Most of the time they just walk up and say something like, “Hey, Mac Guy. I bought a Mac because of you.”
Once in a while, they’re curious: “Sooooo, Mac Guy, do you actually own a Mac?”
The ones who think they’re funny go with, “Hey, man, look out, I’m a PC.” That’s always a hoot.
It breeds strange moments, this whole human-embodiment-of-a-machine shtick. Probably none more so than when Justin Long is shopping or eating a hot dog and suddenly a stranger launches into a tale that begins: “I’m having a funny thing happen on my screensaver …”
“It always takes me a couple seconds to adjust to the fact that I’m in the Mac commercials, and they really, genuinely think that I am also like an expert,” says the 29-year-old actor. Long says he can download music from the Internet; that’s as advanced as it gets.
But if Long is looking for a chance to lose the techie-dork reputation, “Live Free or Die Hard” is not that chance. He plays the smart-mouthed hacker sidekick to Bruce Willis’ weathered Luddite, and together they battle a band of cyber terrorists.
It’s the first crack Long has had at the “action hero for a major motion picture” category. So of course he had to take it. That the role will strengthen his association with a very specific character type is a risk he’s willing to take.
“I have two different thoughts on that,” he said. “Just realistically, it’s so rare to work in this business — we’re all carnies, we go where the tents are — that if that’s where they are, that’s what people want and see me as, I’d happily do it. And be thrilled to work as long as I could.
“But on the other hand, I’ve done a few movies, smaller movies where I get to play characters and less-recognizable type parts and guys who are very dissimilar to myself, so I’ve gotten kind of an appetite now to kind of do more versatile roles. That’s one of the goals of ‘Die Hard.’ I pray to God it does something for my career, more opportunities to play non-computer geek guys.” For now, he plays a hacker drawn reluctantly into the heroism business by way of Web prowess. When the bad guys try to debilitate society by shutting down telecom networks and power grids, it’s his job to undo their evil coding, while Willis distracts them by launching cars into helicopters and dropping dudes into turbine engines.
“And the funny thing is, Bruce knows far more about computers than I do and was always on the computer, working the Webcam,” Long says. “I’m really, really bad with gadgets and any kind of computer thing.”
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A ‘hard’ look back
Before you head out this weekend to see “Live Free or Die Hard,” catch up with the three previous films in the franchise on DVD.
Die Hard (1988)
Perhaps the most original action movie of the 1980s, this ingeniously constructed thriller still puts to shame just about all of its copycats, including “Speed” and “Air Force One.” Bruce Willis is terrific in his first go-round as John McClane, the New York City cop who’s in L.A. on Christmas Eve and who must single-handedly defeat a group of Euro bad guys (led by the never-better Alan Rickman) who’ve taken a group of hostages — including McClane’s wife, played by Bonnie Bedelia — inside one of the city’s skyscrapers.
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)
This installment finds McClane waiting for his wife to arrive at Washington’s Dulles airport when a group of bad guys seize control of its communications tower. The stunts and action sequences are much more elaborate than in the first film, but some of the heart has gone missing and the villains are utterly forgettable.
Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)
McClane squares off against yet another sniveling Brit — this one played by Jeremy Irons — in the story of a mad bomber who’s terrorizing New York City. The cat-and-mouse game gets tired very quickly, and the action sequences are unremarkable. And while it probably seemed like a good idea to cast Samuel L. Jackson as a grocery-store owner with whom McClane must join forces, it turned this “Die Hard” into a buddy movie — a fundamental betrayal of the lone-wolf ethos of the franchise.
— Fort Worth Star-Telegram
