You clearly identified with Jackson Pollock. Why?
Part of it had to do with his feeling of being a bit isolated in the world as a young man. He was a little bit lost and adrift, and in painting found something that gave his life meaning.
Is that what acting did for you?
Yeah. I was very happy playing sports until I was 18, and then there were a couple of years where I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I saw some theatre in Oklahoma and made a decision to learn about acting. It wasn't really with an eye on making films or even making a living; it was really about trying to focus on something that had the potential of taking the place of sport in terms of something to penetrate.
You show Pollock as an early victim of celebrity culture. You appear to be someone who has consciously avoided that culture.
Well I've never really been asked to embrace it either. But I think it can be really devastating to creativity, because if you buy into that, you're defined. It sets you up on a pedestal or a magazine cover and it's like that's what you represent, and that's what you're going to be asked to represent. That's what happened to Jackson.
You were packing the films in just before making "Pollock". What was driving you?
I joined CAA [a powerful talent agency] in 1990 and they were asking me if I wanted to do things like "Milk Money" and "Needful Things", and they were paying me more money than I had made and giving me a chance to do a comedy. I justified the films in some way, but they were really bad. I try to be a little bit more careful now.
"Pollock" opens in UK cinemas on Friday 24th May 2002.
