Motorcycles and tits -- what else do you need to know? Larry Bishop starred in such late '60s motorcycle movie classics as The Savage Seven and Angel Unchained and may have faded into obscurity forever, but he made one important fan -- Quentin Tarantino. Their friendship has now paved the way for Bishop to direct Hell Ride, a Tarantino-produced throwback to the old school biker flicks with roaring choppers, sunbaked highways, pool cues to the back of the head and bloody revenge. As you'd expect, the film is also soaked in the influence of its famous producer and even features one of Tarantino's favorites, Michael Madsen. The gravel-voiced 49-year-old plays The Gent, a seasoned biker and tuxedoed killer who is unfailingly polite, even while he's serving someone a lead sandwich. Madsen recently called up SuicideGirls to talk about jumping on board Hell Ride, riding bikes around L.A., and what other plans he and Tarantino might be hatching.
Ryan Stewart: Saw the movie last night. It seems like Larry wrote all the scenes with naked women for himself and didn't leave any for you.
Michael Madsen: You know, every time I'd have a girl that I was doing something with, suddenly as soon as I'd turn around she was with him.
RS: That's not cool.
MM: He's the director of the movie, so what are you gonna do?
RS: It's the director's prerogative, I guess.
MM: Yeah, it was his prerogative, exactly.
RS: Pick up any good Dennis Hopper stories during this shoot?
MM: Well, I was sitting and talking to Dennis one time and I was trying to be very serious and ethereal because he's Dennis Hopper and I said, "You know, I'm not so sure I should be an actor" and he said, "Well, what would you do?" and I said, "I don't know, maybe I should have been a carpenter" and he says [in Dennis Hopper voice], "Heh, heh, heh, look what happened to him man!"
RS: Pretty fast on his feet.
MM: Yeah, just like that he went to the Christ figure. I thought that was pretty amazing.
RS: Can Dennis still get up on the hog and ride pretty easily?
MM: Well, he did. I mean, that's not CGI, buddy. He got on that fucker and rode it. It's in the movie and it's not a superimposed head on someone elses body.
RS: He had that little sidecar thing on his bike, which was kind of weird.
MM: It's a little hard to maneuver that thing with the car. You gotta be careful when you go around corners, it has to be weighted and balanced properly, but he did fine.
RS: Whose decision was it for your character to wear a tuxedo throughout the film?
MM: That was mine.
RS: It reminded me a bit of Mr. Blonde -- I'm sure a lot of people had the same reaction.
MM: Well, Mr. Blonde wasn't wearing a tuxedo. Listen, I'm trying to get off the Mr. Blonde tag. I don't really want that to follow me around for eternity. I'm glad to have done it and it gave me a good career and I'm happy for it, but I'd like to progress into, you know, 2008.
RS: Yeah, I remember reading that you had a problem with the violence of that character.
MM: I didn't have any problems with that. All that kind of conversation is me being misquoted.
RS: Fair enough. Talk a little bit about how you came up with the look for The Gent.
MM: Early on I wanted to think of something that would separate The Gent from the bunch and I asked Larry if it would be possible for me to wear a tuxedo. I thought he would say no, but he in fact let me do it. That's when I knew that the movie was gonna be good, cause he was gonna let me do my thing.
RS: What other kind of input did you have?
MM: I told him how I wanted the bike. I explained to the bike builder what kind of bike I wanted and how I wanted it made and they made it pretty much verbatim what I asked them to do. I wanted my bike to be different and they did that.
RS: You're a bike guy off set?
MM: Oh, sure. I've been riding Harleys for years. I love motorcycles. I don't ride into Hollywood anymore. I'm not gonna ride down Sunset Blvd. behind Jude Law, you know. There's nothing to be gained from that, but I still ride around in Malibu. I still do ride motorcycles and I like them and I build them and I have them and I made a motorcycle picture. I hope that Hell Ride is going to be a trilogy. It's supposed to be volume one, two and three and I'm just hoping that it turns out to be that way. If this one doesn't do well then that's not gonna happen, but I think that it stands a really good chance of doing well.
RS: Larry has ideas sketched out for parts two and three?
MM: You'd have to ask him, but I know that he has many ideas for part two.
RS: How did he get you to sit up in a tree for that one scene?
