Bruce Willis

Interview By: Dan Portnoy

DanPortnoy@TheCinemaSource.com

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You wouldn’t expect to hear this actor humming a cheerful tune, but before I began my interview with Bruce Willis that’s exactly what he was doing. Not cleaning the chamber of his Glock, or beating down some punk criminal, but humming a medley from the recent Broadway musical Jersey Boys. Known more for his take-no-shit tough guy roles rather than his singing, Willis continues to build himself as a performer taking on new challenges and new characters that have more dimensions than what audiences may be used to from the John McClane Bruce Willis of old (even though McClane may yet return). But regardless, over the years Willis has made the action adventure genre his own and as an audience, we’ve enjoyed watching him get the bad guy and save the girl, or the town, or the city, or the world! Sure he may have explored other genres, tasted the other fruits of the industry, but this year we get Bruce Willis right back where we want him in the action thriller, 16 Blocks.

For a cop like Jack Mosley (Willis), time is always a factor. Over the hill and on the brink of a complete physical breakdown, his time on the force is limited, to put it lightly. When Jack is given the seemingly effortless task of escorting a repeated felon 16 Blocks to the 100 Centre Street courthouse, he sees it as a demotion, a sign that he’s on his way out. But things soon get complicated for Mosley and his passenger Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) when forces on both sides of the law attempt to take the pair down. Now it’s up to Mosley and Bunker to put aside their differences and join together to fight off their assailants or else its certain death for the unlikely duo.

Though Mosley may have a few mountains to climb before he reaches greener pastures, Willis has no problem keeping in good mental and physical condition. As for his age and thinning hair…“I will kick anybody’s ass who tries to tell me I’m not a man because my hair’s thinning.” No doubt Willis

is a man; he’s made his career on being “the man” but as for his hair, you’re better off just not mentioning it. But if age has given him one thing, it’s the ability to easily step into the shoes of Jack Mosley. “I don’t think I could have played Jack Mosley ten years ago. I knew by the time I was in my 30’s that by the time I got into my 40’s that I would know so much more about life. It just allowed me to give this character a different world view than I had when I was in my 30’s. There’s just so many better parts now, so much cooler things to be able to do.” Prime example, Willis as John Hardigan in Sin City is very, very cool.

Since Die Hard hit theaters in 1988 Willis has had the propensity toward playing other roles in which he is a cop or cop-like enforcer. Truth is he has nothing but respect for the unappreciated and undervalued members of law enforcement and his portrayal of them is in many ways a homage. “I believe that any job that requires you to possibly get shot at or get shot dead, you should get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. These guys don’t get paid anything and yet they go out and do it…there should be thousands of films about those guys and they should get paid more money, a lot more money.” And after 16 Blocks, it’s speculated that Willis will become John McClane once again for the fourth installment of the Die Hard series. But after all this talk back and forth for years now, will it actually happen? “I would like to see Die Hard 4 happen…if they get the script right, yeah I would consider it.”

If you ask Willis (and I did) he gives a great deal of credit to his co-star of 16 Blocks Mos Def for really bringing the film and the story together. “It could have been just another stupid run down the street, limp down the street Bruce Willis film, but this film really didn’t come together until Mos Def showed

up with the character he showed up with.” Willis first took notice of Def after his performance in 2001’s Monster’s Ball. Since that time the two have become friends and when the opportunity came to put Def into the role of Eddie Bunker, Willis made the call. And it’s a good thing too. “I think this is a career making role for him. I think people are going to see him in a much different way.”

Redemption and change are central aspects of 16 Blocks and as Willis describes, the change of the film’s central characters could not have been done unaccompanied. “Change for the most part, the kind of change we show in this film is the most difficult kind…the kind of change you see in this film comes because my character wakes up. What I love most about this film is that my character couldn’t have changed had it not been for Mos Def’s character and Mos Def’s character could not have changed had it not been for my character.” As for the theme of redemption conveyed through this film, Willis sees it as a positive emotional statement for the filmgoers. “Films that have the theme of redemption in them are really morality plays and these stories have been around since the Greeks were doin’ it in the amphitheaters. And it makes people feel good, it gives people hope.”

With the 78th annual Academy Awards approaching, Hollywood is shifting its focus to everyone’s favorite little gold statuette named Oscar. But does every filmmaker and studio create films with Oscar in mind? Not according to Bruce Willis. “I don’t think the Academy has much influence over what films Hollywood chooses to make. Nobody thought the films that got nominated were going to make the kind of noise that they did. It’s all a crapshoot…the Oscars are people’s opinions and I don’t think it reflects public opinion all the time, sometimes it does. I will say that Jamie Foxx was unbelievable as Ray Charles…so there’s an example where the world said, ‘Yeah we agree.’” But who’s it gonna be this year? Those planning to find out, will

on March 5th.

But Oscar or no Oscar, Bruce Willis is going to keep on doing what he’s doing. And why not, it’s gotten him this far. In the upcoming year audiences will be privy to a number of new features starring Willis. “In the last two years I’ve done a bunch of films that all seem to be coming out in about five months of each other and they’re all very different.” It’s definitely something to look forward to, but fans of action and Bruce Willis, it’s time to get excited for 16 Blocks.