Chris O'Donnell prefers his quiet life in Chicago to the sturm und drang of young Hollywood, but the rising star is happy to sound off about working with Val Kilmer, what it's like to read about his romance in the tabloids, and why some male celebrities frequent hookers.
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Chris O'Donnell breezes into the Four Seasons Hotel in L.A. looking more like someone's driver than a guest. In fact, he is neither. He's been staying at a friend's house and has come to the hotel for this interview, a neutral place where the writer can't observe anything too personal about him, and he can make his exit without leaving much of a trace. He's only 25, but he is guarded, and he prefers to maintain as much privacy as possible while still being a recognizable celebrity.
We know something about him -- this is his third Movieline interview -- but we don't really know him. Not yet. Partly because he doesn't really know himself. Or, at any rate, doesn't feel he can articulate enough about himself that would bring us insight and understanding. We know he's from Chicago and still lives there. We know he went to an all-boys Jesuit high school and from there to Boston College. We know he's been in nine movies: Men Don't Leave, Circle of Friends, Blue Sky, Scent of a Woman, Mad Love, The Three Musketeers, Fried Green Tomatoes, School Ties and Batman Forever. We know he likes to golf, is nuts about the Chicago Bulls, and has a steady girlfriend.
What I also found out was that while he was making Batman Forever, O'Donnell was my neighbor, living three houses from me up a narrow canyon in the Hollywood Hills. After I had mentioned where I lived, he said, "Somebody up the street used to yell at me for the loud music."
"You were the guy!" I said. "We used to wonder which house that noise was coming from. So you're to blame for keeping my kids up at night."
No, I wasn't the guy who yelled at him, but when he moved on, I didn't miss him. My two teen daughters, on the other hand, felt differently when I told them who had been living so close by. If they had known, they said, they'd have gone over there personally and told him to either lower the music...or invite them in.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: Just so you know, I'm a really boring interview. I hate doing them.
LAWRENCE GROBEL: Do you find that what you say follows you around?
A: Oh yeah, especially in foreign countries because they just get a piece of it. The funniest thing was when a woman journalist was trying to insist there must have been something between me and Drew Barrymore. She asked, "You've never fallen in love with any of your costars?" And I said, to make her happy, "All right, yes, it happened with Jessica Lange. I tried to ask her out, but she's not into me." A week later I'm watching the E! channel on TV, and it was reported that Chris O'Donnell is actively pursuing Jessica Lange, to no avail. This woman thought I was totally serious, and I was being completely sarcastic. I realized you've got to gauge the level of the intelligence of the people doing the interviewing. It's just weird -- nothing personal -- but I don't feel I can talk freely to a journalist. I don't try to be completely calculating in everything I say and do, but there's no way I'm going to talk. There's no reason to. And that's why I'm such a boring interview, because I don't go for the shock value, or smartass answers.
Q: Right now you may not be sure of what you have to say. Robert De Niro still doesn't know what he wants to say.
A: You get a lot of questions like, "What's your philosophy?" And I'm thinking, I'm 25, I don't have a philosophy. I still go to my dad for advice.
Q: At 25, you've already been in the business seven years. Are you enjoying the toys you're now able to afford?
A: I think I'm pretty smart on what I spend my money on. I still don't have a new car, I drive my old car that I've had forever. But I bought a house in downtown Chicago.
Q: So you're making a commitment to Chicago for now?
A: Oh, yeah. I think the only reason I wouldn't live there was if I got married and my wife wanted to live somewhere else. I'm obviously going to be there for a few years, anyway. I haven't been here in L.A. for a couple of months and was excited to see it all, it's so beautiful out here. But it takes me just a couple of days to remember why I can't deal with it.
Q: What is it about L.A. you can't deal with?
A: I really like it -- there's so much to do, and I have some friends here -- but it's not as exciting as when I first came here. I'm not as naive as I was then. When I spend too much time here, things get out of whack. Too many people here are too concerned about what car they drive, what they look like, where they go, who they hang out with, the whole scene. And when it comes right down to it, the scene here is not that fun. L.A. just doesn't seem real to me. Chicago does. My real friends are there. It's home.
