Good Interview with Bruce Willis

Interview: Bruce Willis
newsPeople22 Mar 10 @ 06:00am by Michele Manelis
In a scene from 'Cop Out'
Link to the Real Article here

We’ve seen a lot of buddy movies and cop type films before – some generic in their approach. What did you find so interesting that you wanted to inhabit this character?
You can ask (director) Kevin (Smith) this, but I don’t think we ever really thought of it as, ‘OK we are making a cop buddy movie’. I know all the films you mean, but I never felt like we were making that kind of film. Our job was to just make you laugh and it started there, and ended way over there, but I mean, there’s a story in there. But ... we were just trying to make people laugh. And trying as hard as we could to come up with funny stuff.

Did you think your own persona affected the script?
It beyond affected it. Had we not had a first great shooting day, which was never really presented to us as, ‘this is a test and let’s see how you guys get along; if you can interact and be funny with one another’. No-one ever said that.

How much improv did you guys put on the screen?
I think it had some form of improv in it, sometimes we’d stay with it, sometimes we just went back to the script.

This movie is like a showcase of what you think is funny?
That’s a good way of putting it. It’s a showcase of what I think five or six people think is funny. Obviously you can’t get everything into a 90 minute film, but it’s not about anything else except the comedy.

It’s a very youthful humour.
Yeah, we weren’t going to leave those youthful jokes out.

Is it fair to say that today you laugh about the same things that you did when you were a 12-year-old boy?
I think the 12-year-old boys (or girls) are our audience. (But) there are so many boring movies out there, more slow movies, or really serious movies and so few films come along that are just trying to make you laugh – just trying to crack you up.

Humour comes out of jealously, especially towards your wife, (in the movie) or just in general. How do you relate to jealousy? Are you a jealous person?
I think I’ve set jealousy aside. There’s very little in the story that had to do my jealousy of a new husband who is with my ex-wife, but it’s a small part of the story. And those are just those signposts that keep the movie going along – to keep the film moving along, until we can get to some of the real big laughs again.

You’ve reached a level of professionalism where you don’t really have a lot to prove that maybe younger actors, in their 20s would. Has jealousy been professional or personal, or as you get older does it kind of dissipate?
It has for me. I think the longer you stay working in this industry, everybody finds their own little niche and you can build your own little kingdom, your own little world. You get to do these kind of films, but sometimes you get asked to do other kind of films, and some people never make the cut, some people fall off, but I don’t see a lot of people really being jealous.

I read where you said this is the happiest time in your life. Is that a result of just getting older?
Just because it is the happiest time in my life. It really is. I’ve never been happier than I am right now.

Is there any specific reason why now is a great time for you?
Yes, I got remarried again last year and she’s really a wonderful woman. That makes me happy all the time.

You’re going to get to a point soon where your daughters are going to get married?
I have a little time. They have good heads on their shoulders, but the time will come and when it happens it happens. It’s just a rite of passage.

Are you saving a nest egg?
Weddings today are $45,000. I’m broke, man. I was actually going to see if I could borrow some money from you guys ... the good thing is, the mother pays for the wedding.

With all the romance you have in that movie you would think all you need is a good buddy?
Well, you always do need a good wingman. Everybody needs that, every guy needs that.

Is the movie a good representation of how you deal with your friends?
Is it all laughter and having fun? I think my default mode is to just try to make you laugh, to say the stupidest thing to make you laugh. Everybody likes to laugh. It makes you feel good and it makes you healthier.

Are you surprised when a scene you’ve rehearsed isn’t funny but when it’s improvised or just happens, it gets the best laughs?
It happened a few times in this movie. Seann William Scott’s part was really funny on the page, but he took it to outer space, I mean he is so funny, he elevated it, and took risks that really paid off. They were really so funny, that you’d just go, ‘I can’t believe he just said that’, it’s so crazy. So yeah, he’s terrific.

How do you see the evolution of the police figure in movies? You’ve really played the extremes as in Die Hard.
Do you think that in the 80s it needed to be all action – the audiences expected that.

How have you seen that type of character?
Well, I’m sick of it, I’m sick of playing cops, that’s why I wanted to do a film that was just about funny cops. Cause there’s only so many times you can run down the road with two guns in your hand, screaming and take it seriously. But these films cop action or cop action buddy comedies have been around since they’ve been making films. They used to call them westerns, then they called them Second World War pictures, then it was gangster pictures, then they called them Vietnam pictures, or cop pictures after The French Connection. It’s always about a couple of guys that stand between the good guys and the bad guys. This is a variation on it that is, everything in the film is really secondary to trying to make you laugh. So it’s a version of it I guess.

Are people surprised that because of your tough guy persona you do have a good sense of humour?
Only people who forget that I worked on TV for five years. And I was funny everyday, that was my job. But people have short memories. I was funny one time in Sixth Sense too and then there was that one time in Die Hard when I made someone laugh.

I know, but I’m just asking about the general perception. Are people surprised?
No, they just say congratulations.

Bruce, what kind of actors make you laugh?
There are actors that can, just out of nowhere. You can be having a conversation and all of a sudden they just say something out of the blue, completely out of left field, that is so off topic and so not what we were talking about, that it cracks you up.

Can you name anybody?
Yeah, Tracy Morgan.

How is your music career, any upcoming performances?
No, I’m retired.

Why?
Too busy being happy.

You can’t be happy while also playing music?
I play a little. I sit in with the Allman Brothers Band once in awhile, but I’m not playing nearly as much as I used to.

Are you still enjoying acting?
Yeah, I think so. I still enjoy it sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, but I still like trying to make something from 110 typewritten pages of words and try and be funny. In this case the funny ideas weren’t always in the script, but sometimes things get away from you, it’s tricky finding what the hook is.

Do you know when something is not working?
Yeah, I guess. If you catch something take a little left turn and come back to what the scene is supposed to be you feel like you’ve done your job.

‘Cop Out’ is in cinemas now.

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