Wesley Snipes discusses his new vampire-chic thriller Blade, talks about working with Maya Angelou in his upcoming Down in the Delta, explains why he thinks Sean Connery has African blood, responds to Jennifer Lopez' tales of his romantic aggression and offers to take his pal Woddy Harrelson's interest in hemp.
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When Wesley Snipes was growing up in the south Bronx, his ambition was to be a singer and dancer and make it out of the south Bronx. Sitting now in his Marina del Rey home with views of the Pacific Ocean, he is keenly aware of how far he has traveled in his 36 years. Not only has he appeared in nearly two dozen movies, including such gems as New Jack City, Jungle Fever, White Men Can't Jump, The Waterdance, Sugar Hill and To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, he's become an independent producer with the recent The Big Hit and nearly a dozen projects in development. Snipes has made his share of humdrum flicks, like Demolition Man, Drop Zone, Money Train and U.S. Marshals, but ever since his performance in New Jack Cit_y (hailed by no less than Pauline Kael), he's been an actor worth watching, and his best actor award at the Venice Film Festival for _One Night Stand reflects that.
As far as Snipes is concerned, the sky's the limit. Hell soon be seen costarring with Stephen Dorff and Kris Kristofferson in a vampire thriller, Blade, and will follow that with Down in the Delta, directed by Maya Angelou. An outspoken and at times controversial figure, Snipes has had run-ins with the law and with some famous women. As we talk in a room filled with enough electronic equipment to make a cat burglar feel he'd hit the jackpot, Snipes holds two rubber-tipped drumsticks and plays them against his legs, ready to give his side of those stories, and tell plenty more of his own.
LAWRENCE GROBEL: This room is certainly wired. Do you follow what people say about you on the Internet?
WESLEY SNIPES: You get some very unbiased opinions. I'd hear comments like, "Wesley is a good actor, it would be nice to see him in a better film." I agree with that.
Q: Blade's a vampire movie. Are you a vampire in it?
A: I'm half human, half vampire. My mother was bit by a vampire while she was pregnant. It altered my genetic makeup. My only purpose in life is to rid the world of vampires. It's sexy and chic.
Q: You've also completed Down in the Delta, which marks Maya Angelou's directorial debut. How was it working with her?
A: I'm still trying to get over the shock of being directed by Maya Angelou. When I went to college up at Purchase, I was head of the black student association when she came to speak. She influenced me to learn how to find the music in words. You humble yourself when you're around her, but at the same time I was the producer of our film. She's the Queen Mother, but she knew how to come in and say, "What do you think, Mr. Producer?"
Q: Let's talk a bit about your childhood. What were the roughest times you had?
A: I was really short and dark skinned, two issues that motivated more unhappy times than anything else. Lack of money wasn't an issue because nobody had any money.
Q: When did you start to grow?
A: College. I remember talking with some cats about ejaculation. I was about 15 and I could count the pubic hairs I had. They're all going, "Do you? Do you?" I was like, "No. What's that?" I never had any sex education. I asked, "How are you supposed to know when you can ejaculate?" One of my friends said, "This is how you know: there's a yellow ring around the tip of your penis." I was looking for yellow rings for years, man! And I didn't find out until I met this girl who was older and she took me to her house and we did it. I said, "I've got something to tell you--I think I may have peed in you." She laughed, "No, no." Man, that was my first time. And I never found that yellow ring.
Q: Did you make up for lost time?
A: I was always kind of a slow guy. I had acne late, in college. My skin used to be really flawless. Went to college, became a vegetarian, ate a lot of cheese--big mistake. Here I am trying to be healthy and I'm eating grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries every day, having mad eruptions all over my face.
Q: Were you into drugs at all growing up?
A: Wasn't with it. We had cats older than us that would bust our ass if we even considered it. Nobody I knew did that, no marijuana, nothing. We had a Jamaican cat in the neighborhood, a Rasta, he was an herb smoker--and the pariah of the community.
Q: What about the first time you finally smoked a joint, assuming there was a first time?
A: Yeah. [Eyes look upward, sings a high sound of revelation] I can't believe I was so sheltered. [Laughs]
Q: Ever try acid?
