Chris O'Donnell: Whatever Blows Your Hair Back
Q: What is it about Chicago? The Bulls and the Bears? I hear you're a sports fan.
A: Yeah, I'm a big sports fanatic.
Q: Do you bet on games?
A: The only time I bet is if it's a big game or if someone's got a card. In college it was so easy because everyone was betting. And when you're on a movie set it's always great, because a lot of guys have got pools going.
Q: When you were in high school did you study acting? Were you in plays?
A: No, I wasn't in plays. I was more into sports. I wasn't really Joe Athlete -- I was too small -- but I was always playing sports. I was tiny in high school, the smallest kid: 5' 9", 95 pounds. I was a late bloomer. But that's part of how I got into this business, because when I was 16 I was going in for auditions against 12 year olds. Of course I got the parts because the other kids were so immature and the directors liked me.
Q: Because you were so short throughout high school, did you worry that you weren't going to grow?
A: Totally worried. I was like, shit, man, when am I going to grow? My parents weren't worried because it was the same way with my brothers. But when you're 14 or 15 and you're that much shorter than everybody else, you do start to freak out. I did most of my growing after I graduated high school.
Q: It must have been hard for you to date girls who were taller.
A: It was, I was limited to the short ones. My girlfriends have always been shorter. I don't like dating girls who are taller than me.
Q: We'll come back to girls, but first let's talk about some of your movies. Did it bother you when Martha Frankel said in Movieline that you were the only watchable actor in Scent of a Woman?
A: It didn't bother me. I thought Scent of a Woman was an unbelievable movie. I think Marty Brest is as good a director as there is. And Al Pacino is so good it's scary.
Q: What makes Pacino so good?
A: He's so powerful. Everything about him, His voice, even on its lowest register, still radiates. He's a complete perfectionist. You think he's just a natural, but he works so hard. Every day he was in the dressing room next to me and I'd hear him working on scenes [we wouldn't he shooting] for days -- and constantly coming up with new ideas. Every scene he wants 10 do 40 different ways. It's amazing, this endless creativity, you don't know where he gets it. How does he come up with so many ideas? It's overwhelming.
Q: He often likes to rehearse, but on Scent, you didn't.
A: Marty didn't want us to. He knew I was already intimidated by Al and he didn't want me to feel comfortable with him.
Q: That's like when Pacino had to first act with Brando in The Godfather -- he was very nervous doing that.
A: I'll never forget being in the limo as Al was telling us stories about The Godfather. Marty Brest and I kept looking at each other, like two little kids high-fiving. "This is great!"
Q: Did Pacino acknowledge you when he won the Oscar or the Golden Globe?
A: At the Golden Globes, I was afraid he was going to forget my name. He was staring at me, and his mouth was jawing, and I knew he was trying to figure out my name, I was ready to shout, "Chris!" I don't remember if he mentioned my name at the Oscars.
Q: Anybody else you've worked with who has the intensity that Pacino has?
A: Jessica Lange's amazing. Those are probably the two strongest influences, as far as actors I've worked with.
Q: When you made Mad Love, Drew Barrymore called you the brother she never had.
A: Her "apple pie."
Q: Did you feel that way towards her?
A: I really liked Drew. Going into it, I thought, oh my God, this could take the cake for crazy stories, because I'd read so much about her. I'd read that she got married, then two weeks later she got divorced. I thought, this is going to be ridiculous, But we got along real well. I really like her. My girlfriend had been concerned that I was doing a movie with Drew -- especially one with love scenes -- but I watched them together at the Batman Forever premiere, and they turned out to like each other a lot.
Q: Speaking of love scenes, you've complained in the past about emotional scenes being "such a draining experience." Isn't that what movies are all about, showing emotion?
A: I don't complain about it, but I don't get excited about it.
Q: Are there people you'd take a movie with now just to work with, without needing to see the script?
A: There are definitely people I'd work with in a second. If Paul Brickman or Marty Brest said, "We're starting in January," I wouldn't have to know what it was. I'd be all set.
Q: You're to star opposite Sandra Bullock in Richard Attenborough's big-budget Hemingway project, In Love and War, but on the film version of John Grisham's The Chamber you'll be working with director James Foley, who's only done small-budgeted films before this. How do you feel about him?
A: I think he'll do a great job. He's a smart, funny guy. I've known him for a while before The Chamber came about. My agent set me up for a general meeting with him and we hit it off well.
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