”That`s last year`s news,” said Bruce Willis, lounging in a Chicago hotel room, referring to his ”bad-boy” image.
”The tabloids made me out to be the `bad-boy-party-animal.` In the past I`ve shied away from talking to the press, so the image built up.”
The truth?
”The truth is that I like to have fun. Some loud music got played. But no one was ever hurt. No prisoners . . . no casualties.”
Willis, 33, is hardly a casualty himself, but his fame and fortune have come in a rush only during the last four years of his starring role as detective David Addison on TV`s ”Moonlighting.”
Willis now commands a stunning salary of $5 million for a movie and has earned as much for TV ads endorsing a wine cooler.
”Of course I did the ads because of the financial consideration. I took on a lot of other things, too, after `Moonlighting` hit, including doing my own album and an HBO special.
”What you have to realize is that before `Moonlighting` I spent six years doing theater off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. I loved it, but I had nothing financially. I find it hard to believe that anyone would say no to multiple millions of dollars, especially someone who grew up not having money. You never know how long it`s going to last.
”I no longer do those things now,” he continued. ”My priorities have changed. But I`m proud of the Seagrams ads because, you know, they wanted me to endorse hard liquor, and I refused. And in 18 months of commercials I took a product that was No. 5 in its market and helped make it No. 1. I like doing a good job.”
Willis has done a very good job on the small and big screen. He has a contract with ABC-TV for two more years of ”Moonlighting.” After that, Willis said, he wants to return to the theater and to studying acting.
”Television can make you lazy, behind and in front of the camera. The way we worked on `Moonlighting,` with so much care going into the writing, I often got my script pages the morning we shot the scene.
”Well there`s just so much you can do with your character given that amount of time. I have to get back to acting classes and to the theater, which is really where you learn your craft.”
In his three feature films, Willis has relied mostly on his easygoing charm. His first movie, ”Blind Date,” costarring Kim Basinger, was a big hit with Willis playing a character close to his TV persona-a glib, romantic who would rather make love than war.
He stretched a bit for his second role in the off-beat, Western comedy
”Sunset,” playing silent cowboy movie star Tom Mix opposite James Garner`s Wyatt Earp. The film received mostly lukewarm reviews and was a box- office bust.
”After we finished the film, we did some research that showed that most of today`s moviegoers had never heard of Tom Mix. But I still like the film.” Willis is now starring in his first action thriller, ”Die Hard,”
opening Friday, in which he plays a veteran cop trying to save hostages being held in a Los Angeles office tower.
The entire film takes place in the office building, and that adds a claustrophobic effect to the film`s tension. Willis is better in the film as a cop under pressure than in his secondary role as a man trying patch up his broken marriage with one of the hostages.
All three films may turn out to be mere sketches when compared with Willis` next film, ”In Country,” in which he plays an angry Vietnam veteran trying to mend his psyche while taking care of his fatherless niece.
Sporting a full beard for the role, which he has been researching for months, Willis left a publicity blitz for ”Die Hard” in Chicago recently and hopped on the 20th Century-Fox corporate jet to Washington, D.C., where he visited the Vietnam War Memorial.
”It was overwhelming,” he said in a phone interview the next day from his home in Los Angeles. ”We got to Washington about 6:30 in the evening, and for the next two hours, no one in our group said a word. There were about 100 other visitors there.
”I had already done a lot of homework for this role, but this (monument) stunned me. To see all those names stacked up; it`s just scary.
”I looked for the name of a guy from my hometown of Carney`s Point, N.J. His name was Henry Hocknell Jr. His father used to teach gymnastics at the YMCA.
”I never served in Vietnam. I was drafted, but the war wound down, I went to holding status and was never called. Seeing the wall just made me want even more to tell the truth about these guys.
”Hold on,” Willis said, ”my wife just walked in and I want to say
`hi.` ”
Willis is married to actress Demi Moore (”About Last Night”) and they are expecting their first child in September. In the background, one could hear a chainsaw star up.
”It`s next door,” Willis said, now back on the phone. ”They`re chopping down trees. There`s no chainsaw massacre going on here.”
