A rare interview with Michael Wincott was made with Entertainment Today.  The official website has removed the interview so I have transcribed it from the hard copy version of the magazine...

Take it from Morgan Freeman.  He worked with Michael Wincott a decade a go on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and currently appears opposite the raspy-voiced character actor in the thriller Along Came a Spider.
“Michael's a sweetheart – he has enormous power,” Freeman beams when asked about performing with Wincott.  “He's one of these people who's totally dedicated to what he's doing.  I certainly get enjoyment out of working with him.  He's great to rehearse with – he's always got ideas and this incredible sense of humor and this kind of outlandish take on things.”

More on that “outlandish take on things” later.  While he's often typecast as the bad guy you love to hate (see: The Crow, Romeo is Bleeding and Metro) the Toronto-born Wincott, 42, has been quietly building a respectable acting resume for over 20 years.  After bit parts in late 70’s TV fare like An American Christmas Carol and The Littlest Hobo, Wincott went on to use his Julliard education on-stage in New York (he originated the part of Kent/Voice of Joe in Talk Radio, which he reprised in the Oliver Stones’ 1988 film), guested on Reagon-0era television programs like Miami Vice and The Equalizer and has appeared in dozens of big-screen films, usually fleshing out supporting characters or villains.  Wincott can currently be seen in director Julian Schnabel’s acclaimed Before Night Falls as persecuted Cuban artist sympathizer Herberto Zorilla Ochoa, and to a far more substantial degree, screen time-wise at least, as cold-and-clinical psychopath Gary Soneji in Along Came a Spider.

Wincott’s coarse vocal quality and often eccentric artistic choices sort of make him the Tom Waites of the acting world.  His cult/what’s-his-name status due to those characteristics may be eroding fast however, as Spider grants Wincott a generous chunk if exposure and easily the most feature film screen time he's enjoyed since he faced off against the late Brandon Lee in The Crow.  Indeed, the role of Soneji is a deliciously evil showcase for this talented and diligent actor, and if you've seen the Spider trailer, that's Wincott you hear hissing in the voice-over.  Things are looking up for Wincott later this year too, as he'll appear in The Count of Monte Cristo opposite Guy Pearce and Jim Caviezel. With all these forward career moves, it seems as though this dark prince of the acting world is getting closer and closer to inheriting the kingdom of recognition.

Toking on a chain of American Spirit cigarettes and lying down on a couch in a Westwood hotel suite – kind of changing the interviewer-interviewee dynamic to that of doctor-patient – the fiercely opinionated Wincott free-associated about Spider, his enigmatic career, and, well, his motivation.

Entertainment Today: You once said, in terms the characters you play, that “These people just live in us – you just find a door, open it and out they come.”  Is acting that easy for you?

Michael Wincott: You just have to be honest [Quoting an actor:] ‘I became the character.' Well O.K., write him a letter, and when you get a response, let me know. I don't mean to sound glib about it. I just don't go in there with my head hanging heavy, wringing my hands over how I'm going to [play a role].  That's not to say certain material and really good writing doesn't have its challenges, but you're not going to solve anything in this life by making it more complicated or by fretting.  Or by somehow associating the idea of torment with performance.  There is no equal sign between those two things.

ET: You've also said that “My worst work happens when I get obedient.”  Elaborate.

MW: [A strict directing style] has no place.  Then all you're trying to do is satisfy someone else.  So now what's going to happen, if my objective is simply to support your objective?  No, I have an objective!  If we don't have conflict…  that's part of the malaise of our age, isn't it? – the “OK era.”  Gossip has replaced debate; win-lose has replaced constructive conversation.  We don't engage in it anymore – no one wants to have their economic life threatened.  And well, that's a pretty noble thing, but there's no point where you start to wonder what the life is that you're protecting.  Obedience won't get you anywhere in acting.

ET:  That stance must cause some difficulty for you on the job.

MW:  It happens.  You can say anything – it's how you say it.  If you're going to be offensive, if all you're doing is cornering someone's’ ego, then they're not in the mood to listen.  It's just part and parcel of what you learn in life.

ET: What character that you've played would you say is closest to you?

MW:  I think there's something of me in all of them.  All I use is me; that's all I can use.  And that includes my imagination.  I've never seen anything I've done as being vaguely like me.  I don't think so at all.  It's one of the frustrations [of acting].  But as you get older, you start to sort of accept that you're enough to begin with.  You're enough most of the time.  That's not to say that I'm going to parade around and show off me – I might as well wear a sandwich board.  But I don't think I've been engaged that way.  And that's not to say that antagonists aren't interesting – they are when they're well written, you know?  Poorly written heroes are insufferable, and we've seen ‘em many times.

