THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
TOM BERENGER has been nominated for an Oscar, starred in some 20 movies and currently has a commercial hit with the action flick ``The Substitute.''
Still, he doesn't consider himself a part of Hollywood.
He's a resident of South Carolina, living just down the street from the house in which he filmed ``The Big Chill'' in 1983. The Chicago native came to Beaufort, S.C., for the film and never left.
``Whenever I have to fly out to Los Angeles for a job, I refer to it as flying out to the toilet,'' he said. ``I say, `Well, I'm flying out to the toilet tomorrow.'
``I'd rather not have anything to do with that dog and pony show out there, but then, I do need my medical insurance. And I have five kids to get educated. It's a job. When I need money, and the script is at least decent, I go out and make a movie.''
He liked the script for ``The Substitute,'' in which he plays a Vietnam veteran who takes his martial arts skills into the classroom.
``Mostly, I liked the scenes with the kids,'' he said. ``They were very respectful, and just great kids. The classroom scenes were the best.''
The perpetutally tanned and buffed Berenger has flirted with Tom Cruise-like stardom for several decades now - and continually thumbed his nose at it.
``I originally wanted to be a sports writer,'' Berenger said. ``I majored in journalism at the University of Missouri and never thought about being an actor until I got a part in a stage production of `Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' ''
He moved to New York City to study acting, and made his movie debut playing the cross-dressing killer in ``Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' in 1977. Most of his roles since then have been as macho leading men, beginning with 1979's ``Butch and Sundance: The Early Days,'' a prequel to ``Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.''
``That's when I began to get the big phony push,'' he sighed. ``The National Enquirer and all the press began coming at me with star-time coverage. I wanted no part of it.
``It was all phony. Around 1980, I began getting these big money offers. I didn't know that my first agent was a coke-head who was sending me scripts that had already been cast with someone else. Then, my second agent was an alcoholic, who really had no idea what was going on.''
He played the disaffected TV star in ``The Big Chill,'' as well as the Marine recruiter in ``Born on the Fourth of July.'' He received an Oscar nomination for his role as the bitter Sgt. Barnes in Oliver Stone's ``Platoon.''
On TV, he did ``Flesh and Blood'' and the seven-hour mini-series adaptation of Sidney Sheldon's ``If Tomorrow Comes.'' He won an Emmy nomination for his guest role on the final episode of ``Cheers.''
His films have included ``Major League,'' the Civil War epic ``Gettysburg,'' the romantic ``Someone to Watch Over Me'' and ``Last of the Dogmen.''
He didn't like most of them - or, at least, isn't impressed with himself in them.
Asked to name a film of his that he liked, he named ``Betrayed,'' in which he played a racist farmer who threatened Debra Winger. Most of the critics hated it.
``It was exactly what it was meant to be,'' Berenger said. ``A film is made or lost in the editing. The actors are at the mercy of the editing.''
He particularly dislikes ``Sliver,'' the 1993 voyeuristic thriller starring Sharon Stone and William Baldwin, even though it was a commercial hit.
``That movie was a sinking ship from the first day,'' he said, ``and typical of the way movies are made. This guy (Philip Noyce) was no director. He was a lighting director for a rock and roll group in Sydney and they brought him over to direct a major film. They should have sent him back to Australia. I kept wondering `How did he become a director?' ''
``At the last minute, they decided to rewrite the script and make me the killer. OK, but I don't work overtime. They have only so many days to finish the movie and this director is wasting all the time on a telephone scene with Sharon. He was trying to play games with me. They ended up having to shoot a new ending, at a cost of a lot of money.''
At home in South Carolina, he's more concerned with the PTA and with getting a YMCA building completed than with directorial problems. ``Getting that building finished for the kids is a bigger achievement than any of my movies.''
He has six scripts he plans to produce. ``They're all historical subjects,'' he said. ``I have the investors for most of them already. I like the business side of the movie industry, but I would never direct a movie. I'd never have the patience. I'm only interested in producing.''
``To tell you the truth,'' he sighed, ``I don't see many movies. When I'm at home, I spend most of my free time reading.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by ORION PICTURES CORP.
Tom Berenger stars as the mercenary Shale in ``The Substitute.''
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW PROFILE BIOGRAPHY by CNB