Wesley Snipes: The Wisdom of Wesley

Q: When you made The Fan with Robert De Niro, you wanted his part, the stalker. Think it would have changed the outcome?

A: Absolutely. People came away from the movie saying, "We've seen De Niro do that before."

Q: Is it true that you burned your drag queen costumes at the end of To Wong Foo?

A: Yeah. It was a cremation. There would be no sequel.

Q: Did you like the movie?

A: Some of it was funny, but it could have been funnier. Getting off into the direction that this be a moral movie and there be a message-- please. This was about drag queens. They live a flamboyant life and we should just chronicle that.

Q: Ever get nostalgic for tight dresses and high heels?

A: As long as they're standing over me, yeah.

Q: How significant was your best actor award at the Venice Film Festival for One Night Stand?

A: It was significant, because people see me as the action guy, and think that I can't do it.

Q: How did you get along with writer/ director Mike Figgis?

A: Me and Mike have developed a great relationship, as friends and as artists. I'd work with him again any way, any day. It has a lot to do with his integrity and his music sensibilities.

Q: What films would you like to remake?

A: I'd like to remake Shaft. John Singleton has it now. John, we have to talk. I'm the best person for that. Without doubt.

Q: Why is acting a form of schizophrenia?

A: You're asking a schizophrenic to answer?

Q: Let's talk about some of your more publicized troubles. In 1991 you accused LA. police officers of racial harassment when you were pulled over in a rented Mustang that had been reported stolen.

A: It was one of those scenarios where they knew I was in the movies. They knew my movie, even talked to me about it! But they were thinking: "Black guy, New Jack City, drug dealer, must be real life. Stolen car... figures."

Q: Were the cops black or white?

A: White.

Q: What about that motorcycle chase in Florida? You were going 120 miles per hour and claimed you were unaware you were in a chase?

A: That's true. You don't hear a siren when you've got a helmet on and are going 120 miles per hour on a motorcycle. I was going straight ahead like a rocket in a Kawasaki ZX-II with no rearview mirror. As I went to get off the exit I leaned into the turn and the police car came screeching around the corner and I saw the lights. Then the bike sat up, took me off line and into the grass. I rolled off and two seconds later the police car hit the motorcycle and dragged it 150 yards. I could have been killed. The policeman's air bag was deployed, which pinned him in. He was hot when he got out of the car. Hot!

Q: Did they believe you?

A: It was questionable in the beginning because I had a backpack and I didn't lock the zippers on the front, so all my stuff was flying out down the road, so the cop's thinking I'm throwing contraband out. It just happened to be on the Florida Turnpike, a road they call Drug Alley.

Q: In an earlier motorcycle accident in LA, you were carrying a nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol.

A: That's so many words to say. It was a five-shot James Bond gun, know what I'm saying? And it was exposed. A concealed weapon is against the law, but an exposed weapon is not.

Q: Did you have a license for it?

A: I had one for New York and Florida, not California.

Q: A London woman claimed you assaulted her and broke her leg on the Santa Monica bike path in April '96. Why was she arrested?

A: That same woman is still stalking me to this day. Can't talk about it too much because it's in litigation. She thinks she and I were a princess and prince and were married and have five or six children together, and that the reason she's living now is to let me know who I am, so I can take my rightful place as her kingly husband and father to her children. She told this to the police.

Q: So how did it come about that you "attacked" her?

A: She'd been stalking me for three years before this confrontation. I was Rollerblading, and she was right there on a bike and said, "I knew you were coming." Alarms went off--I'm thinking I'm John Lennon. I just took off with her following me. Finally she grabbed me and we both fell. I pinned her to the ground, and some guy came along yelling, "Get your hands off of her." And I'm going, "You idiot, what is this, National Hero Day?" A cop came and threatened to mace me. It was like The Twilight Zone. They deported her back to England.

Q: Do you feel like a target?

A: In this last decade, anybody who's successful is a target.

Q: You were 22 when you got married. Were you very depressed when it ended after five years?

A: Sure. I was the one pushing towards the separation.

Q: How guilty were you when you left your son?

A: Extremely. I was Muslim, this was blasphemy.

Q: How did it happen?

A: Very easily. [Laughs] I had a very clear idea where I was going and what it took to get there. She didn't.

Q: Do you consider yourself a good father?

A: Yeah.

Q: You've said that women get very possessive and want to compete with your art. Do any have a chance?

A: If a woman decides she likes me, it would behoove her to take into consideration that my art has had a strong influence on the type of person I am. I can be a little hard, but that's the only way I know. I don't know the beautiful girl with the big titties and the nice ass way. I ain't never been that. I don't know the rich kid way. Ain't never been that. I haven't had to "fuck" my way to the top. So I don't know that. All I know is that I had to work twice as hard and be twice as good and twice as on time, etc. etc. etc., to get this far. That's what I understand. If she can't understand that about me, she can forget it.

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