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No copyright infringement is intended. InsomniacFreak thanks
Catherine at Tobey Maguire Sur La Toile for contributing this
article to MMC's archives.
David A. Keeps: You don't have a police record, a band, a
tattoo, or a piercing. What kind of young actor are you?
Tobey Maguire: I am a blank slate - therefore I can create
anything I want.
DK: After playing a kid in the 50's in This Boy's Life,
and a kid in the 60's in the Oscar-nominated short The Duke of
Groove, you created the archetypal angst suburban teen of the 70's
in The Ice Storm. What's your take on the 70's?
TM: I like the movies and the music a lot. It was a
really raw time. Movies like Network were really the core of what
people were feeling then - they were really pissed off or just
wanted to be truthful. Even Jethro Tull - you can understand what
that guy's saying with his dumb flute, 'cause it feels so raw and
organic.
DK: You realized a young actor's dream: a cameo in the
upcoming Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
TM: I play this really weird hitchhiker who has long
blond hair. They bleached my eyebrows for it, and they had to make
me completely bald and put a wig on.
DK: How far would you go for a role? Would you go the
full monty?
TM: If I was so inspired, if I thought it needed to be
in there to be effective. Like Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant -
that was ill-willy.
DK: What wouldn't you do for a movie?
TM: Smoke cigarettes. I've been off for like two and a
half years. I haven't been chewing gum for a couple days now and I'm
off coffee for about three days.
DK: So you're completely vice free?
TM: I wouldn't say that. I would say that I'm doing my
best and the road gets narrower, but you can always switch seats on
the Titanic - there's trillions of vices. I've been curious about
certain things, but didn't let them get in the way of my life. I
don't know how people become successful with some kind of habit.
DK: Is your theatricality the result of nature or
nurture?
TM: My mom wanted to be an actress, so she figured her
son could be one for her. She said she'd give me \$100 to take drama
instead of home ec - I wanted to be a cook like my pops.
DK: And you ended up doing McDonald's ads.
TM: I started working around eighth grade. I remember
doing a Doritos commercial where there were four days in a row of
eating them, and I will tell you, I have not eaten many Doritos
since. My first big break was two lines on a Rodney Dangerfield
special that got me into the union.
DK: At seventeen you had your own sitcom.
TM: "Great Scott!" We shot thirteen episodes, and six
of them aired. And we were on Fox up against "60 Minutes". (Laughs.)
So we had a really good shot.
DK: Are you a happy person?
TM: This is interesting to me: On one hand you have
just feeling happy: I don't mean, like, laughing and giddy, but
feeling light, like you're free. And on the other hand, you have
murky discomfort, whiny self-pity. And I personally know the steps
to get to both. For some reason the majority of the time I think I
choose Door No. 2 - the dark, uncomfortable, familiar territory.
When I'm being inappropriately rude or trying to manipulate
somebody, I know it. So what's up with the ego? Why can't I stop
myself and just say "Sorry, here's the truth." I mean, do I get to
look forward to that in my life?
DK: If you can get over yourself. What makes you tick?
TM: All the people throughout my life who were
naysayers pissed me off. But they've all given me a fervor; an angry
ambition that cannot be stopped - and (laughs) I look forward to
finding a therapist and working on that.
© David A. Keeps, Details 1998 |
