411 Movies Interview: David Carradine
Posted by Tony Farinella on 01.29.2009
411's Tony Farinella sits down with Hollywood legend, David Carradine, for an exclusive interview about his storied career!
David Carradine has been acting in Hollywood for over four decades. He has worked with some of the most talented directors in Hollywood, from Martin Scorsese to Quentin Tarantino to Ingmar Bergman. He's also famous for his role as Kwai Chang Caine on the television series, Kung Fu. Recently, I caught up with the legendary actor to talk about his character, Mookoo, in Adam Rifkin's, Stoned Age, which is currently out on DVD. I hope you enjoy my interview with David Carradine.
TONY: This is obviously a very unique and different type of project. What kind of approach did you take to this film and how did you prepare for this role?
David Carradine: Well, the truth is my approach is I show up. As we're putting it together during the actual work … for instance, the hair, everybody had long hair, of course. They were thinking about putting a wig on me and I said, ‘Why don't you just turn my own hair into a fright wig and just glue it straight up all around?' So they liked that. Everybody had something of a beard, so I introduced this idea that I'm shaving myself in my first scene like I'm the chief and I shave myself with this bone knife and that's why I'm not shaven. Then I thought, ‘Well, I got to look like a caveman a little,' so I changed my walk and figured out how I would talk. But, basically, you just go ahead and you just whale and try to make it funny.
TONY: People who do comedy often talk about a comedy barometer, which means that they know right away if something is going to be funny and what kind of response it's going to get from the audience. Did you have that on this film?
David Carradine: Well, you don't ever really know, but, sure, I have my opinions all the time. I mean, about everything for that matter: Who should be president, whether there's a god. I mean, I got opinions. But both things I mentioned are things that you just never know until the fat lady sings.
TONY: As an actor, what was it like working with Adam Rifkin? Was it helpful to have the writer, director, and actor on set with you?
David Carradine: Let's see. Well, in this case, I'm working with a writer/director/star. That's a little different than just working with a director who is directing himself. In the first place, he was really concentrating on his performance, for sure. Anyway, people don't really direct me very much, by and large. They just watch me and see what I'm going to do. I guess Quentin was an exception to that. Quentin is a really brilliant director and you do want to listen to him. He did immeasurable things to help me out, to I guess you have to say improve my performance. We worked Adam a lot. We did lots of takes.
TONY:Stoned Age features a lot of unique actors, from Talia Shire to Ron Jeremy to Tom Arnold. What was it like interacting with so many differing personalities?
David Carradine: Well, you know, I basically hung out with Hayes and Ali. I mean, right away, I just loved them immediately and we were the guys that hung out. We were the dynamic trio I guess you'd say, and every once in a while, there would be a couple other guys that came along. The other guy you were mentioning, what's the name of the porno guy?
TONY: Ron Jeremy.
David Carradine: Yeah. I didn't even know that's who he was. I mean, I don't watch pornos. I had no idea. Then there were a couple of hip, young guys that played the stoners. They got this bong made out of a limb of a tree or something. They were kind of fun to be around. They're not really like that, by the way. They're hip enough, but they're certainly not pot-smoking idiots. Not to say that everybody who smokes pot is an idiot, but you know what I'm saying. I have to take some credit for that myself because I certainly smoked a lot in those days. I spent a great deal of time with Adam. We really hit it off. I just really liked the picture a lot. I wouldn't have taken it if I didn't. It was really special to me.
TONY: I've read previous interviews with you where you've talked about your early years and how you spent a lot of time starving in New York. Do you ever think about those days and where you are now?
David Carradine: Not much. I don't think of it like that, no. Certainly I do think. I don't even quite know how to say what I don't think about. I am very much in present time, let's put it that way. I don't dwell on the past very much at all.
TONY: Speaking of the present, here in 2009, how would you describe your passion for acting?
David Carradine: Well, I'd say it's just intact. It's pretty much like it always was. I feel that I haven't even started yet. I'm still trying to make a name for myself. It's not much different than it's ever been. I know that sounds a little weird, but it's the truth. That's how I feel. With Kill Bill, it was one of those things where you say, ‘Finally!' Some kind of feeling about that where it was like I've been waiting for this kind of thing to come along forever and here it finally is.
