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Veteran actor teams with Arkin, Pacino in `Stand Up Guys'
Dressed in a long black overcoat, Christopher Walken could be mistaken for an undertaker.
But the actor’s anything but glum as he sits in an ornate Manhattan Waldorf Towers suite and talks about “Stand up Guys,” his new mobster movie that teams him with Al Pacino and Alan Arkin.
Did the three ever have a Bring Your Oscar to Work Day and compare their trophies?
“That never happened,” he said with a smile. “No.”
How close a relationship does he have with his “Deer Hunter” Academy Award?
“I have a little room in my house where I keep souvenirs. You know, backstage passes to the Rolling Stones, stuff from a long time ago. And I keep my Oscar in there. He’s got a beautiful velvet cover.
“Once in a while — at Thanksgiving or whatever — I take it out and put it on the table.”
Is Walken, after playing so many scary bad guys, entering a kinder, gentler phase?
In “Seven Psychopaths” he wasn’t really psycho. “Late Quartet” saw Walken give up his cello, not a gun. And in “Stand Up Guys” he’s a nice guy mobster with qualms about murder.
Walken, who turns 70 on March 31, mused, “I’m getting offered uncles, fathers and grandfathers — and that’s nice because maybe it opens some new territory for me in my so-called third act.”
“Stand Up Guys” acknowledges the passing of time with Viagra jokes, but it also testifies to its three stars’ endurance.
“I believe,” he said, “there are echoes of the real-life careers of the three of us.
“For better or worse, I have been around a long time. So it was a thrill. I had known Al on and off for decades, from the Actors’ Studio and so on. I didn’t know Alan at all.
“There’s a line,” he continued, “in the movie, ‘We finally got to work together after all this time.’ That echoes. Because it’s absolutely true.”
Surprisingly, “Guys” is not exactly a first film with Pacino.
“Al and I were in the same movie once but our paths never crossed. It was ‘Gigli,’ and Al is great in that movie. The movie unfortunately took quite a beating.”
Walken shrugged, “When movies take big beatings, I never really understand why. You know? I mean, come on.”
(“Stand Up Guys” opens Friday.)