Hey folks, Harry here.... with the first round of AICNers Ask and Bruce Willis Answers. FYI, Bruce is currently on his press tour on the 4th DIE HARD film so he's going to do his best to answer questions for us, but he's literally getting these and answering these personally on his Blackberry. So be forgiving - those aren't the easiest to type on. That said, I think this is an excellent round 1, and I'll send him a new batch of questions tonight... hopefully he'll have the time to shoot em back quickly, but if not - we'll be patient. Let's get on with it...

1. Bruce,

While the presence of so many different big names onscreen on a consistent basis seems wax and wane over the years, how do you, and why have you, seemed to NEVER really take a break? How do you keep up with yourself? Cruise, Travolta... and countless others all seem to go into exile for no apparent, or in some cases, very apparent reasons. But, every year, Bruce Willis is on the big screen, in some form or another, whether it be shooting terrorists or voicing babies and dogs.

So basically, what do you think makes you different from the rest, and has kept you from seemingly sitting back and letting 'new hollywood' take over?

-Aaron

Hi Aaron,

In response to your question regarding the perception that I NEVER really take a break-

While I know it mat SEEM that I never take a break, the fact is, most of the time it is simply the ILLUSION of never taking a break. I take breaks all the time, and over the years, especially since I started having kids, I have worked only about 6 months out of every year.

The Illusion part comes in when the release dates of my Films gets moved around. When this happens, I sometimes have movies coming out seemingly as if I have done them all in a single year. An example of this would be Alpha Dog. I shot that Film 2 years ago, but due to litigation over the release of AD because the defense team of Jesse James Hollywood alleging that the Film would show their client in a less than rosy light. And while the press was aware of this, they reported that the movie was held because the Filmmakers were continuing to work on the Film, or that they were somehow unhappy with the Film. This was not the case at all, and some great performances in AD did not get the notice they should have, in particular, to me anyway, Sharon Stone's work (especially her final speech in the Film), Ben Foster's work, Anton Yelchin's work, and really, the entire cast's work.

Also, there have been times over the last few years where I have worked only a few days, or a couple of weeks on a Film, but because my work was spread out over the entire length of the movie, there is an Illusion that I worked far more than I actually did. A few examples of this would be Sin City,( I worked 10 days on that movie) Lucky Number Slevin, ( I worked 3 weeks on that movie) Astronaut Farmer,(I worked 4 days on that movie) Grindhouse, (I worked 2 days on that movie) and a few others where I worked less than the full run of the Film.

As to why other actors take time off, I cannot speak for them. LF or DH was definitely an exception to the above. When all my work on this Film is done, I will have worked almost an entire year on it, counting working on the writing, starting back in last May, thru pre-production, actual Filming,( 5 months) and post-production work, looping, etc. which I just finished last week, and a Month-long worldwide press tour. My break from this Film ends when I attend the Premiere in NYC on June 22nd, after which I will probably take the rest of '07 off.

As for sitting back and letting 'new hollywood' take over, I can only say that I do my work, and seldom concern myself with what 'new' or 'old' hollywood does.

thanks

bw

2. Dear Bruce,

With the new guns of Hollywood having their all star series in the Ocean movies (of which you were a small part of in Ocean’s 12), is there any chance/plan of getting the old guns like you, Stallone, Schwarzenegger, etc all in one movie in the near future? Would something like that interest you provided you had a helluva script (e.g. Great Escape)? If that were to happen, Spider Man 4 would not stand a chance at the box-office!

Thanks

WaqMan

Hi Waqman,

Back when we were all working at during the same years, someone was always suggesting that Sly, Arnold and I get together and do a Movie together. I was certainly up for it, but no one ever wrote a script that would have included all 3 of us that I know of. These days, Arnold is the Governor, Sly is off doing Rambo, etc., so while it WOULD be an interesting idea for a movie, I don't know if it will ever happen. A 'Great Escape'- type film would be fun though....

thanks,

bw

3. Hi Bruce,

I'm a huge fan and have been so for many years now. My only question regarding Live Free or Die Hard concerns the inclusion of John's daughter in the film. In sequels, we quite often see family members introduced (or reintroduced in this case) with not-so-good results. Putting to mind the large role the daughter plays in the film, what would you say separates her role from less-than-stellar ones that appear in sequels quite often? Thanks, and also, you rock for doing this!!!

