Me, scary?
I'M SURE THAT AT s ONE STAGE I'LL HIT A ; PHOTOGRAPHER' '
Kaleem Aftab meets actor JOSH LUCAS and finds a pussycat in wolf’s clothing.
throughout his recent trial. Well. that was the
lie the 34-year-old actor wanted Christian Slater to spread when the Heathers star interviewed him for a magazine recently. Talking to me about his latest role in David Gordon Green’s Under-tow. the Arkansas-born star seemed disappointed that Slater had not carried out his request.
‘I wanted there to be this one weird thing about me.’ drawls Lucas. ‘Why not? The more playful we can be about ourselves. the more fun it is. I don‘t want people to go out and be dishonest about me. but I don't need to protect myself from having this bad boy image. But I‘m sure that at one stage I’ll hit a photographer. I can see it coming.‘
Lucas seems to desperately want a bad boy image to compete with Deel Munn. the sinister figure he portrays in Undertow. He arrives on screen with a glint in his deep blue eyes and a frown on his furrow that says ‘mess with me at your peril’. But in the interview he is such a perfect gentlemen that it‘s difficult to imagine Lucas being bad. So he talks up his own hard man credentials.
‘I had to create a character that, from the moment that he appears on screen. has to be someone that people are uncomfortable with. scared by and who genuinely gives you a sense of having been in prison and being dangerous. I think that Jamie Bell [who plays the film‘s protagonist Chris Munn] probably doesn't have the nicest things to say about me in certain ways. because in creating a really troubled character. I had to bring that every day to the set.‘ But
I osh Lucas spoke to Michael Jackson every day
46 THE LIST 9—23 Jun 2005
let's face it. tormenting Bell is not very macho. since your average wheelchair-bound granny is probably harder than the Brit who played Billy Elliott.
In truth. Lucas need not posture. His intriguing CV that has appearances in You Can Count on Me. American Psycho and Wonderland sharing ink with Sweet Home Alabama. A Beautiful Mind and Hulk is truly varied. Even in the blockbusters. Lucas has an eye for roles that would have been thrown Sean Penn’s way a decade ago.
Politically. he tips his hat to Peter Mullan (who he met on the set of Session 9). and his Scottish socialist instinct: ‘This guy has to be one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. and he is definitely someone who has taught me about society and the world in a way that just makes me admire it. My country has a hell of a lot to learn.’
Lucas has a refreshing honesty that ensures you believe what he says. This even extends to breaking the unwritten rule of not criticising films that you‘ve been in. Of American Psycho he laments: 'The book is raw. violent and funny and the movie is really not any of those things.’
Of Undertow. he’s ‘upset and frustrated’ because it sank without a trace Stateside despite being ‘unique and complex and from a different world that is so much more interesting than anything else out there these days’. The same thing could be said of this not very weird chiselled freethinker from Arkansas.
Undertow is on selected release from Fri 17 Jun.
llit
THE BEST FILM 8 DVD RELEASES
* Kian and Queen French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin's extraordinarily accomplished tale of love, madness and culpability. See interview and review. Gl-T, Glasgow and Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
* We Don’t Live Here Anymore Brilliant but bleak partner swapping drama based on two short Andre Dubus stories. See review. UGC, Renfrew Street, Glasgow. UGC, Edinburgh and Odeon, Edinburgh.
* Undertow David Gordon Green ’3 flawed but dreamin effective remake of Laughton's The Night of the Hunter. See preview and review. Selected release.
>i< Batman Begins Everything is OK, the Bat is back. See review. General release.
>i< Strings If Team America taught us anything it's that marionette puppets rule. Yeah. Filmhouse, Edinburgh
>i< Millions Delightful. old- fashioned family flick. Selected release.
>l< Sin City Stylish and sleek Frank Miller adaptation. General release.
>l< Rebel Without a Cause Classic, if dated. flick from Dean’s lean canon. See review. GFT, Glasgow and Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
>l< The Tenth Victim Elio Petri's superbly weird cult sci-fi flick on the big screen, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress - unmissable. See Film Season Analysis. Filmhouse, Edinburgh (Sun 12 Jun only).
* Hearts and Minds Seminal anti-Vietnam War documentary. showing as part of Docspace’s Peace Season. Some screenings of the film will be introduced by AL Kennedy. See News. GFT, Glasgow and Filmhouse, Edinburgh.
>l< 4 Films by Lukas Moodysson Show Me Love. Together, Lilya 4 -Ever and A 1 Hole in My Heart in a box set i for the first time. Enter mad old Moodysson's crazy dangerous world. See interview. Out now (Metrodome).