“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works”
Or
When Hemanth Kissoon attended a press conference with modern film legend Michael Douglas

3 September 2006

By Hemanth Kissoon

Q. I was wondering what the penalty is in the USA now for committing an indiscretion with the President’s wife?
 
A. That’s a serious plot point we’re keeping under wraps. I don’t know, I just know that everybody wished the first lady looked like Kim Basinger. Honest to goodness that whole storyline was in the original book. It wasn’t anything I invented, but it was a pleasure. I always wanted to work with her. Actually we, Paul Verhoeven and I, offered her Basic Instinct way back when we were trying to get a star, before Sharon was made a star. She did 9½ Weeks I think just before that back then; and so that was a treat.
 
Q. I think Don’t Say a Word was your last substantial leading role, is that by accident, by design or did you just not find anything that engaged you sufficiently?
 
A. Well there was something that engaged my interest sufficiently, which was a new bride and two kids. I guess as most of you know this is not a 9 to 5 kind of profession, and there are very few people I know that’s been able to juggle a career and a family equally – something’s got to give. Most of you know that it’s hard staring careers and starting families at the same time. It’s been really a part of my life working hard, priorities were clearly career first family second. And then things worked out pretty well work-wise, not so well marriage-wise, which is the price you pay. So once you decide to start a family at my age it’s something to really cherish and enjoy, and those first early years with the children that you’re never going to be able to get back. So I was happy and at the same Catherine was at the prime of her career and working. I knew something was going to have to give. And I like working with the United Nations a lot, been fortunate enough to be a Messenger of Peace for awhile – working in the disarmament area, doing documentaries in Sierra Leone, a lot of voice-over things which I enjoy. So next thing you know a couple of years go by. It wasn’t Don’t Say a Word it was It Runs in the Family with my father, which was also a great opportunity, with my mother and my son Cameron. And during that period of absence you are also working on material with your company, The Sentinel being one of the pictures, and one day you decide it is time to go back. But the reality is I like my work. I really like making movies, producing and acting. So you take a look outside at what’s around and look within your company and decide this is in pretty good shape. You got Clark Johnson, and Kiefer, Eva and Kim.

Q. It strikes me that lot of this [The Sentinel] is about hero worship, in the professional sense. Eva Longoria’s character really loves this man [Douglas’ character] in the professional sense. When you were growing up and just getting into the business, who were your heroes apart from your dad and do you have any heroes today in your own business?
 
A. Well, I’m a big fan of Albert Finney as an actor. I’ve always admired him tremendously – seeing him in Joe 8 in New York. Actor-wise Albert and Jack Nicholson are two that come to mind off the top. I enjoy tremendously. I am dear friends with Danny DeVito, I’ve admired the way he has conducted himself through a long career that we started at the same time. It’s a good question. I guess it’s the curse of being second generation, where success is just expected, is not a surprise. So I can’t say I’ve had any heroes, it’s just that once I decided to get into this then it was just trying to achieve myself. I’ve had mentors – Karl Malden was clearly the most important person in my professional career; and a tremendous influence on me in so many areas: work ethic, reactions, structure. But generally about heroes, that’s probably why I do all these grey character things because I’ve not seen a lot of heroes around. I think a lot of this goes back to the Vietnam War, it was such a strange change. Looking back at my dad’s pictures which were much more black and white characters, there were good guys and bad guys; you see a reflection of that in US’ policies right now, that John Wayne feeling.
 
Q. As a father of young children are you interested in doing a family friendly movie such as an animated one?
 
A. Well the first of part of you question, desperately. Unfortunately my career is made up of movies my children cannot see, and I’m reaching the point now where they know mommy acts but what does daddy do? So yes I would be. The animation issue always bothered me, because generally (I’m going to get into trouble for this) has been a licence to steel as far as the studios and everyone concerned. They don’t treat like it an actual performance in terms of salary or your profit share. It’s an animated film so they get to do a likeness of you, they use your voice and they usually go after you when you’ve had your first child or baby and say “Wouldn’t it be nice to do a film your kids could see?” And it’s a racket in my mind. So I’ve been down on them for a long time. But things might have changed but I don’t think so, the last they asked to do that. So for the sake of my child I would love to do it but not for the sake of the studios.
 
