Suspecting that Chris O'Donnell is not the straight-laced preppy he has played in movies, our reporter asks the actor about his brushes with The Seven Deadly Sins. Hang on as O'Donnell gets frank about his favorite porno movies and admits how he might be talked into modeling condoms in the buff.
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Sitting across from Chris O'Donnell in the lounge of The Argyle hotel, once the St. James's Club. I can't help thinking, How goes the inevitable corruption of Chris O'Donnell? After all, it's been a couple of years since he admitted on these pages to my esteemed colleague Martha Frankel, "I'm waiting to get corrupted. I know it's going to happen sometime." Certainly, he's no less alluring to look at now that his pink-checked, vine-ripened frat boy sweet-ness - first seen in such movies as Men Don't Leave, Blue Sky, Fried Green Tomatoes, Scent of a Woman and The Three Musketeers--is beginning to get edgier and more grown-up. Many admirers who found O'Donnell's Walton Mountain appeal shattering will no doubt still have flutters when they see that the 24 year old, his hair cropped short, appears to be entering into a period of square-jawed, azure-eyed caddish young Paul Newmandom. Certainly a dozen different Tinseltown types I know would be eager to corrupt O'Donnell, given half a chance. Who knows, perhaps they already have after all, if a few years of Hollywood life, including on-screen love scenes with co-stars like Drew Barrymore, an offscreen romantic interlude with Reese Witherspoon and anticipation of his biggest payday to date for playing Boy Wonder to Val Kilmer's Batman Forever aren't signposts on the road to fatally glamorous ruin, what are?
I thought it might be fun to question O'Donnell on Seven Deadly Sins-style stuff personified by voracious starlets, obscene salaries, the dissing of competitors and overweening ambition. In other words, I remark to O'Donnell, a good Catholic boy like myself, "Let's clue in readers how far along you are on the road to damnation."
This cracks him up, "Corruption and damnation?" he says. "I think I'm still pretty locked into my ways." Very Walton Mountain of him, but we'll see, we'll see.
"How about breaking the ice by talking about your love scenes with Drew Barrymore?" I ask, having heard that the duo's nuzzling for their movie Mad Love steamed up the camera lenses. The pairing of these two beauties strikes me as wickedly inspired, kind of like Lana Turner does Andy Hardy. "So, Chris, did you have to strap down your manhood to keep from becoming aroused?"
O'Donnell tosses back his head and laughs, "Classic Stephen Rebello question, I love it! Shooting it, I tell you, was tough because you're basically going at it for six hours and, well, Drew is such a young, sexy girl. Drew and I get along real well, though I don't think you could pick out two people in Hollywood with more opposite upbringings. I come from this very conservative Chicago Catholic family, seven kids, and everyone knows exactly what Drew's been up to. I've read all those People magazine stories and watched all those 'Entertainment Tonight' things about her, too. I mean, at school, we had Amy Fisher parties when all those three movies were on network TV starring Alyssa Milano and Drew and some other girl, but Drew's Amy was definitely the best because the whole thing was, well, just so Drew."
And about the love scenes, Chris? "I wasn't totally nude," he says. "I had on my boxer shorts under the covers, but there were no attachments, no duct tape, no rubber underwear. But those kind of 'What if?' thoughts definitely crossed my mind, yeah. Look, love scenes are part of the job and you're being very professional about it. But, there are brief moments, brief glimpses where you'd like... you know... but you keep your control."
O'Donnell clamps his palms over his eyes, slumps in his chair, laughs, and then says, in a mock whine, "My mother's going to read this, my whole family." Well, mine too, I say, so let's not bore them. "To tell you the truth," he says, "I was more nervous the first time I did one of those scenes." What first time? Does a teen exploitation flick lurk somewhere in his past, his equivalent of Tom Cruise's Losin It or Kevin Costner's Sizzle Beach, U.S.A.? "No, it was the first movie I ever did, Men Don't Leave," he says of the film in which he, 18 but looking 14, played Jessica Lange's son who shacks up with older woman Joan Cusack. "The scene was cut. Joan and I were in bed, got into an argument, and I got out of bed in just my tighty-whiteys, standing there, yelling at her. When we shot it, I didn't know if we were going to be fooling around in bed first or what, but the whole crew was there and I kept thinking, 'Oh, God, what's gonna happen?' Truth is, I was so nervous, I don't think I could have put myself in working order right then--even if I'd tried."
