Gary Sinise: Gary After Gump
Q: You can start complaining soon, though.
A: I don't foresee it. It's like a new career and it's fun.
Q: Did John Malkovich jump at the chance to do Of Mice and Men?
A: No. [Laughs] No, We're friends and everything, but he wanted to read the script and he liked it, and then it was a matter of making the deal, which we managed to do. We'd done Of Mice and Men together onstage in 1981. The film was quite different.
Q: When Malkovich got grabbed by Hollywood at the time of True West were you envious?
A: Well, I was there at the same time, you know. There were two of us in that play [laughs]. I had to remind myself at times there were two of us in that play. But first of all, that was and remains one of John's great performances. It was so unique. Every once in a while an actor gets that role. I'm Lt. Dan in Gump and John was Lee in True West. He made a mark on that part so distinctively and so loudly that he was hard to ignore. My knowing him and having worked with him for so long. I understood why people were so blown away by him. But at the same time you can't help, when there's two of you there ... Actors are always comparing their own careers to somebody else's. Why's this guy doing more movies than me? I read that Charlie Sheen interview in Movieline. If you're perfectly content with your own career you do it less, but when things aren't going so well, you do it more. So here we are, two guys going from Chicago to New York at the same time. I was the instrument of getting us there, because I put the deal together. So I couldn't help but feel, while I was happy things were happening for John, a little baffled at what was going on with me. His career was off and running and I went back 10 the theater in Chicago. So yeah, there were times when I'd go to Times Square and eat gyro sandwiches and play Asteroids after the show and he'd go out with Antonioni or Cassavetes [laughs]. I wasn't invited!
Q: This was when things were really happening for Steppenwolf, right? Plays going to New York and so on?
A: It was a happening lime for our theater, and a difficult time. I do remember one article a guy wrote about John for a magazine. John was emerging and this guy interviewed everyone, including me, and misinterpreted everyone and everything. He made the people at Steppenwolf all seem like jealous little, spoiled little untalented brats watching their king abandon them. It was a terrible article. He came to a rehearsal of Balm in Gilead. John and I had a disagreement about a section of the show during the rehearsal. I was the artistic director and had a big part in the play, and at one point we had a heated discussion--we'd had thousands of these kinds of discussions--about something creative, and this guy went and wrote that I threw a temper tantrum at John because John was a bigger star. When I read this I was shocked and horrified. This was happening at a time when things were already difficult--celebrity, movies, TV, everything we'd avoided for so long by stay¬ing in the basement of a Catholic school in Highland Park was now coming at us in this neg¬ative fashion. And this article was painting John as the king leaving the fold and us as a bunch of spoiled babies--that was a very telling thing at a very early time about, you know, journalists.
Q: How much have you thought about fame? Do you worry about what happens when people start wanting things from you and stop criticizing you?
A: When are they going to stop?
Q: After Gump did you get the big pay raise?
A: I have never lost a job because we couldn't make a deal.
Q: So you didn't talk yourself out of Batman Forever?
A: [Laughs] Nobody asked. Nobody asked.
Q: Are you going to direct a movie starring Tom Hanks now that you've finished working with him on Apollo 13?
A: We're working on something. It's in the very preliminary research stages.
Q: You must enjoy working with him a lot if you're pursuing another project with him after Gump and Apollo 13.
A: I'd say Tom's very grounded. He's a family man and he's worked his way to a level of success that only a few people get to. I think he recognizes that and enjoys the hell out of it. And he's as easy to work with as somebody I've worked with for 20 years. It's easy and fun and no bullshit.
Q: He's somebody you never hear any dish about.
A: What is there to say?
Q: Well, as we know, that doesn't stop anybody.
A: I'm sure there are some people who've had their run-ins with Tom who just choose not to speak.
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Virginia Campbell is one of the executive editors of Movieline.
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