TattooedBillionaire aka John

Hi John(aka TattooedBillionaire)

Lucy McClane's inclusion in LF or DH made a great deal of sense, since the seires of the 4 movies started with 5 year old Lucy's appearance in Die Hard, where she lisped, "come home". And having seen the 4th installment of the DH series, I can tell you that Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the grown-up Lucy really well, and bangs and all, brings a lot of humor to her role, not to mention other elements that will remind the audience that she is definitely John McClane's daughter....

thanks

bw

4. Yo Bruce,

I once heard a story that on THE FIFTH ELEMENT, Luc Besson asked you to just do your David Addison character for the movie. I would love for you to elaborate on this insane tale. Take it away, Bruno...

A Sly Fan

To a Sly Fan,

This was a story I have been misquoted on often. When we were doing Fifth Element, I was having a difficult time understanding Luc's direction, mainly due to his difficulty (then) with his English. We would do a few takes, and each time he would give me the same note, but I did not understand what he was wanting. So I would try the scene a different way. about a week or so into shooting, I was doing a take, and I did it in a David Addisonian way, and Luc lit up. What he really wanted was not for me to play it like David Addison, but to just play it with my typical wisecracking, ironice take on Life, and in this case the things I was presented with in the Fifth Element- A girl who falls into my cab turns out to be the woman who is going to save the World, along with my help. Futuristic or not, both I AND my character, Korben Dallas just found that too hard to believe.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clear up this, as you say, insane tale.

thanks

beedub

5. Dear Bruce!

First of all as many of us I love your work and DH is my all time favourite action movie.

I've read all your talkback stuff and you made some juicy comments about Michael Bay.

Bay responded on his official site:
MichaelBay.Com

In this he says your people already contacted to him to do Die Hard 4.
So what's the truth? And why is the bitterness towards Bay?
I know he is a hack and isn't my favourite either, so I am just curious.

Anyway can't wait for DH4 !

Best wishes:
Zsolt Berkes from Hungary

To Zsolt Berkes from Hungary

I a have just asked one of 'my people' who would be in a position to know, and he confirms that yes, the DH4 script did indeed go out to Michael Bay, but he already had a movie.

During that time the script was being sent out by Fox mostly, but I was unaware of it going out specifically to M. Bay.

I was raised to believe that unless you have something nice to say about someone, you shouldn't say anything at all. What I will say is I feel no real bitterness towards Michael Bay, and when I bump into him we get along great.

The media loves this kind of controversy, so I will leave this question alone from this point on.

thanks

beedub

6. Hi Bruce,

After years of playing ballsy action heroes, how easy was it for you to
take on more intelligent, quieter, introspective
and even metaphysical roles such as your characters in 12 Monkeys, 6th
Sense and Unbreakable?

Cheers,

MK.

Hi MK.

I would say it was a welcome change, to mix it up and take on roles which I found challenging from a performance standpoint. In those early years of choosing roles, I was offered a lot of different kinds of parts, and because of the success of Moonlighting, Blind Date, and Die Hard, I was being offered a fairly broad spectrum of parts. I was also saying yes to everything, because I was so hungry to work. It took me a long time to realize that by putting my name above the Title, I had a responsibility not only to myself, but to the audience as well. I did not understand much about the give and take aspects of the actual business of Moviemaking.

Yes, your salary goes up if you bring in a big box office, but you must also do everything in your power to try to make the most entertaining film you can, and no single person, actor, director, no one, can do that by himself. I was saying yes to films and assuming that all I had to do was show up and act, and someone else would be in charge of making it a good film. Once I started comparing notes with other actors in my position, I realized all you can do is try to choose great stories, do your homework, and try to work with people whose work you admire and find interesting.

The 3 films you mention certainly were great stories, had great storytellers, and gave me a chance to exercise a different set of acting muscles other than running down the street with a gun in my hand.

Like most jobs, I have learned more from the mistakes I have made than from any success I have had.

I don't think any of my journey has been easy. I have tried hard to be entertaining in every film I have ever worked on, but that doesn't always guarantee that the film will be a success.

thanks

beedub

7. My question to Mr Willis:

With Die Hard, Pulp Fiction and more, Mr Willis is obviously part of Movie History. But if he could go way back in time, in what (classic) film would he have liked to be in and why? Examples: if he had the chance, would he like to have played Spartacus? Would he wanna be in the original King Kong?

I understand if the question isn't interesting at all, or left out for whatever other reason (a too long mail), I just jumped at the chance of 'contact' with Bruce Willis. I played a hefty amount of phone-tag to meet his fellow Sin City alumnus Rutger Hauer recently (I finally did meet him) and being so close to Movie History just gives a film lover like me a real kick.