I have heard that Warner Bros, is paying the actor a very fat salary for his role as Batman's devoted sidekick in Batman Forever, a role for which such other actors as Leonardo DiCaprio and Will Smith were supposedly in contention. Ah-ha, then, perhaps O'Donnell has been seduced by greed? "I would definitely not say I've been paid too much," he asserts. "In the scheme of what my brothers and sisters are making, out there working like crazy, actors are overpaid. But, no, I don't think I'm overpaid and I'll be looking forward to some raises, with inflation and all. Most of the movies I've made, I didn't get paid anything for, really."
O'Donnell's future paydays may hinge on how he looks and acts in various stages of dress and undress for Batman Forever. In it, alongside Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman and Tommy Lee Jones, he plays an embittered, orphaned circus high-wire performer swept up by Val Kilmer's Caped Crusader into a superhero life of righting wrongs. O'Donnell says he's plenty aware of the gay jokes sparked by the old "Batman" TV series when the superhero housemates were played by Adam West and Burt Ward. Indeed, he's already made it a point to explain away his newly pierced ear as "a Boy Wonder thing I had to do for the movie that didn't go over real big with my family when I went home for the holidays." Though the movie's strictly hush-hush at this point, can he give us a preview of his Bat-drag? "They dye my hair black every day, then mousse it so it becomes plastic, kind of like Peter Brady's vampire wig on 'The Brady Bunch,'" he explains. "I showed up for the first costume fitting and they threw me this thong jockstrap and said, 'Put this on.' I thought, 'Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?'
"Turns out they want a Cirque du Soleil sort of look," he says. "Luckily, everyone in the circus scenes is wearing them. At least, that's what they've told me. We haven't filmed those scenes yet. Then, I've got a full-body, spandex-latex, real superhero fighting jumpsuit, or whatever you want to call it, happening. It's not anything like our TV Boy Wonder. You know, I have to admit, we're four months into the shooting, but they haven't actually finished my suit. Luckily, it's got zippers so you can go to the bathroom. I guess Michael Keaton didn't have those."
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."
Ah, yes, Reese Witherspoon, the attractive, talented star of S.F.W. and the upcoming No Fear, with whom O'Donnell engaged in a romance. "We hung out for a little while when Scent of a Woman came out," he recalls. "I did date her. It was weird because it was the first time I had ever really dated an actress. When I was in college, I never had a serious girlfriend because it was too much fun dating different girls. With Reese, it just kind of didn't work out. It was nothing serious, to tell you the truth."
I say, "For those readers who fantasize about dating you, how about coming up with some good reasons not to?" O'Donnell answers, "The main reason not to date me is that I've got a girlfriend. Besides, I'm never in one place, so, if they want to settle down, that's not happening. Also, I think I need to learn some patience with people. But, hey, I'm a pretty good catch, so let's not give too many reasons not to date me." Yet, he adds again, he is taken. Okay, I'll bite. Who is she? "The girl I'm dating now and have been, for about a year and a half, is someone I met before these films started coming out," he says, "She's in Florida and I see her as much as I could see anybody else, because that's the nature of the business I'm in. I think I see her more than most people in a long-distance relationship because of the fact that I'm moving around so much, plus I've got the means to get her a ticket. We're in a real good situation now, real happy."
How does she handle all the fuss made over him? "Over New Year's, it was her birthday and we went out to this bar to get a drink. When we walked in, they carded us. I always get carded. Anyway, we sit down and the guy says, 'First round is on us,' and I think, 'How nice, he knows it's her birthday.' The guy comes back with the drinks and says, to me, 'Do you mind if we get your autograph, too?' And I'm like, 'All right, sure,' but then everyone in the bar was whispering [about me]. But my girlfriend was coot with it, yeah. I mean, we went down for a run on the beach here recently and saw Hasselhoff in action and she was still cool."
Wait. Does he mean David Hasselhoff, that William Shatner for the channel-surfer generation who is arguably the world's most widely seen side of beef? The very one, O'Donnell enthuses, and then proceeds to relate for me his very favorite "Baywatch" episode, fine, now about the details of his Hasselhoff sighting? "There he was, pulling a little kid out of the water and giving him mouth-to-mouth. It was intense. I couldn't believe it. I don't rank on Hasselhoff too much because he's a smart businessman who's making more money than anybody."