Q. I believe the cast were required to do weapons training, were your surprised at who actually won that? With your role as a UN ambassador do you choose your roles carefully regarding weapons?
 
A. First part of the question, yes we were very surprised. We were fortunate enough to have a couple of retired agents who were working with us. Like most pictures, you do all this sort of training. The big difference on this one was the use of live ammunition, so it changes your whole attitude about how you behave. It was a pretty lengthy course: kneeling, standing, right position, left side, all the way around. You know the answer to this. You know Kiefer, 24, he’s going to be fantastic. But it’s live ammunition so you’re really going to see where the bullets are going in. I’ll look ok, I’ve been doing this a long time – The Streets of San Francisco. But Eva. we had FBI agents with us and Secret Service and they all conferred and said that she shoots better than 90% of the police officers we have. And it was scary. Here I am patronizing her, a Desperate Housewife, really making her stretch to play a Secret Service officer. Then I find out that generally women shoot better than men.
 
As far as the question in being interested in disarmament for the United Nations, working on small arms trafficking and hand-gun control which I am, yes, I look fairly carefully at the roles. Guns have been an integral part of movie-making for a long time. It is the easiest way to create tension. You try not to do it gratuitously, I’ve had my fair share. But I’ve murdered people in movies a lot of different ways. My answer generally is that if it’s a successful movie, if it’s a successful movie in Canada, a success in the UK or a success in Japan, but the hand-gun laws are completely different. And that’s really the issue, people can successfully separate movies from reality but accessibility to hand-guns that makes it an issue.

Q. Could you confirm whether you and Catherine are making Racing the Monsoon, and how do you feel generally about working with your nearest and dearest – do you think it’s a combination that works well, getting the balance of home-life and work?
 
A. Racing the Monsoon is a project that is a take-off of the spirit of Romancing the Stone. And yes we are developing it and we hope to. Unlike Romancing the Stone I will not be playing the love interest. If Catherine so chooses to do the role we will find a nice young hunk for her and I’ll be the villain, and I’ll try to kill one of them.
 
Your kids start getting into school ages, making a movie is 3 to 5 months of your life, and so we said “Yeah, we are shooting this picture in India, wouldn’t it be great to go to India for half a year. Take the kids out, get some tutors and really enjoy the country, the experience.” So we’d really like to, but it’s not fully developed. We’re still on another draft.
 
The history of married couples playing love interests on screen is not great, so I don’t think that will be on the cards.
 
Q. There was a big chase in The Sentinel where at the end you looked positively knackered. Did you have to think about this as a producer as well as an actor to make it age appropriate?
 
A. No, I mean I was acting, because we do those scenes in takes and pieces and everything else, but I did say to myself that I am of retirement age, in the movie, and I did say to myself that this guy should be knockered [sic], just out of it. I did have some problems with my hamstring, which for anybody who’s had a hamstring injury knows it’s a pain to try to heal. Tried to schedule some time off and pull it off as best as we can. It does not help that Kiefer is the 400m high school record holder at his Canadian high school, and he takes no prisoners when it comes to running scenes. He’d take off like a bat and I found myself stopping to look for evidence along the way wherever I could. And I’ve now found it is not so unusual to be passed by an Eva Longoria in high heels. It’s not something you wish for but I have since found out that ladies can run pretty fast in high heels – they stay on their toes.
 
Q. Returning to something you mentioned early, taking time out over the last couple of years, did you then have time to work on your handicap? And if the circumstances were appropriate would you consider giving up an Oscar for the Green Jacket?
 
A. Well if it was the Green Jacket it would mean just generally I was playing great golf. Let’s see how many Oscars? That’s a nasty question but you see I’m debating it. My handicap has not changed very much, I’m a latecomer to this game. Jack Nicholson, we were both looking for something to do into our twilight years, but I’ve been really frustrated that you can’t get better at the game. I’m still on a 16. I’ve crept down briefly to a 14 and back up and I can’t over it. And it’s not like any other sport in terms of you don’t get the reciprocal benefits for the time you put in. Tennis, or most sports, you can go from a C to a C+ player and you can almost equate the amount of time you play it to improving your game. This thing is merciless, but I hoping to be back. I’m going to go for that Dunhill this year again in Scotland.
 