ET: What do you think motivates Gary Soneji?

MW:  You'd have to talk to him.  What do I think the writer and director has assigned me to do?  Well, look at what you're given.  There's loneliness about him.  There's a sorrow about him.  He's incapable of functioning in the world in a healthy way.  He has no coping skills socially.  He deals with a child in a way that's absolutely different from the way he treats everyone else.  He's murderous.  What does he want?  He's a contemporary figure – he wants what everybody's always wanted – acceptance in a celebrity-strangled culture such as ours.  He doesn't want to be ignored.  He doesn't want to be faceless.

ET: What do you make of people like that, who are out for fame for fame's sake?

MW:  Celebrity is a recent phenomenon – people were famous, accomplished and acceptable [in the past], but synonymous with all of those terms was the idea that someone in fact had done something, be it terrible or admirable.  But at least they'd done something.  There was an accomplishment.  It wasn't celebrity as someone who was well-known for being well-known.  What did you thin k you were going to create in an entertainment culture?

ET:  Given those thoughts, is it often difficult for you, on a personal level, to work within this industry?

MW:  Yeah, there's no question.  Let's not be naïve; there is no ideal world.  Maybe in our heads.  But yea, surely…like this strike thing.  I mean, you know, what's under the concerns about money?  [Money] is a good thing to discuss and it's right, but other than remuneration, what's really at the bottom of all this?  What do I think?  I think producers, actors, writers, directors, directors of photography, seamstresses and craft services and everybody…I think everybody's fed up with something.  It's the something that needs to be discussed.  That needs to be put on the table in front of everybody and taken a long look at.  I don't think [the problem is money], I think people are just walking around promoting promotion – the shows about the shows about the shows, you know?  Reality TV?  It doesn't even qualify as a circus anymore.  At least you could believe that.  I think we're just fed up with something.  Even the most venal individual can go around pretending that it's OK.  But sooner or later, isn't there some dying ember that's still alive in this creature that says there's gotta be more to it than that?  There's gotta be more to it than just fighting over sending productions to Timbuktu because it's cheaper, and pretending that it's New York.  How many crash bang wallops can you stand?
One thing that's interesting is that people don't seem to look at the fact that actors worth their salt will go work for Martin Scorsese for nothing, but if it's a crash bang wallop, they want $20 million.  Now why is that?  Because if I'm a whore, I'm a high-paid wore.  Yeah, money's a good thing.  Even I'm not doing this for charity.  But why [the current labor problems in Hollywood]?  Because I have no satisfaction inside me when I'm doing the latter.  All I have is my money and my stuff.  I would take my money for that stuff too.  That's why the guys who are making it are doing it.  I still don't understand why actors feel they cannot say, ‘I’m doing it for the money too!’ That's why everybody's doing it!  And the fucking people are sitting back there in the offices going “Oh, this is such a wonderful movie, and I don't care if they don't pay me.’  It's for big, big money.  So they created it, they can't complain about it.  Somebody signed the first check for the $20 million dollar actor.  It wasn't an actor who signed it.  It wasn't a writer… I'm certainly not trying to imply that the guys in the suits are to blame; that's juvenile.  We're all complicit in this.  That includes me.

ET: Could you share some of your memories of Brandon Lee?

MW:  Dear old Brandon.  He was so alive and such a lovely guy to be around.  And so young.  He was a really lovely individual – full of humor and adventure.  Hey, that's one more guy looking out over my shoulder.

ET™

Michael Wincott creates a fascinating and novel villain. His sinister deadpan delivery personifies evil while walking the line between scary and humorous......But it was in Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise that James O'Barr first noticed him. "They asked me early on if I had any casting suggestions," said the comic creator. "I'd just seen Wincott steal the show from Gerard DePardieu and thought he'd make a great Top Dollar. I was really surprised when they actually got him."

Shirley: Michael Wincott is one of the most under-rated actors in the country

Most:  Michael is not only a gifted actor who can deliver in just the biggest way possible but he improved (ad-libbed) so many of his lines and made this character just the, you know, the guy who jumped off the screen.  He had a tremendous capacity to rip off what was written and come up with something even better.  And I truly give Michael credit for ‘inviewing’  this character with just all those memorable traits that we walked away from the movie with.