MM: That was my idea. When I saw the campfire and I realized that Larry and Eric were gonna be sitting around the campfire for three hours, shooting that scene, all I could think of was how can I get out of this? So I said, "Larry, I wanna get up in the tree." And he goes, "You wanna get up in the tree?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm going up in the tree." And he goes, "Okay." So that's why I got in the tree. I just didn't want to sit there at the campfire for three hours.
RS: Then you were an owl, you made owl noises.
MM: Then I turned into an owl.
RS: If it were me, I'd hesitate to do these biker movies where I know I'm gonna be in 100-plus degree heat for the entire shoot.
MM: Well, thank God for the motorcycles, because being that it was so fucking hot outside it was a great pleasure to get on those scooters and get out in the wind and cool off a little bit, Kemo Sabe.
RS: By the way, I was looking at your credits on IMDB earlier -- it's funny that they list 29 projects in development for you. Is that even possible?
MM: No, it's not possible. The problem with IMDB is that they're very irresponsible. They're a very irresponsible website and they're very ignorant and they refuse to listen to reason. I don't know where they make their money from. If you meet somebody at a cocktail party or if you meet somebody in your backyard or you run into somebody at the market or somebody tells you that their brother's cousin wrote a screenplay and "would you please read it?" -- as soon as you say anything to anybody that's even slightly encouraging of their project, the next thing you know it's on the IMDB that you're in it! Ninety percent of that stuff I have nothing to do with.
RS: That's fucked up.
MM: It is, because you can't get it off there. Once they put that shit on there, you can't get it off.
RS: You do work quite a bit, though.
MM: I have to, I have six children to support.
RS: You feel like you're at a good place these days, a good age, for an actor?
MM: I was worried for a while that I was getting categorized and stereotyped as a villain, but then I went to Ireland and played a prizefighter in a picture and I think I really kind of stepped out of the bad guy thing. The picture's called Strength and Honor, it's me and Vinnie Jones. It was shot in Ireland and it's about a father and son and a prizefighter who's at odds with what he has to do in his life. They're looking for distribution for the movie and I think if they get it then I'm not gonna be so stereotyped anymore.
RS: You were trying to get a Pretty Boy Floyd biopic off the ground for a long time, right? Whatever became of that?
MM: You know, those days have come and gone. They're making John Dillinger now with Johnny Depp, so I think it's over. It's a young man's game. It's a studio game.
RS: Writing and directing doesn't need to be a young man's game, though.
MM: No, no, I've got all that in my future. I'm looking forward to it.
RS: Anything you've got your eye on?
MM: I'm looking at a lot of stuff. Nobody's ever made a movie about Jack Henry Abbott, In The Belly of the Beast. I'd like to do that.
RS: You mentioned Vinnie Jones earlier -- I laughed at his big wings speech in Hell Ride [in which he shows his tattoos commemorating different kinds of pussy he's eaten, including "policewoman's pussy" and "dead pussy."]
MM: Listen, his wings scene will probably go down like the ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs.
RS: Speaking of Tarantino, everyone wants to know what's going on with you and Inglorious Bastards -- what can you say?
MM: That's a question you're gonna have to ask Quentin.
RS: Come on, you've been involved with that project for quite a while now.
MM: Man, all I can tell you is that I've been connected to it for a couple of years and then when the decision was made that they were gonna try to set it up at a studio, suddenly there's discussions about a different way to go. I don't know what the definitive answer is. I'm waiting to hear from my good friend and associate and comrade Quentin, to let me know what he's going to do. Far be it from me to tell you that I know one way or the other what's gonna happen! I wish I had some secret information, but I don't. It's been my experience with him that when he is ready for me to do something or wants me to do something, he'll pick up the phone and tell me. I think right now he's busy trying to get the picture set up before he worries about who's gonna be in it.
RS: The man knows what he's doing. I'm sure he schooled you on bike movies.
MM: He's a walking encyclopedia of film history. He knows more about movies than any person on the Earth. He knows who made them, who's in them, when they were done, what happened to them ... it's amazing. I don't know how he has all that information in his head, I really don't know how he keeps track of it all. As far as motorcycles are concerned, I didn't need a lesson on that. I've been riding bikes my whole life, I understand what that's about.
RS: What does a motorcycle movie mean to you?
MM: It's a spaghetti western on wheels. It's a rebellion against all there is. It's a spaghetti western on motorcycles, there's no better way to state it. That's what it is. Look at The Wild One. That girl in the diner asks Marlon Brando, "What are you rebelling against?" and he says, "Whaddya got?" Isn't it a good time for that kind of attitude?
