ACTOR STEVEN BAUER ON FAME, FORTUNE, LOOKING BACK AT SCARFACE
AND FORWARD TO PLAYING IN TRAFFIC…
When 26-year-old Steven Bauer was cast alongside Al Pacino
in SCARFACE 18 years ago he thought he’d finally hit it big. “SCARFACE
was my first feature. I had turned down some films previously to that
because I didn’t want my first film experience to be something that was
just fluff and that had no content,” admits the now weathered actor.
Playing Manny Ray, Pacino’s partner/friend who helps him build a drug
empire in Miami in SCARFACE, quickly threw Bauer’s life into overdrive.
He soon discovered that being a part of the Hollywood game ofroulette
is a lot tougher than playing a drug dealer. After SCARFACE, Bauer was
offered roles that he says “ ... had no reason for being beyond a tax
write-off or for scaring people.”
Being finicky has kept the now 44-year-old actor from Cuban descent away
from the spotlight but not away from his craft. He has consistently worked
since his most auspicious debut in mostly TV and unintentional straight
to video films or in smaller supporting roles in movies like RUNNING SCARED,
RAISING CAIN and PRIMAL FEAR. But he is most proud of his work in THE BEAST,
a 1988 film that never got its day in the theater. Released on video,
BEAST is the story of a Soviet tank crew caught up in the middle of a
war in Afghanistan where, led by a tyrannical commander, they find themselves
lost in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas. Bauer
bitterly explains the dilemma BEAST endured with inept producers and poor
marketing execs. “You pour three months of your life and your sweat and
your guts into a film and it doesn’t get released. Or it gets released
on video and you are like, ‘What happened?’"
And although his manner is still calm and cool Bauer exudes the demeanor
of a beaten man who wants and deserves a second chance. That chance
has come for Bauer in the form of director Steven Soderbergh, who cast Bauer
in his compelling and masterful drug drama TRAFFIC where all cast members,
including Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle
and Bauer, and the film are getting early Oscar buzz.
A married man again, Bauer was briefly married to Melanie Griffith and the
two bore one child from their short marriage. (He was smack dab in the middle
of the Don Johnson years. Griffith married Johnson in ‘75 divorced him in
’76 married Bauer in the ‘80s divorced him and then married Johnson again
in 1989 until she divorced him again in ’96). Bauer is on the promotional
trail for TRAFFIC. While promoting his most recognized work since
SCARFACE, Bauer speaks candidly of his rise and fall from fame, his gratitude
towards Soderbergh and why playing drug lord Carlos Ayala in TRAFFIC was
hardly a stretch for him.
1) ON TRYING TO STAY TRUE TO HIS CRAFT BY WORKING ON QUALITY
FILMS AND HIS FADE FROM FAME…
“They (good scripts) are hard to come by
and not only that, you are forced into compromises. And for years I said
I am not going to compromise, but then you starve. You run out of money.
You run out of luck. Fate plays games with you. A + B doesn’t equal C.
And suddenly you are forgotten. People don’t remember you so they are
not thinking about you. And nobody brings you up at a table. And so they
are casting this person over and over and over again. And then they see
you on the screen and say, ‘Oh my god there you are! I love your work.
Where you been?’ And you are like, ‘I am right here.’ And then they say,
‘God I have to remember you because there was a film I was doing last
year that was really right for you and I forgot you exist.’ And yet
you are working and doing things. It’s frustrating because you get to
a point - I did - where I had to compromise and do movies that I didn’t
really believe in. I had to find something in the character that allows
you to do it so you can sleep at night.”
2) ON PLAYING DRUG LORD CARLOS AYALA…
“I put myself in his circumstances. Carlos’
upbringing is not that vastly different from mine. But this character
finds himself in that environment in that world. My life took a different
course and I went into theater but I could have easily gotten into that
business. I grew up in Miami and a lot of my friends suddenly started driving
nice cars. That could’ve been me with a different mind set so I approached
it in that way. Steve (Soderbergh) cast me but he never talked to me
and he never gave me any direction. He cast me and said you are Carlos
Ayala. It’s a very ugly little business that is against the law but that’s
the only thing wrong with it.”