Shirley:  He just has an amazing range.  In this you see him playing a sort of genius villain of high style…sort of like the evil counterpart of The Crow.  The Crow is very stylized.  Everything he does is very stylized.  He's a clown in one moment and a tragic figure in the next…the…”The Crow”, and all of his actions are very theatrical in a certain way but rooted in real passion and feeling.  This guy (Top Dollar) is sort of the inverse as he plays the character.  Well, Michael Wincott could probably play a priest too.  I really think he has an amazing range.

Most: We'd seen him in Robin Hood…at the time that we'd cast him he was a Sheriff of Nottingham baddy, (chuckles)…bad, evil villain.  He'd done “Talk Radio” with my producing partner on “The Crow”, Ed Pressman, which was directed by Oliver Stone.  He'd made incredibly varied and art … ah…very articulate, very memorable performances of each film he'd been in.  He did “Columbus.  He just had the most commanding, amazing voice of any actor I think that I'd ever worked with.  You know…truly the man is a star and a powerful, powerful actor.

Shirley:  This scene also was based on one in the comic I think pretty strongly.  Especially when the crow enters.

Most: What David Schow (screen writer) did with this was he was able to relate the whole Devil's Night pathos of burning the buildings to the origins of his (Top Dollar’s) father meeting his half sister, Myca’s, mother in Viet Nam and the buildings that burned and the hostile take over of Viet Nam, burning down, etcetera, almost wanting to relive it in this perverse manner and prove something to Myca that, you know, his love is eternal and that, you know, their father's memory will travel on.  It kind of was able to bring in a brief and very eloquent summary all the rationale behind this huge fire that Top Dollar wanted to create each year on Devil's Night.

Shirley:  You see the humanity in the villain and the villains.  You see them as more complete people in that context.

Most:  The look of Top Dollar was, you know, a trial and error situation.  We liked the idea of the long hair…Michael's hair was much shorter.  Although Brandon Lee had a great deal time to grow his hair it still had hair extensions in it.  We felt this kind of sense of antiquity with the long hair with Michael Wincott kinda bespoke of a guy going back to generations earlier.

Shirley:  Louis the 14th era or something a little bit…

Most:  Louis the 14th, yeah…

Shirley:  He had that kind of corrupt elegance about him…you could see it in his suit.

Page 26
David Schow (scriptwriter)....certainly made a contribution, coming up  with an idea to make the chief villain, Top Dollar, more weird. Schow proposed that he have an Asian half-sister, Myca. Their father was in Vietnam and she would be Top Dollar's incestuous lover. Top Dollar's motivation would be to punish the world for Myca’s tragic life, and she would also replace the function of the soothsayer character in Most and Shirley's script, by recognizing the power of the crow.

Page 53
None of the characters who inhabited the world of "The Crow" were over the age of forty. And most were meant to be contemporaries of Eric Draven, in their twenties. This was fortunate because the movie couldn't afford well established actors or real stars. Bob Rosen (Exec Producer) budgeted that: "Double Scale (the Screen Actor's Guild minimum) was our high price on the movie." Most of the cast would be paid only Scale, about $1500 a week. (It's up to about $2100 today.)

Page 54
Billy Hopkins (casting director) sent videotapes of many New York actors to Los Angeles, and then Alex Proyas went to New York to see those whose work had interested him. "Hopkins had seen a zillion actors," Jeff Most (Producer) recalls. "We were looking for great bad guys, real great character actors. He knew the New York scene quite well. We needed the grittiness in our bad guys.  Ultimately, Top Dollar and his henchman were all New York-based actors.

As Top Dollar, the chief villain who oversees the crime-ridden world of "The Crow", Michael Wincott also brought some celebrity to the cast. He was a classically trained actor, a graduate of Julliard, who had been in the movies "The Doors" and "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."
 

Page 77
....Lawrence Mason's (2nd Unit Director) impression of Brandon Lee changed in a single moment, during the first dinner for all the principal cast: "We're sitting at a long table, kinda like the Jesus table, the Last Supper kind of thing, and one side is Brandon with his fiancee, on the other side was Michael Wincott (Top Dollar). So it's the good guy and the bad guy."

"Michael said something kind of weird, kind of inappropriate because there were ladies at the table. And so Brandon just kinda leaned forward, put a finger in his face and said, 'You gotta watch your mouth. There are ladies at the table.' And just the way he said that I saw like all the Lee Dragon shit. Like he said it real quiet, but it was so intense..."

Page 78
Michael Wincott did not get off to such a positive start in Wilmington, taking a very different view of his costume from Arianne Phillips (costume designer). Although Phillips grew to like and respect Michael Wincott immensely, their initial conversation was tense. "I think he was talking about Armani suits and I was trying to steer him in a different direction."

