Bruce Willis Takes Five

Take Five . . .As in five minutes, which is all the time we got when Willis popped his head into the interview room to talk up The Story Of Us, Rob Reiner's portrait of a marriage at the make or break point. A dozen reviewers in the room; one mega hit (The Sixth Sense) still in theaters, one indie (Breakfast of Champions) just rolling out and the new Willis-Michelle Pfeiffer Story due any day. Five minutes leaves virtually no time to cover anything, so we all jumped in . . .

CrankyCritic: It's been an amazing year for you.
Bruce Willis: I just think that the wheel has turned a little bit. I've been through times when they throw rocks and say my work sucks and this film could be better. I take responsibility for my choices. I've done some films that I probably shouldn't have done, that I got involved with when they weren't fully formed and the script wasn't done and I said "yeah let's go and do this thing!" those were my mistakes. You really should not turn the camera on until the script is done and on the page is a readable, fascinating story. The Sixth Sense was that. It was completely done. I read it and said "yes" the next day. This film, The Story of Us, I read it and said "yes, I've got to do this" I don't know, success comes and goes, man. I'm just happy that it happened and the studio is really happy (that The Sixth Sense has made what it did).

CrankyCritic: But you don't get complacent.
Bruce Willis: I never get complacent. I don't really rely on what the reviews say about my work. I have a circle of friends and peers that I talk to, that go to my films (and I to their films) and we're honest with each other. There's a level of honesty there that isn't about selling a story.

CrankyCritic: All according to a master plan <g>?
Bruce Willis: Well, it's a non-plan. All this comes about because I had done a film that -- we tried as hard as we could not to make it an action movie, though it still had action in it. My little brother David, who now produces films for me, saw the film with me and said "every action scene in this film was derivative of four other films you've done." And that stuck with me. Plus, I've been wanting to do comedy. I've been wanting to do romantic comedy. I haven't done it in ten years and it was so much fun to do. It's such a different set of (acting) muscles to have your job be "try to be funny." to try to twist the line or take the beat or do whatever it takes to make you laugh' that's so much more fun than running down the street with a gun, screaming.

CrankyCritic: The Sixth Sense wrapped up the summer. In addition to The Story of Us you've also got Breakfast of Champions in release. It seems like it's Bruce Willis season . . .
Bruce Willis: Well, the timing is the thing. I did Breakfast of Champions in the Spring of '98. We had to redo the title sequence because a large food corporation had the same logo that we used in the main title sequence and were unhappy about that. It was an animated title sequence so we had to redo the entire thing. It was about the type font of the "Breakfast of Champions" title.

CrankyCritic: How did you feel about that, being a producer of the film as well?
Bruce Willis: You just got to deal with it. It just moves the film back. It's a weird film. The novel was weird and the film has a peculiar style, too. It's just a different card in the deck. It's a different thing to do. That was done for love. It was just a fun thing to do.
CrankyCritic: Are you happy with the end result?
Bruce Willis: Yeah. I'm proud of it. Everybody's proud of it.