"I Knew Frank Booth" - Dennis Hopper On Blue Velvet's Big Bad
Recalling the mad genius's incredible performance in the wake of David Lynch's death.
One of modern cinema’s greatest villains, the remarkable thing about Frank Booth isn’t that Dennis Hopper was perfect for the role but that it wasn’t until the cameras started rolling that someone offered him the part.
As Hopper recalled, “David Lynch started shooting before he’d cast Frank. As soon as I read the script I called up and said, ‘David, I must play Frank because I am Frank!’
“I knew Frank Booth very well. I’d seen him. I’d befriended him. That world of the drug dealer, it was something I really understood.”
Of course, the gas-guzzling, Pabst-chugging Booth provided the blueprint for many lesser villains, invariably played by less talented performances.
Check out Hopper’s eyes when Dean Stockwell’s Ben lip-synchs to ‘In Dreams’ and you’ll appreciate that, just as there was only one Dennis Hopper so there was just one actor who could possibly have breathed life into Frank Booth.