TONY: I interviewed Maxwell Caulfeild a couple of months ago, and we talked about his role in Sundown and what it was like working with John Ireland. What do you remember about that project?
David Carradine: I remember it all. Every detail of it. I really liked doing that movie. I like Tony Hickok, the director, a whole lot. I didn't get to spend much time with John Ireland. I wish I had. But he was really elderly and he couldn't ride a horse, which is why they built him that big car. But one of the interesting things about that thing was that when we had our duel, he actually beat me to the draw and I thought that was remarkable. The guy was seventy-two or seventy-three, and I'm a very fast draw, and in the take, he actually beat me to the draw. Of course that's not the way it is in the movie. There's some kind of new light that that picture's having. I don't remember what it was, but somebody came to me about it.
TONY: What's changed in terms of what it takes to break into Hollywood? John Heard told me that you need a good body and a good set of hair to make it in Hollywood today.
David Carradine: That was always true. You always had to have good hair. On the other hand, Gene Hackman doesn't have good hair. I mean, you had to have good hair and a good body to be a certain type of actor, yeah. That was always true. I don't even know where you're leading there.
TONY: I wanted to ask you what's changed in terms of what it takes to make a name for yourself and get out there.
David Carradine: Let's see. Well, it's changed a lot. The way you used to get into Hollywood, way, way back, long before I was involved, was you had to sign up with a studio and you became a contract player. That was really the only way you could work in Hollywood in the old days. They might train you and then put you in an indentured slavery to the studio. They pay you by the week. Like my father was under contract to 20th Century Fox for four years, five years, something like that. And they pay him a salary and just use him every chance they get. There were moments where he would make three pictures in one day. They called it bicycling. He would do a scene in the morning in some picture at Fox and then he'd get on his bicycle and ride down to MGM, which is really easy because it's all downhill, and he would do a scene there or they'd loan him out. Then they'd come down and pick him up with a pickup truck and throw his bike in the back and take him back up to Fox for another one in the afternoon or evening. Now, you're on your own. You have to make your way somehow or another. It's still a lot of luck and a lot of perseverance. Maybe getting an extra idea of your own. There was a time during my starving period where I was collecting unemployment and I figured out that I could either have a phone or I could put gas in my car. One or the other. Not both. Since I was living on top of a mountain, I thought I better put gas in the car. So what I did in order to keep looking for work was I would visit my agent every day and I was with this really big agency that was hard to get into unless you had an appointment. But the receptionist got used to me and I'd eventually just walk in. What I'd do is I'd go there every day after five o' clock and just circulate among all the agents and just say hello and everything like that. And they knew that I would be there at five o' clock, so anybody that wanted to call in about me, he'd say, ‘Let me give you a call back about six.' Then one day, I was lounging on the coach, probably asleep actually, and one of these agents, one guy I'd gotten very friendly with, he woke me up and said, ‘I got you an offer.' I said, ‘ Great.' He said, ‘Yeah, this movie offered you eight-thousand dollars.' I said, ‘Great, I need the money so bad.' He said, ‘Well, I turned it down.' I said, ‘Why?' He said,‘ Because I'm going to get you more.' I said, ‘Please don't do that. God, I need this job so much.' He said, ‘Don't you ever tell me that. That makes it impossible for me to negotiate.' And he just cut me a new butthole. Then the phone rang and he picked it up and said, ‘Yeah, yeah, alright' and slammed the phone down. And he said, ‘I got you the ten-thousand.' And that was the first job I got after that period of attrition and went on to glory there I guess you could say. I don't know how many people thought about that. One of the interesting things about not having a phone in those days is I didn't stay at home. I wasn't sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. I was out there doing stuff all the time.
TONY: Finally, you mentioned earlier in this interview that you have opinions on everything, even the president, so I have to ask you, what are your thoughts on our new president, Barack Obama and what he's done so far?
David Carradine: He's doing pretty much what he said he was going to do and he's doing it fast. He seems to be very much in control of himself and his agenda, and we'll just see how the congress responds to him and how difficult it's going to be for him. I think he's going to do pretty much everything he said he was going to do. It's just a question of how hard it's going to be for him to do it, which is a question of cooperation.
TONY: Thank you so much for your time, David. It was great talking to you. I appreciate it.
