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MY HEART BELONGS ONLY TO GLASGOW
Daily Record, October 24, 2001 HOLLYWOOD star Christopher Walken has revealed how he would swap his A-list celebrity status to live and work alongside his family in Scotland. The Deer Hunter and Pulp Fiction actor rates Glasgow - where his mother Rosalie was born and raised - as one of the best cities in the world. He said: "Glasgow, I find, is a beautiful city - and fascinating culturally. It was amazing, a lot of fun. I love Glasgow. It has a bad reputation - but all the best places and people have bad reputations." He visited Scotland to trace his family roots two years ago and still longs to return for good. His mother, who now lives in Florida, moved to New York as a teenager and took a job in a bakery owned by the family of German immigrant Paul Walken. They fell in love, married in 1936 and went on to have three children - Ken, Glenn and Ronald, who later changed his name to Christopher on the advice of a showbiz pal. Rosalie was an aspiring stage actress when she arrived in the States and, although she never fulfilled her acting ambitions, she encouraged her sons at every opportunity. She often accompanied Christopher, the middle child, and his brothers to auditions across the Hudson River to Manhattan from the family home in Queens. Christopher, now 58, was the only one to make the big time and still cherishes his connection with his mother's homeland. He said: "You know, a whole part of my family live in Glasgow. That' s where they came from and many of them are still there. "My mother lived there until she moved to New York. They were mainly shipyard workers and two years ago I was over looking up aunts and uncles and other relatives and they have now been over to see us in the States. I would love to play theatre there, but there are union problems that make it difficult. I could happily live in Scotland and I don't mind being around our family." Walken refused to elaborate further or identify his relatives by name, but adds: "They are all extremely interesting ... characters." WALKEN spoke about his Scots past at the prestigious Deauville Film Festival in France, where he has been honoured for his services to cinema with more than 50 starring roles on the big screen to date. His latest movie, America's Sweethearts, was released at the weekend and stars Catherine Zeta Jones, Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal and John Cusack. Walken, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in The Deer Hunter, plays director Hal Weidmann in the behind-the-scenes comedy about the world's most adored acting couple, who split up on the eve of the release of their new movie. He added: "I've always been a character actor although I'm not entirely sure what that means. Sometimes you make a big movie, sometimes a little one and sometimes you do a play or television show. Sometimes you just stay home." In particular, he has made a career from playing steel-eyed villains with psychopathic tendencies. He added: "I am very happy to be working and if that means I'm the villain, then fine. "When I come on, people expect the bad guy. "Movies can be very expensive to make and they hire people they know can do something effectively. "Movies are a business and they're hedging their bets - they take the leading romantic actor, the comic actor, the action guy. "However, the trick is to be a bit surprising. I have a friend who tends to be cast as the hero and he complains he has never been allowed to die in a movie. I die all the time. "Not many people know this, but I was also tested for the Ryan O'Neal role in Love Story. I wouldn't have been any good. "I played Romeo twice, but a reviewer indicated that I was hopeless because everything I said came out sounding very sarcastic." Walken is obsessed with work, but keeps himself fresh by deviating from the norm - he returned to his roots as a dancer to star in a Fatboy Slim video and regularly appears in low budget, independent films and in off- Broadway plays. He and his casting agent wife Georgianne Thon have been married for 35 years. They met when they were struggling young stage actors - they don't have any children because Walken doesn't like them. They live on a small farm in upstate New York with assorted cats and he dislikes traveling immensely and has no hobbies, except cooking. HE is a skilled chef and does not like eating in restaurants because he does not know where the food has come from. Like his most deranged characters, Walken almost always dresses in black and hates direct sunlight on his skin so much he has been tagged the Prince of Darkness. He said: "My life is very conservative and I live very quietly. Working is what gets me up in the morning. "If I'm not working for two weeks, I get very disoriented and I do not know what I am doing. "I follow the same routine every day - I get up, exercise and learn my script. I eat the same things at the same time. "I'm serious. I do not like the unknown or the unexpected. I cannot stand being surprised, yet as an actor I like surprise. I get very upset if my bills aren't paid immediately." The only thing that has ever got Walken uptight was stage fright, which he suffered as a kid and which he conquered by forcing himself back on stage night after night. He recalled: "As a rule, I wouldn't recommend it. When I was a boy, we went on the principle that if you couldn't swim you would be thrown in the pool to make the best of it. "I was thrown into the pool and they had to fish me out. I still cannot swim. "With stage fright you keep on doing it and eventually the fear goes away. If you stick around long enough you become very hard to intimidate. "It is very difficult to make me nervous about working these days. "There have been so many times when I thought I was finished, but it was not true - you just keep going. "I am scared of sickness, pollution and crazy people but, work-wise, there is nothing to frighten me." Perhaps understandably, Walken longs for a certain normality in his catalogue of weirdos, psychos and villains - the Prince of Darkness would welcome just a little chink of light every now and again. He said: "Maybe for a change it would be fun to play someone very ordinary - a father with a family and a job and a house and a dog. "Do you remember Fred McMurray? He always seemed to have a pipe and slippers and his wife was making dinner. Some day, maybe, I will play that part." Walken goes all quiet and thoughtful. Dream on. ARE you one of the relatives Christopher Walken visited on his trip to Scotland two years ago? If so, contact the Record on 0141 309 3344. Don't worry about the cost, we'll call you straight back. GARY RALSTON EXCLUSIVE, MY HEART BELONGS ONLY TO GLASGOW. , Daily Record, 10-24-2001, pp 24,25. Reprinted with the permission of the Daily Record Return to Christopher Walken Home Page |