For a Green Jacket which would mean I’d be that good, I might have to give up one of them, don’t think it’d be the acting one.

Q. You’ve had quite a lot of rejection in your career. You had to struggle to get the money for Romancing the Stone. More recently Wonder Boys did not get the recognition it deserved. Do you see rejection as a challenge or do you want to go away and disappear?
 
A. Rejection for me creates anger and anger creates energy. And it’s a false sense of energy and it’s probably something I inherited from my father who was known to be a bit of a rager. Looking back, I think I’ve changed a lot, but people always sort of misconstrue me as an inside Hollywood guy because I am second generation. In fact my father was always very independent and never had a studio contract, was the first independent producer, broke the Blacklist with Dalton Trumbo. And my career has been relatively independent too and looking for financing. Yeah, rejection creates an anger, a false sense of energy and I used to use it a lot. In 2003 It Runs in the Family we did and The In-Laws, which I thought was a funny picture but a disaster. It was released badly. They said it’s not a good time to go away, you’ve got to go away on a high. I said I was tired doing it, and you just had something for the first time in a long time that I wanted to do in terms of your family. I think it’s hard. Doing a picture with Katie Hudson and this picture with Kiefer and us all sharing the fact that we are second generation brats, different ages. The connotation being that we had silver spoons in our mouths. It tends to be a little more difficult to get the credit due. I’d be jealous and assume we had all the benefits. So I think it takes a little longer to establish your own identity or to get the acknowledgments that maybe if you weren’t.
 
Q. Children’s film projects aside, what are your dramatic acting ambitions that remain? Maybe something with Jack and Danny and you, Jersey boys reunited?
 
A. That’d be nice. It’s amazing the amount of people that come from New Jersey. What is it, is there some place in the UK besides Wales where all the talent comes from? Glasgow? I’ve got a couple of social redeeming projects that I’ve been working on. But it’s rough out there. There are pretty mediocre goings these days. I think the big corporate towers seem to be winning out – huge vertically integrated entertainment businesses. I don’t see a lot of good stuff honestly. You get tired too working. You know it’s hard development, it’s so tough developing things. I’m working on a few things. I’ve got a nice picture I like a lot called The King of California which I have done with a first time director-writer named Michael Cahill, produced by Alexander Payne. It’s coming out the beginning of the year, which I liked a lot – beautiful script. I’m looking and working but it gets hard working on all the drafts and all the re-writes to keep your heart in it when your little girl Carys is saying “Daddy”, and my mind wandering and looking over there.
 
Q. Do you think you’ve made your mark or do you think there is something else you want to do?
 
A. Well I definitely want to do as much work as I can with the United Nations. I’d like to continue to put more energies into there. I’ve been impressed by An Inconvenient Truth and what Al Gore has done there. I’ve been coming up with something that can be informative and entertaining to do with the area of disarmament. That excites me a lot. I’ve got a few projects I’m developing but haven’t been inspired yet and reached that other step. When you look at what else is out there, there isn’t reason any more right now to get out of the house and that’s the biggest luxury and joy I’ve got. I’m grateful for my working wife.
 
Hemanth Q. What with your impressive acting and producing career you’ve worked with some great directors: Ridley Scott, Curtis Hanson, Milos Foreman and Steven Soderburgh, have you never been tempted to direct? And if not, which directors that you have not worked yet with would you like to on a project?
 
A. The directing thing, I’m too lazy. Saying that, I’m an achiever, but directing is so lonely and so long. You’re the first person in, in the morning, and the last to leave. You’re on that project for a year, even more. I’ve been fortunate enough as a producer having the final cut normally on pictures to almost always give it to the director. I’ve never been in debates. So I guess vicariously I’ve sort of lived out through the directors that desire.
 
I don’t know which director that I’d like to work with. There’s a whole new generation; you blink one day and there’s another generation that’s up there now, so I probably have to familiarize myself a lot more. I’d love to do a picture over here. I’ve got a couple actually I’ve been dealing with that would be great to work over here and to work in Europe. It’d be a nice change. But I can’t tell you what person. I’d like to see David Fincher working some more, he’s a talented guy. I enjoyed The Game, it was tough, a lot with him. Ridley was great in Japan.