Christopher Walken talks, working, lion taming, Bristol and the second season of Severance (Picture: Getty/Shutterstock/)
Christopher Walken, 81, is an Oscar-winning American actor known forhit movies such as The Deer Hunter and Pulp Fiction.
In 60 Seconds, he talks about returning for season two of the Apple TV+ hit Severance, lion taming in his youth, his love of Bristol, why his onscreen relationship with co-star John Turturro is so convincing and getting to play the nice guy for once.
What do you love about playing Burt Goodman in Severance?
Christopher Walken reprises his role as Burt Goodman head of Optics and Design at Lumon Industries in Severance (Picture: Apple TV plus)
Well, I get a chance to be with Ben Stiller and John Turturro and the other actors who I don’t know as well as I know Ben and John. And as far as Ben, I knew him when he was a little boy. I was friends with his mother and father, wonderful actors.
And to be with Ben playing Burt, who’s a different kind of part than I usually play. Burt is a nice man! It’s a basically a romantic relationship [that he has with John’s character, Irving], which I don’t have a lot of in movies.
Do you want to play more romantic roles now you have a taste for it?
Well, I don’t know if I’m going to get to play romantic roles, but I would like to play uncles and grandfathers. Lovable old guys. Maybe a sorcerer!
Why do you think the first season resonated with so many people?
I don’t know. It’s mysterious, it’s entertaining. You’re always interested in what happens next. It’s got the ingredients of what people like to watch.
Christopher Walken and John Turturro (Irving Bailiff) in Severance have known each other for a very long time (Credits: Apple TV plus / Wilson Webb)
John Turturro has directed you before. Can you remember when you first met?
Well, I met him when we were very young, going around New York, auditioning for off-Broadway shows. Just the actors’ street life. Yes, I’ve known him for a very, very long time. And I think that helps in playing people who are a couple. I think that the fact that we are so comfortable with each other helps in believing that we would be partners in life.
Severance is all set in an office. Have you ever had an office job?
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No, I come from a showbusiness family. I have two brothers, and we were all in showbusiness when we were little kids. And I’ve never done anything else. There was a time when I got out of high school that I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll be something else’, but I quickly found that there was nothing else that had any possibilities. So I just continued.
The internet tells us you were a trainee lion timer when you were young…
When I was 16, I joined the circus for a summer, and it was a traveling circus in the north-east of the United States. They just had one tent and it was owned by a man named Terrell Jacobs, and he had this idea that when he finished his lion act, he would have a kid come in dressed the same, and it was supposed to be his son. I would wave a whip – it was kind of a gimmick – and I did that for a few months one summer.
So no dangerous lion encounters…
No, he had sent everybody out, and I’d be left with this one old girl named Sheba. And I would wave my whip, and she’d sit up on her back like a dog, and make some sort of noise, but Sheba was very sweet. She used to follow me around!
You starred in A View To A Kill opposite Roger Moore as James Bond…
Christopher Walken plays Bond’s antagonist Max Zorin in View to aKill (Picture: Danjaq/Eon/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock)
I loved Roger Moore. He was very nice to me. There was a Christmas break, and he invited me to Switzerland, and I stayed at his house. He was terrific. And so were the Broccolis, Cubby Broccoli, and his daughter, Barbara. They’re just very good people. It was wonderful.
More recently we saw you in BBC One’s The Outlaws…
We were in Bristol, which I liked very much. When I was young, I used to work in theatre a lot on college campuses and I’ve always loved that campus atmosphere with the old buildings and the big trees. I thought that way about Bristol.
Christopher plays charismatic conman Frank in The Outlaws (Credits: BBC / Big Talk / David Scott Holloway)
Do you still get your Pulp Fiction speech quoted back to you?
People quote that a lot. I was working somewhere, and I went to the hotel steam bath. And I walked in, and there were all these young guys in there. There must have been a dozen, kind of college-age guys. And I sat down and suddenly one of them started to recite my speech about the watch. He memorised it. It was bizarre to sit in a room full of guys with towels on and all this steam, and to be hearing my speech back at me!
You cut a dash in Fat Boy Slim’s Weapon Of Choice video. Do you still dance?
I guess you never stop dancing. But a lot of people saw that. It was choreographed by Mickey Rooney’s son.
We’d like to see you dance a little more!
Well, you better hurry up. I’m getting creaky!
Do you still have the acting bug?
Sure. I wouldn’t have much else to do if I didn’t go to work at least once in a while.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I like to have a script that I’m working on. I don’t have a lot of things to do. I don’t have kids. I don’t have hobbies. I don’t like to travel. Actors travel anyway, and usually it’s to interesting places. So I don’t do that, but having a script to learn, standing in my kitchen, is kind of bliss.
Severance season two is on Apple TV+ now