An Evening With Dennis Hopper
Fame is deceptive. We look from the outside, and say "God, I'd love to be like that." From inside, it's often quite different. In November 2002, Popcorn Taxi, the people who bring Sydney's independent filmmaking community together, introduced us to one of America's most famous maverick actor-directors: Dennis Hopper.
Here in Australia to play Frank Sinatra in a new biopic, Hopper was quick to remind us he'd actually been here before. Thirty years ago, work brought him down to perform in the film Mad Dog Morgan. His memories consisted of drinking a lot of rum ("150 proof: whew!"), of liking his co-star Jack Thompson, and becoming a bit of a partying hard-drinking mentor to David Gulpilil. Thompson actually took Hopper aside before filming commenced, warning him not to make fun of a national icon. (For those who don't know, Mad Dog Morgan was one of our most famous bushranger outlaws.)
The legendary substance abuse which both dogged his career and established his wild reputation is now in the past: Dennis Hopper announced that he's been clean of alcohol and hard narcotics for 20 years now. But the memory's not gone, and when somebody asked if he still preferred some nonsense word over some other nonsense word, Hopper enlightened us, saying with a smirk, "I believe she's referring to 2 types of acid."
We'd been asked to ask questions about Dennis's work as director instead of his roles as an actor, but how could we not see the middle-aged hippie from Flashback? Frank Booth from Blue Velvet? The boiling-eyed Vietnam journalist out of Apocalypse Now? Sure, tonight he was dressed in a suit and as old as our dads, but those crazy hand gestures, the loose hippie phrasing, were all still the same, so we started to ask about all of that acting. He didn't mind one little bit.
At the age of 18, he went into the studio system with a contract to Warner's, so really "grew up in the movies." He had some luck early, with good roles in movies like Rebel Without A Cause, but in those days, just 2% of actors ended up with careers lasting out beyond 3 years. After their contracts had ended, they could still get the best tables in restaurants, but paying would be another matter... His biggest disappointment was missing out on Splendor In The Grass with Elia Kazan directing: the part went to Warren Beatty instead, and it's something that Beatty still ribs him about.
After Giant, he studied with Lee Strasberg in New York for 5 years. This training said "be in the moment- react to the moment-to-moment reality". Usually he doesn't even think about it: he works on the basis of body memory, sense memory, likening acting to "playing the instrument": something you turn on and turn off in front of a camera or audience. "Be relaxed, clear your mind, find your tension areas..." This is the method he's followed for 40 years. Playing Sinatra, however, defies it, because he is having to perform a real figure to pre-existing songs, and it's forced him to do lots of research. "The thing about Frank," he continues, then stops with an "oops", since he wasn't supposed to discuss that tonight, although clearly he'd like to. We laugh, and begin on another Frank, this time the one from Blue Velvet.
"I read that script and knew Frank Booth," smiles Hopper." I know people like that! He's a fucking monster, man, but I just knew him." The key to playing a villain is to not think like a villain. "Villains think they're OK. You're fucked up!" Script-wise, Dennis says his only contribution to the character was the trademark gas he snorts. David Lynch had written it as helium. But Dennis couldn't act through that funny high helium voice, and suggested he use nitric oxide/amyl nitrate instead (because it fucks you up, disorientates and makes you crazy for a moment). To which David Lynch said "What's that?" It's weird that Lynch is such a boyscout, such an all-American cheerleader, that he'll end a take by saying "Peachy keen!" or "Solid gold!"... and yet his mind creates this sick world! "Whoa- where am I?" Dennis thinks. Nevertheless, "it's a very rich experience when you work with someone who wrote the script they're directing."
Dennis did feel Blue Velvet and Apocalypse Now and Rebel Without A Cause would be successful while they were being made. And while he has given a few bad performances, due to trying too hard or to limited material, he wouldn't claim to have been thwarted creatively in any of his roles. "I took over my creative life a long time ago. That's why I haven't progressed so far. I don't think I've ever had a great part. I'm working on independent films almost all the time."
In the past decade, Waterworld and Speed were his only 2 studio pictures. Jan De Bont, as an ex-cinematographer, directed the latter from right behind the camera. Of his role as the bomber of the bus, which was so comic-book it could hardly have needed those Strasberg techniques, Dennis quips "I wish I had a loftier reason, Jack, but I did it for the money."
