Hotdog Magazine
September 2001
The King of Newport
by Jonathan Carter
Meeting
Christopher Waken on the set of his new Brit comedy, Hotdog almost
manages a conversation.
"Jesus, doesn’t she look dead, huh?" says Christopher
Walken as he looks at the old woman in the pink silk-lined coffin. "You got a
towel?" he says to his assistant, taking off his gold-spangled jacket and the top
hat. "I’m getting kind of sweaty here."
We’re in a church in
Newport, South Wales, filming a British comedy called Plots With A View. It
stars Brenda Blethyn and the inimitable Walken as Frank Featherbed, an undertaker
who’s determined to put the "fun" back into funerals. Lee Evans is
his sidekick, Delbert. The two of them have just been singing and dancing at the
altar while the aforementioned coffin rises from its plinth, flanked by two showgirls. We’re on a break while they change the lights.
It’s hard work rising from the dead. The showgirls have retreated to a
corner, their fake-tan faces indistinguishable against the teak
paneling. They look like floating eyes. Mr. Walken,
meanwhile, is sitting on one of the pews, observing. He seems
tired. I ask him how he thinks it’s all going? He looks at
me. "I’ve seen you around on the set." There’s a pause.
"It’s going good…" he says at last, fondling his silver-topped cane.
"I’m almost done. I’ve been here a month."
He trails off into staccato sentences, "It’s a funny movie. Good script. The actors work hard… I was supposed to do it two years
ago, then it got canceled. "He looks over at the coffin and the Vaudeville
trimmings. "But I guess, finally, we got it made."
 So what’s it like playing an undertaker? He laughs quietly to himself,
"Nice, you know." He seems scary, "I’m pretty normal," he
says, scarily. "I just play those kind of parts a lot. Villains and
stuff… though not always." I tell him that I liked him as the decidedly unvillainous Whitley Strieber in Communion. "I don’t think too many
people saw that movie," he says, surprised, "I made a lot of movies that not too
many people saw." Does he mind? "No, no. It’s fine.
I work."
"Ready to go again, Christopher?" asks the director, as Walken peers out from
beneath the lights. The star gestures to his assistant. He looks pissed off.
Someone has a video camera at the back of the church. The assistant nods at a
security person and the interloper is escorted from the premises.
They obviously picked the wrong time to visit God’s house. They’ll have
to come back next week, when he’s gone.
"I’m pretty normal. I just play those kind of parts a lot.
Villains and stuff" - Chris Walken.
Return to Walken Home Page
|