, and reading scenes, talking about things and getting used to the idea of working together. So while I was working on Mr. Barrel at his house Quentin asked me, ‘Michael, Michael.’ you know how he talks, “I’d like you to read some of Bud.’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ I was very attracted to that part anyway and was glad he brought it up. We read some scenes, and then we went down the hill and had some lunch together, and afterwards when we got in the car to leave he said, ‘You’re Bud. I’m gonna change your role.’ It kinda came out of nowhere. And Mr. Barrel isn’t even in the movie now. He wrote it out.”
And then considering the alternative, he adds, “It was hard to come in a picture like that, with not much to do. With a small role, you kinda feel like a glorified extra. I like to make a contribution if I’m in something.”
What was it like working with Uma Thurman (who plays the Bride?)
First he digresses.
“Personally I think she had a really hard job to do. I think they ought to go over to her house and give her the Academy award. I think (her performance) is a tremendous achievement, and I think she’s the greatest actress living today in America.”
Then answering the question he continues.
“She had to put up with an awful lot of abuse from me. And it’s always a tricky situation when you play those scenes because you never know what you’re up against. You never really give it away in rehearsals or read-throughs. It only happens in actually doing it. We kinda avoided each other during the process and waited until the time came, but she was tremendously professional about it. So when you have that kind of thing on your side, it’s a lot easier to do your job.”
Did they eventually warm up?
“She’s a very brave girl and did everything she was asked to do in the film. She’s the hero of the story, but she’s not very heroic when it comes to dealing with blood. That was a big step for her to take, but she never flinched. I just love her. I saw her at the premiere in London. She had on a white dress, she looked beautiful, and she’s a good hugger. She gave me a warm embrace which was nice considering what she had to go through with me in the film.”
And his look in the film. Whose idea was the Stetson?
“The whole hat thing was kind of improvised. There was no Stetson coming off in the Gentleman’s club in the screenplay. I was the one who wanted to wear that damn hat. I had the idea in my mind. That’s the way I thought Bud should look. I liked the hat, but Quentin originally didn’t want me to wear it. I wanted to wear the damn thing in every scene So I constantly had it on. I’m sleeping in bed with the hat on, and Quentin’s like, ‘Get the hat off.’ And that’s how we made the scene with Larry Bishop and me. We actually wrote it into the story that a character tells me to take it off. So then I didn’t have a choice, right? I had to take it off, but it gave Bud a slightly sympathetic edge making him a less one dimensional villain, I think.”
When they’re not working, what’s it like hanging out with Quentin? Do they watch movies?
“A day with Quentin is like a journey through film history. He knows every movie that was ever made, who made it, and who was in it. And he’s the same way about television. I’m sort of a television baby myself. He’s so much fun to be around because we both have an admiration for directors like George Stevens, Billy Wilder and actors like Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, and Lee Marvin. He’s one of the few people I can talk about those people with real knowledge. So we watch TV and we watch movies. He screens films at his house, he’s got a proper theater in his house. It’s got curtains. He sits at the control panel. He works the curtains and he has a projectionist. He collects 35 mm prints, He’s got about 150 of them in his garage. I used to keep a ‘57 Chevy there, but I had to take it out because he was running out of space for his prints. And then the car got stolen. which was probably a good thing. It was becoming a bit of an albatross.
“He also likes trailers. He has trailers of all the Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood pictures. He puts them all together on one reel, so before the movie starts we get to watch really wonderful trailers, and he’s got a popcorn machine as well. He also has the bus stop bench from Jackie Brown right outside his theatre. I’d like to have the Kill Bill bench, but where the hell would I put it.”
It’s been twelve years since they worked together, how has he changed as a director or as a person?
“I don’t see that he’s changed at all. He’s exactly the same exuberant person, and he’s very generous emotionally. The only difference, he’s got a lot of bigger toys to play with, and a lot of blank checks from a lot of people who are interested in making films with him. But I think he deserves that because he has a lot to offer as a a film maker, and he’s still the same guy, absolutely. He hasn’t changed. And you can’t say that about most people.”
Despite the menacing roles he’s famous for, among them Thelma and Louise, he’s also a family man. Can he talk about that?