As a costume designer, Phillips is very protective of her ideas and certainly on her first chance to design a movie, she wasn't "into buying designer clothes for anything, because, I am a designer." But Wincott had only read the script and not seen the stylish look which Phillips costume sketches suggested.

However, when Wincott finally arrived for his actual fitting, "We immediately liked each other. We're both intense. We're both New Yorkers because I'm from New York and he really got it." Wincott's intense interest and concern sprang from his belief that his costume was extremely important in developing his character: "That, to me, as a costume designer," says Phillips, "is the ultimate thing you can do for an actor, is help them with their character."

*******

Michael WIncott - Top Dollar - had a problem with his hair, too. As planned, he had expected the character's long, silky brown hair to be ready and waiting for him. But he arrived in Michelle Johnson's (Hair Stylist) chair only to discover that the production had neglected to tell him they decided there wasn't enough time or money to make his wig. "So he comes to the trailer: 'Where's my wig? You don't have a wig!' I think he was really flipped out."

After a discussion with the production staff, Wincott returned to Johnson, who had no choice but to improvise and find a way of getting him on the set in an hour. Luckily, Johnson had a large store of long, silky brown human hair extensions, exactly the look they had intended for the wig. "Michael was thrilled. 'It's great. It's just what I needed...just what I wanted.'" He was ready for the scene. Johnson was also delighted that her original concept of Top Dollar's hair had been realized. "Long, silky, straight hair, so that when he's doing all the sword fighting it would just move and flow and be really pretty."

Page 120
(Talking about Wilmington, NC, where people were staying, the night life and a bar called Stimmerman's where the cast hung out...)
Often joining "The Crow's" nightlife, was actor Michael WIncott. "He was really cool," Mason recalls. "He's a real cool guy. Very easygoing. Kinda superstar-ish. We were all wild cats there."

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Michael Wincott's experience with weapons showed during the shooting of this scene (fight scene on roof of church). Michelle Johnson, who was on the set to make sure his hair extensions were not noticeable when wet by the rain, remembers: "The first time they yelled 'Cut!', he just stood there with the sword up there in the air until somebody collected it. And I went, Now there's a pro!."

Page 197
(The crew reacts to news that Brandon Lee has been killed.)
Slowly, crew and cast members gathered (at Script Supervisor Nini Rogan's house) there, and when they realized that nobody had called Michael Wincott, who had already finished shooting and had left Wilmington, they desperately tried to reach him before he heard the news from some cold-blooded source. But they were too late, he had already been told. Never the less, Rogan says that: "Probably twenty of us talked to him. It was extraordinary. The neighbors were letting us use their phones so that people could call their families. It was unbelievable."

Talking to Wincott had a profound effect on Michelle Johnson. "I lost it. It just kinda hit me, it's when I heard Michael's voice. And I don't know why it took Michael's voice to sort of do that to me. Maybe it was just because he was one of my favorite people on that whole show."

When actor Michael Wincott discusses his role as the cruel persecutor and occasional murderer of the poor, Guy of Gisborne, he wears a look of undisguised delight.

"It's terrific to play an out-and-out villain." Wincott says. "The villains are always so much more interesting to play - and this guy is a real son of a bitch. What is fascinating is that this guy is so solitary; so very alone.  That is even more interesting than the evil aspect.

"I wish there was a way of showing more of Gisborne, but I am a realist. This movie is about Robin Hood and we don't want to confuse the central issue."

But Guy will catch the eye.  Wincott maximizes his character's dark side by wearing a costume of jet black and a constant, unblinking stare.  Make-up supervisor Paul Engelen has also sculptured a savagely disfigured right ear, the result of a near-miss swordfight.  Definitely a case of Gisborne looking like the bad Guy all right.

"I find something new about Gisborne on each day we film," says Michael.  "But as one day is never the same as the last, I am not the person to tell you whether I'm getting it right all the time."

Was there any of the Robin Hood legend which was part of his own childhood?  "No," says Michael.  "I could not imagine anything about him that was apart of my background, which was an urban environment.  Anything that romantic came from a world in your head or just books.  Also, in terms of the way it was depicted in films we had the Errol Flynn version and that was it."

He trained at one of America's most prestigious drama schools, Julliard. With more than 20 major stage credits to his name, his particular admiration of theater actors led to a special friendship with Morgan Freeman.

"I went to see him in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW in New York and he was terrific, as always," he says. "He busted his ass in New York theaters for 22 years and there aren't many actors like that any more. Compared with that, films have advantages. Look at us, how lucky we are. Trailers and nice hotels.  People to pamper you, guys asking if you want a coffee, all your needs cared for."

