Michael Madsen Comes Clean

He played Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, Sonny Black in Donnie Brasco, and Budd in the Kill Bill series. But, surprisingly, the perennial tough is pretty down to earth. In between getting his shower fixed and bouncing his youngest baby, Madsen talks about his new Tarantino picture, his row with Susan Sarandon, and a girl they call Britney.

By Nick Haramis

Fresh from Sundance, Michael Madsen seems pretty relaxed. And so he should be. The great actor—all too often seen floundering in cinematic offal—has taken to producing his own stuff. He's promoting a new Tarantino movie in which he works alongside friends Dennis Hopper and David Carradine. He recently spent some time in France flirting with Asia Argento (all for the craft). And, Mr. Blonde has started dabbling in photography and poetry. So, yes, Michael Madsen has quite a bit to be a happy about. That is, until his fingers got cold.

BLACKBOOK: How was Sundance?

MICHAEL MADSEN: It was really good. I was there for Hell Ride, the Tarantino picture. I was there for about six days, hanging out with Dennis [Hopper] and Quentin. It was cold as hell up there. And I didn’t have any fucking gloves.

BB: Do you ski?

MM: Well, I played a ski instructor in a movie once. Let’s just say it didn’t really catch on. I’m not a ski person.

BB: This is a really busy year for you.

MM: I’m trying to produce my own stuff now. I really don’t want to be anyone’s puppet anymore. I don’t want other people controlling my destiny. I mean, after 72 pictures, I kind of know what’s going on.

BB: IMDb says you’ve got something like 14 movies in various stages of production.

MM: IMDb is a strange monster. If you meet somebody at a cocktail party and they say, “Hey, I wrote this script and I’d really like to show it to you,” and you say, “Yeah, okay,” next thing you know it’s on IMDb and it’s in pre-production. 

BB: Do you know from the beginning whether or not a film is going to tank?

MM: One of the worst feelings in the world—when you’re on my end of things—is knowing that it’s going down the river, and there’s no way out. But you can’t take your ball and leave the playground. If you’re a bricklayer, you go to work and you lay bricks. If you’re a truck driver, you drive a truck. If you’re an actor, you make pictures. Everybody usually starts out thinking that they’re going to make a great picture. But seven times out of ten it doesn’t happen. I mean, if everybody could make a great picture, everybody would.

BB: Boarding Gate is quite a departure for you as an actor.

MM: I rarely get to be the guy with a love interest. I’m usually whacking somebody or running around with a gun, smoking cigarettes, and beating people up. Who would ever figure me for a stockbroker, or a guy with a dominatrix for a girlfriend?

BB: As you get older, is it easier to break from playing thugs?

MM: I still have to wait for guys like [Boarding Gate director Olivier Assayas] to think of me, unfortunately. It’s almost easier this time just to let Asia [Argento] play with the guns. I got to wear the Van Heusen shirt and work on a laptop, be in the office environment.

BB: You’ve worked with some really tough women throughout your career. Who’s the toughest?

MM: Susan Sarandon gave me a great compliment once. I called her a “broad” one day. I think I said she was a good broad or something and she said, “Michael Madsen, let me tell you something. There are only two men in this whole world that I would let call me a broad. Consider yourself lucky to be one of them.” The first time I met Uma [Thurman, on the set of Kill Bill], she wouldn’t look at me. She wouldn’t make any eye contact with me. During rehearsal, she was cold and very non-committal, emotionally. I went to Quentin and said, “Hey man, what is wrong with her? She’s avoiding me.” And he said, “No, no… she’s waiting.”

BB: Which meant what?

MM: When we had to start shooting, she became The Bride and I was Budd. She turned it on. I expected her to have her stunt double do some of her stunts, but she never once used her. I thought she deserved an Academy Award. I think they should have just gone over to her house, knocked on the door, and handed it to her. I mean, here’s a woman who just had a baby.

BB: What about Asia Argento?

MM: The first time I saw Asia, she was sitting in a window and I was walking across this little courtyard. I had a peach in my hand. I gave it to her and went back on the set. I was waiting for her and when she came on the set about a half hour later, she walked over to me and handed me the pit.

BB: And what did you make of that?

MM: [Laughs.] I knew then and there that we were going to get along really well. I’m hoping that she and I can get back together and do some kind of love story—something like Casablanca or Bonnie and Clyde, something with guts.

BB: Were you happy with the final cut of the film?

MM: If I had been the filmmaker, I would have taken about fifteen minutes off the ending. I think it drags on way too long. But then, I’m not Roger Ebert. What am I going to say? I’m in the damn thing so I try to be complimentary toward it. I just think it’s a bit long. There are a number of ways the movie could have ended—somebody walks up behind her and puts a bullet in her head and then the screen just goes black. That would be pretty powerful, you know?

BB: You’ve also said that Wyatt Earp was too long—not to mention a waste of time. Do comments like that ever come back to haunt you?

MM: Yeah, in an interview like this where you’re asking that question. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I was not fond of Wyatt Earp. I thought it was an adventure in nothingness. It’s one of those movies I wish I had never made. Had I known how long it was going to take to walk down the O.K. Corral, I would have taken a taxi. And believe me, in that movie, if a taxi had pulled up, nobody would’ve noticed.

BB: Do you read what’s written about you in the papers?

MM: Most of the time, someone will call me and say that they read something interesting here and there. For the most part, I get pretty good press. Even if I’m in a shitty film, people usually don’t go after me about it.

Madsen, with Asia Argento, in Boarding Gate.

BB: I read that your older sons are interested in acting. Have you given them any advice?

MM: Yeah, I tell them to do something else. The only person I can compare myself to in this case is Kirk Douglas. I mean, he had four boys and while it worked out for one of them, another one, tragically, didn’t survive. I come from a blue-collar, working-class family. Virginia [Madsen, his sister] and me are two kids out of Chicago, and the chances of us making it into the film industry were about a billion to one. I just know how competitive it is, and what a lonesome life it can be. I don’t want them to go through that.

BB: You’re always working with Tarantino, Hopper, and Carradine. Is it difficult to work so closely with friends?

MM: No, that makes it that much more easy. It’s not like you wonder whether or not they’re going to do a good job. It’s just the opposite.

BB: Dennis Hopper got you interested in photography. What did you learn from him?

MM: Dennis had an exhibition in New York. It was a collection of pictures he took of doors and doorways. I realized then that you can take pictures of just about anything. I’ve always had a different way of looking at things, so I started snapping up photos of odd things, and realized how powerful the still image is. But I can’t stand having my own photo taken.

BB: You’re also a poet. How is that a different creative expression?

MM: When you’re a film actor, you tend to be on the road a lot. You’re in an awful lot of airplanes, motels, on a lot of trains. Writing is a way to get things off your chest. I went through a lot of really dark, dark times, and that’s how I wrote most of the stuff I wrote. I don’t even remember writing it. But a lot of it is autobiographical, recorded memories and social observation.

BB: In “Movies,” you write, “We are all on the run/ From the richest Maharajah/ to the lowest, dirty, stinking pedophile.” What’s that about?

MM: I’m so fed up with the way that everything has become so over-indulged and intoxicated by media attention. All this Britney Spears business—I mean, they’re going to chase that little girl until they kill her or until she’s found dead in an apartment somewhere. That’s what’s going to happen, and nobody seems to care about that. Look what happened to Brad Renfro and Heath Ledger. I think it’s that “too much too soon” factor.

BB: What’s your biggest regret as an actor?

MM: I just want longevity, man. I just want to keep doing what I’m doing for as long as I can. I think regret is a meaningless emotion. There’s no point in it because you can’t change the past.