Keep up the Cool!
Philip Corsius, the Netherlands

hey Phillip Corsius,

Here are some Films I would have liked to be a part of-

Spartacus is a good one

Any Alfred Hitchcock Film, except perhaps Rope.

The Exorcist

Any Steve McQueen Movie

I would have liked to work with Bogart, especially in the Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep.

I would have liked to be in the Searchers.

The Star Wars Series

This is a list that could go on for quite a while, and these are just a few.

thanks

beedub

8. 1) Hi Bruce. Over the years you have done many stunts
in the movies over the years. Do you do many of your
own stunts? If so, is there one in particular stunt
that scared the shit out of you or was just plain
tough?

Thanks Harry.---Mrfan (Michael from Kansas)

yo Mrfan-Michael from Kansas

I have always tried to do as many of the stunts that they will let me do. Obviously there are some stunts that are just too dangerous to do, and I have seen stuntmen and women get hurt more than once. I almost plunged to my death on DH3 when the explosion that was set off behind Sam jackson and me blew me too far out over the safety platform, and I looked down 50 feet to see the concrete dock where the ship we were on was docked. A grip on the scaffolding grabbed my wifebeater T-Shirt and pulled me back to safety, and saved my life. That one scared the shit out of me....

thanks

beedub

9. Hi Bruce

Looking forward to another true action icon to return to our screens very soon! I’m sick of these metrosexual pretty-boys pretending to kick ass, it’s about time the pro’s returned to show them how it’s done!

Couple of questions for ya:

Is there any role that you turned down that you wish you hadn’t? Or is there any role or character you would love to play in the future?

Finally, what’s your take on these modern-day wimps…sorry, action stars who are trying to pull off one-liners whilst trying not to mess up their hair? With the exception of The Rock of course……..

Cheers dude, and all the best for the future!

Johnboy,
Teesside, UK

hey Johnboy

I wish I had not turned down the part that Patrick Swayze eventually played in Ghost. I simply could not see how a romance between a ghost and a living person would work. Duh.... Also it would have been nice to have worked with Demi again. I liked that Film.
Also, I wish I had played the role of Terry Benedict in Oceans 11. I wanted to work with George Clooney, and thought I might only have one shot at doing it, and when I read the script, the Terry Benedict role in Oceans 11 wasn't finished yet, so I passed on it. Another bad choice, but Andy Garcia did a great job with it, and the rest is history.

As far a Modern day action movies, I have to say that all action movies are a modern version of Cowboy movies, Gangster movies, WW 1 and WW 2 movies, Vietnam movies, etc. Basically morality stories where good triumphs over evil. They will always be around, and everybody takes a shot at them. I caught a couple of breaks with the ones I have done, and I still like watching them. My most recent fave was The 300. A very noble, hard-ass movie.

thanks

beedub

10. Dear Mr Willis

Moonlighting was a big influence on me and my friends during our teenage years, and we all wanted to be as cool as David Addison. In fact, my best friend Leroy Palestine was so determined to be just like you that he shaved receded patches into the front of his hairline. My question is, is he an idiot?

Thanks for stopping by the talkbacks. That was pretty damn decent of you.

Looking forward to Live Free Or Die Hard.

Yours sincerely

Frank.

yo Frank

Thanks for thinking that the David Addison role was cool. I never thought about playing it "cool," I was just trying to be funny. I believe if you try to be cool, you have already lost.

Being cool for me really is the absence of cool, or at least ignoring the fact that you character is supposed to be cool. Glen Caron was a real believer in me, and allowed me to take some pretty cool risks that at the time, ABC might not have agreed with, but once the show caught on, they were all for me taking chances.

It was a pretty exciting time in my Life, I will tell you that. After that first year of Moonlighting, I was pretty sure that it was the best year of my life, and that everything that followed would be somehow less than that first year. But every year since was better, and more exciting, all of it-the good and the bad.

A lot of the Jersey kid in me went into what people thought was cool about David Addison, and I always like to give props to my friends in South Jersey for their inspiration. There are Many cool people who have come out of Jersey. Jack Nicholson probably being the King of cool, not to mention he's from New Jersey.

Not knowing your friend Leroy Palestine, I have no idea if he is an idiot. But shaving patches out of his head to emulate one of his TV heroes sounds like something I would have done back in the day, so who an I to judge?

Tell Leroy I said what's up......

thanks

beedub