"These people just live in us, ya know?" says Wincott. "And you just find the door, open it up"--he clicks his tongue--"and out they come."

One of the high points in his performance--which he perfected during the play's six-month run at New York's Public Theater-- comes when, high on Pepsi, he slaps out the rhythm track from a Megadeth tune with his hands. It turns out Wincott, who grew up in a Toronto suburb, is no stranger to a drum kit.  "I played drums in jazz bands as a kid," he says. "I was much too much of an elitist to play rock and roll."

Offstage, the thirty-year-old Wincott sometimes seems to be reading for the role of Serious Actor. Indeed, he prides himself on an approach to acting that's the theatrical equivalent of reckless endangerment.

"My worst work happens when I get obedient," he says. "The moment I start saying, 'Oh, yes, you're right. I'm wrong' ...I usually get called in on things that have a certain degree of intensity to them. You know. 'Will the guy run through panes of glass?' "

In the upcoming Oliver Stone film 'Born on the Fourth of July', based on Ron KoVic's autobiographical account of the Vietnam War, Wincott plays a bedridden vet who's dying of
heartache and other assorted psychological afflictions.  He'll also appear this fall in  'Bloodhounds of Broadway', starring Madonna.

Although he "loves to play characters," Wincott says he'd like to move on to "something older, a little more like me".  What would be his dream role?  "Has it been written?" he retorts. "  A new David Mamet play...something that would have a moon in it, a skyline behind it, a lone figure sitting in the middle of the stage, long dark overcoat, hear a voice in the dark, and then a single spotlight comes up..."

"There was no one else for the part." Bramon contends. Stone agreed that Wincott was good, but he worried that he was too old for the role in the film. The director believed that it was possible to hide an actor's age from a theater audience, but that it was harder to conceal from a movie camera.

"With Oliver, " Bramon says, "If you want him to cast C you tell him you want A and B. That's how we work with him. He knows what we do and makes fun of it himself."  Wincott got the part.

He's that kind of actor that makes you think "Oh, that's him...I've seen him before....what was his name...?"  But actually Michael Wincott is the hottest Bad Guy at this moment.

That is the eternal destiny of a character actor, even if he wins an Oscar, people don't seem to remember his name.  But, once you have seen the dramatic, skull like face of Michael Wincott, you won't forget it.  His cheekbones, his jaw line and his raspy voice (which sounds like something from the depths of hell).  He frightened Christopher Columbus (Gerard DePardieu) in '1492', and made the quick and brave d'Artagnan (Chris O'Donnel) almost paralyzed in 'The Three Musketeers'.  He also showed an elegant futuristic evilness against Ralph Fiennes in 'Strange Days'.

In his last movie, 'Metro', Michael Wincott committed the cardinal sin of a supporting actor - he steals the attention from the star of the movie, Eddie Murphy.  While Eddie Murphy plays a 'one in a dozen cop' (a tired variant of 'Beverly Hills Cop'), Michael Wincott has filled the character as a jewel thief with personality, and brought life to this role.

I meet Michael Wincott at Hotel Essex House in Manhattan, and he talks about life outside the cameras.  He's dressed in a dark blue suit, something that feels a little wrong.  I'm used to seeing him in romantic clothes from the 16th century, or cool leather outfits.  The hair, which is long in most of his movies  (in '1492', really long) is quite short.   But what really doesn't seem right is that he is laughing and joking.  Truly, with a voice that gives me the chills.

He has been hoping for the big breakthrough - the one that will make people remember his name - for many years now.  He was sure that it would happen six or seven years ago, while he was filming 'Robin Hood'.  When that didn't happened, he was hoping for '1492', Ridley Scott's drama about Christopher Columbus.  Michael Wincott's role as the rebellious Moxica gave him many opportunities to impress the audience and critics:  he severs the hand of an Indian, argues with Gerard DePardieu's Columbus and commits a spectacular suicide.  The movie didn't live up to the expectations - and that was it.

"You get to hear it so often - this is your time, this is your movie - finally you just don't listen anymore.  Especially character actors, they are as leaves in the wind" says Michael Wincott. "There is a saying about the one who wants to amuse the gods never plans his life.  He must have been an actor...  .You never get the role you have worked so hard for, but the dream role, the one who gives you joy, money and maybe even honor, that one just falls into your lap.....

Michael Wincott comes from a working family.  That he did something about his acting ambitions is thanks to his father.  His father came from Blackpool, England and provided his wife as a constructor, welder and salesman-all at the same time.  His mother is from Milano.

