Articles/Interviews: Looksmart

SCOTT CAAN: OK, let's talk about Paul Walker. So an executive comes up to you and says, "I want to make a movie with you; here's $25 million dollars--pick your writer; pick your director; and pick four actors. Who would they be?

PAUL WALKER: I love the Coen brothers. They do some sick and twisted stuff. Raising Arizona [1987] is one of my all-time favorite movies. I would also give them first crack at writing. As far as actors, I think a winning combination would be you, of course, Giovanni Ribisi, and Erik MacArthur. We could do something awesome.

SC: I'm actually driving to the beach right now. To surf. I've surfed since I was a kid, but you influenced me to continue because you're such a hardcore surfer. If you were offered a beach house, where waves broke all day long and someone would take care of you, would you continue acting?

PW: There's no way I could just surf. Sometime within the last four years, I realized there's more to life than surfing. I never took acting seriously as a profession. But then things fell into place. Now, I really jones for it. And what's disturbing and fun at the same time is that it's a learning process. Basically, everyone sucks. No one's a master. People like De Niro and Pacino are at the top of their game[ldots]but they're always learning, always getting better. No one's a big dog.

SC: Oh, I heard you got a little golden retriever puppy. Now I'm sure everyone who reads this interview is going to think it's adorable that you have a puppy.

PW: Yeah, yeah. It's actually a Labrador.

SC: Anyway, so you think an actor just gets better as he goes along?

PW: I think the ones that don't are the ones left by the wayside.

SC: I just did Gone in Sixty Seconds with Bobby Duvall, and what was so cool to watch is that he still loves acting so much.

PW: You know who else I say that about? Jon Voight. When you and I were working on Varsity Blues, remember how we lived the life of vampires, going to work at 6 RM. and not wrapping until sunup? Well, Jon would go up into the stands, and sign autographs. I couldn't help but think, This has got to be getting to him, too: We're into our third week of night shoots, and my energy level is really, really low. It is miserable. I'm getting pasty white. So, I walk up to him and say, "Hey Jon, how are you doing?" He says, "Oh, I'm doing pretty good, Paul, how are you doing?" "Well," I say, "these nights, man, they're just really wearing on me." And he looks at me, and he goes, "For me, it's all great. My days become my nights and my nights become my days, but the bottom line is, I love what I do."

SC: Right.

PW: And I felt like the biggest idiot. I wished I could have taken my words back. But it was a lesson. If I'm around for half as long as he is, I hope to God that I still have that outlook.

Scott Caan can be seen this month in Gone in Sixty Seconds. Paul Walker, photographed with golden retriever puppies Bear and Samson, wears clothing by HELMUT LANG, and a top hat by J.J. Hats.

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