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GENESIS: What do you think will come out of The Deer Hunter when its impact spreads worldwide, from an audience standpoint?
WALKEN: Well, I've never seen men weeping in a movie theater like that. It sounds like I'm selling the movie, but I'm really surprised; it affects me powerfully too, when I see it. I've never seen people react like that. I've never seen the lights come up after the movie's over and people sit there in sort of stunned silence. Obviously, this is a very unusual and powerful movie. I'm sure it's going to affect people terrifically.
GENESIS: You come from a New York theater background, as a Broadway dancer and actor. And now you've proven yourself equally facile in films. The transition from stage to film is being done regularly now, by actors like you and De Niro, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman.
WALKEN: It is; it's wonderful that American actors are doing this. Our problem in the United States has always been that we have a sort of West Coast industry, and an East Coast industryÐ the theater and the movies and because of the distance, you don't find actors doing what they do, for instance, in London and in Paris, where they'll do a movie during the day and a play at night American actors just can'tÐ it's geographically impossible. But now actors in America are starting to make that transition, and there's no reason why they shouldn't; its richer for everybody.
GENESIS: There isn't much of a problem in switching acting techniques from stage to film? You didn't seem to find it difficult.
WALKEN: Oh, yes, I did. But I had an enormous amount of help from Michael Cimino and Robert De Niro and the other actors. I certainly couldn't have done as well with the part without them. I think that there are very different techniques involved, different priorities, between stage and film acting. You have to learn them. I spent a long time working in the theater to get to the point where I looked like I knew what I was doing when I was up there, and I did that by repeatedly doing plays, over and over. I did sixty plays in ten or twelve years. And I expect that it's the same process in films. Just the same process in making bread or building a house: The more you do it, the better you get.
GENESIS: Do you get into a role the same way De Niro does, who searches and lives with the people, drinks with them, eats with them, and spends weeks there?
WALKEN: Oh, I probably should, but I don't. I just tried to bring as much of myself as I could in the character; find the common denominators in my character; in my personality and Nick's. I expect that Nick probably comes off very much as I would have under those circumstances.
GENESIS: Even though you're acting, putting a gun to your head must be a pretty traumatic experience.
WALKEN: Its a strange experienceÐ very strange. Especially when there were special effects to reinforce the reality of it, when Nick shoots himself in the head. It;s a gruesome thing.
GENESIS: Both you and De Niro seem to have such a tremendous rangeÐ you're not typed, you're not one kind of actor.
WALKEN: Well, I have played many, many different kinds of roles. One of the things that happens is that you find yourself in a two-year period of gigolos and then you've got a two year stretch of maniacs. It's unfortunate, but it does happen that way. Luckily for me, I've never gotten stuck in a character type for more than a little while.
GENESIS: Has this been a thing that you've known all you life, that you were going to be an actor? You started very young.
WALKEN: I did. But I don't think I ever intended to be an actor; I don't think I ever really knew what I wanted to do. Peoples careers, I think very often, are a result ofÐ hopefully Ð happy accident. I don't know too many people who end up being what they set out to be. I became an actor more or less by accident; I was a dancer in musicals for a long time and did various things, but with no particular direction. I'm very lucky I stumbled onto this.
GENESIS: And now you're studying hot and heavy?
WALKEN: Yeah, well, I do continue to study. But more important, I'm working hot and heavy! And that's really the best studyÐ if you work, and especially if you're working with good people. I learned more acting in the theater with Irene Worth in Sweet Bird Of Youth than I could have learned from ten years in acting school. You learn how to get in the ring and stay there.
GENESIS: Having scored your first big film successÐ an Oscar in your first major roleÐ will you now abandon New York for Hollywood?
WALKEN: Well I was born in New York and New York's my town. People like to criticize it, and I criticize it, too. It really has a lot that could be improved; but on the other hand, it's the greatest variety, the most fascinating elements of any place I've ever been. You stand on the corner in New York and you can see things about other people would write books about.
GENESIS: Do you feel that you've paid a lot of dues, Chris? Or would you say you got the breaks early on and it really hasn't been tough?
WALKEN: I think that's the case. I really didn't have a big success in a movie, but I always earned a living and had a good time.
GENESIS: What kinds of parts do you see yourself doing as time goes on? Do you have a particular design?