"My father was 34 years old when he one day suddenly found out that he should take a evening class at the university.  He became a teacher.  That's when I realized that I could make my dreams come true."

Michael Wincott has been in so many historical movies, that he sometimes is taken for an Englishman.  He knows how to fight as in the medieval, he rides, and he knows his Shakespeare.

Wincott's first job was for Joseph Papp and his famous Public Theater in New York.  "I still remember how exciting it was with these checks at $150 for eight plays a week.  This is life, I thought, standing at a stage - and getting paid for it..."

Wincott tells that while he was working at The Public, he was influenced by colleagues that he still admires - Gary Oldman and Sean Penn.  That Michael Wincott is in the category of the bad guys - thanks to his looks, - he's aware of; although he lowers his voice a bit while playing them.  "You have to be careful so you don't make your character dull and predictable.  Sometimes you have to bend the script a little...The bad guys are mostly the same on the paper....."  He always tries to find something he can sympathize with in the character.  "A bad guy wouldn't think of himself as bad.  The guy I'm playing in 'Metro' thinks of himself as a responsible and nice guy, since he is taking care of his retarded cousin.  That is what I try to keep in mind, when I'm shooting and stabbing people...."

All of Michael's roles aren't as a bad guy.  He plays an art critic in Julian Schnabel's 'Basquiat'.  He laughs  "That was to show that I can play normal people, too.  That I don't have to die in all my movies."

In his next movie 'Alien Resurrection', Michael is on a spaceship that brings with it a cloned monster; and the heroine Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) - is a clone as well.  Does Wincott survive the monster and 'Alien Resurrection'?   He laughs.   "Of course not.  I never get the girl - I always die.  That is the catch with playing bad.  I'm actually a very romantic person, and I would like to play in a love story.  As long as it doesn't get too sweet.  That's not me..."

Michael Wincott's favorite until now is 'Romeo is Bleeding'.  "I got to work with my my idol Gary Oldman.  And I met Lena Olin, a wonderful and sensual woman..."

Michael takes a look around, eats some chicken salad, and laughs again -that laughter that gives me the chills.

Opening Scene – Michael’s apartment /hotel suite.

MW is wearing a white open neck shirt, black pants and a black jacket (looking pretty much like he did in Metro, but with slightly shorter hair). He is giving the German interviewer a guided tour around his apartment/hotel suite. Robbie Williams’ music is playing loudly, so I couldn’t hear what was being said.

The hotel suite sitting room is white walled, with a long khaki coloured 8 seater sofa along a full wall. A couple of pieces of art work on the walls – but looked like the type of thing that would come with the room, rather than someone’s choice – couldn’t make it out well enough anyway. There is a small round dining table and chairs. Wooden block type flooring and a Chinese pattern rug. A 20 inch TV (about) and video player. 2 sets of French Windows leading onto a balcony. MW goes outside and looks at the view over LA. There is another round table and chairs, and two recliners on the balcony. He points out places of interest to the interviewer – Robbie W still singing, so I can’t hear them talking.

 He then returns inside and shows her the bathroom (white) and the bedroom also white with a plain looking bed with white covers and a wooden headboard. Interviewer lies down on the bed for a moment – like she’s trying out the bed.

He then shows her the kitchen, which is – you’ve guessed it – white – with a large gas cooker big enough to feed a family of 20! Nothing much else on display there – looks like he doesn’t cook much!

Interviewer:      “Let’s go down and have a little breakfast.”

Michael:           “Right, you have everything now?”

She is obviously not returning to the apartment. They walk down the corridor together. Michael has a largish bag strapped over his shoulder/chest and a brown paper carrier bag with handles, that he’s carrying.

Second Scene – Reception and then outdoor restaurant

Michael goes to Reception and hands in his keys (so he obviously doesn’t own this suite as he wouldn’t have to hand in the keys if this was the case). He is now eating a Granny Smith apple. (you know… the very green crunchy ones!). They then go outside the hotel, which looks like an old Venetian style, with lots of plants, white walls and pillars – a sort of comfy and artistic place, rather than posh. Looks like the type of place you could relax in, rather than having to be wearing your Sunday best!! And go to a patio, which has a little restaurant.

They find a table for 2 and look at the menu. She chooses buttermilk pancake.

Michael:           “I’ll have that too because it’s so good.”

He lights a cigarette - doesn’t ask if she minds if he smokes or not.

Interviewer:      “So you are staying in Chateau Marmont?”. “That’s usually where you are the whole time               when  you’re in LA?”

