Patrick Stoner welcomes your questions about movies and the men and women who make them. Send your questions to pstoner@whyy.org.

Here's the current question and answer...

Who is your least favorite interview?

Gary Busey--who gets forgiven for his boorish behavior (like the time he made a woman cry who was keeping track of the time in one interview by commenting that she "looks like an ugly dog") because of his motorcycle accident, but Richard Dreyfuss once told me that "Busey was just as strange before the accident.

Rodney Dangerfield--who did one series of interviews in a bathrobe with nothing on underneath, letting it open whenever the women interviewers were there, and going off to the bathroom for "breaks" more often than any reasonable physical need required. Forget the "big, unappreciated teddy bear" image.

Dennis Quaid--NOT now, but before he cleaned up his act with the help of his delightful wife, Meg Ryan, and the Betty Ford Institute, when he took paranoia to a new level. He used to sit in the back of the chair and DARE you to try get something out of him. Since becoming a father, he's a new person.

Linda Fiorentino--who has the timekeeper hold up signs THREE FEET HIGH with the minutes remaining in the interview on them.

Macaulay Culkin--who once took a stopwatch into the interview and announced when it was time to "go" and when it was time to "stop," while giving the answer "I don't know" to every question. In The Good Son, when his character is dropped to a rocky death, the assembled critics at the screening cheered loudly.

There have been others who seemed to be in this category the first time I interviewed them, but later turned out to be quite nice. Sometimes, stars are defensive for very good reasons. With the increased number of tabloid shows around, the sleaze interviewers are growing in number. So, a certain caution on the part of stars the first few times they deal with you is understandable. The nominees above, however, are constant in their attitudes.

The WINNER is not any of them, because he is in a league of his own:

Tommy Lee Jones --one of my favorite actors and easily my greatest disappointment as an interview. He makes himself available for interviews on practically every film, but he doesn't seem to understand the concept. If you're invited to see his film and interview him, you're bound to ask him about his character and what it was like to work on the movie. His answer to anything, however, near the former question is "Well, you've seen it, haven't you?" and his answer to any variation in the latter area is "Look, I'm a professional; I just go in and do my job, and then I go home." Oh, good. . . thanks, Tommy Lee. After getting these two answers to any questions about the movie or its making, I once noticed he was dressed all in black with cowboy boots, and that reminded me of a TV character in my youth. So, I said, "So, you're sort of like Paladin, aren't you?" Tommy Lee said, "I'm not Paladin."
"Well," I said, "you're a pro. You go get the job done. You're all in black. You're sort of like Paladin."
"Yeh," he said, "I'm like Paladin, but I'm not Paladin!"
"Oh, OK, Tommy Lee," I said. "I get it. In case my audience thinks I'm misidentifying you as Paladin, you're making it clear that you're NOT ACTUALLY Paladin?!" He smiled, briefly. I no longer do interviews with Tommy Lee, if I can avoid it, and won't until he decides to stop acting that way. I STILL think he's a genuinely talented, enormously talented actor. I wish I could say the same thing about him as an interview.

Past questions and answers.
Return to FLICKS Home Page.