A: Never did. My mom put the fear of God in me when it comes to the whole experimental drug thing. I never tried heroin. I'm not passing any judgment at all.
Q: It's OK to knock heroin.
A: To each his own. I'm not a champion for either side.
Q: Let's talk about your controversial film New Jack City. Did the shootings and lootings that occurred outside theaters in big cities it played in concern you?
A: No. [Laughs] Wasn't my problem.
Q: After the LA riots, you visited several high schools--what did you tell the kids?
A: How ridiculous it is to destroy your own property in your neighborhood. It's like throwing a bomb in your house when you're mad at your neighbor. Throw the bomb at your neighbor and deal with the consequences
Q: How important was appearing as a gang member in Michael Jackson's music video Bad, which Martin Scorsese directed?
A: The association was powerful--Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Martin Scorsese. To be in that kind of company was no joke.
Q: What did you think of Michael Jackson's troubles with the young boy?
A: That just was a bad year for cats named Mike. [Laughs] Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson...
Q: Denzel Washington, with whom you starred in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues, said you reminded him of himself.
A: I don't see the similarities, but I'm not offended by that.
Q: Denzel seems to have it together pretty good.
A: He has it together enough for people to believe he's together.
Q: Do you resent comparisons?
A: No. They like making issues of competition between black artists and we have to be very careful of that, because we all do something differently.
Q: I read Denzel won't make love to a white woman on-screen. Is he wrong?
A: Who am I to judge? I don't have a problem with it.
Q: How controversial was the interracial romantic aspect of Lee's Jungle Fever for you?
A: It was more an issue for Spike. I was the actor for hire.
Q: Annabella Sciorra disagreed with Jungle Fever's premise and refused to talk to the media about the film.
A: She felt the movie should be about love. I agreed with Spike that it wasn't about love, it was about what happens to two people of different backgrounds in a relationship. That was the movie. If you want to make Brian's Song, then you do Brian's Song.
Q: A few years later you did The Waterdance, which costarred Helen Hunt. Did you recognize her talent?
A: No, I had no idea. I didn't act very much with her.
Q: Was Sean Connery intimidating to work with when you did Rising Sun?
A: He was great. He liked me. I told him, "You ain't nothing but a brother, anyway. There's a black man somewhere in your family. You can tell by the way you walk, the color of your skin. The thing about Bond and why we ain't got no problem with you, is because he whupped ass around the whole world, but he never went to Harlem."
Q: Did you feel that way about Sylvester Stallone when you worked with him in Demolition Man?
A: Not in the beginning. I thought I had to prove myself to him. In our first fight scene, I'm thinking Sly, Rocky, Rambo, Cobra--my man is strong, he's going to want to feel it. So I kicked him hard and he shouted "Cut!" And he said, "This is movies. You don't have to really kick me." From that moment on he started talking to me. I still call him now, ask him for advice.
Q: Did you first get to know your buddy Woody Harrelson on Goldie Hawn's Wildcats?
A: There were some very interesting dynamics. Most of the cats on the team in this movie were black. Woody was only supposed to be in the movie early on, but Goldie liked him and he ended up with more and more scenes. We thought it was white favoritism. One of the football players, a Muslim from the Nation in Chicago, would whip on Woody every day. Woody couldn't take it and came to me, "Look man, what is all this black shit? Why's he saying I'm the Devil? Do you think I'm the Devil?" We ended up with a friendship from that.
Q: Do you support Woody's pro-hemp cause?
A: He is my friend and I support him. We have different issues, of course. I tell Woody, "The only reason that you're on this hemp thing is because you've got all this money and, as a young, rich, white male, you don't know what to do with it. I love you going around saving the trees, but you haven't built one house for the homeless. You ain't put no kids through school. But go ahead and fight for the trees, and in the meantime, I'll use my money to put somebody through school." We laugh about it.
Q: Your Money Train costar Jennifer Lopez has had less than kind things to say about you--are you aware of that?
A: Oh yeah, and that was in this magazine, too. Isn't that funny? It's my chance now for karmic retribution.