I can't help wondering whether O'Donnell freaks out at the thought of perhaps one day having to do a mindless TV series--not for nothing, after all, is "Baywatch" nicknamed "Babewatch." Deadly earnest, O'Donnell says. "I talk about these TV shows and think, 'God, they're so ridiculous,' but when you make money, attain a very comfortable lifestyle and, all of a sudden, the career doesn't work out and the money's not coining in, your self-esteem goes way down. People always say, 'Why would anyone ever want to do mat TV stuff?" but look, it's because people have to pay their bills. The key is, I think, don't let your life get too extravagant when you're young. I worked with a guy on a film who didn't see a dime because he spent everything taking out women, buying clothes. When I said, 'What are you going to do for money?' he said he's confident that he'll always be able to work. If you keep making money, great, but if five of your movies tank in a row, what are you going to do? When I was thinking about doing some movie, I called Al Pacino, who asked, 'Do you need the money?' I said no and he said, 'Don't ever do anything for the money.' So I didn't do it."
Even though he hasn't been lacking for work, has he found time to blow some money on nights out? "Lately I've been antisocial about going to premieres, benefits and parties when my girlfriend isn't out here to go with me, but there have been moments when I think, 'You're not always going to be in the limelight. You should take advantage of it, enjoy yourself.' So one night I was at a Planet Hollywood thing, by myself. Some friends were meeting me later, but I was standing there atone and Cindy Crawford walked in." O'Donnell strikes an awestruck pose like he's just seen God's face. "I was like, 'Hold on, man, look at that.' She's so beautiful and I would never in a million years go up and introduce myself, but she walked right up to me and said, 'Hi Chris, I want to introduce myself. I'm Cindy Crawford.' I'm like, 'Yeah, I know. Howya doin'?' So I sat at a table with Cindy Crawford and Corbin Bernsen and I went downstairs to grab my friends, roommates from college, who I was meeting. They're standing there with beers in their hands, and I said, 'Come on, I've got a table for us upstairs.' We sat down and I go, 'Guys, this is Cindy, this is Corbin, this is so-and-so,' and they could not believe it. And Cindy's like, 'Let's get some margaritas!' and they went, 'YEAH!' So that was a cool night out, yeah."
I wonder how O'Donnell feels about Stephen Dorff's having dissed him to me, in this magazine, about his performance in Scent of a Woman. The ever-quotable Dorff made it clear he thought he, not O'Donnell, should have played the role of Al Pacino's seeing-eye boy. "They screen-tested four guys and he wasn't one of them," O'Donnell remarks. "After your Dorff story came out, I asked [director] Marty Brest, 'Do you remember reading this kid?' He said. 'Yeah, he did a good job, but he just wasn't right.' I only read that Movieline story after [Dorff] wrote me a note saying, like, 'Didn't mean anything by it.' I was like, whatever, buddy." Would he care to comment on Dorff's work? "I know the films he's been in," he says, dryly, "but I've only seen bits of them." Is O'Donnell especially competitive with his peers, who include not only Dorff, but such other comers as Ethan Hawke, Brendan Fraser and Leonardo DiCaprio? "Too competitive," he says, in a tone that leaves little doubt. "There have been times when I had to go audition and there were other people there. I can't stand that. When it comes to the point where I'm trying to get a part, I'm like, 'I don't want to talk to you.'"
As we're waiting on the steps outside The Argyle for the parking valet to bring our cars, O'Donnell checks out the logo on my car keys. "Cool car," he says, "but do you have the sedan?" No, I tell him, the sports coupe and--bless him--the guy actually looks miffed, "They've got me in the sedan, but it's only a rent-a-car." Jeez, he is competitive. Before we pan, I ask whether he thinks his mother will get stressed when she reads the finished article: has he been on his best "interview" behavior? "Well. I haven't been tying to you," he declares, "but I'm not telling you everything. My family and friends see me as a real smartass, a wise-ass. The way people see me in movies, in the stuff they read about me, is kind of an idealistic view." Not if they read between the iines, kiddo. Hollywood may not have totally corrupted Chris O'Donnell, but it's pretty clear he doesn't live on Walton Mountain.
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Stephen Rebello interviewed Halle Berry for the April Movieline.