He's 'Jesus' Son'

Billy Crudup's role resurrects short-story collection

Crudup plays the drug-addicted, quirky main character in "Jesus' Son"

July 7, 2000
Web posted at: 5:22 p.m. EDT (2122 GMT)

(CNN) -- It's the day before Billy Crudup's 32nd birthday. He's at the Lions Gate Films offices in Manhattan, looking out the window at the towering skyline, talking on the phone.

"It's a beautiful day," the actor says. "We're having the most incredible summer. I want to send my appreciation to the high-pressure system that's sitting over New York right now."

The comment is revealing; Crudup seems not to take things too seriously, but he still basks the moment of the here and now.

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He has something else to appreciate as well. Crudup has a new movie hitting theaters this weekend, the audaciously titled "Jesus' Son," directed by Alison Maclean and co-starring Samantha Morton. It's based on the collection of short stories by the same name, written by Denis Johnson and published to critical acclaim in 1992.

Based in the early '70s, the film follows the drug-induced adventures of Crudup's character, known only as "F---head" -- or "FH," as he'll be called here. The plot includes the hammer-wielding destruction of a suburban home, an emergency-room encounter with a guy who has a knife stuck in his head and a nude, angelic woman floating through mid-air (with help from a large kite).

Out of all this comes FH's realization that there some good things in his life.

Crudup, who saw his star power rise when he played Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine in 1998's "Without Limits," will also be seen in the new Cameron Crowe movie. Based on Crowe's experiences as a Rolling Stone reporter in the '70s, the still-untitled film premieres at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

In a Friday morning interview with CNN.com, Crudup talked about his latest projects, why he's starred in so many movies set in the '70s and what he plans to do on his birthday. He's still surprised by what he considers the oddest job he's ever had, too.

CNN: Happy early birthday.

BILLY CRUDUP: Thank you very much.

CNN: This is an interesting film. I didn't read Johnson's collection of stories, though.

BC: I think they're worth reading. I think he's a really unique writer. He's also a helluva lot of fun to read, because you don't feel overburdened by his lyricism, which can be the case with many writers. But he's very simple and weaves intricate tales using simple conventions. That really appeals to me.

CNN: Did you read the work before you knew you were going to be in this?

Crudup, left, and Dennis Hopper, right, portray addicts in a rehab center

BC: I hadn't read it until Elizabeth Cuthrell, who wrote the screenplay and produced the movie and also played the waitress who punches me in the nose, called me. She and I were friends from graduate school. She called me and told me she was going to adapt this book. She wanted me to read it. So I read it, and of course my reaction was, 'I really enjoyed the book. What exactly do you plan on doing with this as a movie? I'll withhold judgment until you send a script.' But I was pleasantly surprised.

CNN: Do you think it's particularly difficult to translate Johnson's written word to the screen?

BC: Absolutely. Anytime you use unconventional conventions to tell a story, particularly at a time when pop culture is so self-reflective and it's difficult to find a unique voice, I think you are going to have a hard time selling it to people.

CNN: My first reaction was that this must of have been much different from playing (Olympian runner Steve) Prefontaine in "Without Limits." But then I thought, the characters both go in different directions, but they're both committed to those directions.

BC: And they're both deeply flawed and unsure of their own will, and I think in some ways what the story becomes is FH learning how to trust his instincts -- what things guide him well in his life, and what things won't.

I think that's something that Prefontaine came to, as well. He was so deeply regimented in this way of life that it paid off for him time and time again. But it left him with a very small frame of reference in life. He had only one way to go about things. He then didn't have the ability to grow. And I think that's something that FH learned.

CNN: Did you do a lot of running to prepare for "Without Limits?"

BC: Ah, man. Nonstop.

CNN: So the follow-up question is, did you take a lot of drugs to prepare for FH?

BC: No. I just did a lot of not running. I was relieved to be not running. Even in the film I did before this, 'Waking the Dead,' there was this one whole segment of this chase scene, and I was like, 'If I have to run any more in a movie, I'm going to kill somebody.'

So perhaps my choice to star in 'Jesus' Son' was a reflection of that.

CNN: I think we all have a little of FH in us. We all get kicked around a little bit. Would you agree?

