Lou Diamond Phillips: No Diamond in the Rough

As the current King of Broadway, Lou Diamond Phillips has hit the big time at last. We ask him about the many movies Phillips has written and/or directed that we've barely heard of, gets the lowdown on how he found himself signing autographs at Elvis Presley's grave, and shows off his wound from Courage Under Fire.

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The world is divided into two camps. In the first camp are the people who have seen all of Lou Diamond Phillips's movies. In the other camp are the rest of us, the ones who say, "OK, I remember La Bamba and Stand and Deliver and, wait, give me a minute, that's right, there was Young Guns, too (as well as Young Guns II). But what else has he done?"

What else?! Phillips has been in nearly 20 films in the last 10 years, some of which went direct-to-video, and some of which went straight to hell. Or so it seems. They include The First Power, A Shaw of Force, Teresa's Tattoo, Ambition, Dakota, Sioux City... OK, you get the idea.

But right now, New York City belongs to Phillips. In the celebrated revival of The King and I, which has been packing them in night after night on Broadway, Phillips has taken over the role that Yul Brynner made into a career and has put his own stamp on it.

"It's like this every night," Phillips tells me, referring to the thunderous standing ovation that moments ago greeted his curtain call. "We got a standing ovation our first night, and there's lots of young kids in this show, so I told them, 'Don't get used to this. It may never happen again.' But I was wrong. We've gotten a standing ovation every night since. Those poor kids--they'll be fucked up for the rest of their lives!"

There are a dozen of us stuffed in Phillips's dressing room at the theater. Actors Tim Guinee and Matt Damon have come to the performance because they worked with Phillips on the big summer movie Courage Under Fire, and, according to Damon, "We wanted to come here to see if we could bust Lou's balls," Phillips's wife, Kelly, and her "best-friend-from-my-whole-life," Lisa, have come to meet him for a late dinner. And a couple of fans have managed to talk their way backstage. Phillips is gracious and sweet to them, and they leave beaming.

Turning his attention back to me, Phillips brings out his "three kings collection": a photo of Yul Brynner, a cutout of Elvis Presley and a doll of Phillips as the King of Siam.

"I'm just so happy to be part of this triumvirate," he says with a smile. "I once went to Graceland with my band, The Pipefitters. They gave us a private tour, and this woman who was our guide was making all these weird observations. She had this thick Southern accent, and she'd say, 'These are all his suits he wore on tour, and this one's my personal favorite, but don't tell anybody that, because I'm not supposed to tell you.' She literally got misty at times, because I think she felt we were kindred spirits. At one point she turned around and said to us, 'The King would've loved you boys.' And so our obvious question was, 'Oh, did you know the King'.'' And she goes, 'No, but I saw him across the parking lot once, and that was enough.' We end up at his grave, and we are certainly affected by it, because this is an American icon, this is the height and the depths of fame. Then this tourist group shows up and they spot me, and I end up signing a couple of dozen autographs by Elvis's grave. I just thought, this is ridiculous. The irony of it was just too much for me. Part of me felt guilty. I thought. I'm sorry Elvis. I don't mean to be stealing your thunder, man."

"I get queasy when an actor tells me they're in a band." I venture.

"The way I see it, I play at being a musician. I write the lyrics, and I sing. We toured around a bit, and actually a lot of people like us quite a lot. But we've never done that big push to get a record deal. Right now, it's just this little side thing. It's hard to pin me down... I like movies, I like the stage, I like playing music, I like to write, I like to direct. I'm not willing to give up any of these things."

By the time our group reaches the street it's nearly midnight, so only a few dozen fans are still waiting outside the theater for Phillips, but he takes his time and signs autographs, posed for pictures and thanks them for the support they are showing his play.

Lou Diamond Phillips, at 34, is still one of the most exotic looking men in films today. With his dark, brooding good looks, he is, as he says, hard to pin down. In La Bamba, he played a Mexican; in Sioux City, a Lakota Indian; in Ambition, which he also wrote, he played a Filipino. His background is part Filipino, with Chinese, Hawaiian, Spanish, Scottish, Irish and Cherokee Indian thrown in. But the truth is that he hails from Corpus Christi, Texas.

When we walk into Gallagher's Steak House, everyone turns towards us and starts clapping. Phillips smiles and says hello to a few people, and then we all settle into the back booth. Damon and Guinee are kidding Phillips about the stunts he did on Courage Under Fire. "I still have this,'' Phillips says, pulling his T-shirt away from his neck to show a bad burn. "I was strapped to the glider on a helicopter, leaning out and firing a machine gun, and I guess one of the shell casings hit me. It was burning like hell, so I kept banging my neck, trying to get it off me, but some of it stuck. I'll tell you, though, the feeling of hanging off that helicopter was so great. I cannot describe the rush of the wind, and the noise, and the adrenaline that was going through my body. And this was only pretending to be at war! It gave me goose bumps, because I kept thinking that in the real situation, you must go out of your mind."

Over clams and asparagus, the Courage comrades talk about what a great experience this movie was. 'This was my first big studio movie," Phillips says at one point, "and to be working with Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan was a treat. No bullshit with them, they're both so well-prepared and so directed. Plus, this was Denzel's second movie with Ed (Zwick, who also directed Glory). And I felt like I was with them on their second date, like I got to experience this special time."

We close the place down around 1:30, and Phillips and I make plans to have breakfast later in the morning. Before they leave, I ask Kelly if she had any advice for Phillips when he took on the role in The King and I.

''Definitely," she says. "I told him to work hard, do well, but not to try any of that 'King' shit at home with me."

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