July 12, 2000
Death's been good to John Hawkes
Perfect Storm actor is sanguine about being typecast
Deirdre Dolan
National Post
 Hawkes as Bugsy Moran in The Perfect Storm. |
Actor John Hawkes has had a long solid career dying in the movies. Often the first character to go, the thirtysomething career character actor's latest role, in The Perfect Storm, is no exception. In it he plays Mike "Bugsy" Moran, an unlucky-in-love sword fisherman on the doomed Andrea Gail.
In an interview in The Los Angeles Times recently, Linda Greenlaw, the real-life swordfish boat captain (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the movie), said Hawkes was very believable. "I was thinking every time he was on the screen, there was a facial expression or the inflection of his voice or gesture that reminded me of some men I worked with on a deck of a boat," she said. "He totally captured [them]. He was perfect."
WHY HAVEN'T YOU GOTTEN MUCH PRESS FOR THE PERFECT STORM?
'Cause it's a studio movie that has two big movie stars [George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg]. I'm not bitter. I'm getting some love from the regular people. Just not so much from the press. I just want to have good opportunities to do good work.
YOU PLAY A LOT OF CHARACTERS THAT DIE, DON'T YOU?
Yeah, I die early on a lot. I can do extreme things well I guess.
SO HOW MANY MOVIES HAVE YOU DIED IN?
Too many to remember. I thought about making a death reel.
DID YOU DIE IN FROM DUSK TILL DAWN?
Yes.
CONGO?
Yep.
I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER?
Died in that, too.
SWEET POISON?
Let me think. Yep.
BOOGIE BOY?
Yep. Played a heroin addict named Jimmy.
ON THE X-FILES?
Yep.
FLESH AND BONE?
No.
BUT MEG RYAN'S CHARACTER VOMITS ON YOU?
Oh yeah. She does, doesn't she?
DO YOU FEEL LIMITED AS A CHARACTER ACTOR?
I do all kinds of roles -- nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho -- and occasionally someone kind of normal. It's weird, when I lived in Austin I was always cast as pretty normal people. But when I moved to Los Angeles I was immediately branded a psycho.
DO YOU GET TIRED OF PLAYING THE PSYCHO?
They're fun to play, and if I go audition I usually get them.
HOW DID YOU RESEARCH THE ROLE OF BUGSY FOR THE PERFECT STORM?
I went to Gloucester, Mass., on my own and hung out for a couple of weeks before we started shooting. I stayed in a hotel and, having read the book, went right to the Crow's Nest. I was already shaggy enough where I was fitting in, and after about a week people thought I looked familiar enough to hang out with.
DID YOU MEET ANY FAMILY MEMBERS?
Well, the best thing happened. One night I went to the Mitch, a bar that's known as being rougher than the Crow's Nest. It was packed and I couldn't hardly move, and I went back to the pool table and there was a guy next to me and he looked interesting and vaguely familiar, and I looked at him and he had a tattoo poking out from under his sleeve that said "They that go down to the sea in ships."
WHO WAS IT?
I knew it was Rick Shatford, Bobby Shatsford's brother [played by Mark Wahlberg in the movie].
DID YOU TALK TO HIM?
I said, I'm playing Bugsy in the movie, and he said, come here. We snaked through the people and walked to his car in silence and drove down to The Crow's Nest. He told me a lot of stuff and the next thing I knew I became friends with the whole family.
WAS IT UNCOMFORTABLE AT FIRST?
Well, while we were shooting I ended up meeting Bugsy's surviving brothers, and his mother and father came to the set and it was kind of a heavy thing. The whole shoot was weighted. But it was a very wonderful bunch of people. There were never raised voices or frustrations. There was a real feeling that we were trying to do something important.
WERE YOU NERVOUS ABOUT THE REACTION FROM FAMILY MEMBERS?
Yes. Which manifested itself physically. I ended up with a bum neck and a splitting headache the week before the movie opened. But the Morans were ultimately very supportive, and it made me feel really very happy with what I'd done.
DO YOU LIKE THE LEVEL OF FAME YOU'VE ACHIEVED, OR DO YOU WANT MORE?
I've gotten a taste of it. It can take up your time and you can lose some privacy, but it's nice. It affords you more opportunities. I like going to the next level. I'm trying to learn to dream bigger.
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