Jon Bon Jovi: Music to the Eyes

He lets loose with a raucous laugh. "There's going to be hell to pay for that line," he says.

After The Leading Man, Bon Jovi studied acting some more and made two small films: Homegrown, with Billy Bob Thornton, and Little City, with Annabella Sciorra and Penelope Ann Miller. Working on all these little films, he believes, has really paid off because he's had time to build up his confidence, his resume and his bag of tricks. Although his role in Homegrown is a tiny one, he says he took it because of a recommendation from Heather Locklear, who's married to Bon Jovi guitar player Richie Sambora. She did a TV movie with Homegrown director Stephen Gyllenhaal (_Paris Trout, Waterland_) in which she played a housewife with Multiple Personality Disorder.

"Heather and Richie happened to be in Jersey the night the movie was airing," says Bon Jovi, "and we were all watching it together. She said that Gyllenhaal had gotten more out of her than any director she had ever worked with. So I was intrigued, and I wanted in if the guy was so good."

As I'm trying to imagine what it was Gyllenhaal got out of Heather Locklear, Bon Jovi continues, "Gyllenhaal wanted to meet me, but I had read the script by Nick Kazan, and knew there weren't a lot of roles in it for me. It was the day of my best friend's wedding and I flew to L.A. to be the best man. Gyllenhaal met me at my hotel before the wedding, and the meeting was going rather well, so he said, 'Let's read.' We started reading and we had so much fun that I wound up being an hour late for the wedding."

While making these films, Bon Jovi wrote and put out a solo album, Destination Anywhere. But instead of touring, he decided to make a 48-minute companion film that was cut into individual videos, and he released it on MTV and VH1. He stars in the film with Demi Moore, who gives, surprisingly, one of the best performances of her life.

"I met Demi and Bruce [Willis], and I really, really liked her," he says. "She's a very soulful girl. She looks you right in the eye, and when she says, 'How are you?' she really wants to know. She's not just bullshitting you."

My eyes are practically rolling back in my head. Bon Jovi sees my reaction and looks annoyed.

"She is," he insists.

I'm not about to fight with Bon Jovi about Demi Moore's soulfulness. "So what about Little City?" I ask.

"I play a bartender who's a recovering alcoholic."

"Sounds like the story of a man who's made a bad career choice," I say.

"No, it's good for him, because he doesn't mind being around drunks as long as he's not. He's in his 30s, he's going nowhere fast, but at least he's coming to terms with life and with love. He starts sleeping with Annabella Sciorra because the guy she's going out with, Josh Charles, isn't giving her what she wants. Yet she has a great relationship with Josh, and she feels she can have both--a good relationship and great sex. Only they're not with the same person."

"Everyone's dream come true, huh?"

Bon Jovi winks. "Well, it's what every person thinks they want. But emotions get in the way, as they always do, and she gets caught and has to choose."

"And she chooses you, right?"

Bon Jovi looks as if I've just answered the Daily Double. "How'd you know?" he asks with genuine surprise.

"Because it's the law of the very good-looking guy getting the girl. Although I think Josh Charles is adorable and a good actor, c'mon Jon, if the girl is not a complete twit, she goes for you."

Now he's blushing. "Then you're going to be surprised by Long Time, Nothing New," he says, referring to the film he just completed with Lauren Holly and Edward Burns, director of The Brothers McMullen and She's the One. In this movie, Holly has to choose between Bon Jovi and Burns. I guess she chooses Burns.

"It's not as cute as anything that Ed's done before. It doesn't have the big laughs in it, and I think it's a darker film. It's probably the most similar to my own life story, because the characters are these guilty Catholic, East Coast shore people. They live in a no-way-out kind of place, very similar to where I grew up. A great little town, Americana personified, the kind of place John Mellencamp writes songs about. Where I come from, you either joined the service or went to work for the town. All I wanted to be was a rock 'n' roll star. Silly me. So if I hadn't learned those three chords I'd be working for the township, too. The three guys I hung out with joined the navy to get out. They grew up and I didn't.

Pages: 1 2 3