Christopher Walken: Walken Tall

Q: And the high points?

A: When you're in a movie that's popular and you get good reviews, and people come up to you and say they loved it, that's great. You want people, and critics, to say you're wonderful. Then, for reasons that are mysterious, you're in a movie like Gigli, and that's a shock. I was in a makeup trailer and somebody started reading me the reviews and I thought, how did that happen?

Q: During Catch Me If You Can, Leonardo DiCaprio spoke of a certain scene where you started to hyperventilate and he thought you were having a heart attack, remember that?

A: We were doing this scene in a restaurant, talking about my wife. My technique is to try things different ways. There's a temptation to do a take and then do another, more or less the same, and try and make it better. I don't go that way. I usually try to do takes with variety--I try to do one real fast, then take my time on another, then do it as if the scene was funny, then earnestly. So that when the editors take it apart and put it together later, there are some different colors to work with.

Q: Johnny Depp has said that he always thinks he's going to get fired when he starts a new job, because he wants to do the character a certain way. How often do you think about that?

A: With Johnny they'd be smart to let him do it his own way. He's one of the best. He is so much fun to watch. If you get hired for a part, it's because of whatever it is you bring to it. I very rarely had anybody say, "That's okay, but you'll do it this way." Because I would have to say, "I don't know how to do it that way."

Q: How often have you changed the way the character was written?

A: You can't change the way a character is written, but you can do it your own way. The writer sometimes tries to indicate how he sees it in stage directions. I've read scripts where the stage directions were like an operator's manual like when you buy a washing machine. I don't look at them. I don't pay any attention to anything but the dialogue. If a line comes with the direction "wistfully" or "angrily," it makes me want to do the opposite.

Q: You tend to play a lot of bizarre, peculiar people and villains, why do you suppose that is?

A: One of the reasons for that is, there aren't that many people who have been in show business since they were 3-years-old. That has its mark on me. I'm a show business animal. The way I speak, everything I do. There is something a bit foreign about me. That can translate into strange and strange translates to villainous. It seems to be something I'm pretty good at, so I tend to get a lot of those parts. I would love to play the Fred MacMurray parts, with the wife and the house and the kids who say, "Dad, what should I do?" And sometimes I do get that chance. But look, if you're an actor, you're lucky if they want you.

Q: You love to cook and even travel with a collapsible steamer so you can prepare fish the way the Chinese do. What type of cuisine would you like to master?

A: Italian. European cooking generally means that you buy the best stuff you can get and cook it simply, you don't use butter, you use oil, garlic. People spend so much money on pre-cooked, packaged stuff. They don't realize that it's so much cheaper, as well as better, to buy your food and cook it. When I'm learning lines if I'm simultaneously thinking food, the power of distraction helps. I put my script on the kitchen counter and read my lines as I prepare food.

Q: What are some of your favorite foods?

A: I eat the same things all the time: fish, hardly ever meat. Chicken, vegetables. I'm fond of steamed sea bass over leeks. I don't drink hard liquor. I like wine.

Q: Do you watch much TV?

A: Yeah, I do. I watch a lot of movies. And the Comedy Channel to see the stand-ups. I like to watch Charlie Rose.

Q: Ever watch South Park?

A: No. But I've never seen Seinfeld either.

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