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by Brad Balfour

G21 Contributing Editor

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NEW YORK, NY, USA - Academy Award winning actor Christopher Walken has made nearly 100 movies and garnered several generations of fans. From his beginnings as a damaged Vietnam vet in "The Deer Hunter" to his recent role in "The Stepford Wives" and "Catch Me if You Can," he has continued to portray quirky or insidious characters. In fact he's almost defined the role. In "Around the Bend" he offers an extended, detailed look at one such damaged life seeking redemption through a friend's death that he shares with his long estranged son and grandson.

This former song-and-dance man has also made several "Saturday Night Live" appearances and an MTV music video for Fatboy Slim that not only demonstrated his prowess as a hoofer but his versatility and ability to reach new audiences.

Throughout his career, with each part he has played -- large or small -- Walken has a had distinct take [unlike any actor in film today.] Though "Around the Bend" lacks a Hollywood-esque high concept storyline [it has a limited release that started in October,] Walken's performance is so powerful that it is already being bandied about as Oscar-worthy.

G21: A major website polled lots of women in their early 20s and you're a big sex symbol for girls that age.

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: I just want to say that's okay.

G21: They say you've gotten sexier as you've gotten older?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: Well, I'll get on my wife [laughs]. I've been married for 35 years. I have to be careful [laughs]. Not only that, I live in the country. To tell you the truth, I don't see people much. And when you make a movie, the days are really long. I get up and it's dark.

G21: People are talking about the Oscar for your performance. What was it about the script that hit you?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: It was a good part. A big, juicy part. I do a lot of parts where I am in the movie a little bit. Here's a part that I'm in almost all of it.

G21: You've played lots of quirky, offbeat characters like this one. Do you want to play a Ward Cleaver type?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: Oh, absolutely. I would love to do that. You mean like a dad and have a dog? I would love that. You know, a house, kids. Have the kids say, 'yo, dad, what should I d o?' And I'd say, 'well, you know son, just do the right thing.'

G21: Has your image has softened a bit?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: Well, that's true. For a long time I never played fathers and uncles and stuff like that. I guess I'm getting older.

G21: Did you draw on your own experience for this character?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: Not really, though he was one of those guys, whose day was sort of like mine. He's of the 70s. Rock 'n' roll. I lived through all that. I had the bell-bottom pants [laughs].

G21: Your character is the one with the most skeletons in the closet. What did you draw on to bring this out?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: I don't know these thingsä acting is pretending. I studied the script. I try to make it sound like I meant it. As I say, he said that he had been a musician. Well, there were certain parallels to my life. I was in musical comedy when I was a kid. I used to go to rock concerts and Studio 54. I was there. I had been a part of that. I saw Woodstock when it came out. As a matter of fact, I used to go to Woodstock before Woodstock was famous. So, all that was quite familiar to me. The idea that he was a musician. That for him, things didn't work out. He's escaped from a jail hospital ... so he's had some bumpy times.

G21: Did you have a lot to settle in your past?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: No. I've never done anything terrible to anybody. But, I would think that would be a terrible thing to live with.

G21: How would you sum yourself up as an actor?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: I was in show business as a kid. I wasn't an actor [at first], but I've done a lot of things. Musicals occupied me for a long time. Then I became a stage actor and then started making movies. I still do a play once in a while. One of the hardest things about being an actor is to stick around. To stay viable. You can easily get lost.

G21: How did you come together with first time director Jordan Roberts?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: My agent sent me his script. A lot of people in this movie are from the same agency. Then Jordan came to my house, actually. That's pretty unusual. Sometimes I make movies and I never meet the director before.

G21: What made you do this film -- the script -- or working with Michael Caine?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: It was a good job for a lot of reasons. A different kind of part [about] a father and grandfather, and of course, Mike Caine.

G21: Did you know him from before?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: I knew him a little bit, just socially. I'd met him a couple of times, you know at people's houses, for dinner and that stuff.

G21: Do you think you're an under-appreciated comedic actor?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: I've done a lot of comedy. As a matter of a fact, before I got into movies, that's all I did. I was a musical comedy actor.

G21: Is it easier to perform before a live audience?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: In a way, sure. I've always said the audience is the unmentioned character. Anytime you do a play, there's another character in there, that's the audience. The audience tells you a lot. The first time I did some interviews this morning, people were saying, you know, this movie has a lot of humor. When I saw the movie, I was sitting all alone in the theater. I couldn't tell that. Sitting by myself, I can't tell. You really need an audience to tell you that.

G21: What about directing things yourself?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: I've never done it. I don't think I'd be good at it. I can't articulate things. I can't say, "Yeah, good. Do it again ... "

G21: What about writing?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: Of course, all actors write. I've never met an actor who didn't have a play in the works.

G21: What about an autobiography?

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: Me? I would do that, but I don't think yet. I think when you write your memoirs, it's some sort of moment. Unless you intend to write a series. I'd write my memoirs, except I can't remember them.

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