THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
BRUCE WILLIS pulled off his baseball cap and ran his hand over his shaved head. Clad in baggy shorts and puffing a cigar, the star of ``Die Hard With a Vengeance'' is hanging out - loose, free-wheeling.
It is not the Bruce Willis who has been so fond of knocking the press for knocking him.
``That bad-boy stuff, that's been over for a few years now,'' he explained. ``I'm not interested in correcting the image anymore. The image that's out there is another guy, a different guy.''
One, the stories go, who is arrogant, who travels with an entourage that includes bodyguards.
``Sure, for the first couple of years, when I get on television and into films, I didn't know how to act,'' Willis said. ``Now, the one thing I've learned is that you can't control your image. So I just relax. But I tell you, the work is what's important. I don't get up in the morning and say, `Man, I'm so glad to be a celebrity. Man, I'm so glad I'm getting all this money.' That's from nowhere. I'd rather go hang out with my kids.''
Willis is sitting at the Regency Hotel in New York to talk about the third installment in the ``Die Hard'' series - and to make a case that the press has usually been out to get him. But with a solid marriage to actress Demi Moore and three daughters, he's tamer.
On film, though, Willis is as wild as ever. ``Vengeance,'' filmed mostly in New York, is as noisy as its two predecessors.
``I went on television two years ago and said I'd never do another `Die Hard,' '' Willis said. ``I changed my mind for two reasons - money and the script. After all, making movies is a business. There's a franchise here.
``They sent me `Die Hard on a Bridge,' `Die Hard on a Boat,' `Die Hard Everywhere.' I never did see the script for `Die Hard on a Bus,' but I think someone else made that anyway. Meanwhile, everyone else was ripping them off.
``John McTiernan, who directed the first one, agreed to come back and do this one. But the thing I liked about this script is that it starts off in chaos and keeps moving. We didn't have to explain what had happened before.''
In the new movie, a bomber is destroying buildings in New York. Willis isn't troubled about the timing of the release, even though last month's tragedy in Oklahoma City is still on people's minds.
``I think people know this is a movie,'' he said. ``It's a piece of entertainment. It all depends on the media in how they treat it, but I would think it would demean what happened in Oklahoma to identify it with a movie. People will see this as a `Die Hard' movie, pure and simple.''
The new film has a subway crash, a chase through Central Park and a building explosion as its main special effects show. ``Filming it was like a circus,'' Willis said. ``They closed Ninth Avenue from 57th to 42nd Street. They closed Central Park. New Yorkers were not impressed. They'd yell out the window: `Get out of the way. I'm trying to get to work.' You can trust New York to put Hollywood in its place.''
You can trust Bruce Willis to do the same thing.
In the past year, via small roles in ``Pulp Fiction'' and ``Nobody's Fool,'' he finally won the critical respect he's been seeking.
``I don't mind taking small parts,'' he said. ``In fact, I like it. I love not having the responsibility for the film. I wanted to do `Nobody's Fool' just to work with Paul Newman.''
For playing a boxer on the lam in ``Pulp Fiction,'' he was mentioned as a possible Oscar nominee.
``It isn't my time yet,'' Willis said. ``The Oscar thing is largely a part of image, and there we go again. I'll admit I was disappointed for a day or so. Then I got over it. I knew from the first that `Pulp Fiction' would be a big hit. It was the most complete script I'd ever read. The best thing was that they didn't take the edge off it. They let it live.''
Willis grew up in a working class household in New Jersey. He attended Montclair State College and kept trying out for theater jobs while working as a bartender. Playing his harmonica, he sat in with R&B bands. One of his earliest acting jobs was in a Newport News production of ``Picnic''; his break came off-Broadway in Sam Shepard's ``Fool for Love.''
In 1984, while on a trip to Los Angeles, he was selected from 3,000 contenders to play David Addison opposite Cybill Shepherd in the phenomenally successful ``Moonlighting,'' a role that won him an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
``On the original `Die Hard,' I had to first say no because I was working on `Moonlighting' and couldn't get out,'' Willis said. ``Then, Cybill got pregnant and they closed the show down for 12 weeks. If Cybill hadn't gotten pregnant, I wouldn't be here today.''
The movie offers started rolling in. ``When you think about it, I never got to play supporting roles. I was asked to star right away after TV, and to carry the responsibility. That's why I like to do these small roles. It's a chance to play real characters, and not carry the whole picture.''
As for having a famous actress for a wife, Willis says there's no problem.
``My wife is the highest-paid woman in movies today,'' he said. ``We understand the business.''
They have places in Malibu and Manhattan but raise the children on a ranch in the Northwest. ``You have to get away from Hollywood,'' he said. ``ALL they talk about are movies - the business. Demi and I like to go to Planet Hollywood openings because you can have contact, immediately, with real people. With movies, you don't get that. It's a year later when the movie comes out.''
Moore is getting $12.5 million for her next movie, ``Striptease.'' No, Willis isn't worried about her stripping in public. ``She's an individual. I'm an individual. I've been fighting since I was 12 years old against people telling other people how to live. Everyone should make their own choices.''
His shaved head is for his next movie, ``Twelve Monkeys,'' a thriller co-starring Brad Pitt and Madeleine Stowe. After that, he wants to rest awhile, then adds, ``I might do `Combat.' It's a big-screen version of the old TV series. It would have lots of action, again. More bruises.
`` `Die Hard' is just a cowboy movie in which we don't use horses. There are only so many plots around. The idea of crisis within a given time frame always works, all the way back to `High Noon.'
``I'm attracted to roles that are ordinary guys. Well, I mean, LOOK at me. I'm this slob. The American public wants to pull for the under-dog.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
by CNB