Q: She said both you and Woody Harrelson hit on her, but that you got more serious--and when she wasn't interested, you wouldn't talk to her for two months. True?
A: False. What happened was, she had never done a love scene before. She was absolutely terrified. I was given instructions from the director to make her feel good. That was my job. Definitely I found her attractive. I'm figuring, hell, she's from the Bronx, I'm from the Bronx, what's wrong with it? It ain't like she ain't been down with a brother from the Bronx before. I tried to make her comfortable--took her to dinner, talked. I knew people would look at the screen and say either, "They have chemistry," or, "They don't." I told her, if she took my advice we'd do a wonderful, erotic scene. And if it wasn't a good love scene, they'd edit around her and throw it on the floor. And that's exactly what happened. She tried to make it seem like I was using the craft just to get into her pants, and that really offended me. That's why I didn't say nothin' to her.
Q: She told Movieline: "I suppose Wesley will call going, 'You bitch! How dare you? I didn't like you."
A: I find that strange. Even if I was attracted to her, why is that bad? Every man on the set was attracted to her, so what is she talking about? Woody was clearly attracted to her. It was straight up: I will make you laugh, then you come home with me. When she was on In Living Color, you mean to tell me none of those guys were attracted to her? So why is she talking only about Wesley?
Q: You learned to sky dive for Drop Zone. Any fears?
A: The first time I jumped from a plane, I screamed like a woman. I was two miles up and you could hear me clear as day. Now I love it.
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.
Q: What turns you on in a woman?
A: I love legs. From the waist down it's all good. I like a woman who is self-confident, who can work it, walk the walk, wear her clothes, smile, be happy. . . yeah, I like that.
Q: How did you meet the woman you're with now, Donna Wong?
A: Through a mutual friend. My assistant set up a blind date. They didn't tell her who I was, just that I was a nice guy. She has great spirit. A great sense of humor. She's brought out that more yang side of my life. Very comfortable. Being OK to smile.
Q: How different are Asian women from black or Caucasian women?
A: You mean in gross general terms that people who are reading this will be pissed about?
Q: Yeah, let's piss off all three groups.
A: I've come to the conclusion that beautiful women in the West aren't comfortable finding strength in their femininity. They want to do masculine-oriented things to establish their femininity. It's a contradiction. Water doesn't have to fight a rock to prove it's as strong as a rock. Water understands it's soft and gentle, but if you fuck around it will drown your ass. Asian women are out there: they're beautiful, compassionate. [But] black women are beautiful, some white women are beautiful.
Q: So now you're being politically correct.
A: I read that Asian women were bedroom generals. Some people think that means they're great in bed, but that's not the issue. They're talking about a place where the man is at his most vulnerable, where they have the most control. They don't have to beat him over the head to mow the lawn. They can whisper it in his ear and give him a kiss on the cheek and it's no problem. That's a general.
Q: In Playboy you said that Asians are into how to heal through breathing and sex, and how different positions are better.
A: This is true.
Q: So what's the number one position for a man to keep his health in proper balance?
A: Have sex as much as you want, but try not to ejaculate. Then you won't have prostate problems and your longevity and vitality will be retained.
Q: How often do you do that?
A: I have been successful only once.
Q: So all this is bullshit, because you don't do what you're talking about. [Laughing]
A: You have to work up to it, man.
Q Why is good sex hard to come by?
A: For one, people don't think that it's an art form that has to be learned and cultivated.
Q: You've said that white women are more understanding of a man than black women.
A: I never said that. Collectively in the West, white women have a better understanding of men who are successful.
Q: Halle Berry lost 80 percent of her hearing in her left ear after being smacked by a boyfriend who was well known in Hollywood. You were one of her boyfriends, as were Eddie Murphy and, I believe, Spike Lee. Did you ever smack her?
A: No. And those are not the only boyfriends she had, either. There's one in particular they never talk about.
Q: You said you and Angela Bassett had great chemistry in Waiting to Exhale. Who else makes you melt?
A: Lauren Hutton got fire. She said she's been asked if she had some African ancestry and she started to do some research. She has a style that's beautiful and sexy, but you know if she had to punch you in the face she would do it. I love that. I think Salma Hayek is fine, beautiful, hot.