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.
Q: This is the one that's supposed to put you up there with Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt. Is that how you see it?
A: No, not at all. I see it as an interesting story, getting to play someone more my age for the first time.
Q: You like the script?
A: Yeah. They're doing a lot of changes to it, it's going to be different from the book.
Q: Have you read the book?
A: No. I will.
Q: Before you locked in on The Chamber, how many scripts were you looking at and how many were you close to making?
A: There were so many, it was crazy. Most of them were projects I would have jumped at a year ago, if things hadn't worked out the way they have recently. Being under the gun like that, it's an embarrassment of riches. You get so stressed out. You'd think being in my position it would be so easy, just pick out a project, do it, no big deal. But you really have to take your time and make smart decisions. There's different routes you can take in this business. After Batman Forever, I started getting offered these huge commercial films that you know are going to make hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide. And you can jump on that train if you want and cash in, make a ton of money, get a couple of sequels and some merchandising. But in two years, I think people would be just so sick of your face, that would be it.
Q: But doesn't a rising star need to make exactly those types of movies?
A: Yeah, as much as those films aren't good, you need them. You really do. The ideal world is to do films that Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford have done -- huge films, but they're still respected as actors. That's the best of both worlds.
Q: About your playing Robin in Batman Forever, one agent said it showed you were either reaching as an actor or as a capitalist. Which was it?
A: You mean cashing in? I was just balancing out a year of work. You have to do commercial type films...you can make a lot of quality films and have the respect of many people, but studios greenlight films by looking at what's been successful. It's a business, after all.
Q: Was Robin much of a reach for you?
A: [Tongue firmly in cheek] Oh, it was incredible. Like Brando in Last Tango in Paris. I reached depths that were incredible.
Q: What superhero did you want to be growing up?
A: I was really into the G.I. Joe dolls, I also liked Spider-Man, the Six Million Dollar Man and Evel Knievel. I was in Lee Majors' fan club. I think I'm still in it -- it's a lifetime membership.
Q: What was Joel Schumacher's vision of Batman Forever?
A: Joel's vision? [Laughing] Joel saw large codpieces.
Q: What did your family think of your Batman Forever earring?
A: My mother didn't like it. She thought I was kidding when I told her. When I said I was serious, she hung up on me. I didn't like it either -- I took it out the day we wrapped.
Q: How well did you get to know Val Kilmer?
A: Not very well. When I talk with Val, I think he's kind of screwing with me sometimes. He plays games with me. He used to give me a lot of shit -- like, "Oh, did Al Pacino teach you that?" Which is hilarious because when he got cast in Heat, I was able to start giving it back to him.
Q: Have you scuba dived since learning to for that film?
A: Just once. I loved it, but alligators and sharks are the two things that freak me out. I'm thinking Jaws the whole time I'm in the water.
Q: Are you able to psyche yourself up to do the next Batman, or is it more: "Shit, I've got to put on that costume again"?
A: I'm not excited about gluing the mask to my face again. But I'm excited to do the next one, as long as Joel Schumacher comes back.
Q: Would it be a good scenario for you if the Batman films became your Rocky or Rambo?
A: I got in a little late for that. A little franchise of films like that is always kind of nice. Harrison Ford has done a terrific job with that.
Q: Is Harrison Ford as exciting an actor as any other?
A: I think he's great. I look more towards his career than anybody else's -- I mean, I know I'm not going to be a Pacino or a De Niro. That's just not who I am.
Q: Among your peers, are there any actors you enjoy watching?
A: My peers...um...name me an actor.
Q: Christian Slater.
A: Slater? Real nice guy, I saw him in that movie with Marisa Tomei. I didn't see True Romance or Murder in the First.
Q: Leonardo DiCaprio.
A: I didn't see What Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries or Total Eclipse -- although I've heard from so many people about him.
Q: Brad Pitt.
A: I thought Legends of the Fall was great. I didn't see Seven. He's really good. As is Ethan Hawke, who was great in Dead Poet's Society. I missed Reality Bites, though I got the soundtrack. Who else?
