A little singing and dancing. MoviesOnline: How was it getting back to your roots of starting on stage so long ago and coming full circle? Christopher Walken: That was great.
It also, of course, made it easier. Singing and dancing that’s what I did really all my life—choruses and tours and shows. So to be able to do that in a movie, and they don’t make a lot of musical movies anyway, so to do that is pretty rare.
MoviesOnline: How was it dancing with John Travolta? Christopher Walken: We rehearsed that for a long time. You know, for weeks.
But then, when John had that big suit on, and heels, we knew it so well that when we came to shoot it, we did that very fast. I think it was very fast. But we knew, we’d done it so many times.
MoviesOnline: What was the process like during rehearsal? Christopher Walken: When you learn dancing, it’s a different kind of rehearsal from rehearsing acting. And you learn the steps and then you do them until you don’t think about them.
When you go home, I had a DVD of it and I’d play it in my house, and I’d do the moves. And then it’s just kind of in your bones, so it’s really more like repetition. MoviesOnline: Was it easy for you to forget that you were dancing with a man?
Was it just this character Edna, not John? Christopher Walken: It was John. It was always John in the rehearsals.
And then he put that outfit on, and for five minutes, I had to think about it. But after that, I just looked at him and it was still John. It was John with this thing on.
So he and I treated each other, it was more like Chris talking to John than Wilbur and Edna. MoviesOnline: Could you talk a little bit about the wide variety of roles that you play. Does it surprise you sometimes that they’ll offer you everything from being the bad guy to being in a musical?
Just extremes. Christopher Walken: Well that is an extreme, but in fact a lot of my career has been the bad guys, different kinds of bad guys. There probably aren’t a lot of actors my age who tap dance.
When it comes to casting, and of course the opportunity like I say to do a musical now, it’s rare. So I think it’s an unusual additional thing. I did and I did another musical movie of the kids’ story Puss in Boots , which nobody ever saw, but it’s good.
So I’ve done really my share of movie musicals considering the times I live in. MoviesOnline: Your character is so wonderfully eccentric. He’s a really nice guy, but he’s a little odd.
Was it hard to keep a straight face in that scene with Michelle where she’s trying to seduce you and you’re just not getting it? ’ I think that was the joke – Michelle Pfeiffer is hitting on you and you don’t realize it. I think Wilbur is a very nice, very good man, but not the brightest bulb.
He’s a little bit slow. MoviesOnline: Was it nice to work with Michelle again? Christopher Walken: Yes, very much, to see her again.
Last time I threw her out the window. [laughter] It was great to see her. And what I didn’t know about her is she’s like a world class singer.
And she can really sing. MoviesOnline: Many people do imitations of you, and I wanted to know if you had a personal favorite. Christopher Walken: There’s a lot of people who do that.
I like it, I think it’s cool. Christopher Walken: Somebody told me that. MoviesOnline: He might not be brave enough to do it for you.
Christopher Walken: No, no, it’s not that. Maybe he’s done it and I didn’t realize it. [laughter] Yeah, a lot of people do that.
I don’t really know why, but it’s okay with me. MoviesOnline: I was wondering if you had a favorite, though. But my wife says Kevin Spacey is very good.
MoviesOnline: What other projects are you working on now or in the future? Like a lot of actors, there’s things that may happen, they may not happen. MoviesOnline: Have you done anything since A little singing and dancing.
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