Gary Busey is like a coiled spring. Relax does not seem to be a word in his dictionary. He sits, all right, taking up a sizable side of the couch in his hotel suite, but something is always in motion. His eyes. His mouth-he has a lot to say-his fingers, one foot, then the other.
This nervous energy stands him in good stead in his newest film, ”Point Break.” In it, he works with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze as a cigar-chomping FBI agent, a 22-year veteran who is ready, willing and more than able to bend a few rules to do his job.
His job at the moment is chasing a group of bank robbers, who rob with their faces covered with rubber masks, do their thing with split-second timing and escape.
”I play Angelo Pappas-the part was written for a 50-year-old Greek,”
Busey explains. ”They got me, instead.”
He brings the same intense quality to this part that he has to so many others, from ”The Buddy Holly Story” to football coach Bear Bryant (for a TV special), to Joshua, the chillingly murderous heavy of the first ”Lethal Weapon.”
”I had my hair darkened and put on 15 pounds for this role,” he continued. ”But that`s OK. He`s a character I like-a burned-out case, but outrageous enough to go the limit. I see him living on the edge of
boundaries.”
Much like himself. Busey doesn`t walk-he strides. He doesn`t talk-he chatters. One might think twice about getting into an argument with him. No interviewer need come prepared with questions-questions are answered before they are asked.
”I was born in Goose Creek, Texas,” he says first off. ”1944. Grew up in Tulsa. Went to school there. Went to Kansas and Oklahoma State.
”Given up on drugs. Don`t drink any more, either. Too many years, my motto was `Reckless Momentum.` Now, it`s been changed to `Peace, Happiness, Health.` I`ve been blessed by the `Universal Bank.` I think they`ve been working overtime taking care of me for some time.
”I was awful young when I was in the `Buddy Holly Story,` and things happened so fast-an Oscar nomination, all that, I didn`t know what was happening to me. I obviously was in need of help a few years back, and that`s when I got my face and head slammed into concrete. I`m a much better person now since the accident.”
He didn`t exactly see God then, but he did take a good look at himself. The ”accident” was a well-publicized crash on his motorcycle just before Christmas almost three years ago. He wasn`t wearing a helmet at the time-didn`t believe in them-and he suffered ”severe head injuries,” according to the hospital report, and had surgery to remove two blood clots in his brain.
”I remember coming out of that, thinking `Bleep helmets!` Now doesn`t that sound a little stupid? I must have been very near death.
”I`m in the process of taking all that back now,” he says. ”Now I completely support the helmet law,” making it mandatory for cyclists to wear them.
”I was in bad shape then. I even had a form of dyslexia. Did things backwards. I`d put on my sweat pants, then pull on some jockey shorts over them. I`d walk the hospital corridors and drop in on people to talk to them. . . . But I can`t remember much of anything.”
That has changed now. Busey pulls out a photo of his son, Jake, on a motorcycle. ”He`s 20,” he states.
The elder Busey has always been involved with music, plays guitar and drums, writes songs. He`s off on a concert tour with Bonnie Raitt`s band this winter, and he`s planning a few videos. He just finished a TV show with Dolly Parton, whom he considers ”the eighth wonder of the world-very creative, the energy of a leopard, the heart of a lion.”
Kinda reminds one of Busey himself, doesn`t it?