Q: Johnny Depp.
A: The guy is awesome. He's just great. He was at the hotel we were at in Paris and I walked by him in the hall, but I don't know the guy, so I'm not going to be like, "Johnny, I'm an actor too, how're ya doing?"
Q: Entertainment Weekly wrote about you, Chris, that you "may never play the director with a fondness for angora sweaters or the moody mountain man who wrestles with bears or the athletic cop who keeps the bus from blowing up, but neither will he use dirty language and trash hotels in order to convince you that he's got feelings," What do you say to that?
A: I might use dirty language and trash hotels, but it won't be to get any kind of attention
Q: Could you have played the lead in Ed Wood, Speed or Legends of the Fall?
A: I could have. Whether or not I could have done them as well as they did them, that's a whole other thing. Now you've got me trying to analyze my career and I hate when actors start getting all serious about themselves. Now that I think about this conversation, I hope I don't sound like a philosophical moron, because that just drives me crazy.
Q: You told one interviewer that you couldn't trust too many people in show business. Still feel that way?
A: I trust people I've worked with and had good experiences with. I don't trust people who aren't up front with me, and I don't forget that. You've got to be careful.
Q: It's been written about you that, with the exception of The Three Musketeers, you haven't made a wrong or foolish move yet. Feel that way too?
A: I liked The Three Musketeers. I just didn't like my hairdo.
Q: What did you learn watching Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland?
A: It was wild, hanging with those guys. I'd never met anybody before who was close to my age and such a big movie star and had a lot of money. They had different spending habits than people I'd met before. Charlie buys antique watches like I buy tennis shoes.
Q: Did you learn any moves to make on girls from them?
A: Some of their moves were not exactly my style moves, to be very vague with you.
Q: After seeing them you said that you weren't as smooth as you thought you were. How smooth are they?
A: [Laughing] I've come to realize it helps if you're well-known. Being a movie star is a pretty good rap in itself. They were good guys. I see Charlie every once in a while at Planet Hollywood.
Q: What do you think of Sheen spending over $50,000 on prostitutes?
A: [Laughs] What am I supposed to say here? I wasn't shocked
Q: Were you shocked at all about Hugh Grant?
A: Yeah, that was shocking. I couldn't get over his mug shot, it was like something out of a movie -- it looked like he had Herb Ritts come in and set up a photo shoot: OK, you've just been busted, your family and girlfriend are going to find out, your world is over. He's got a gorgeous girlfriend, she's hot. I feel bad for the guy. He made a mistake and got crucified for it.
Q: Can you understand why stars frequent hookers?
A: From people I have asked, I think movie stars go to prostitutes because they leave when you want them to. Whatever blows your hair back, I guess. It ain't my cup of tea.
Q: If it was, and you got caught as Grant did, would it be harder to deal with your girlfriend or your mother?
A: Oh God. Jeez. It would just be brutal all around. It would be tough in front of your mom, but you know your family's going to forgive you. Your girlfriend, on the other hand, might take a while.
Q: How do you like reading what's written about you?
A: It's kind of entertaining [but] I suppose there are limes I get really pissed off. I've never been someone the tabloids have been interested in until Batman Forever. Then, suddenly, I've had these stories written about me. It's funny to see them. There was one about how I rescued my bodyguard from a cave in Indonesia. [Laughs] It had absolutely no truth to it. There's been a lot of stories lately that I've purchased a ring for my girlfriend, Caroline. So she now gets letters of congratulations from all these people thinking that we're engaged.
Q: Is she waiting for you to ask her?
A: I don't know...probably...maybe.
Q: When it's in print like that, it's in the air, you've got to deal with it. Does she say, isn't it ridiculous? Or does she say, why don't we do it already?
A: No, it's not something that's suddenly in the air. I'm very close to my girlfriend, we talk about everything, so it's not something that comes up out of the blue.
Q: So, when are you going to marry her?
A: I...I...I don't know when. I'm very happy with the way things are.
Q: How difficult is it, when women must constantly be coming on to you?
