In a Volkswagen with a bar’
stop very well. I had to get rid of it because I was scared of shredding fibreglass. This was Detroit steel at its heaviest. It was a beast, a bullet and a dangerous arrow, green in colour like Steve McQueen’s Bullit. Grey pinstripe, too.”
It’s official: he likes his motors, which makes him a great fit for Curfew, despite its filming constraints. “We got up to 20mph in our soupedup surf wagon! I was looking out the window, and there was a bicycle going faster than me…”
SO WHAT is a Billy Zane-type? “I think it’s a middle-aged, roguish type. I guess if you combine a Bill Murray and a John Wayne and you mashed them up, you get my character. There’s a been-there, done-that authority too with a bit of gravitas having survived this long, plus an uncle with a bit of shell-shock!”
Zane is rising to his brief. When you speak with him you could imagine him pitching to film producers with his rich imagination informing his every word. “I would follow Joker all the way to the bar.”
As someone who constantly seems to be working, is he always on the lookout for projects? “No! Work is maddening! If they’re lucky most of the people in the industry today are doing twice the work for a fraction of what they did. That’s just the nature of economics over time. I’ve been busy myself but I’m a father now and I like to spend a lot of time with my kids.
“But I’ve also started a company to make films with Caltech University on the West Coast. The idea is to do less work which is more impactful. I’ve just done Lucid [a film about dreaming] which recently won some awards, and we start shooting soon on Walzing With Brando, a biopic of the great actor. I want these films to push the needle on culture.”
Are his daughters aware of “dad, the actor”? “Well, you can’t keep it away from them. It’s in their DNA. I came from a family of performers, too. The girls are extrovert and theatrical, but equally are entrepreneurial. We like to look at solutions as business models. We do things like, ‘What would make a child eat vegetables?’ My daughter has an idea, involving tech – I can’t tell you what its is!
“But we do charades, too. My four-year-old is always asking for Singing In The Rain. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is another favourite. But they’re too young for Titanic. I’m not rushing that experience for them.”
Nor Dead Calm, the lost-at-sea thriller from 1989 in which he co-starred with Nicole Kidman.
But there’s one thing he’s not talking about. I ask about Hollywood for a leading man post-#metoo? Are we still in the middle of it? He answers quickly: “As long as you still keep asking about it. Hashtag ‘Move on’.”
Zane thinks Curfew has potential for a second series. “Yes, I really think that we’ve cracked it. If you make something that satisfies you, the more universal appeal it has. You will find the common thread. They went for it, and it worked.”
Sky One, Fridays, 9pm