16 Blocks - Bruce Willis interview
Compiled by Jack Foley
BRUCE Willis talks about returning to the role of a police detective for 16 Blocks, as well as his admiration for the work done by police officers as a whole. He goes on to reveal why he is happy with his career and the events that changed his own life…
Q: You have a lot of insight into police officers. Why do they fascinate you?
A: I think it’s partly because I’m from South Jersey and I have a strong affinity towards working-class people. I believe that any job that requires you to possibly get shot at or get shot dead, you should be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for. These guys don’t get paid anything. Yet they go out and do it and there’s not a lot of them out there. They are the last line between us and the wolves and the chaos that’s out in the world. There’s a lot of chaos in the world. All these guys – cops, EMT workers, men and women, emergency room doctors and nurses – are people that every night have to see horrific things. There should be thousands of films done about these guys. And they should get paid more money, a lot more money, I think.
Q: For this role, you have a limp, moustache and the paunch. Jack Mosley is very different from your action star image…
A: I never considered any of those things. Those were all elements in the script. It never said that I had to be overweight, but I know a lot of guys who are capable of drinking a bottle and a half of Scotch a night, and they’re a little overweight. I think they call it booze weight. So, I thought it would help. But everything else – the limp and the attitude – were all written by Richard Wenk, the screenwriter. That said, it could have just been another stupid run-down-the-street – or limp-down-the-street – Bruce Willis film.
This film really didn’t come together until Mos Def came on board wiith the character that he showed up with. No one knew what he was going to do. All we knew was that we were fortunate enough to get him. And he showed up with a character that was just genius. I mean, that’s not him. He doesn’t talk like that; he doesn’t act like that. He’s a very smart, creative young man. It changed the fabric of the film. And it changed the way we all looked at the film. A spontaneous chemistry happened in this film that I’m not sure would have happened if it were another actor. He is an actor. I was asked yesterday: “How do you feel about working with a rapper-turned-actor?” Well, I don’t think about him in that way at all. I think that he’s an actor. If he wants to do poetry, then he can do that. If he wants to rap, he can do that. But he is an actor and he’s just a very creative guy. Everybody benefited from his performance in this film, especially me and my character.
Q: Director Richard Donner describes you as being a very brave actor and mentions that this is probably the right time in your life to be playing this kind of character. Do you think so?
A: That’s a very nice compliment. I don’t think I could have played Jack Mosley 10 years ago. I knew when I was in my 30s that by the time I got into my 40s and late 40s, I would know so much more about life and have lived more life. It just allowed me to give this character a different world view than I had when I was in my 30s. There are so many better parts now and much cooler things to be able to do. You’ve all seen it; you’ve all read it; you’ve all seen little things where they try to make you feel less of a man because you’re losing your hair, but I’m a man and I will kick anybody’s ass who tries to tell me that I’m not a man because my hair is thinning. I like fooling around with looking different ways. I wear make-up in films. I don’t wear make-up in real life. It’s just part of the gig. That’s all. You wear clothes and you gain weight and you lose weight.
Q: Richard Donner said that you made the phone call to help bring Mos Def into the picture. Why did you think he would be perfect for this role?
A: We were friends. I’ve known him for a while. I called him after I saw him in Monster’s Ball. He was getting ready to do an album and I said: “You should take a look at this. It’s a really good part.” I think this is a career-making role for him. People are going to see him in a much different way. And I love him. He’s like a little angel, in real life too, but in this movie he really has that angelic quality; it just comes out of him. He’s not acting – that’s just Mos.
Q: What do you think this film says about corruption?
A: I think the story in the film is a microcosmic view of what’s going on in the world, the chaos in the world. I personally feel that it seems like the world is out of control and we can’t affect the politicians. We can’t get the lobbyists out of Washington. We have no connection with our Senators and Congressmen. They don’t give a shit about us. They’re just up there. It seems like their job is to give the appearance that they’re doing something, but they’re really not doing anything. And money corrupts. It’s all about money. Everybody needs it. If cops were paid $150,000 a year instead of $40,000 a year to get shot at every night, there might not be the temptation. As a man in this modern world, we still have to protect our family and protect the cave. You want a house where your kids are safe and you’re going to do whatever that takes. Sometimes that takes breaking the law and becoming corrupt. And money does corrupt.
Q: The press notes say that you attended the aftermath of a shootout and that you went driving with a Brooklyn detective. What do you get out of that process?
A: Well, it was definitely disturbing. Nobody likes to see that. But it goes on every night. And maybe one or two things get reported. We go for the sensational now in the news. If it’s not sensational or tantalizing or making fun of someone, it seldom gets into the news. I don’t watch the news. I just have turned it off and I feel so much better for it. That’s why I have that youthful glow about me [laughs]. But I wanted to get out there on that shift that those guys work. I haven’t done it for a while and I was with a really good guy. They’re dealing with things that none of you guys, nobody in this room wants to deal with, nobody in this city wants to deal with.
Q: You do a lot of different kinds of movies. Do you like being flexible in the kinds of movies you do?
A: I take flexibility as a compliment. I do a lot of different kinds of films but not all of them get seen. In the past two years I have done a bunch of films that all seem to be coming out at the same time. They’re all very different. But I don’t have a plan. I don’t say: “Okay, I want to do this film because I want to make this statement.” It’s my job to be entertaining. If you’re going to come out of your house, get in the car, go park the car, buy tickets, buy food, buy popcorn, buy all that stuff, and just sit in a movie theatre instead of sitting in front of that big flat screen where you could just wait and get the DVD, then it’s our job to be entertaining.
Q: Do you see a growing chasm between the films that the critics and the Academy like and the films that people really want to go see?
A: Yeah, Hollywood’s changed a great deal since 9/11. It’s a much more cautious time in Hollywood now but it will come change. When five movies come out – five different films of different genres – and make $150 million each, or $200 million each, they’ll start spending money again. But it really is a cautious period of austerity in Hollywood.
I don’t have any comment about the Oscars. I mean, the Oscars are people’s opinions and I don’t think it reflects public opinion all the time. Sometimes it does. I will say that Jamie Foxx was unbelievable as Ray Charles. I thought he was Ray Charles. And it was a brilliant movie. So, there’s an example where the world said: “Yeah, we agree.”