WALKEN: I don't, really, but I think that I'd like to more or less keep doing what I;m doing. The thing about having a little success is that it gives you more choicesÐ makes your range of choices bigger. You don't have to do something just because you need something to do or you need some money. You can do something because it's interesting to you. I intend to keep working on the stage, and doing films, if I can.
GENESIS: After winning a best-supporting-actor Oscar your first time outÐ as did Robert De Niro, and Gene Hackman was nominated for Bonnie And Clyde Ð do you view your next role with a certain trepidationÐ ÒWhat do I do for an encore?Ó?
WALKEN: Well, I know what my next next job is and happily it's for Michael Cimino again, in a picture called Heaven's Gate. I'm very happy to be working with him again. But as far as anything else goes, I don't worry about it. If I bomb right away, that's okay, too. I found out as an actor in the theater that I never got any good until I was ready to bombÐ until I was ready to take big chances. And sometimes I fell down. In a film, it's hard to fall down, because so much money is at stake and so many people see it. You can make enormous mistakes in the theater and just a few people see it. I realize that it's very dangerous to try to do that in films. But I don't think there;s ever been any good movie actor, from Laurence Olivier to Robert De Niro, who wasn't willing to take enormous chances, to really put it on the line, and I don't really feel that, as as actor, I have anything that much worth protecting or holding onto; so I;m willing to take chances with whatever it is that I've gotten so far.
GENESIS: What does winning the Academy Award mean to you?
WALKEN: It's wonderful. Everybody wants an Academy Award, I don't care what they say.
GENESIS: You mentioned Olivier and De Niro, and they were nominated for the best-actor award this year. Do you think the Academy Awards are unfair in that sense, comparing one actor in one role and one in a totally different role?
WALKEN: It is a dilemma. But everybody likes the heavyweight champ; and to be nominated itself is an honor. I was very happy just with that. But it's a tradition, and it's not necessarily an unhealthy one. I love competition. I think it's great trying to be the best one. Not that you can make such comparisons among actors, but it's fun anyway. The honor is in being consideredÐ the rest is a sport.
GENESIS: But no matter what the actors say, and no matter how good an ensemble turns out to be, as in The Deer Hunter, there is after all the competitiveness among actorsÐ competing at auditions, competing for roles, and so forth.
WALKEN: You do compete in auditions; you do compete for roles. But then once you get them and you all get together the competition stops. THe Deer Hunter is an excellent example of that. And most good productionsÐ in musicals, in the theater, whateverÐ have that ensemble playing.
GENESIS: Is it just the work that's pleasurable now, or is stardom a big thing for you? Do you want to be a big star?
WALKEN: Do I want to be a big star? Yes, of course. But as I say, I always made a living and had a good time; and to me, that's what's important. Success,again, I think is most noticeable in terms of the choices it gives you. Very often, when I was younger, I'd have to take a job in order to make the necessary money to live; or I'd have to take the job just because I desperately needed something to do, for my spirit. But when you do something like this, then of course more people are anxious to have you work for them, and your choices become greater. To me, that's the really wonderful thing about having some success. Your live just gets more interesting.
GENESIS: How does your wife react to all this success and fame happening to you? Is she worried about a change coming over you because of it?
WALKEN: She's having fun, too. I think. I'm not a kid, and in a way maybe I'm lucky that Deer Hunter happened now, because I am able to enjoy it. It doesn't threaten me in any way, and I;m not worried about what it might do to me. In a sense, we're talking about something that hasn't happened. People don't bother me on the subway, or anything like that. I'm as anonymous as I can make out, as I always have been.
GENESIS: Was your wife an actress as well?
WALKEN: She was a dancer. We were dancing in shows together; that's where we met. She doesn't dance anymore.
GENESIS: Are you pleased about that, or would you rather have a working wife?
WALKEN: Well, I like being around people who are interested in what they are doing, and she is. Our life is fairly uncomplicated, because we're able to travel a lot, and we don't have children. So I'm able to move around a lot, which is good for my acting. I think it's important for wives and husbands to do what they're interested in. If my wife decided to be an actress tomorrow, that would be okay with me. If she decided to be a senator, it would be okay with me. Just make enough money to hire a cook!