“I have four sons. I actually have five, one is a step son. I’m biologically responsible for four of them. I have so much empathy for my boys. It’s changed me a lot as a person because it’s not about me any more, it’s about them. I think it changes you as a person. I’ve always been sentimental about a lot of things. If you look at my sons, one of them is a real hard ass, always getting into trouble. Another is really gentle and sweet. He says good night to me and things like that. The third one is very intellectual, really good in school and very smart. And then there’s my youngest son who’s, ‘Ah, whatever.’ It’s like the different parts of my personality have been generated in my off spring. It’s kinda funny when they’re all together in the house at the same time. I always imagine them being taller than me and trying to figure out where I put the keys to the Corvette.”
Is he a disciplinarian?
“If you mean, am I battering them around? I don’t believe in that. I’d rather my sons listen to me because they love me and they respect me, not because they fear me. Which applies in all aspects of my life. I would rather people listen to what I say and allow me to explain myself, not because they fear me but because they respect me. I certainly don’t go around looking for a fight. I’ve been in enough of those in my life. You reach a point where you’d rather dodge someone swinging at you than walk into it.”
After two failed marriages, he seems to have got it right this time?
“I’m very happy with my wife. She’s a very good mother. She’s not interested in becoming an actress, which is a positive thing and why we’ve been together seven years. She doesn’t interrogate me, which is also a good thing. I’m not the easiest guy to live with. I’m very moody sometimes. I got it right this time and if I didn’t, I’m not likely to do it ever again, I can tell you that for sure. You won’t see me ever getting married again.”
(Incidentally his first wife was Cher’s sister. His second, the mother of his oldest son, was not in the business, but his current wife used to be a model.)
He seems to be a softie at heart. Does he ever cry?
“My son Max makes me cry for some reason. He’s the ten year old, the gentle one. I remember I went in his room one night to put some dollars under his pillow because he had lost a tooth. He jumped up in bed and looked at me in the dark, and at that moment he realized there was no such thing as a Tooth Fairy. And it just made me really sad for some reason. I didn’t let him see it of course, but when I went out of the room, I just started bawling.”
Did he have a happy childhood?
“I didn’t have an easy time growing up, My father was a firefighter for thirty years, and when I was a little boy, he used to take me to the fire station. I would sleep there with those guys, but I could never fall asleep because they were snoring so loud. He drove the engine, and they a pole. And when the bell went off they would get out real fast. I remember him picking me up one time, sliding down the pole with me in his arms. Man, I thought he was Superman. I thought he was the strongest and greatest hero in the world. He’d drive that damn engine, going through red lights and everybody had to move out of the way. It was great sitting in the front seat. He taught me you have to rise to the occasion, you have to do the job you’re hired to do, and show up on time. There’s a lot of people counting on you, he would say. So I know what it is to work a 17 hour day for $2.50 an hour.”
Did his father want him to follow in his footsteps?
“No actually, he wanted me to be a policeman. And sometimes I think he was right. The only trouble I would have ended up letting everyone go.”
Before getting his first break, he must have had a lot of other jobs?
“I worked as an orderly in a hospital, which is the closest I came to wanting to be a doctor. I was an auto mechanic, I drove a tow truck and fixed lots of cars. I built race cars. I worked as a landscaper, I studied to be an electrician. I painted houses. I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do”
Until acting came along?
“I had this thing in my head about being an actor, but I never really thought it possible so it kinda happened accidentally, My sister Virginia (equally well known) had studied acting for years. I used to ride the L train in Chicago to pick her up. I guess from her I got up the nerve to do it.”
Ironically it was Sergio Leone, who had seen him in a play, who encouraged him to move to L.A. where he got his first job in Matthew Broderick’s War Games.
For the record he’s written a part for himself, Pretty Boy Floyd that he hopes some enterprising producer will consider on the basis of his work in Kill Bill.
He Also dabbles in poetry, and has three short volumes published.
And he’d like to play one of his music idols Johnny Cash
Except when told that Joaquin Phoenix has the role, surprised and mildly annoyed, he responds, “Leonardo di Caprio as Johnny Cash!”