It's common knowledge that Billy Crudup is a star waiting to happen. Now 32, the New York born actor started his career in the theatre, and made his screen debut just four years ago, alongside Robert De Niro in Sleepers. Since then, he's played runner Steve Prefontaine in the Tom Cruise-produced biopic Without Limits, and played cowboys with Woody Harrelson in Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country.
Blessed with dark good looks, Crudup is the kind of actor who shies away from pretty boy roles, as his latest effort, Jesus' Son, a twisted tale of drugs, sex and 70s clothes, shows. Empire Online caught up with him in New York.
Q: What kind of preparation did you do for playing a junkie in Jesus' Son?
A: I spent some time with a narcotics officer for the Philadelphia police department, who was also a former junkie. My preparation for this was really an exercise of the imagination, because I felt that's what the story was about. I didn't want to get bogged down with portraying a type of person, whether it was somebody specific I had interviewed, or that I had encountered - I wanted him to be a creation of my imagination. I wanted the drug scenes to have authenticity, but I didn't want to mimic the behaviour of somebody specific in the way I did for, say, Without Limits.Q: You've never quite attained the acclaim you deserve. Does that bother you?
A: I think that's really a product of the media's desire to create people it can sell. I, frankly, have felt tremendously successful. My best friends are actors. I've hung around them a good portion of my adult life. And the career that I have is definitely in the small percentage of actors; not only have I made money, but I've been able to work on things I wanted to work on. I've never felt a pressure to deliver to the media what it craves in order to create its own market.Q: You've just shot Stillwater for director Cameron Crowe. What's your role in that?
A: I play the lead guitarist with a rock band. This young kid [newcomer Patrick Fugit] goes on tour with the band, and gets a chance to write an article for Rolling Stone. I'd played some guitar before, but I had to learn to play as well as I could. It's hard to learn to play well, but fortunately I only had to mimic playing well. I grew up playing piano, but I was never that good.Q: How do you feel about Stillwater gaining you a higher profile?
A: If I get a wider audience, doing something that I like, then I'm not opposed to that at all. The celebrity aspect, trying to sell your personality, then you'd be giving up a lot of your artistic freedom, and quite a lot of your personal freedom. And people make great livings at doing that. But there is a cost to being a successful actor. Not just in your privacy, but in terms of your expectations.Q: Who has been the biggest influence on your career?
A: Mary Louise [Parker, his girlfriend and fellow actor] is a tremendous influence on me. She has incredible discipline. She takes the time day-to-day to watch people, to listen to people. To understand why people do things. And to me, a great actor is someone who's incredibly compassionate. To me, that's really it as far as an actor is concerned.