Kurt Russell: Major Player

Q: When did you first start having sex?

A: We were both juniors. I had sex once when I was 13, a couple of times when I was 14 and 15. But when I was 16, 17, I started having sex. Trying to get laid.

Q: Did you really, on a high school year-book questionnaire that asked, "Most likely to succeed?" fill in the answer, "I already have"?

A: Yeah, I did. I was going to high school, playing baseball and acting, and almost everybody was envious of what I did. They just were. I didn't care about school. I had a girlfriend and wanted to have sex with her, know what I mean? I didn't want to talk about the things other kids talked about. I didn't share their opinions. I rebelled against my generation. And that had a very long-lasting effect on peoples' take on me, especially in the media. It was a hippie time and I thought a real liberal was great, but the kids in my school were pseudo-liberals, just as they were pseudo-hippies. Most of them were full of shit, trying to find something that somebody else said to latch onto because they were afraid to take a real stand. At that time it was about, "You shouldn't have to get a job, you should just exist." There were people saying go into the woods and be one of the trees, eat the fucking leaves. I said. "This is stupid," Timothy Leary said drop acid, smoke dope and drop out. I said "No, I don't want to do that, I want to hit the inside fastball out of the park and I want to work on movies."

Q: It's hard to imagine a teenager who didn't try smoking dope.

A: I never did, not until I was 32. I still don't understand the reason for smoking dope if you're not going to have sex. To me, drugs have no appeal other than sex.

Q: Is your sex life today as good as it was 15 years ago?

A: Yeah. It's probably better. It's not quite as reckless, but it's deeper, more fun, and I think my dick is bigger [laughs]. I get more out of sex now than I did. I'm having more fun when I'm having sex now. That's because it comes down to one thing...

Q: Love?

A: No. I think love and sex are completely different things. And what's great about Goldie is that she understands that about me, and I understand it about her. What I'm saying is that Goldie feels attractive, and I sense that from her--she likes herself, likes her body, likes her own sexuality. And I like that she likes to give that to me. In doing that, it makes me feel like I'm attractive to her.

Q: Do you think women want men to be dominant in relationships?

A: No. not in relationships. I think women want men to be dominant in sex. That's who I like to have sex with: someone you can share with, and in the end the man becomes powerful. When I get to that point in sex with Goldie, she makes me feel my power.

Q: What scenes in movies did you find sexy?

A: That's a funny story. I took one of the Osmond brothers to see a movie about the Marquis de Sade in 3-D. We were around 18. It was a riot because he wasn't supposed to be there. They were really nice people, and I was just being a shit, gelling him into trouble. And Christ, it was great: tits and ass all over the place, 3-D, they were coming out of our ears. [Laughing] He just didn't know what to make of it. And then, later, when I was in the National Guard, every morning at 5:30 a.m. they always had porno films running. It was a little raw, like hot chili for breakfast.

Then I started to develop an opinion about sex in the movies: I didn't think it was very well done, and I still feel that way. If love scenes aren't pan of the story-telling, I just say no. I know that the audience knows when people are imitation fucking--like in An Officer and a Gentleman, which is why I didn't do that movie--they know if you're faking it. Now, if I know people are watching me faking something, I'm a fish out of water. I don't like that.

I was once supposed to be down on Madeleine Stowe [in Unlawful Entry], but it had to be seen by Ray Liotta, that was the point of the scene. So it worked, because it was telling the story. Meryl Streep and I were supposed to do some [sex] scenes in Silkwood and we agreed to move [them] into the kitchen, which gave it a different color. But that fake humping shit, I just don't believe it. Make it be about something, otherwise I'm watching two people die on-screen.

Q: Is it true that Goldie originally wanted Bruce Springsteen to star with her in Swing Shift?

A: I don't know if it was Goldie or Jonathan Demme, who likes musicians. I don't know how far they went with that.

Q: Do you ever reflect on that? Had he done it, would you and Goldie have gotten together?

A: [Laughing] You'd be asking him about great sex. I met Goldie when I was 15, so I could have started this a lot earlier, but she was way out of my league then. She was older and I didn't have a car, forget it. Fate is fate. If I hadn't done Elvis I wouldn't have met Season Hubley...and I wouldn't have Boston. To stumble onto somebody like Goldie was just a stroke of luck. She is really sexy.

Q: Does your appreciation of her continue to grow?

A: Goldie can do certain things that make me just watch and watch and watch. More so in the last six years than ever before. She's just gotten better and better looking, not only to me, but to everybody. She lets me be who I am and I let her be who she is. We're alike in that regard. I can be with her because she's all women to me. Goldie's like having a buddy who's a girl. It's that good. I'm very fortunate and I'm one of the very few men that I know who is.

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