Home-grown actor, Steven Bauer, hopes Versace murder
movie will rekindle career.
Steven Bauer is trying to relax in his high-rise
Miami Beach condominium overlooking the sky-blue Atlantic Ocean.
It's a breezy autumn day, and the 40-year-old Cuban-born actor with the
6-foot-2 frame and dark leading-man looks is feeling under the weather with
the flu. Or maybe it's the late-night partying on South Beach. He insists
it's the former.
"I don't party that much anymore," says
Bauer, who moved back to South Florida from Hollywood in 1994 and quickly
became a fixture on the SoBe nightlife scene. Of celebrities who
call South Florida home, Bauer is not of the caliber of Madonna, Sylvester
Stallone or Gloria Estefan, but the B-movie actor is a recognizable face.
"It's too claustrophobic for me now to go out in public," says Bauer, a
veteran of close to 30 movies and two network TV shows. "I can't get from
the front door of a restaurant to a table without having people come up to
me and play out scenes from Scarface, or being so familiar with me that I
think I actually know them."
Tranquility also is hard to find in his
condo, where the telephone constantly rings. But a ringing phone is
good news for Bauer, who is trying to get his once-hot career sizzling
again. In January, Bauer will be seen in the low-budget The Versace
Murder, recently filmed in Dade and Broward counties. The next call might
lead to his big comeback role. Then again, it might be just another social
invitation.
"I have a big producer interested in me
in Hollywood for his next movie," he says, indulging in some self-promotion.
Not living in Hollywood puts him at a disadvantage, he says. "I have
to keep sending them new publicity shots because they don't see me around."
Bauer, a graduate of the University of Miami
and the Hollywood school of hard knocks, is considered by some to have
squandered a promising future with bad role choices and too much partying.
Bauer agrees with them. "I wasted a lot of time and effort. I
did movies in Europe that didn't pan out. Suddenly, 10 years pass and
you still have a career, but you are not a superstar," he told Exito! magazine
after he moved back to Miami.
Today, he yearns to be known again for the
talent he once promised. Not as an ex of actress Melanie Griffith (they
were wed in the mid-1980s, between her two marriages to actor Don Johnson).
Or for his still-seen-on-cable role in the late 1970s bilingual
PBS sitcom Que Pasa, U.S.A.? Or for launching a film career playing
Al Pacino's sidekick in the 1983 cult classic Scarface, but not starring
in another big-budget hit.
He is hoping the Versace murder movie will
be a baby step back. The $5 million production by Miami-based Pan Am
Pictures wrapped up a grueling 22-day shooting schedule last month. It
trails serial killer Andrew Cunanan's murderous path earlier this year
through Minnesota, Illinois and New Jersey and the deadly encounter on
the steps of fashion designer Gianni Versace's South Beach mansion.
Bauer plays a fictional FBI agent, John
Jacoby, who tracks the 27-year-old Cunanan across country "by getting
into his head," as Jacoby says. Bauer says he recognized the darkness
that drove Cunanan. "I think he was a perfect example of what
happens when a person falls by the wayside in our society and becomes
a reject. They pick celebrities as their connection to reality because
that is all they have. To me, he was like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver,"
Bauer says of Cunanan.
In a strange coincidence, Cunanan killed
himself eight days after the Versace slaying in a houseboat just across
the street from where Bauer lives. "The day they found him, I was
one of the hundreds of people stuck in a massive traffic jam on Collins
Avenue trying to get home," he says. That was July 23. Weeks later,
Bauer landed the role in the movie directed by Menahem Golan (Delta Force,
Operation Thunderbolt).
Cunanan is played by Shane Perdue, 23, a
New York model. Franco Nero (Camelot, Die Hard 2) plays Versace.
The movie could show up on cable, a network or in theaters by January,
just six months after Versace was slain. "This is a better movie
than people would have you think," Bauer says. "It was made fast, but
I was impressed by the script and Menaham. I think it gives some new insight
into why Cunanan killed."
Bauer hopes the Versace movie will also
be a positive peg in his plan to rebuild his deflated career.
Fifteen years ago, Bauer was the next up-and-coming, bedroom-eyed leading
man.
Bauer was 3 when his parents fled Cuba in
1960. His parents later had another son, Ernesto. Bauer graduated from
Miami Coral Park High School in west Dade in 1974, dreaming of becoming
a professional football player. He may not have wanted to be a performer,
but he was always a ham. His high school yearbook shows he was a popular
teen who came in third in a school male beauty contest. He was also on
the football team, a choral singer and active in school politics. Bauer
attended Miami-Dade Community College, where he got his first taste of
acting in a walk-on role in a production of Summer and Smoke. After two
years, he transferred to the University of Miami and set out on an acting
career.
Like other former UM acting students --
including Stallone and Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) -- Bauer was directed
by legendary acting coach Bob "Buckets" Lowery, who retired this year.
Under Lowery's tutelage, Bauer says he blossomed. "He was the guy who
made me believe I could make it in this business," he says. "He taught
me the basics." Lowery says Bauer was a natural. "He had
talent, great discipline and desire, and he came to me with all those
qualities," Lowery remembers. "He was also what they call a stud."
In 1976, Bauer and Liotta left an indelible
mark on UM's drama department when they starred in Of Mice and Men.
Bauer played Lenny to Liotta's George. It is still considered "not one
of the best, but the best" local student production ever, Lowery says.