What excites Dennis Hopper about acting or directing a particular script? Simple answer: "An offer!" However, he seldom gets offers to direct. "The opportunities to act and direct in film have been so limited... It's very difficult to get financing, I find, to direct films... and I've had some powerful enemies in high places." Nevertheless, he has managed to pull it together on several occasions.
He reckons his filmmaking aesthetic is probably "cheap novels", and likes to use guns, gangsters, criminals and nymphomaniacs for telling his stories: "the fringe area of society is usually more interesting than the upper area." He saw this America back in his youth, going from Dodge City, Kansas, where he was raised on a farm, to Kansas City to San Diego and finally L.A, where he got into movies.
Dennis's favourite directors are all European, and Luis Bunuel tops the list. He especially loves Bunuel's funky films, made down in Mexico, such as "El Bruto". Others who've influenced him include Satyajit Ray, Bergman and Truffaut, but not Godard: "I don't like his movies, though I do find his theories interesting."
Easy Rider, the Summer-of-'69 road movie that made Hopper's name, is the closest to his heart. It was shot in just four and a half weeks, and they crossed the country doing it. As an artist, and especially when directing, it all starts visually for him. He will see a place and say "Hey! Such-n-such would look great here!" So when in Flagstaff, Arizona, he saw a statue of a big guy with an axe, he decided this is where he'd film the opening credits to this film about two bikers who get blown away by rednecks. Then there came a year of editing, and this is when he chose the songs that helped to pull it all together. He still loves 'em, and can sing 'em word for word.
Asked would he be embarrassed to talk about The Last Movie (his follow-up to Easy Rider, which was accused of making no sense and costing a fortune), he said "I love The Last Movie! The Last Movie gets better and better with each passing year. It may never be distributed, never be shown, but I'm very proud of it."
The Last Movie wasn't distributed, despite winning the main award at the Venice Film Festival. (Later asked what the best and worst moments of his life were, he laughs, and names these two events: The Last Movie's award, followed by no distribution.) 10 years passed until "Out Of The Blue", which was being done in Canada: Dennis went up there to act as the dad in a dysfunctional family, but spent 2 weeks waiting to work. The director didn't know what he was doing. His friend Paul was working on it as Producer- and finally, when it was obvious there was no useable footage, Dennis was given the chance, in 4 weeks, to pick up the pieces and finish it, which he did.
"I kinda improvised my way to a new movie and script, though within a structure. You've gotta know where it's going and who's in the scene, then do disciplined improv within that." How is acting and directing at the same time? "For me it's much easier" because he can incorporate ideas instantly, without having to go through other actors.
Out Of The Blue (1980) was entered in the Cannes Film Festival, but never released or distributed. Canada refused to claim the film, so it was entered as coming from the nation of Dennis Hopper. Then, in November 2002, it was shown again, here at the Valhalla Cinema, to us. Gritty and funny and kind of repellent by turn, it was certainly, as its director remarked, "A tough movie." Obviously getting a kick out of seeing it shown, Dennis thanked us: "I came in and watched it myself... that projector you've got set up, seeing it all on the big screen... that's really cool!"
Asked how you'd get a script to him, he said "Same as with anyone else. Send it to an agency. Mine is I.C.M. That's as complicated as it is, man." These days he's living in Venice in L.A (down by Santa Monica) and has this cool idea of showing the society he sees every day through the eyes of a Mexican hot dog vendor and his love for a girl flower-seller, plus some other plot twists he'll bring in. He's been thinking about this for 10 years.
He's had some lean times- "up to 10 years at a time, which is crazy"- when he wanted to create but was blocked from doing so. He did some other stuff (paintings, photography) when he couldn't make films, and that was exhibited recently. Nevertheless, "making film combines all the arts that I'm aware of." In spite of the down times, there's no bitterness: "I've had a wonderful life and career... I've been lucky to be able to have a career as an artist of sorts."
Overall, we had just met a humbler man with a lower opinion of his life's work than you'd ever expect from a Hollywood star. He thinks of himself as an independent artist who's had limited success (which I guess is the reason he seemed so gracious and grateful for our attention): an independent filmmaker, who has only occasionally worked in the Hollywood mainstream. Yet we all know his name. Fame is fickle like that. But hey, don't sweat it, man. It's cool...
Reported by David Williams, November 2002