What are your memories of Die Hard?
"Yeah, Die Hard was a film that Joel Silver called me up and said, 'Hey, I think I got something for you.' I knew of John McTiernan. He had done a film called Nomads that he got a tremendous buzz for and I didn’t think it was going to be as big as it became. The first screening I saw it in, there was a special screening that Joel Silver gave for several people, one being myself and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold and I were great friends since Raw Deal and I had gone to see the film with Arnold next to me. All of a sudden, when I came on, Arnold's head snapped back because that entrance is a terrific entrance to the character. When that character finally turns, the FBI agent, Big Johnson started to have a comedic turn, Arnold goes, 'You are an idiot here. Vat happened? I thought you vere going to be heroic and save za day.' It was funny that the FBI is turned into that, but I had a lot of fun.
We did some improvisation. Years later when I was in Quantico, I had gone to Quantico to do the research for Profiler, it was amazing that a bunch of these young FBI agents that were in training came up to me and said, 'Lose the grid or lose your job.' I was confused for a second. They said, 'Lose the grid or lose your job. You know who's in charge here? The United States government. That's who's in charge. Die Hard, Die Hard, you're why we're here.' I inspired a group of these guys to become FBI agents and I had forgotten that line."
That's amazing they picked out of all the catch phrases, they picked out that line.
"I know, that was an obscure line. Usually people say, 'Hey, just like Saigon, eh, slick?' So this was a very interesting quote that I hadn't heard before."
License to Kill was the most different Bond movie they ever did, and a very different villain. Did you sense it was a different attempt when you were making it?
"Absolutely. The intention of the filmmakers at that time was to do something that was grittier and to bring Bond into the modern age. That was an absolute intention. We had read Casino Royale, both Timothy and I. We talked about the mirror imaging of Bond and the villain and the edginess that the villain and Bond are very similar. If you look in License to Kill and really take it apart in terms of the action that Sanchez commits, Sanchez is only reacting against things that are done to him. He's not the aggressor in any one moment. So that was an interesting take.
People superficially look at it, 'Wow, you were a bastard in that film.' Well, how about somebody stole the girl I loved? For openers, the guy [Felix Leiter] absolutely takes the girl I love and he knows this is the playing field. So it goes on and on. And then Bond absolutely sets me up with Milton Krest in that decompression chamber."
Well, thank you for geeking out with me.
"Fred, thank you, absolutely. I want to ask you, Fred, which Bond film do you like?"
Well now, Casino Royale blew me away. I do wish Dalton had gotten to do a third because I love Living Daylights. Then Spy Who Loved Me and even Dr. No still holds up.
"Well, Goldfinger of course too is fantastic."
And License to Kill is my best friend's favorite. We go back and forth on that.
"Oh, your friend, I want to meet. Do me a favor, I heard someone told me Entertainment Weekly is voting on Bond villains in some way, there's some kind of thing. So if you can get the word out there, I'd love to get ranked up there and get some kind of, it would be fun."
And Die Hard still holds up after 20 years.
"Yeah, it's amazing. I agree. There's also Goonies and Showgirls has become a cult classic."
Did you see that great Showgirls DVD with the ultimate fan commentary?
"No, tell me what happened."
Instead of the director, they had the ultimate fan saying why you should love it.
"Showgirls? How was it?"
Fun, he leads a fan society.
"Did he like the Al Torres character?"
Yeah, the lines like, "Must be weird not having people c** on you."
"I mean, that's the line that everybody seems to kind of like. Especially if they know that I was for McCain or something like that, they want to use that to kind of marginalize me. The funny part is I'm socially liberal. I'm just conservative in terms of taxes and the war on terror. So it's a funny thing. I remember one thing one time, somebody used that quote and it just hurt my feelings that they would try to marginalize me."
Well, certainly keep it in context. I know that's not you in real life.
"No, no. Fred, I appreciate your time and I really hope you get the word out about my film. We'll be at the Burbank AMC on the 21st. Then we're at the Laemmle in Encino."