At that time, a Miami producer was looking to cast the first bilingual
sitcom about a Cuban refugee family attempting to hold on to their traditions
in the United States. Bauer, in his early 20s and still known as Esteban
"Rocky" Echevarria, landed the role of Joe, the dumb but cute teen-aged
son. Que Pasa, U.S.A? (What's Happening, U.S.A.?) was a public television
hit and Bauer stood out among the cast of six.
In 1982 director Brian De Palma (Carrie,
Carlito's Way) was planning a remake of 1932's Scarface, but with a
distinctively Miami flavor. The city was making headlines as it
reeled from the fallout of the Mariel boatlift, which brought 125,000
refugees to the area in a matter of months. Some were inmates released from
Cuban prisons. Many came seeking new lives; some, fast fortunes.
Scarface graphically details the rise and
fall of a refugee-turned-drug-dealer, Tony Montana, played by Pacino.
Bauer landed the plum role of Pacino's best friend, Manny. At fame's door,
Bauer quickly Americanized his name, taking his maternal Jewish grandmother's
maiden name, a move that angered some of his Cuban-American fans. He says
he only wanted to avoid being typecast as a Latino. "I just wanted to be
a leading man, period," he says.
When Scarface was released, Bauer became the toast
of Hollywood. At 27, he caught the industry's attention by standing out
next to one of America's greatest actors. Today, Scarface is a
cult classic, if only for Pacino's over-the-top performance as the coked-up
Montana. "It's amazing to me what a following that movie still has.
It's like The Rocky Horror Picture Show," Bauer says. "People actually
know the lines Pacino and I say to each other."
With the success of Scarface, Bauer's star soared.
Bauer remembers those early halcyon years in Hollywood as a haze. "I
was hot and it was great," he says. "Everything was going my way. It was
like a dream coming true. It was party after party. That's the Hollywood
way."
Soon after his arrival, he met and married Griffith.
At the time, Griffith's career was in a slump. "We hit it off right
away and we went on quite a wonderful roller coaster ride together,"
he says. "Today, she's like my sister. A child of Hollywood, Griffith
introduced Bauer to La-La Land's party circuit and its inner sanctum.
Tippi Hedren (The Birds) was Bauer's mother-in-law. The godfather of
the couple's son, Alexander, now 12, was Warren Beatty. "Warren thought
I could be the next him, but I was too busy and stupid to take any of
that seriously," he now says with regret.
On the strength of Scarface, Bauer's next
movie was Thief of Hearts (1984). His name on top of the marquee and
his sex appeal were supposed to carry the movie. But, the timing was
poor. "The studio changed hands just as the movie came out and
it was not promoted at all. It was abandoned by the new studio heads,"
Bauer says. The movie flopped. For Bauer, it was a double whammy.
Because of his commitment to Thief, Bauer says he turned down the lead
in Top Gun, a blockbuster hit for Tom Cruise. Thief was the last
time Bauer played the lead in a major motion picture.
His personal life also suffered. Bauer and
Griffith divorced after a couple of years. She revived her career with
a co-starring role in Working Girl and remarried Johnson. They have since
divorced again; she is now wed to actor Antonio Banderas.
Meanwhile, Bauer's career slid into television
and cable. One highlight was his critically acclaimed performance in
the true miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990). Bauer played
Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena, allegedly killed
by Mexican drug lords 1985. The miniseries was a hit, but Bauer's success
didn't last. Later that year, when Wiseguy star Ken Wahl walked off the
CBS show, Bauer replaced him. It proved to be a fiasco, and the plug was
pulled on the show. "I did nine episodes even though they paid me
for 13. I don't think they gave the public time to get used to me. It
was a political thing," Bauer says.
Today, Bauer says he considers his best
acting work to be in the television movie Sword of Gideon (1986), the
story of five commandos sent to avenge the 1972 murder of Israeli athletes
in the 1972 Munich Olympics. "I know someone is a diehard fan of
mine when they come up to me and tell me: `Hey, Steve, you were good in
Scarface, but you know what my favorite movie of yours is?' I'll say,
`Sword of Gideon'? They say: `Yeah!'"
Bauer's personal life continued down its
rocky road. He married twice more and divorced. Careerwise, things were
not much better. In 1992, Bauer co-starred in another De Palma movie,
Raising Cain, a murder thriller about evil twin brothers. It was another
failure.
Then, in 1993, during a guest appearance
on the old Arsenio Hall talk show, Bauer aired darker, personal problems.
He admitted on the air to a problem with drugs. He urged teens to stay
clean and said he was headed for rehab. The candid confession made for
great television, but it didn't do much for his career.
By 1994, Bauer had enough. He packed up
and came back to Miami, where his mother still lives. By then, he had
taken custody of his youngest son, Dylan, 8, from his second marriage.
The boy splits his time between his father and Bauer's mother, a kindergarten
teacher. His oldest son lives with Griffith. Father and son see each
other on holidays and vacations.
Today, Bauer's career is South Florida-based.
He recently ended a longterm relationship and is unattached, preferring
to concentrate on his work. "I came back home to do anything
-- acting, singing, commercials," he says. And he has done just that.
He has made several low-budget, straight-to-video movies and some cable
productions. This year, his picture was visible for months on a giant
billboard on Interstate 95 -- an advertisement for the Miami Beach high-rise
where he lives. He is a frequent master of ceremonies at charity functions.
But he keeps waiting for his career to make
a U-turn back to the top. "I'm more mature now," he says. "I would
handle being at the top differently. I just hope I get the chance again.
You never know."
