Alec Baldwin: The Accidental Actor
Q: Do you agree with the critics who say Raging Bull was the best film of the'80s?
A: Totally. And Schindler's List is the best American movie since. And they're both in black-and-white. I thought Liam Neeson was so unselfish, that he's not doing that movie thing where you step up and grab the audience by the collar, like what Nicholson does in spades, or like that "I am God" thing I did in Malice. He was just right on how arrogant Schindler should have been. I watched his performance and thought, That's it, that's what I want to do.
Q: Why did you do Malice?
A: [Director] Harold Becker. I have tremendous respect for him. He's a man with a point of view. We went to dinner and we just vomited up our opinions of the world. I love him, and I'd love to work with him again.
Q: Did you like the film in the end?
A: I don't dislike it. It just kind of goes by. Who gives a shit about any of those people?
Q: At George Washington University, you ran for president of the student body and lost by two votes. Was that when you decided to leave the law and a political life for acting?
A: What drove me out the door of that school was my girlfriend broke up with me. It was a combination of those two: I lost my girlfriend and I lost the election. It was one of the first existential moments I had. I was 21 and asked myself, What am I doing? Why don't I go do something I want to do? Why don't I have faith in myself, God, life, the world? Go to NYU, do the double degree, political science and drama. I thought I would go a fifth year and do that, which I didn't. I didn't think acting was going to work out because I didn't understand it. But I didn't go back that fifth year because that summer I got booked in a gig. I did the soap opera.
Q: That soap was "The Doctors," which you did for two-and-a-half years. What motivated you in the beginning?
A: Fear. Then I did other television things, but I discount all of that because I was just trying to fit in out here and get a gig. I sometimes have a fantasy of going back and doing a soap opera for a week. For inspiration. Work is work. People who are in films and talk about returning to TV often have a slumming connotation to it--that's so inappropriate, because the only advantage of film over television is scheduling. The acting is just as good.
Q: The stories can be more timely. The Lorena Bobbitt story belongs on TV. What's your opinion of that, by the way? Will this now make all men think twice before they abuse their women?
A: You say "all men." I would be surprised to learn that a significant percentage of men commit acts of violence against women they're with. I've never hit a woman in my life. I had a wrestling match with a woman once. I shoved her, but I never hit her.
Q: What about your sisters, ever hit them?
A: I don't think I ever did. I beat the shit out of my brothers and they beat the shit out of me. I never hit my sisters, because I didn't have to.
Q: Your brother Daniel recently said, "We constantly fought each other when we were kids. I got used to kicking their asses. It always pissed Alec off that I was bigger than he was."
A: I guess I'm flattered that it's important for Daniel that that perception be out there. He's a couple of years younger than me. I was very competitive with my brothers when I was younger. Now we are all in completely different worlds. I'm not in direct competition with my brothers for anything, ever. Stephen and I and Billy and I are better at staying in touch with each other. Danny is married, he has a new baby and he is very peripatetic, he goes to golfing tournaments and charity things. He really travels a lot.
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