RS: Maybe not for someone who's trying to get away from Mr. Blonde, right?
MM: Mr. Blonde was a lot more violent than The Gent. I tried to bring some humor to The Gent. I don't think Mr. Blonde was very humorous.
Hell Ride is blazing a trail through theaters now. Check out the official site.
Ryan Stewart: Saw the movie last night. It seems like Larry wrote all the scenes with naked women for himself and didn't leave any for you.
Michael Madsen: You know, every time I'd have a girl that I was doing something with, suddenly as soon as I'd turn around she was with him.
RS: That's not cool.
MM: He's the director of the movie, so what are you gonna do?
RS: It's the director's prerogative, I guess.
MM: Yeah, it was his prerogative, exactly.
RS: Pick up any good Dennis Hopper stories during this shoot?
MM: Well, I was sitting and talking to Dennis one time and I was trying to be very serious and ethereal because he's Dennis Hopper and I said, "You know, I'm not so sure I should be an actor" and he said, "Well, what would you do?" and I said, "I don't know, maybe I should have been a carpenter" and he says [in Dennis Hopper voice], "Heh, heh, heh, look what happened to him man!"
RS: Pretty fast on his feet.
MM: Yeah, just like that he went to the Christ figure. I thought that was pretty amazing.
RS: Can Dennis still get up on the hog and ride pretty easily?
MM: Well, he did. I mean, that's not CGI, buddy. He got on that fucker and rode it. It's in the movie and it's not a superimposed head on someone elses body.
RS: He had that little sidecar thing on his bike, which was kind of weird.
MM: It's a little hard to maneuver that thing with the car. You gotta be careful when you go around corners, it has to be weighted and balanced properly, but he did fine.
RS: Whose decision was it for your character to wear a tuxedo throughout the film?
MM: That was mine.
RS: It reminded me a bit of Mr. Blonde -- I'm sure a lot of people had the same reaction.
MM: Well, Mr. Blonde wasn't wearing a tuxedo. Listen, I'm trying to get off the Mr. Blonde tag. I don't really want that to follow me around for eternity. I'm glad to have done it and it gave me a good career and I'm happy for it, but I'd like to progress into, you know, 2008.
RS: Yeah, I remember reading that you had a problem with the violence of that character.
MM: I didn't have any problems with that. All that kind of conversation is me being misquoted.
RS: Fair enough. Talk a little bit about how you came up with the look for The Gent.
MM: Early on I wanted to think of something that would separate The Gent from the bunch and I asked Larry if it would be possible for me to wear a tuxedo. I thought he would say no, but he in fact let me do it. That's when I knew that the movie was gonna be good, cause he was gonna let me do my thing.
RS: What other kind of input did you have?
MM: I told him how I wanted the bike. I explained to the bike builder what kind of bike I wanted and how I wanted it made and they made it pretty much verbatim what I asked them to do. I wanted my bike to be different and they did that.
RS: You're a bike guy off set?
MM: Oh, sure. I've been riding Harleys for years. I love motorcycles. I don't ride into Hollywood anymore. I'm not gonna ride down Sunset Blvd. behind Jude Law, you know. There's nothing to be gained from that, but I still ride around in Malibu. I still do ride motorcycles and I like them and I build them and I have them and I made a motorcycle picture. I hope that Hell Ride is going to be a trilogy. It's supposed to be volume one, two and three and I'm just hoping that it turns out to be that way. If this one doesn't do well then that's not gonna happen, but I think that it stands a really good chance of doing well.
RS: Larry has ideas sketched out for parts two and three?
MM: You'd have to ask him, but I know that he has many ideas for part two.
RS: How did he get you to sit up in a tree for that one scene?
MM: That was my idea. When I saw the campfire and I realized that Larry and Eric were gonna be sitting around the campfire for three hours, shooting that scene, all I could think of was how can I get out of this? So I said, "Larry, I wanna get up in the tree." And he goes, "You wanna get up in the tree?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm going up in the tree." And he goes, "Okay." So that's why I got in the tree. I just didn't want to sit there at the campfire for three hours.
RS: Then you were an owl, you made owl noises.
MM: Then I turned into an owl.
RS: If it were me, I'd hesitate to do these biker movies where I know I'm gonna be in 100-plus degree heat for the entire shoot.