Michael:           “Yes. Great historic(or could be ‘classic’?) stories to this place.”

Interviewer:      “So when you travel around and do your movies, you stay in historic places like this?

Michael:           “Yeah, it suits my life; I didn’t stay in them when I was a waiter in New York...”

Interviewer:      “You were a waiter in New York?”

 Michael:           Nods wordlessly.

Interviewer:      “Tell me about your growing up, that would be really interesting.”

Michael:           “Um, let’s see… Mother from Milan, Father from Lancashire, England, literally they came off the boat in 1952."

Interviewer:      “Came at a boat?”

Michael:          “Came on a boat (makes sailing gesture with hand), they sailed here after WWII after they met in England. Mother hardly spoke Italian (he means English here I presume!!). My father took one look at this gorgeous exotic Latin creature, I’m sure he hadn’t seen anything like her before; you won’t see much like my Mum to this day, or my Dad – they’re quite a couple of characters… but anyway… but I think one of the luckiest things about my life is that I was born to mixed race parents. My Dad worked real hard, he was a steam fitter, a welder in construction.”

Interviewer:      “He worked with his hands?”

Michael:           “Yes.”

Interviewer:      “And then you went to school in Canada?”

Michael:           “Yes when I was a kid, then I left years later to go to New York by myself, it was fantastic.”

Interviewer:      “How old were you?”

Michael:           “I was 20 or 21?… 20.”

Interviewer:      “When you were a kid, what kind of dreams were in your head? What did you dream about being when you were grown up?”

Michael:           “I don’t know, I don’t think I dreamt about being grown up, I spent a lot of time by myself. I always remember my father had a collection of old classical records, those very thick old records, do you remember?, and we had an old hi-fi – an old box with a needle you put on the record (demonstrates with his hands), I’d stay in in the mornings with my mother, when my brothers had gone to school – I was the youngest…”

Interviewer:      Interrupting again “You have brothers or sisters?”

Michael:           “2 brothers, older.”

Interviewer:      “Both older? What do they do?”

Michael:           Bill? (pause – searching for the right words) is taking care of business, Bill is being a great, wonderful guy. Jeff is, uh… up there in Toronto as well, where he’s up to today, he’s alright,… and uh… where were we?

Interviewer:      “I uh…”

Michael:           “Classical records, yes, I was telling you about the classical records. When I was a little boy I would take a rule, you know a ruler, and I would sit there and conduct to these records all day.”

Interviewer:      “You would really?”

Michael:           Yeah, all day.” (big grin on his face and laughs).

Interviewer:      “Music influenced you?”

Michael:           “Huge influence. It was a house full of sounds, my mother’s accent and my father’s accent (holds hands up to show different accents coming together), so we had to become accustomed to these sounds that were in our house, these sounds passed through your ears a lot because they were distinguished and distinct dialects. My mother spoke with a sort of broken English, but my father spoke with a Lancastrian accent, and she would say these Lancastrian colloquiums, but she would speak in that dialect sometimes, which was hysterical, she would speak Italian or English with this Lancastrian accent, like ‘Yes love’, or ‘now love’,” (mimics his mother’s accent).

Scene three – Still waiting for their breakfast

Interviewer:      “What put first the idea up in your head that the direction to go was acting or performing?”

Michael:           “When it found me.”

Interviewer:      “It found you?”

Michael:           “Yes, I was already doing creative things, acting in high school stuff. Actually Mike Newall, Director of 4 Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, he gave me my first job when I was 18.”

Interviewer:      “And that was? Which one?”

Michael:           “It was a piece for CBC, a television play, 90 minute television play.”

Interviewer:      “Were you nervous there?”

Michael:           “No I wasn’t, it was just fun, it’s always the way, and that’s how I like to keep it.”

Interviewer:      “And now you had your feet in the door that’s how it happened?”

Michael:           “Yes, and my parents were very encouraging, it was wonderful, a great day that day… and uh, ‘treasured’ I think is the word, and I carried on there and went to New York. I did a picture with Mike Chemino (Not sure of the surname that he says because he’s eating spoonfuls of froth off his cappuccino at the time!), you know, ooh I was very lucky and uh, I started off on Broadway with Joe Papp, God rest his soul, the wonderful Joe Papp, they’ll never make another like him, and uh, that’s how it went from there, I did TV, Broadway then movies bah, bah, bah, bah!”

Interviewer:      “How many movies did you do?”

Michael:           “Uh, let’s see…” (looks at a loss).

Interviewer:      “Over 20?”

