The Launch CD (issue #17) Interview

"The About Screen"

He’s probably best known for his role as president of the United States in the hugely successful sci-fi blockbuster Independence Day, and as far as politics go, Bill Pullman has all the makings of an awesome world leader: he’s self assured, in control, and totally off his rocker. The actor’s latest turn as an eccentric private detective with an amphetamine problem is typically left-of-center Pullman, and his new film Zero Effect offers him the perfect opportunity to push his inherent kookiness to the surface. Pullman was in rare form on the day he arrived at our studio for his LAUNCH interview—he dressed in character, complete with trenchcoat and argyle socks. Despite his mild-mannered demeanor and classic good looks, Pullman quickly revealed himself to be one zany individual obsessed with everything from vertical blinds and reversable clothes to Tom Cruise and Annette Funicello. He is too cool.

"Zero Effect" is written and directed by Jake Kasden, son of Lawrence Kasden who’s directed Pullman before. Ben Stiller plays the only character Daryl Zero will speak to. "It’s not an easy relationship—being married to Ben Stiller, " the actor notes.

The Zero character lives on Tab and tuna fish—eaten directly from the can. "It’s a boy thing," the actor explains of his own proclivity for dining in the tin. "There’s a kind of pureness about it. It just goes from shelf to mouth."

"I love things out of cans. It’s so out of fashion now. People don’t understand the value of cans. I used to even love Campbell Soup because in college, we used to take the label off it and put that sucker right on the stove. You didn’t even need a pot. You could stir it a little bit and it’s like insta-meal."

Pullman’s strategy for going undercover in public is simple: "You don’t have to invest in a lot of [disguises]," he notes. "Sometimes just crossing one eye can be enough to get people to ignore you."

"Well, sometimes it come right down to a subtle parting of the hair that’s unfortunate. If you can just get that part just right , it’s so unpleasant; people don’t want to deal with you."

Pullman’s obsession with a vintage Plymouth Valiant ended when he totaled the car by accident. "That was the only way I could have gotten out of that relationship, " he recalls. "I’d begun to lust after other vehicles."

"I’d been reading scripts and somebody wrote this script and they gave it to me and said, ‘You’ve got to play this part.’ And I really was tempted to do this script, which was not good at all, but just the fact that the guy drove a 1972 Plymouth Valiant. I said, ‘This was written for me.’ I loved that car!"

After outgrowing the perky Mouseketeer, Pullman moved on to Cool Hand Luke, "the first movie where my head got snapped around. It’s like a trance when you come out. I love that about movies—Lost Highway was a trance movie."

"I was affected early by ‘Babes in Toyland’ with Annette Fuginello, Fugi—(how do you say it? You know her --now again, Funicello). You know, some prepubescent thing got tickled there."

The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine was Pullman’s first album purchase. "I had older brothers and sisters who did the buying, " he recalls. "They didn’t want me touching their stuff."

"I was never really careful with records, you know. I didn’t have that technique of, you know, holding it like you’re holding some orb. And then, you know, you get it so some people would twist it….There was a whole kind of juggling act that you, you had to do if you didn’t want to ever touch the grooves. You could kind of whip it and you could; ah, let’s see what’s on the other side; ah, let’s see what’s on the other side [Pullman is pantomiming how you spin a record between your hands here. It’s hard to describe or capture his exact sound effects—ed.] And the thing would chunk, ka-chunk. Me, I’d like grab it like that and look on the other side and put the needle down, and like slip it……"

"I have friends that send me weird psychobilly music. I like rock-a-billy, and I like like that edge where it goes into punk. As you can see, I’m right on the cutting edge of music," the actor says.

"I lke rock-a-billy, and I like that kind of edge where it goes into almost that punk kind of thing. And I’ve been listening to this guy named Ronnie Dawson, who is in his 50’s and comes out of Austin, Texas and he does an act that is sensational. And his version of rock-a-billy is so insane that I think it’s great hope. . . I’m looking forward to being 55 and 58, you know, cutting my hair into a buzz cut and making it stand straight up and launching out."

Pullman admits to a hankering for a set of choppers like Tom Cruise. "Those teeth. . . there’s a kind of dental gleam that comes off of them. They’re just dazzling. I always admire a good set of teeth."

"There’s other teeth that are nice and endearing and everything like that, but Tom Cruise’s are just like a Cadillac coming down the street. Man, you know, it’s just a nice kind of presentation."

"David Lynch played Jewel for me—can you believe it?," Pullman says. "He was testing his new sound system. I’m not as mainstream as I’d like to be. I’ve been listening to this CD Wim Wenders gave to me: this Portugese group that’s really great."

"David loved to have a ummm…he’s very ritualized. Having a cup of coffee with him is like going to church."

Pullman’s character, a brilliant detective who rarely goes outside, prefers to be invisible: "He’s dysfunctional. He’s got an amphetamine problem. He makes up songs that he thinks are quite spectacular."

"In the movie I have one of the neatest things that people are really going to want when they come out of the movie—a reversable jacket that I can reverse [snaps his fingers three times] like that! I can be black, then [three snaps] I’m beige."