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YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?
I hear that happened because of the noise of the New York traffic, so Scorsese was going, “Say it again, say it again, say it again”. That one of the most iconic moments on film should arise out of an improvisation comes as no surprise to me.
DO YOU FEEL LUCKY, PUNK?
Ridiculously blessed… My first Hollywood film was Dragonheart. Patrick Malahide was cast and they’d made these incredibly expensive leather suits of armour for him and he dropped out to do Cutthroat Island instead – never take a horse tip from Patrick – so they needed to find an actor with exactly the same measurements. I fitted the leather and got the job.
WHAT IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND TAKE ALL THOSE HOURS OF PAIN AND DARKNESS AND REPLACE THEM WITH SOMETHING BETTER?
Making Good was a very bleak time for me because I felt like I had a responsibility to revisit the Holocaust so I read only diaries from the time. It gave me an insight into the many rationalisations that people used to get through the day.
YOU EVER DANCE WITH THE DEVIL IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT?
I’ve done an awful lot of that. That’s why I had my kids so late. When the Devil went home, I was still doing the washing up.
WHAT’S THE LAST THING YOU DO REMEMBER?
I did a lot of research into brain damage for Brotherhood, this series I did in which the guy had a severe brain injury.
YOU EITHER SURF OR YOU FIGHT...
I wasn’t allowed to surf in Australia when I made Peter Pan because Joe Fiennes had just been there shooting The Great Raid and had split his head open. I pretended that I was incredibly upset but the truth is I’m a terrible swimmer. One day I had to be rescued by this lifeguard in front of all these beauties. As I was carried back out of the waves like some helpless three-year-old, I tried to hide my head in shame.
WHY SO SERIOUS?
The last time I saw Heath was here at Soho House. He said, “I’m about to play The Joker.” I went, “Fuuuuuck, are you? Nightmare!” He said, “I know, I know.” I said, “Did you watch the other one?” He said, “No! Don’t be mad, that’s not gonna help, is it? I’ve got this notepad and I’m just writing down ideas.” All of us who’d worked with him on The Patriot, when we heard the news, people who hadn’t spoken for years were phoning each other – we just wanted to somehow connect. He was a very sweet boy.
DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR?
In LA, everybody is judged by their cars. I lived there with my wife for six months and we rented these essentially motorised rollerskates. We’d pull up to these posh places and people would look at us like we were wearing hats made of cow pats.
WHAT’S THE USE OF BEING A DISGRACE TO THE NAME OF WIZARD IF THEY DON’T EVEN PAY YOU WELL FOR IT?
Who would have thought the day I felt rather downtrodden that I had been cast as Lucius Malfoy and not Gilderoy Lockhart, that so many years later I’d still be waving my wand around and getting to ride the Harry Potter wave? |