3) ON USING HIS EXPERIENCE FROM SCARFACE TO PLAY THE ROLE AND
THE CURRENT DRUG WAR SITUATION…
“It’s an advantage. I don’t particularly
seek roles like this. I actually love the opportunity and challenge
of playing people in vastly different environments who’ve grown up in
different environments and different belief systems and different convictions.
I love historical pieces and biographies. But I certainly embraced
the opportunity as I did with SCARFACE. This movie has to be seen because
it has to be talked about. And everybody walks out of the theater talking
about it. You have to talk about it because the film offers no solutions
because there is no solution. And the war on drugs ... there is no war,
there’s an epidemic. Drugs are an epidemic. And it’s always been and it’s
always gonna be. But what we can do is to alert and protect our children.”
4) ON THE LENGTH OF THE FILM (2 ½ hours) AND WHETHER
IT'S TOO LONG…
“That’s something that’s always been curious
to me when people talk about the length of a film. I think if a film
holds your attention it doesn’t matter how long it is. If it lost you
at a certain point that means for you it didn’t work in certain moments.
It doesn’t mean other people didn’t stay with it at that moment. Everybody’s
interest level is different. Everybody’s perception is different. Everybody’s
attention span is different. I never think there is too much dialogue
here unless it is bad dialogue. If there is no reason for it being there.
Or it’s self indulgent, too long or redundant. I know when I was watching
this film I was watching it objectively because I was a fan. ‘This is
the new film by Steven Soderbergh.’ And I watched it and I was captivated
and everything interested me in the film.”
5) ON WHETHER THIS FILM HAS HELPED HIM PROVE HIS EXISTANCE…
“From the moment I was cast in the film,
I am happy to say. In those offices where those decisions are made
your name is either mentioned or it’s not mentioned. Every single day
of my life people stop me on the street and say, ‘Oh my god Steven Bauer.’
Or they don’t know my name but they know my faceand they say, ‘I love
your movies.’ But to the executives in the offices in what we call Hollywood
if you are not in the movies and if you haven’t been in the movies recently
- the big movies - they forget who you are. Unless the night before you
were on cable and they were watching and they say, ‘Hey that’s Steven Bauer.
I got to remember tomorrow when we have a meeting and decide what movies
we are going to make I got to remember Steven Bauer is one of my favorite
actors.' And that’s fate. That’s luck and what are the chances of that.
But getting cast in a movie like this the next day people are calling
you and they are saying, ‘You got cast in Steven Soderbergh’s new film.
I hear you are playing Catherine Zeta Jones’ husband.'”
6) ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING LATIN IN HOLLYWOOD NOW AND
THEN (SCARFACE TIME)…
“It’s getting better. The population has
increased so you can’t avoid it. Eventually the population even
gets to the executive level so there will be more Latin executives in
Hollywood. And there are more Latin writers whose scripts are being bought
so eventually there will be more roles for Latins. And more opportunities.
That’s just a fact of life. There’s no revolution. No revolution happened.
African-Americans went through it and now the Latins are going through
it.”
7) ON WHETHER OR NOT HE IS CONCERNED ABOUT THE UPCOMING POSSIBILITY
OF AN ACTOR’S STRIKE…
“I am so uninvolved and out of touch with
the business and the union that I am embarrassed to say that I don’t
know what’s going on with the union and why or whether they should strike
or not. I read and I also am working on projects with writers to try and
produce movies. And I am working on music all the time and I am working
on my sons. I don’t know about the union and when I hear someone say the
reality of it is it’s going to happen then I am going to start getting
nervous but until then I have other things going on in my life. The
reality of it is I will probably run out of money and have my kids starve
and have to go work elsewhere.”
8) ON SODERBERGH AND HIS FILMING EXPERIENCE ON THE SET OF TRAFFIC…
“It’s the best set I’ve ever been on. This
is the first time I have ever been on a set that has no tension. No
bullshit petty tension. Everybody has his role. Everybody has their
job and they do it with joy. They go to work everyday with joy. This is
so rare in the movie making business. I am not kidding. Steven loves making
movies. And he chooses people who eventually become his friends. They
are all his friends. It’s a family. These people all have done five films
in a row with him, most of the crew and some of the cast. Because they
are making movies. Someone said a long time ago that it’s not brain surgery
but you know what it’s not playing with Legos either. You are doing something
that is going to last. So you should view it with love and with heart and
with guts and with passion. And there shouldn’t be any extraneous bullshit
about it."
