The Corruption of Chris O'Donnell

So, will D'Donnell have the costumers stuff his Bat-pouch? He shoots back, "What are you talking about? I already stuffed it!" Laughing, he adds, "It reminds me of high school, when I was on the crew team and had to wear these shorts. All the guys would stuff socks down their shorts as a joke to totally exaggerate. I thought it was really funny."

O'Donnell stares out at the West Hollywood vista spread below us, a community known for, among other things, a booming gay population. When I say, "I'll bet if you took a walk down Santa Monica Boulevard, you'd attract a platoon of admirers around you in seconds flat," he feigns surprise. "I didn't know I had a big gay following," he claims. "So, I could hang out in Boys' Town and score free drinks, right? And it'd sell tickets to my movies?" He thinks this over, then quips, "I should be doing interviews for the gay magazines. Then. I'd probably get a cover story, Stephen." This last dig, delivered only slightly jokingly, is O'Donnell's little way of joshing this magazine for not milking him its cover boy.

Since we're talking Hollywood-style temptation, has he ever experienced any casting couch unpleasantness? "I guess I haven't had enough auditions with female directors," he says, "and if a male director came on to me, I'd get out pretty quick. But I've had guys proposition me, which, for someone like me who grew up in the Midwest, was kind of a shock. It makes me uncomfortable but... I'm not the kind of guy who gets violent or anything. I was just like my friends back home before I started my career: very homophobic. But the gay people I know, I'm fine with."

When I ask whether O'Donnell has any jitters that his and Val Kilmer'sover-the-top outfits for Batman Forever could, conceivably, inspire more costumes, come Halloween, among gay adults than hetero children, O'Donnell replies. "This is family-oriented Batman, Stephen. Tim Burton had a real dark spin on it with fantastic images, but Warner Bros. probably felt they had lost a lot of younger viewers [on Batman Returns]. [Director] Joel [Schumacher], who's the most easygoing, sweetest person I've ever seen on a set, told me he'd gotten questions from reporters like, 'How are you going to deal with the homoerotic relationship between the two of them'?' It's like, what homoerotic relationship? When I was cast, Michael Keaton was Batman and it seemed like it was almost going to be like a father and son relationship. Val makes it closer in age, which changes the dynamic of the dynamic duo."

Looking the way he does, O'Donnell became aware early on that he could make a pretty penny showing himself off. In Chicago, he made a very decent wage as a catalog and TV commercials model for such clients as Marshall Field's department store. Although he tells me he never did underwear ads, I wonder whether he could ever envision himself doing a movie scene totally in the buff? "Never say 'never,' but I think it would be highly unlikely," he replies. "I guess it's a kind of sexist thing because I don't mind seeing women naked, but I wasn't psyched to see Michael Douglas trounce around nude in Basic Instinct. A lot of times, it's just unnecessary. It makes me uncomfortable." Oh. I see. So, does that mean he's never watched porno? Or does he merely switch off his discomfort? "We always had great pornos floating around the dorm floor my freshman year," volunteers O'Donnell, who attended Boston College, and just recently completed his marketing degree with a few classes from UCLA, "The great one was Lust Connection, which was a takeoff on 'Love Connection.' It had Chuck Walk-On-My-Face as the host. The star contestants came on the show to talk about the dates they had, saying, 'He came back to my place...' and then they'd show what happened. It was so good."

While we are on matters lustful, I want to know about O'Donnell's on-screen kissing experiences. Who, to date, has been his best-kissing co-star? "Let's see, I've had Drew, Joan Cusack, Mary-Louise Parker, and Saffron Burrows and Minnie Driver in Circle of Friends," he says, counting on his fingers. "Who's the best kisser? Val Kilmer. No, just kidding. Am I forgetting somebody? Oh, Al Pacino's a pretty good kisser, but they cut that scene. You know, I'm going to have to go with Drew because of the fact that I kissed her the most."

Jumping from kisses to safe sex, I ask O'Donnell if he were ever to endorse a condom, what kind would it be? "Let me think, what kind did Santa put in my stocking this year?" he says playfully, "Maybe they'd be scented and glow in the dark. You know, it's true, there could be big money in condom endorsements. Nobody's selling personality for condoms. Well, I will not do full frontal nudity but, if it were a condom commercial promoting safe sex--and I'm getting a big piece of the action--then maybe I'd think about it. I might do frontal, even. But it wouldn't be in the sexual act, just a demonstration. Bring in the stunt stud! There goes the image, huh?"

Given his fresh-faced, unspoiled image, I wonder whether such boy toy connoisseurs as Madonna or Cher has ever ordered him up on a platter? "I haven't had any of the ladies give me a call," he responds, glumly. "Should I take that as a bad sign? I'd like to meet Madonna. I've seen Cher out here dancing at a bar. I did have a really good Angelyne sighting, however," he adds, mentioning L.A.'s ubiquitous überstarlet who has billboards all over the city. "I'm renting a house in the Hollywood Hills and she was cruising my neighborhood. Looking for me, right? Maybe I should take out a billboard."

Turning serious, O'Donnell says, "I am definitely not part of the 'crowd' out here." After all, he's just passing through: L.A. is not a city he'd want to call home and, in fact, he's currently building a Chicago town-house, not too far from his family, which he'll call home base. He confesses, with a shudder, "I almost got caught in the Hollywood web. They almost pulled me in. But I have a much better time going to the bars over at UCLA, drinking beers and listening to that whole scene. At the 'hot' clubs, I don't know the bouncers and I have no pull at the door--they don't recognize me and, really, I don't care. I've been to most of the hot places at least once. There's a lot of losers who hang out at these places. The bars are filled with people just trying to slip you their business card, who tell you, 'Hey, I'm a producer and I've written some stuff...' The women are like, 'Are you important enough for me to bother with?' But I actually met Reese in one of those places."

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