Walken on sunshine
He may have made his career playing the heavy, but the real Christopher Walken is anything but gloomy By Eve Claxton

Even when he's dressed in a pin-striped suit, his hair standing electric-shock-style from his head, it's easy to see why Christopher Walken, 55, has been cast three times as an angel (in both Prophecy movies and in a Madonna video). Up close, as on-screen, he's utterly otherworldly--you feel as if he's talking to you at one remove, from behind thick glass or an invisible movie screen. Born in Astoria, the son of a baker, Walken first made his mark as a child actor on TV and Broadway, where he danced in chorus lines. In Suicide Kings,his latest film, the prolific actor plays Charlie Barrett, a former New York Mafia capo who gets kidnapped by rich kids. As Barrett, Walken spends most of the picture strapped to a chair, wrapped in duct tape--and unable to execute his trademark movie dance.

Time Out New York:You're known for three things: playing villains, dancing in your movies and wild hair. First, let's talk about your bad guys.
Christopher Walken: Well, I got into playing villains a little bit by accident. Some of the earlier things I did, like Annie Hall and Deer Hunter,weren't villains, but they were people who were odd. I think I got into the oddball thing, and that kind of stuck. But before that, when I was doing theater, I always played in comedies. I always played silly people, and when I got into the movies... It must be some kind of equation the camera makes. I'm not complaining.
TONY: Now the dancing: Is it true you do a little dance in every film?
CW: It might be perverse, but I always do a little jig. You know, Alfred Hitchcock used to show up in his movies for a second, so it's my trademark. But I couldn't do it in this one; it's the first one in a long time.
TONY: And the hair?
CW: It's true: I do have a lot of hair, and for my age, I have a lotof hair. That's good. Most guys my age don't have hair. I've always had hair; it's always been something people comment on, even before I was an actor. Even when I was a kid, people used to say, "What about your hair?" It may have to do with Elvis. When I was 15, he'd just got famous, and I think that he did have an influence on a lot of people my age. I still have Elvis hair, let's face it. And I think a lot of people wouldif they had hair.
TONY: It doesn't get any cooler than Elvis.
CW: And you can't have Elvis hair unless you have hair.
TONY: I didn't see your one-man show, but I heard you did Elvis.
CW: Yes, but I didn't do it anything like Elvis. That was the joke. It was about Elvis, but he was dead already, and he'd changed a lot. He's lost weight; he's become a totally different person.
TONY: In Suicide Kings,you act without the use of your arms.
CW: It was difficult in a way, and in another way it wasn't, because I didn't have to do a lot of the things I usually do, such as moving around, using props. So really I just had to concentrate on what I was talking about.
TONY: In the film, you act with Denis Leary, and in 1995, you did a one-man show Off Broadway. Ever thought of doing stand-up comedy?
CW: Yeah, I think it is kind of a fantasy of mine to do stand-up sometime. I think I could do it, actually. It might almost be funnier, because people wouldn't expect it. But I think I could do that. A sort of Rodney Dangerfield thing.
TONY: I don't see you as the Rodney Dangerfield type.
CW: Maybe not. But just to come out and say things that were funny.
TONY: You've lived in New York all your life. Would you ever live anywhere else?
CW: I don't live away from New York, except that I can't live inNew York anymore:There's too much going on. So I have a house about an hour away. But I don't get thatfar away.
TONY: How did you get into show business?
CW: Well, I started off as a child. My mother had the show bug, and we were in Queens, which was 15 minutes by subway from Rockefeller Center, where television really was born. And they used kids a lot. So that's what I did.
TONY: Growing up in Astoria, were you aware of the old movie studios?
CW: When I was growing up, all those movie studios [had been replaced by a factory that made] something called Silver Cup Bread, which was a big, big loaf of white bread--one of those that is huge, but doesn't weigh anything.
TONY: You seem to work all the time. Can't you say no to a good role?
CW: I can say no to hardly any role! I don't have children, and I don't have hobbies. I don't like to travel, really; I like to stay in the house unless I'm working. So it's better for me, psychologically. I mean naturally, it's better to work and make money and to keep busy. Just the fact of getting up and going to work.
TONY: What's next for you?
CW: I have an Abel Ferrara movie coming out called New Rose Hotel.I have a John Turturro movie coming out called Illuminata.I have a movie that I did called Blast from the Past with Alicia Silverstone. I'm in a movie about a mummy.
TONY: An Egyptian mummy?
CW: No, an Irish mummy. You know, the Druids used to mummify people. So they're making a movie about it, a horror movie called Nora.
TONY: Do you have favorite roles?
CW:I like Gabriel [in Prophecy]. I like a lot of the parts I play. King of New York,I like. Dead Zone.Pennies from Heaven--I got to dance. One of my favorite things I ever did was Puss in Boots,which was a musical of the child's story. I loved that story when I was a kid, and I played the cat.
TONY: Did you see the parody of The Deer Hunter's Russian-roulette scene on The Simpsons?
CW: No. On Saturday Night Live,they did a parody with all these deer sitting round the table playing Russian roulette.
TONY: You've been married to the same woman for nearly 30 years. What's your secret?
CW: Well, obviously it helps if you're matched well. It helps if you're partners.
TONY: A lot of people think you're Italian, but your mother is Scottish, and your father's German. Which nationality do you feel closer to?
CW: Neither, really. I think I was lucky to be raised by immigrant parents; because both my parents were adults when they came here, I grew up in a sort of European household. It's different. But I love both those countries. You never hear anyone say, "Oh, I'm taking my wife and we're going to Germany," but it's a beautiful country, and the people are so friendly. And Scotland, too. I went to Glasgow. It was amazing, a lot of fun. I love Glasgow; it has a bad reputation.
TONY: All the best places and people have bad reputations.
CW:It's true.
Suicide Kings opens Friday.