00:00His performance is in Biloxi Blues, A View to a Kill, The Dead Zone, I love that, yes, and of
00:14course his Oscar winning performance in The Deer Hunter.
00:21Starting today, he's got his biggest challenge yet. He faces the Caped Crusader in Batman Return. Please welcome Christopher Walken.
00:53What's the Batman set like? When you're on that set, what is it like?
00:57Well, there were, I think, eight of them. Huge sets, all of them. Monsters.
01:04Yeah. One of them was on a set that's just a big tank, a water tank. It was the Penguin's
01:12Lair.
01:13And it's a very famous old set where they shot Spartacus and big places, all of them, Gotham City.
01:26Okay. Let's see. The Penguin is Danny DeVito.
01:32Right. Now, he was very secretive, very mystical about his character. He kept it under wraps.
01:37Well, that makes sense. He looks so special. And his makeup really is great. And he's great.
01:51And it makes sense that they would try to keep it as much of a surprise as they could until
01:59the last moment.
02:00I used to say hello to him in the morning. And it was Danny. Hello, Danny. And then a couple
02:05hours later, he'd be in this makeup,
02:08which even in life and right up close was totally convincing. But he did something that I've never seen.
02:17His eyes looked different. You can't make up your eyes. And he really looked like half a bird and half
02:25a person.
02:28That's acting. Wow. Tell me about Max. Max is an industrialist. He owns Shrek's department store.
02:40He's the last man on Earth to wear spats on a daily basis. Yeah. Where did they get the name,
02:46Max?
02:47Max Shrek was a German actor who made the original vampire movie, Nosferatu, the silent one. We've all seen it.
03:00And that guy who you see going like this is Max Shrek. So does your Max like blood? What's the
03:09point?
03:09Well, he's a sort of a vampire. He's a contemporary vampire. But I think it was just a whimsical choice
03:18of man's.
03:19Yeah. Now, are you happy with the movie? Yeah, I liked it a lot. I saw it for the first
03:24time the other night.
03:26Big premiere? Huge. I've been doing this for a long time. I never was involved in anything like that.
03:33What was the premiere? The Man's Theater on Hollywood.
03:39You know, two blocks of people on both sides of the streets and cameras and red carpet.
03:46And I must have a notion of movie premieres that comes from the movies.
03:52I know movie premieres from the movies. And I wore a tuxedo. And I was the only one there with
04:01a tuxedo.
04:05People were coming up to me saying, gee, you really look nice.
04:11There's a lot of people dressed like bikers, you know.
04:15Let's talk about your look. Have you ever sat alone and wondered why they mostly come to you for menacing
04:22bad guys?
04:24I have. I asked a friend of mine that once and he said to me, because you're good at it.
04:30Yeah. Which seems like a good answer.
04:32I think it has to do with the way I look, my face. It has to do with the fact
04:37that I've been in show business since I was a kid, so I'm naturally different.
04:43It has to do with the fact that movies are very expensive and if you are effective in something, chances
04:51are you're going to be asked to do it again.
04:52But I was watching Walter Matthau on an interview the other day and he said that for the first part
05:01of his career, for the first 25 or 30 movies, he always played villains, he played the heavies.
05:06He said it because if you're not handsome and you're not really homely, they make you play the bad guy.
05:16Well, maybe I have a career ahead of me in the film business.
05:22Is this some kind of organization to support penguins or something that's mad at you guys or something like that?
05:30Well, I think people who are watchful of cruelty to animals are right. They should be.
05:37But in this case, I was there. I worked with the penguins every day. I got to like penguins very
05:43much and so did everybody else.
05:46And of course, they were very well taken care of. They had trainers. They had people from the ASPCA watching.
05:53But the penguins themselves are docile, very friendly, affectionate, like cats. They're two sizes. They're the big ones and the
06:04little ones.
06:04The big ones tend to eat a lot and then not eat for a long time. And the little ones
06:11are snackers.
06:15They like to eat all the time. And they come up to you and hit you in the leg, you
06:20know, feed me.
06:23And they got to be very close. There are a lot of technicians on Batman, a lot of technical people
06:29working all the time, their crew.
06:31And it wasn't unusual to see one of the grips holding one between takes so they'd go to sleep with
06:41their head on your lap. And they're very nice.
06:45And you all did the right thing.
06:47Oh, sure. Believe me, those penguins were treated so good. And then they, toward the end, they had another job
06:55somewhere.
07:02In the last few days with them, we were with them for a long time, weeks. And they, you know,
07:08they had their own area and pool and everything.
07:11And at some point, they, we had to hurry up and get them done. Because they had a gig in
07:19Europe.
07:21That is very funny. The other thing is that a lot of penguins in the movie are, are, uh, not
07:26only, uh, there are a lot of real penguins, dozens, but there were also, uh, robot penguins, which were controlled,
07:32uh, by people.
07:34And also there were, uh, little people in penguin suits. So not, uh, not all the penguins are penguins.
07:42Yeah. Let's look at a clip from Batman Returns. Sammy, show me something.
07:48Max, you and I have something in common. We're both perceived as monsters. But somehow, you're a well-respected monster.
08:08And I am, to date, not.
08:12But frankly, I feel it's a bum rap. I'm a businessman. Tough, yes. Shrewd, okay. But that does not make
08:21me a monster.
08:22Don't embarrass yourself, Max. I know all about you. What you hide, I discover. What you put in your toilet,
08:32I place on my mantle. Get the picture.
08:36What is that supposed to do? Hypnotize me? No. Just give you a splitting headache.
08:47The movie Batman Returns is open right now. This is Christopher Walken.
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