BC: Yes. The thing that's great about drama and theater and film is you get to heighten the experience of life. In many ways, he's metaphorical because his life is so extravagant in some ways. It's utterly banal in some ways, but the experiences that he has are extraordinary. And the level to which life beats him down is extraordinary. When I'm able to experience it vividly through a character, it gives me some sense of relief in my own life that this is a commonality in human experience. I think I've been much more fortunate in my life than FH, but it definitely gives me a sense of relief that it's part of the human experience to be kicked down repeatedly.

CNN: Give me a few words about each person you worked with on this film:

Denis Leary --

BC: Ass. No, that's not right. Um .... um .... buxom. That's better.

CNN: Jack Black --

BC: Um ... (laughs) ... Hilarious.

CNN: Holly Hunter --

BC: One of the best actors that I've ever seen.

CNN: Alison Maclean --

BC: Lovely ... person.

CNN: Samantha Morton --

BC: Oh ... (11-second pause) ... Full of life. She is insane. She's so good. It's the kind of thing that pisses me off, because I went to graduate school for three years -- got my master's in this -- and I have to work my butt off to do what she does with such incredible charisma. The thing that impressed me most about her was her discipline. She takes it very seriously. She believes that it's important to do complete and competent work for your character's sake. She was relentless in the pursuit of that. It's really important in a collaborative work experience to be with people who inspire you and are that disciplined, and also that good.

CNN: What is the oddest job you've ever had?

BC: The oddest job I've ever had. I think acting is pretty freaking odd. Sometimes I catch myself in the middle of a scene and I have to take a moment to try to evaluate what I'm doing with my life exactly. There are 40 people standing around looking at me, all trying to make this camera work so they can take picture of me stumbling through a yard.

CNN: If Jesus' Son were actually walking on Earth, would he smoke like your character did?

BC: I can explain it this way. At the Venice Film Festival, we received the Ecumenical Award, which is given by a commission of priests which sees films at the Cannes festival, the Venice festival and the Berlin festival, and they give the award to the most inspiring story. Our producer, Elizabeth Cuthrell, was astonished and awed that we received that award and went to the head of the committee and said, 'I'm thrilled about this. Can you please tell me why you all decided to give us this award?' And he said, 'Well, the message that we try to deliver is that everyone has frailties, and everyone makes mistakes and that the mortal obligation is to persevere through those.' So it seems to me that's a pretty apt description of who this character is and what the movie is about.

CNN: So that's a pretty good question that I asked. I was just trying to be funny.

BC: And I take everything so seriously!

CNN: You've starred in a number of movies set in the 1970s.

BC: Actually, they're all '73, '74.

CNN: Do you have a special fondness for that time?

BC: I think it's just that my acting is 30 years behind the times. It's very good if we're somewhere in the '70s. But if we try to bring it up to date, try to do something contemporary, it'll just seem archaic.

CNN: Do you have a career plan that you're following?

BC: The only thing I have ever felt was that I wanted to look back on my life in 40 or 50 years and be able to justify artistically each of the things I've done. That is to say, I don't want to look back and say, 'Well I needed to do that because it was a good career move,' or, 'I needed to do that because I needed some money.' I want to be able to say, 'I needed to do that movie because, of the opportunities that were given me at that time, this one had the best chance to provoke thought or inspire feelings or tell a dynamic story.' That's the only thing I try to focus on.

CNN: Did you enjoy working with Cameron Crowe on the movie that premieres this fall?

BC: He's great. But you feel sort of shamed around him, because I think of myself as a fan of music, and I would say that if I had to find a genre that really appeals to me it would be classic rock. So I tried to bond with Cameron by talking about Zeppelin or the Allman Brothers Band, or whoever. I'd say, 'Oh, that's a great track.' And he'd tell me everything about the album, how it came to be, why Jimmy Page wrote that lick, what it was like with them when he wrote it, because he was on tour with them! You feel utterly shamed. I'm a neophyte in the company of Cameron.

CNN: What are you going to do for your birthday tomorrow?

BC: Play golf.

CNN: No ... really? Are you a golfer?

BC: I am. Unfortunately, it's a reflection of me getting older.

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'Jesus' Son'

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