MM: Well, thank God for the motorcycles, because being that it was so fucking hot outside it was a great pleasure to get on those scooters and get out in the wind and cool off a little bit, Kemo Sabe.
RS: By the way, I was looking at your credits on IMDB earlier -- it's funny that they list 29 projects in development for you. Is that even possible?
MM: No, it's not possible. The problem with IMDB is that they're very irresponsible. They're a very irresponsible website and they're very ignorant and they refuse to listen to reason. I don't know where they make their money from. If you meet somebody at a cocktail party or if you meet somebody in your backyard or you run into somebody at the market or somebody tells you that their brother's cousin wrote a screenplay and "would you please read it?" -- as soon as you say anything to anybody that's even slightly encouraging of their project, the next thing you know it's on the IMDB that you're in it! Ninety percent of that stuff I have nothing to do with.
RS: That's fucked up.
MM: It is, because you can't get it off there. Once they put that shit on there, you can't get it off.
RS: You do work quite a bit, though.
MM: I have to, I have six children to support.
RS: You feel like you're at a good place these days, a good age, for an actor?
MM: I was worried for a while that I was getting categorized and stereotyped as a villain, but then I went to Ireland and played a prizefighter in a picture and I think I really kind of stepped out of the bad guy thing. The picture's called Strength and Honor, it's me and Vinnie Jones. It was shot in Ireland and it's about a father and son and a prizefighter who's at odds with what he has to do in his life. They're looking for distribution for the movie and I think if they get it then I'm not gonna be so stereotyped anymore.
RS: You were trying to get a Pretty Boy Floyd biopic off the ground for a long time, right? Whatever became of that?
MM: You know, those days have come and gone. They're making John Dillinger now with Johnny Depp, so I think it's over. It's a young man's game. It's a studio game.
RS: Writing and directing doesn't need to be a young man's game, though.
MM: No, no, I've got all that in my future. I'm looking forward to it.
RS: Anything you've got your eye on?
MM: I'm looking at a lot of stuff. Nobody's ever made a movie about Jack Henry Abbott, In The Belly of the Beast. I'd like to do that.
RS: You mentioned Vinnie Jones earlier -- I laughed at his big wings speech in Hell Ride [in which he shows his tattoos commemorating different kinds of pussy he's eaten, including "policewoman's pussy" and "dead pussy."]
MM: Listen, his wings scene will probably go down like the ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs.
RS: Speaking of Tarantino, everyone wants to know what's going on with you and Inglorious Bastards -- what can you say?
MM: That's a question you're gonna have to ask Quentin.
RS: Come on, you've been involved with that project for quite a while now.
MM: Man, all I can tell you is that I've been connected to it for a couple of years and then when the decision was made that they were gonna try to set it up at a studio, suddenly there's discussions about a different way to go. I don't know what the definitive answer is. I'm waiting to hear from my good friend and associate and comrade Quentin, to let me know what he's going to do. Far be it from me to tell you that I know one way or the other what's gonna happen! I wish I had some secret information, but I don't. It's been my experience with him that when he is ready for me to do something or wants me to do something, he'll pick up the phone and tell me. I think right now he's busy trying to get the picture set up before he worries about who's gonna be in it.
RS: The man knows what he's doing. I'm sure he schooled you on bike movies.
MM: He's a walking encyclopedia of film history. He knows more about movies than any person on the Earth. He knows who made them, who's in them, when they were done, what happened to them ... it's amazing. I don't know how he has all that information in his head, I really don't know how he keeps track of it all. As far as motorcycles are concerned, I didn't need a lesson on that. I've been riding bikes my whole life, I understand what that's about.
RS: What does a motorcycle movie mean to you?
MM: It's a spaghetti western on wheels. It's a rebellion against all there is. It's a spaghetti western on motorcycles, there's no better way to state it. That's what it is. Look at The Wild One. That girl in the diner asks Marlon Brando, "What are you rebelling against?" and he says, "Whaddya got?" Isn't it a good time for that kind of attitude?
RS: Maybe not for someone who's trying to get away from Mr. Blonde, right?
MM: Mr. Blonde was a lot more violent than The Gent. I tried to bring some humor to The Gent. I don't think Mr. Blonde was very humorous.
Hell Ride is blazing a trail through theaters now. Check out the official site.
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
redmess:
this is totally jill-off material for me. every word. 
strega:
I love Michael Madsen. This will be worth seeing for him alone.