Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walkenis an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 films and television shows, including Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Dogs of War, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, Batman Returns, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Sleepy Hollow, Catch Me If You Can, Hairspray, Seven Psychopaths, and the first three Prophecy films, as well as music videos by many popular recording artists. Walken has received a number of awards and nominations during his career, including winning...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth31 March 1943
CityAstoria, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I feel like you are this or that because other people say so. I wouldn't know how to play a psychopath. I don't think about it that way. You think about playing the scene but if the other people say that guy is crazy, then you are.
To be honest, I was never very ambitious. And I still am not.
Also, I think there are huge reactions sometimes, which are also mysterious.
I grew up listening to people speaking broken English. I probably picked that up. And I probably speak English almost as a second language.
In my personal life I'm very conservative. I've been married to the same person for nearly 50 years, I'm scrupulous about paying bills, avoiding debt. I'm very careful. But as an actor I'm pretty reckless. I've done a lot of things that, when I see myself on screen, I have to shut my eyes. And I've made a whole bunch of movies that nobody sees, including me.
I play disturbed people a lot, but always with a bit of distance or tongue-in-cheek. Most of the villains I play are essentially harmless.
I used to love Danish. My father used to make a Boston cream pie. You never see that anymore.
I have always refused to do something that has offended me. I have been offered potential roles that are totally vulgar.
There are movies that I've made where I thought I was going to be good, but when it was cut it together it wasn't. And there are a lot of movies that, for one reason or another, just don't become popular. So to me it's always been a little bit of a roll of the dice. That's the way it goes.
There probably aren't a lot of actors my age who tap dance.
They have a kind of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby thing going on.
Onstage I have a natural chutzpa that audiences like. I'm out there.
People come up to me all the time in New York. Not for autographs, but to talk about movies, often in a very scientific way.
There's an impression that actors make a lot of choices. I just take what's there.