A: It's not that difficult. It's a problem with my buddies; when they see the women doing this, they egg me on, asking, "Are you nuts?" But you can't have both worlds -- you can't have a real relationship and all the good things that come with it, and still get to play around.
Q: No one told that to Nicholson, Brando, Beatty, and most of Hollywood's leading men when they were in their prime.
A: Yeah, so? I did that in college and high school, and never met anybody I was really interested in. I'd hang around them for a while, anyway, though. To me, the relationship I have with my girlfriend I value more than just a fling here and there. It's what you believe in, it's part of your religion, the way you've been brought up, and your values. The way I live my life is not the perfect way, it's just the way I was brought up.
Q: You're saying, then, that you can resist temptation?
A: I'm not saying anything. I'm just very content with my relationship.
Q: You once said you were never able to have a serious relationship and trust someone. Why?
A: Is this another way of asking me. "Are you in love?"
Q: Are you?
A: Yeah. I've been dating her for two years. I definitely trust her.
Q: How did you meet Caroline? What does she do?
A: Her brother was one of my roommates in college, so she used to come visit him. She's working for a non-profit organization in Washington now.
Q: Chris, for someone your age, you seem almost too content. Charlie Sheen got thrown out of school, Al Pacino had a friend who hijacked a bus, Mel Gibson got into lots of fights. What about you?
A: I've probably done a lot of those things, but they're not too far in the past, so I might be incriminating myself. I can't think of any right now.
Q: You can, you just don't want to.
A: Well, of course I can. But I wasn't kidding when I said they can incriminate me. [Laughs].
Q: In high school a friend and I once made a sandwich using dog food, which we passed off as Italian meat loaf to some unsuspecting friends. Ever do anything like that?
A: There was this guy in college who, on Sundays, freshman year, you could throw anything you wanted into a cup -- you could spit, pour ketchup, people would blow their nose in it -- and, for 10 or 20 bucks, he'd drink it. I don't know how he did it, I used to die just watching him do it. I'd gag. That was nasty.
Q: Things can get pretty nasty when you're young and stupid.
A: It's amazing when you look back at things you did in high school, and you think, how did we make it through alive? I don't do as much stupid stuff as I used to, just because now I'm being watched. I can't get drunk and act like an idiot the way I used to in college. I've got a ton of stories I could tell you about, but I'm not gonna. I'd tell a friend, but I'm not going to tell the public.
Q: What about friends who will tell the stories about you?
A: I'll have to deal with those when they come out, one by one.
Q: Did you smoke any dope in college?
A: That's basically none of your business.
Q: You said you haven't yet read The Chamber. Are you much of a reader?
A: I don't have a lot of books. I've got bookshelves now, but no books. I've got to get some.
Q: What novels have had an effect on you?
A: Books, novels? I never read much, other than school textbooks, the newspaper and scripts. Growing up, I was a TV junkie: "The Brady Bunch," "Green Acres," "Laverne and Shirley," "Happy Days." I met Henry Winkler at the Batman Forever premiere. He introduced me to his kids, I kept thinking, My God, it's Fonzie!
Q: How has your family dealt with your success?
A: They love it. They get a little annoyed -- everyone's asking them for pictures of me, stuff like that -- but they also get excited. They're happy for my success.
Q: Do they caution you about fame?
A: Yeah, definitely. Sometimes they'll ask me to do something and I'll say I don't want to do it and they'll say, "You're so stuck up," or, "OK, movie star." Which is good, but sometimes they don't realize that when you're with your family you just want to relax.
Q: Does your family see you as a smartass?
A: I am a smartass. Totally.
Q: OK Chris, we're finished. Was it so bad?
A: I feel so violated when I do interviews. I don't even feel like I've talked about anything bad or crazy, really. But I get so pissed off with myself after I do one, like I hate myself, why am I doing this? I still don't know why I am. I'm not even promoting a film here.
Q: But they're putting you on the cover.
A: Yeah, that's why.
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Lawrence Grobel interviewed Kurt Russell for the Jan./Feb. issue of Movieline.