Kris Kristofferson: One On One
On surviving Sam Peckinpah, Dennis Hopper and those damn dirty apes...
This piece originally appeared in Empire (Australia).
If God has a voice, he speaks with the voice of Kris Kristofferson.
The fact that he sounds like he’s been pouring bourbon on his Weetabix since he was eight is as good an indicator as any that Kristofferson is a man who has lived - hard.
That he’s alive at all is pretty incredible when you consider he made three films under the auspices of alcoholic narcophile Sam Peckinpah (including the cult classics Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid and Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia), and weathered a blizzard of cocaine-fuelled chaos on the set of Dennis Hopper’s Peruvian nightmare, The Last Movie.
Although he has a move career spanning 30 years and 70 movies, Kris Kristofferson’s world fame doesn’t hinge on film. One of the true kings of country and western, he's penned and performed such classics as 'Me And Bobby McGee', 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' and 'The Gambler', and racked up appearances at era-defining concerts like the Hendrix-headlined 1971 Isle Of Wight Festival.
Throw in the small matter of a stint at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (“I won a blue for boxing. I didn’t win the fight but I did win a blue”), a spell in the army and a trio of marriages, including one to singer and Pat Garrett co-star Rita Coolidge, and you’ve all the proof you’ll ever need that Kristofferson isn’t just in the movies; his life plays out like one.
Of course, when you have esteemed pictures such as Pat Garrett and causes celebres a la Heaven’s Gate in your past, recent projects such as vampire sequel Blade II and historical leprosy drama Molokai: The Story Of Father Damien can’t help but feel like small beer.
Kristofferson, however, doesn’t see it that way. And while Empire may want to talk to him about what Peckinpah was really like, this warm, good-humoured gentleman is just as keen to lavish praise on Molokai (shot near to his Hawaiian home) and his co-star, Australia’s very own David Wenham…
Naturally, we’re really pleased to see David Wenham doing so well. He seems quite a serious chap. Is that how he was on the Molokai set?
Working with David was a true privilege. Yes, David is very serious about his work and he has every right to be so. He’s hugely talented. There’s no harder task than playing a character who’s perfect [Wenham plays Father Damien who volunteered to care for the lepers on the island of Molokai only to later contract and die from the disease]. That David managed to make a man of pure conviction a real person rather than a saint was truly amazing. The scene in which he’s diagnosed is astonishing - he has no dialogue but manages to convey complete desolation. I just hope the film finds an audience as David’s is a performance that deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.
Molokai has an amazing cast all round - Peter O’Toole, Derek Jacobi, Tom Wilkinson. Any good O’Toole anecdotes?
None, I’m afraid - I never got to meet him. Because I live in the area, they just helicoptered me in whenever they needed me which was convenient for me but meant I didn’t get many opportunities to hang out. It would have been wonderful to have worked with Peter - I’m sure he has some incredible stories to tell but I didn’t get to hear them.
So, Sam Peckinpah…
Actually, when we started work on Molokai, I went up to [director[ Paul Cox and said, ‘Man, you sure look a helluva lot like Sam!’ It really was uncanny. And as it happened, things on Molokai turned out the same way they turned out for Sam on all of his pictures.
Was there a lot of studio interference?
Sure. I think Paul was taken off the picture a couple of times. It wasn’t easy - it’s not a good way to make a motion picture - but he finished up making a great movie that I’m really proud of.
With Peckinpah, were production difficulties a daily occurrence?
Sam’s problem was that he found himself fighting with the producers virtually every day on virtually every picture. Whether it was Sam or the producers, I don’t know, but it makes it a very hard way to make a living. And it didn’t help Sam’s drinking much, either.
Are the stories about the extent of his drinking true?
Well, on Pat Garrett, he was drinking a lot, all of the time, and it had begun to affect his health which was pretty distressing.
When you made your third film with him Convoy, was there a feeling that the magic had gone?
I don’t hold with that. The magic doesn’t go. When you deal with artists, you realise they have their good days and bad days just like everyone else. Sam just had some bad days shooting Convoy.
Both he and Warren Oates seemed to be on top form on Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia.
Warren was one of the really great guys and I loved his work on the picture. He had a very rare talent and I don’t think anyone has filled the nice he left. As for Sam, I think he took advantage of our friendship on that movie. He asked me and Donnie Fritts to come down to Mexico to play these small roles. I played this biker who was meant to rape Warren Oates’ lady. At least, that was how it read on the page. But when we came to look at the rushes, it had been cut together in a way that suggested she was actually going with it - enjoying the experience. That was wrong. The producers who are planning to remake Alfredo Garcia with Benicio Del Toro called me up recently to say how much they enjoyed my work in the film and I found myself in the awkward position of saying I didn’t care too much for it myself.
Does the remake fill you with dread?
I’m not that enthusiastic. I've yet to see one remake that added to or improved upon the original. I really don’t see the point of them.
In which case, why appear in the ‘reimagining’ of Planet Of The Apes?
Why? To work with Tim Burton, period. He was someone whose work I’d admired for years and so, when the opportunity came along, I had to seize it. I really believe he’s one of the few visionaries working in movies today.
And was the experience what you hoped it would be?
Well, for me, the shoot largely consisted of running away from the apes. Tim spent a lot of time trying to find new ways to get me excited about the idea of running away from guys in costume. And the running wasn’t as easy as it might sound. One of the lead apes was played by Michael Clarke Duncan who’s as big as they come. Unfortunately, Michael sprained his ankle during one of the chase sequences, and when he fell, he very nearly took me with him, which if you know his dimensions, is something you’d rather avoid. They ended up having to take him to ER in full ape make-up.
Are there any other directors you’re particularly keen to work with?
[Without a moment’s though] John Sayles. I made Lone Star with him and it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my career. He’s a phenomenal talent. He wrote a novel in his twenties called Pride Of The Bimbos which is quite remarkable - I read it in the ‘70s and was really awed by his talent. At the time he was directing Lone Star, he was also writing the screenplay for Men With Guns. Then, when I next ran into him, he’d filmed Men With Guns and was all ready to go with Limbo, which I was naturally insanely happy to appear in. Any day spent working on a John Sayles movie is a good day. I’d walk a long way to work with him again.
Apes, Garrett, Alfredo Garcia - you’re not stranger to tough shoots. Debuting on Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie couldn’t have been a walk in the park, either.
It was crazy. Man, there was cocaine everywhere. I was lucky because I’d been living in Nashville where there was a drinking culture but not much else. I think if Dennis had got me into that other stuff, I’d never have come back. That really was an intense experience. I went to Peru to provide some songs, do some horse-riding stunts and to help bridge the language barrier - I spoke Spanish and a lot of the crew didn’t - but I finished up making my acting debut. A lot of good things happened in Peru, though. I got to visits the ruins of long-lost civilisations which are experiences I’ll carry with me forever. Also, Rolling Stone sent a guy down to cover the film and he wrote a piece about my songwriting career, which was just starting to take off. Anyway, when I got back to the US, the piece had been run and Janis was interested in recording some of my material.
Janis Joplin?
Yeah. So, in the end, out of something really tough came something really good. That’s how life works sometimes.