Q: Let's talk about actors you admire. You've mentioned Rutger Hauer, De Niro, Duvall, Avery Brooks, Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken. Want to add any others?
A: James Coburn. Kathy Bates. Meryl Streep. Edward James Olmos. Laurence Fishburne. Eddie Murphy.
Q: You've said that you think of yourself as coming from a long line of royalty.
A: Without a doubt. It has been a source of solace in times of trouble, and a source of inspiration to do better work. I can't trace back my lineage to some structured royal family, but I see my spirit reflected in a number of cats in history who had royal status. I'm born in the sign of Leo. My Asian astrological sign is Tiger. Somewhere in there it just fits. I like sleeping during the day and hunting at night. [Laughs]
Q: You were in college when you read Malcolm X's autobiography--what effect did it have on you?
A: Changed my life. Gave me purpose.
Q: How committed are you to Islamic beliefs?
A: They're still prevalent in my life and philosophy. But I don't call it Islam, I call it African spirituality.
Q: What one book would you recommend to people?
A: Without a doubt, The Spiritual Dimensions of Psychology by Hazrat Inayat Khan, who was a Sufi...I would make this mandatory for every artist, writer, creative person.
Q: In Architectural Digest you spoke about your ideas on color. Tell me about color theory.
A: Color has an effect on the human body and the emotions, just as sound does. If you want to study, you use more yellow. You want to create a cooler, open, compassionate environment, you use blue, turquoise, soft green. You want to create more energy, you use a white light or some reds.
Q: Why should rooms not have 90-degree angles?
A: Dust particles build up in the corner.
Q: Your interior decorator said you were "out there."
A: I wasn't so far out there that she didn't accept her check!
Q: You've also said you're interested in herbs.
A: I'm into herbology. I take whatever is necessary. I know my body I have studied with herbologists as well as acupuncturists. I studied massage therapy for a year. I've read many books, been my own guinea pig.
Q: Now that you have your company, Amen Ra Films, which produced The Big Hit and has set up deals around town, do you feel you're in a business among honorable men or among thieves?
A: [Long pause] Both. Even some thieves have some sense of honor, a code. I understand that the majority of people are in it for the money and the fame as opposed to the art and the craft, and that my artistic appetite can make me vulnerable to those people.
Q: Amen Ra means "an unseen source of all creation." Does that mean you leave everything in the hands of God?
A: Well, I don't think that's my place. I think it already is.
Q: What does the script you're developing on the life of Miles Davis focus on?
A: I've wondered why people who end up being labeled "great" so often have such turmoil in their lives. There must be something to the moment when you are accepted as the exception. It's got to add a certain unforeseen pressure to your life, because you never wanted it--you were only looking for that sound, that painting, that look, that word that identifies exactly who you are, the sum total of your love. You never wanted that label "great." But they put it on you, and when they did they began to expect you to live up to it. I saw Farrah Fawcett at a party--man, I tripped. I don't know anything about her life, but I could tell the woman was unhappy. This was a woman everybody loved, and now she's shunned and ridiculed? Where is the love? Why isn't anybody going, "We got you, we're gonna take care of you"?
Q: You're also producing a series of documentaries called African Scholars, aren't you?
A: It's an archival series of biographies of prominent thinkers and artisans from the African diaspora--the Caribbean, America, Africa. The contributions of African people that the rest of the world doesn't really know about. We have scientists, astronauts, thinkers, poets, but we don't have those images out there. After watching Bill Moyers's wonderful programs on PBS with people like Joseph Campbell, I thought maybe we should have programs about people who come from our experience.
Q: Assess yourself and your future.
A: Couple my formal training with the heart of a lion--I can do it all.
Q: What are you proudest of?
A: Besides the ability to give birth to a beautiful son? I'm most proud that I've stuck in there and have worked hard to make manifest the principles and the lessons that I was taught about how to have a happy life, how to have heaven here on earth.
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Lawrence Grobel interviewed David Duchovny for the July '98 issue of Movieline.