Michael:           “Yeah, over 20.”

Interviewer:      “What’s the one you like most?”

Michael:           “I don’t have a favourite because they all mean something to me.”

Short clips out of Alien Resurrection, Top Dollar (dubbed into German), Philo Gant (also dubbed into German) and Metro are shown.

Interviewer:      “We make little stop right now because we would like to eat this food that looks so good, and then we go on in a little bit alrighty?…”

When they return to filming, a waiter (or could be a camera man) comes up to them and says that it’s getting a little crowded and they’ll have to move the equipment.

Michael and the interviewer walks through the gardens, and Michael pats two dogs that are standing nearby… an English bull terrier and a mongrel type of dog.

Scene Four – A more secluded part of the gardens

Two sun recliners – she is lying in the sun on hers, while he is lying with his recliner in the shade… He’s still wearing his jacket. They are both looking very relaxed. He is smoking again.

Interviewer:      When you were in Robin Hood and playing with uh…” (she makes a sword fighting gesture).

Michael:           “Sword?”

Interviewer:      “Yes, sword, how old were you when you learned that?”

Michael:           “I learned that at Julliard for a year.”

Interviewer:      “And horse riding and stuff like that?”

Michael:           “Oh no, that was acquired as I needed it for pictures, learn as you go – it’s always better anyway.”

Interviewer:      “And what about stunts and stuff?”

Michael:           “Oh no, no, no!” (Shakes head).

Interviewer:      “You never think of doing them?”

Michael:           Shakes head again.

Interviewer:      “Too dangerous?”

Michael:           “Yes, it’s not my job.”

Lot of background noise, traffic, people talking etc during this scene, so some bits not very clear.

Interviewer:      “You reached the American dream that so many people dream about, why do you think some people never reach that?”

Michael:           “I don’t know, I can only speak for myself, it can go either way, it’s a little bit of fortune and what you do with it, the lessons we learn along the way and what we do with them… it’s your ability to learn.”

Interviewer:      “What do you think about how your life will go along?”

Michael:           Shrugs.

Interviewer:      “Just keep making movies, or one day you have enough?”

Michael:           Shrugs again and looks alarmed when she mentions giving up! “I don’t know, right now we’re sitting here, you’re looking lovely, we’re having a pleasant day, and I’m really appreciating life.”

Scene five – Michael’s silver or white BMW car.

Interviewer:      “Ah mister, will you give me a ride in your new Beemer(BMW)?”

Michael:           Nods. (In the driver’s seat - with yet another apple in his mouth, while he is searching for the ignition key on his key-ring.) He is wearing black leather open toed sandals. (Shot of his feet on the pedals).

As they travel along, the song ‘Hallelujah’ from Shrek is playing on the CD player. (Michael is still munching at his apple - I think the carrier bag was full of apples, as he seems particularly partial to them, LOL! He seems to be either smoking, or eating Granny Smith apples!).

Interviewer:      “You drive pretty good for someone who just started at 35.”

Michael:           “Yeah, I was silly.” (presumably meaning that he hadn’t learned earlier).

They both sing along to the song. He gives the camera a Top Dollar look as he nibbles the apple!

Michael:           “It’s a wonderful song, so pretty.”

Interviewer:      “And he died, the guy huh?”

Michael:           Nods. “He died.”

He sings some more, looking very intense at the song, and still nibbling at his apple!

Interviewer:      “What about Crow? How did they continue with the movie after this bad accident happened?”

Michael:           “With great difficulty.”

Interviewer:      “What happened? Can you explain it once again?”

Michael:           “Nobody really seems to know, I mean I’ve heard a variety of things, but all I now is that a 27 year old man, who was just terrific, a really lovely man …” (doesn’t finish the sentence).

Interviewer:      “So Brandon Lee is dead we’re talking about; And then it just happen by mistake of bullets and stuff?”

Michael:           Rolls his eyes skywards, and obviously finds it difficult to talk about it. “Not a good day! (Looks like Frankie when he says this). Uh, how did they complete it? They altered, rearranged the scenes, they did some CGI work. It was really hard getting everybody to reassemble for that, that was really difficult, because everybody was just obviously traumatised.”

Interviewer:      “So you don’t actually like to talk about that movie?”

Michael:           Shakes his head wordlessly.

Interviewer:      “Because it was such a bad thing that happened in the movie.”

Michael:           Nods wordlessly, and looks uncomfortable.

Interviewer:      “But the movie was great anyhow until then.”

Michael:           “Yeah it was.”

The interview ends as he is obviously getting too upset to talk.