INTERROGATION: CHRISTOPHER WALKEN

You’ve been in showbiz for over 50 years, are you surprised by your success?
Christopher Walken: I consider myself lucky that Hollywood still wants me. The fact I get some respect in my craft is something I didn’t anticipate. I’m financially better off than I ever thought I would be. And I’ve already done more than I thought, and that still amazes me to this day.

Why do you think you’ve got this reputation for being intimidating?
CW: I think it’s because of the parts I play. I play a lot of terrible people.

Does your wife Georgianne find it amusing when people think you’re a psychotic type of guy?
CW: Occasionally, but I don’t sense terror in anybody in my family. Although I wish my wife was a little more afraid of me. But she’s more aggressive and assertive than I am.

Is she in the business?
CW: She used to be an actress, but now she runs a casting agency. She cast The Sopranos. We met 40 years ago when she was my dance partner in West Side Story. I was Riff, leader of the Jets, and she was Graziella, Riff’s girlfriend.

You’ve been married for nearly 40 years. What’s the secret to a successful marriage?
CW: The older I get, the more I think everything is luck. Everything. I picked the right one by luck. Also I’m very easy to get along with. I don’t argue with anybody really, I just say ‘OK’.

Why did you decide not to have children?
CW: Who knows? I think it had something to do with being an actor. Before I was making movies, I was never making any money, but my wife had a job so that was OK. I lived simply and travelled. Children are very expensive. It wouldn’t have been a good idea.

You have a reputation for being a big prankster on set. What’s your favourite joke?
CW: I pretend it’s my birthday a lot. The trick is to play the joke very early in the morning. I’ll be sitting in the make-up trailer with the lady patting my face with a brush, and I’ll pull a sad face. Sooner or later she’ll ask, ‘What’s the matter? You look a little down today.’ And I’ll say, ‘I’m all right.’ Then she finally says, ‘Come on. What is it?’ Then I’ll say, ‘It’s my birthday, and I’m sad, because I’m alone… and I don’t have a cake.’ Then I’ll say, ‘But don’t tell anyone.’ By lunchtime everybody knows and a cake is wheeled out.

Any other favourite pranks?
CW: Sometimes when they call for me to be on set, I’ll stand outside my trailer and look up at the sky for a long time. A really long time. Finally, someone will ask, ‘What are you looking at?’ Next thing you know, you have 10 people standing looking up at the sky for no particular reason. Then I’ll just casually walk off.

Tell us something about you that would surprise us.
CW: I don’t own a computer or a mobile phone and I don’t even wear a wristwatch. I’m old school.

What are you passionate about?
CW: I have a lovely garden at home in Connecticut that I like to potter about in. I grow my own tomatoes and vegetables.

What’s your favourite dish?
CW: I love Italian food. I could eat spaghetti every day. I like to cook. I’m not a very sophisticated cook, but I think the real secret is perfect timing – not to cook too long and not too little. Very difficult.

Is there a part you’d love to play?
CW: I’d like to play a psychiatrist. I think I’d be good in that role. I went to a psychiatrist once and he was so strange I left. I thought, ‘I can’t take your advice, you’re crazy.’ I didn’t need a psychiatrist, but somebody had said to me, ‘You should go and talk to this person.’ So I said, OK. It was in his own apartment and the phone rang in another room and I could see into his kitchen and there were all these dirty dishes. He was obviously grubby, and I thought, you can’t tell me about my life if you can’t wash your dishes.

Ever had a crazed fan approach you?
CW: No. That must be the advantage to having an intimidating persona. I don’t get the crazies coming up to me. People are usually friendly. They say, ‘Hey, Chris’. They are very familiar with me. I like that.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?
CW: When I was a kid I joined the circus for a summer and I became a junior lion tamer. The guy who owned the circus had an idea for an act where his son would come on dressed just like him. But he didn’t have any kids, so I went on. I had an identical outfit to him, with the hat and everything. At the end, when he was finished with his lions, they’d all leave except for this one called Shiba. She was a very nice lion. Old. Not too many teeth. She’d rub up against your legs. She wasn’t dangerous at all. I didn’t get paid. I just did it because I found it all so interesting.

Tell us about your character Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray.
CW: I think Wilbur is a very good-natured man and doing the right thing just comes naturally to him. He’s crazy about his wife, Edna, who is, of course, played by John Travolta. It actually made me think I never get the girl (in a film) and the first time I do get the girl, it’s John Travolta!

What was it like to dance with John Travolta?
CW: We rehearsed for a long time. For weeks. Then John put that big fat suit on and heels, but we knew the moves so well we shot it in only a few takes. Very fast. I had a DVD of the steps and I’d play it in my house. I’d do the moves and then it’s just kind of in your bones, until you don’t think about them anymore.

Michelle Pfeiffer also stars in Hairspray. You last working with her in Batman Returns in 1992. Was it good filming with her again?
CW: Last time I saw her I threw her out of a window, so it was great to see her again! I didn’t know that she’s a world-class singer. That’s really her singing in the movie.

CHRISTOPHER'S REALITY CHECK

What is a brolly?
An umbrella. (Correct)

What was the last CD you bought?
I listen to a lot of the old show tunes. Jazz and the classics. But I don’t buy CDs for myself. People give them to me.

What was the last domestic thing you did?
I organised the refrigerator. Put things in small containers.

Who are Posh & Becks?
Isn’t that the footballer David Beckham and his wife? (Yes).

How much is a pint of milk?
About two dollars and some change. (Sounds expensive, but as they sell milk in larger cartons in America we’ll let him off this one)

Hairspray will be in cinemas nationwide from 20 July