Bruce Willis returns to the role that made him a superstar in explosive action thriller Die Hard 4.0. Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius enjoys an audience with the iconic screen hero.
Bruce Willis might be 52 years-old but compared to old school action peers
Sylvester Stallone and
Harrison Ford, both in their sixties and still in the hero business, he's got years of running, jumping, chasing, shooting, blowing stuff up and joking about it left. Revisiting the Die Hard series after a break of 12 years, the bald superstar discusses the path that led to the return of everyman cop John McClane.
"When we started talking about the fourth film we were able to go through the first three and identify the things we wanted, the values and the qualities, and the things that we didn't want," says Willis. "For most people, the
first film has always been the best, the high watermark of what all Die Hards and a lot of action movies should aspire to. But you have to remember the next two films were done when the sequel business was just starting out. Really we were flailing wildly back then. For years I had it in my mind to do another Die Hard, to take another shot at it, but this time to get as close to the first film as possible."
Famously no fan of exercise, Willis had to hit the gym big time for Die Hard 4.0, available now to add to your list. "I've done films where you have to get in shape purely for vanity reasons," says the star. "Like when you read a script that says you'll be ripping your shirt off, you're going to go to the gym the next day because nobody wants to see your big fat ass!
"This film in particular had less to do with vanity though, and more to do with keeping myself strong enough. I started going to the gym three times a week and thought that would be enough. That was when we were shooting in Baltimore, but when we got back to Los Angeles and started on the apartment scene, which involved me jumping up on refrigerators and diving onto the floor and knocking my head onto the steel legs of a cabinet, I had to work out some more to get my muscles strong so my bones wouldn't shatter on the concrete! I'm 52 years old. I'm lazy. I hate working out. I only do it for films and I think of it as work."
Willis admits there were times when he really felt his age, and then some. "It was horrible to make," he says candidly of his fourth Die Hard. "I'm not going to lie to you. I used to bounce off cars a lot easier than I do now. I wish I'd kept a scrapbook because there were a couple of solid weeks where I was just black and blue on both legs and from my hip to my ankle. I got skin taken off of me, got knocked out at one point, got stitches. but I have little souvenirs of all four films, you know. If they're talking about doing another one, though, I'd better hurry up and do it!"
Regardless of the effort, it seems, Willis remains game for more. "It's like women and childbirth. If they remembered how much it hurt, they'd have one kid and that's it. Time goes by and I forget that I was hurt and cranky and irritable and that at 5am I'd get woken up by someone saying: 'Get up, we're going to blow the building up! Get excited about it!' But now I'm very excited about it."
One of the film's most memorable action set-pieces involves an extended, perilous punch-up between Bruce and high-kicking henchwoman
Maggie Q. How did it feel, then, to get beaten up by a woman? "The stuff I did with Maggie was just bananas," remembers Willis with a smile. "First of all, I've never fought a woman in a film before. Second of all, I've never had my ass kicked by a woman in a film before. Third, I've never hit a woman in real life - never have, never will - so it was a peculiar thing. But Maggie brought a believability to it so people will see John McClane getting his ass kicked."
Fans of the original three Die Hards may have noticed a distinct lack of swearing in the cinema cut of the fourth. This was not an accident. "When I did the first Die Hard it was because
Cybill Shepherd got pregnant so I had an extended break from
Moonlighting. When you do TV you can't cuss at all, so all of a sudden I'm able to do this unbridled cussing. I wish that someone had said, 'Maybe we should do one without you saying f*** a thousand times'. But we live in very parochial times right now and those are the rules we have to live by."
Speaking of the times we live in, "In the first three films we had terrorism everywhere," observes Willis, "but that was all pre-9/11. After
9/11 a lot of action movies that dealt with terrorism got put on the shelf. Die Hard 4.0 was probably one of them. So, it was our task in doing another film that still talked about terrorists, not to dishonour the people who lost their lives on 9/11. It was as simple as that and I think we did it. I think it was a unique spin to turn it around and have the United States attacked from the inside by someone who knew the system so well they were able to really go at it and take it down."
Willis credits director
Len Wiseman with ".bringing the Die Hard series into the 21st Century and giving it a really smart, shiny patina of technology. But at the same time having the courage to do old school stunts. It would have been really easy for us to do CGI stunts and while we did have to use some CGI - you're not allowed to fly a jet down the streets of Washington DC - those stunts are real stunts. We flew a real car into a real helicopter and the car you see tumbling at
Justin [Long] and I in the tunnel was a real car."
A twisted tale of internet terrorists and nerdy hacker types, Die Hard 4.0 presents old school copper McClane with multiple modern day challenges. But just how computer literate is Willis himself? "Medium," he admits. "I know how to turn it on. I know where the disk goes: in that little slot, but I can't always get it out. And I have three genius-level computer savvy kids who save my ass all the time. I'll tell you what I don't do. I don't watch the news on TV anymore. I get my news online. And like all of you, I Google whoever I want."
While some actors choose to take advantage of interview situations to air their views on subjects more far-reaching than the movie they're supposed to be promoting, Willis signs off not by attacking the Bush administration, or lecturing about the environment, but bemoaning the stars who do. "I don't think my opinion means jack shit, because I'm an actor. Why do actors think their opinions mean more because you act? You just caught a break as an actor. There are hundreds - thousands - of actors who are just as good as I am, and probably better. Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor's mouth lately?"