Another phone rang in the house. It was set on an automatic speaker phone recording, and Willis and Moore got the news: ”I`m calling to tell you that none of your dogs have heartworm disease.”
Relieved and laughing at the wild mix of goings-on at his house, Willis decided to change the focus of the interview by discussing favorite movies and directors. He volunteered that one of his favorite double-bills is Stanley Kubrick`s ”Dr. Strangelove” and ”A Clockwork Orange.”
”I used to see `em once a year at a revival house in New York when I was doing theater. You know, I`ve wanted to work with Kubrick so badly.
”And actually I came very close with `Full Metal Jacket.` I was offered that film. It was in January of `85, after we had done a pilot of
`Moonlighting.` Two days before I learned that the network was going to pick up the show for six episodes, I got a call from Kubrick`s office.
”A few month before, like a lot of actors, I had prepared a five-minute videotape audition for the film and sent it to Kubrick. I think he received about 4,000 tapes. In the audition, I read my own script, mixing passages from (the books) `Dispatches` and `Fields of Fire.`
”I forgot about the tape, but then I got this call saying that Mr. Kubrick wanted me to play one of the four leads. I tried for a day and a half to get out of my contract with `Moonlighting,` but I couldn`t. I was very disappointed. So now the pressure is really on me, in making `In Country,` to do the best job I can.”
In person, Willis is absolutely charming, flashing his sheepish, winning grin. It`s a chip off Jack Nicholson`s well-known killer-smile.
He said he considers Nicholson to be the greatest film actor of this generation and Meryl Streep to be the greatest actress. ”I know I have the grin,” Willis said, grinning. ”I think it wasn`t until `Moonlighting,`
though, that I began consciously using it as an acting tool.
”I suppose it`s the part of me that`s like the character I play on the show. Everybody says, `Save for a rainy day.` But my guy, David Addison, says, `Don`t hold back, it`s raining right now.` ”
Making sure that Willis never has a rainy day is a four-man advisory team comprised of agent Arnold Rifkin (”the leader of my support team”), publicist Paul Bloch, who encouraged Willis to tour for ”Die Hard” (”a lot of people have been saying how surprised they are to find me as sort of a nice guy”), attorney Jake Bloom, and business manager Lloyd Zeiderman. ”I take advice from all these guys, but ultimately I call the shots.”
With the writers` strike going on for so long, Willis isn`t certain about the future shows of ”Moonlighting.”
In fact, he is so involved in movies right now, it took him a few minutes to remember where the show had left off last season.
”Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) has this baby, and the first big question I guess is: Who is the father? It seems likely it would be my character, but I don`t know for sure. No shows have been written, as far as I know. It will be up to the producer, Glenn Caron. I have a lot to say about my character, but ultimately he`s the producer, creator, and the boss.”
None of Willis` nonchalance about ”Moonlighting,” however, should be considered as a slam on the show, a show that he is proud of and considers ground-breaking in its time.
”Glenn and the rest of us decided to take longer to do fewer but, we hope, better shows. As a result we do between 16 and 18 new shows each year, whereas the other series do 22. That means we spend more money on each episode.
”And after our first year when we received 16 Emmy nominations, but won only one award, I`m sure it was corporate Hollywood`s way of saying, `No, no, no.`
”That`s all they would have needed is for us to win a bunch of Emmys. Then more shows might ask for more time, and that would cost the networks and the producers big money.
”But we`ve managed to get away with it and we intend to continue. This next season I only hope we get back to the original idea of the show, which was to make every show a surprise.
”Because Cybill got pregnant, the decision was made that we should do the shows in continuity, dealing with her condition. I think that was a bad decision. It forced us into a corner dramatically. Now we need to break loose again.”
At 33, Willis seems strikingly mature, far more worldly than, for example, such ”Brat Pack” actors as Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson, who are only a few years younger.
”I know what you mean,” Willis said. ”I think some of them are 29, and I do feel much older. The only thing that can explain it, I think, are those six struggling years in the New York theater. Even with all of the recent success, that`s still the biggest part of my life.”
