What was it like to work with Quentin
Tarantino?
It was a very interesting experience, actually, and a tremendously,
spectacularly fun one. Once I became involved, and I know there were
other actors he was talking about using, I talked to him about those
guys with regard to what might be right for this character. We started
rehearsing, and generally you have a pretty strong idea right away when
you read a script, about who that character is and how to play it. And
sometimes a strong concept can hit you. I remember when I did Escape
From New York and played Snake Plissken, I spent weeks thinking
about it, thinking about what I could do that could be right and how
he'd look. And Stuntman Mike was not dissimilar, because there are a
lot of different ways to go.
So how did you decide which way to take
it?
In rehearsal I said, “I’m gonna do some really bad stuff
here, so don't be scared. I'm gonna try some really out-there things.”
And Quentin said, “Great, great.” So I was doing all kinds
of versions of it, and we finally kinda settled down on what we thought
was the thing to do. As it went along, he and I would talk about it.
We would never disagree and we were never not in cahoots about the character,
how he should behave and what he should do, how he should sound. And
we'd get to these places where realise, “Well, we could do this
too, and it wouldn't be wrong, because of who he is and what he knows...”
But then one day he asked me, “Have you ever played a character,
or worked with a director, where you started out in one place and the
director got you to do something you didn't think you'd do?” I
said, “No.” So we talked about it. And I knew he was putting
something in my head — either that or preparing me for something.
Then by the end of the movie I said to him, “We can just play
this out and he gets beat up, or we can do something I've never seen
before with this kind of character. I'm gonna play that word you wrote
in the script.” He said, “What's that?” I said, “He
gets shot and takes off. Coward.” Cos he is a coward. Really a
coward. Quentin said, “OK, Good.” So I started goin', and
I started really goin' down the road I wanted to go down. There was
that sense of trying to find the character.
Were there any other specific moments
like that?
A prime example of that would be the time we were shooting the scene
with the girls on the porch, when I was talking with Vanessa [Ferlito],
just a straight scene. I was feeling really good about working with
Quentin and having a good time. I was looking at her and I just got
bored with what was going on for a second and I started doing John Wayne...
I'm thinking, “Aw, this is going to piss everybody off but I don
't care, I'm just gonna do it.” And just at the time I thought
he was gonna say, “Cut! Good, well, yes, we could do that,”
he said, “Wait, wait, go back to this part of the speech. Do John
Wayne. Go! Do John Wayne…! Now do Brando! Do Brando!” It
was all over the place, and I thought, Wow, does this guy love to play!
He's a guy who loves to play as much as I do. How can you not love that?
It's film. If you don't like it, burn it. Start a fire with it. If you
like it, put it in the movie. Who knows? In fact, that’s exactly
what we said to each other: “Who knows?”
As a result, Stuntman Mike is a very
complex character...
Yes, and it's fun to look for that and try to bring that out. I've always
enjoyed trying to play different characters, and I've been fortunate
enough to do it. That's what Quentin said. He said, “I want you
to play this part because you've got a rogues' gallery like nobody else
I can think of – and I want you to add this one to it.”
So I read it and I said, “Yeah.” Gee, a chance to work with
Quentin Tarantino? What am I gonna say? “Nah, I don't think so,
I'd rather go golfing...”
What surprised you most about working
with him?
Very little surprised me. Although I suppose I continually learned how
open he is as a person. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Especially
if you're open to him. He's unique. He really is. You can't even begin
to know what he knows. He could probably, if he wanted to, blow your
mind in half, or scare you, or whatever he wanted to do, by seriously
repeating a piece of writing you did on a movie. I'm not fucking around!
How many of your own stunts did you
do?
It depend what you call a stunt. In Tango and Cash, the first
thing I had to do was run through a glass window, fall onto a car, roll
off the car, get up and chase the guy as a car goes by at 60mph. To
me, that's a stunt. Then there's fight scenes. Then there's a scene
like [the scene at the very end of Death Proof] that's an ass-whipping
scene. That's just taking it. That's just taking the punch, which is
the hardest thing to do in a fight scene. The guy who takes it is the
guy who sells it. It's a long day. That's tough. But it's not a stunt.
Then there's driving fast and spinning cars. I never considered that
stuff stuntwork. I consider that driving. You're bumpin', you're grindin',
you're slammin'. It's only a stunt when you crash! You can call it stuntwork
if you like. Back in the day, though, when I was a kid you had to learn
how to ride, how to hitch the wagons, how to jump off the horse and
how to get knocked off the horse. That was tough to do with Indian gear
on. You had to learn how to take an arrow -- that was a big one. And
later on you had to learn how to drive cars and drive 'em fast. And
I used to race cars when I was a kid. I won six nationals and one world
championship. I did it seriously; I was thinking of doing that for a
living. I went into baseball instead, and I used acting as a way to
make money.
Why did you learn to do all that extra
stuff on top of acting?
You learned to do all that stuff because it made you more valuable.
If you were an actor, you had one value, and if you were a stunt kid
you had another value, but if you could do both you had a greater value.
You were more hire-able. So I did it out of necessity: learning to rope,
do a flying W, whatever you were going to do. So stuntmen were always
in my life. I knew a lot of guys and I've known them for years. Some
of them I worked with on Death Proof. Terry Leonard and I have
known each other forever. Buddy Joe Hooker, who does stunt driving for
me in this movie, he slid a motorcycle underneath a truck for me in
1967.
What do you think the appeal of a ‘grindhouse’
movie like Death Proof is?
I don't know. It's an idea that hasn't been out there for a long, long
time. Back in the day I used to audition for some of those pictures.
I didn't ever do any of 'em but I auditioned for some of them. Me and
Ronny Howard were actually talking about this recently. We used to see
each other and one of us would say, “Hey, if you actually get
this movie are you going to do it?” And the other would go, “I
don’t know. I’m not sure about that bit with the rats...”
(Laughs) I wouldn’t quite say they were grindhouse movies but,
later on, a lot of the films I did with John Carpenter were very much
appreciated by Quentin and Robert.
How do you feel about the upcoming remake
of Escape From New York?
As far as remakes are concerned, they've done a lot of those that I
made. They did some Disney movies, like The Computer Wore Tennis
Shoes, they took Stargate and turned it into a TV show,
they took Backdraft and made it into two fire-fighter shows
on TV, they're gonna redo The Thing, they're gonna redo Escape
From New York, and as I like to say all day long, “That's
all well and good but wait till Stuntman Mike hears about this!”
Who cares what I think about it? I couldn't care less, but what he thinks
about... Uh-oh! (Laughs) I think I've done a lot of movies but I've
never done a sequel. So I left the door open for a lot of guys to make
a lot of money. I think I've done a lot of movies – I know I have
– that people would like to have seen a sequel to. I grew up in
a time when we didn't do sequels. You just did a movie because you wanted
to do a movie and you wanted to tell a story. It wasn't to build a franchise.
I'm a bit locked into that. I did Escape From LA because I
wanted to play Snake one more time and I wanted to work with John one
more time. That film will not die.
