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Back With A Vengeance

Kill Bill Volume 2 picks up exactly where vol. 1 left off. Having dispatched Lucy Liu and Vivica A Fox at the end of the last film, The Bride (Uma Thurman) is now after the two remaining killers from the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who nearly killed her six years before on Bill’s orders – Budd (Madsen) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah)– before she moves onto Bill himself (David Carradine).

“Vol 2 is my modern-day Spaghetti Western with Asian film overtones”, says director Tarantino. It’s true that if Vol 1 was his tribute to his beloved chop-soccy flicks of his teenage past. Vol 2, which was filmed in America, Mexico and China, is his love letter to the blood-drenched films of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood.

And, as Carradine notes, “The Second one has got a lot more of what you’re used to from Quentin: the quirky character stuff, the surprises, the funny stuff”.

If anyone was missing the trademark Tarantino dialogue that was conspicuous by its absence in Vol. 1, they will find it by the bucket load in Vol. 2. But of course, there’s no toning down of the violence, oh no. “It’s not bloody like Vol. 1”, says Thurman, who worked with Tarantino in Pulp Fiction, “but you could say it’s a lot more brutal! I take some real beatings!”

Of course, the big reveal of Vol 2 is the enigmatic Bill, who was heard but not seen in Vol. 1, where he had a sinister presence with a baritone voice.

Originally the role was meant for Warren Beatty, but scheduling problems meant that the part eventually went to David Carradine (star of the 70s TV show Kung Fu) and it’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role now.

“Bill is more fun than anything to play,” Carradine says, “he has virtually no human problems. He’s just kind of put himself above it all.”

Vol. 2 gives us, for the first time, a full account of the wedding massacre. It begins with Bill’s deceptively serene introduction, a romantic reunion with the bride. “This scene just sings,” admits Carradine. “The crew got choked up watching it. Quentin came over and said to me: ‘ I think this is the best scene in the picture for you’. I said, “I think it’s the best scene of my career’”.

With news that the genre-savvy Tarantino plans to weld the two films together someday soon for as giant, four hour choc-soc epic and rumours of an animated spin-off, it's clear we haven't heard the last of Kill Bill yet. "When you put the two parts of the movie together," Carradine says, "it really is an epic, as big as all the stuff that David Lean did. It's still Quentin Tarantino world, but on a bigger scale."

Available to rent or buy at Blockbuster from the 16th August.

INTERVIEW WITH David Carradine (Bill)

Kill Bill 2 has been hailed as your comeback?

“ I hate that word. Harvey Weinstein called it a `renaissance' and told me, just you wait till October, or April as it's turned out, then as he left the room he turned round and said `I just hope you remember my name'. So that kind of approbation from Harvey and Quentin and then approbations that I have received in the six cities that I have done this tour so far, I guess I have to believe it. The only thing that surprised me, I knew something like this was going to happen eventually, but I really didn't think I'd be claiming Social Security before it came along! ”

What about working with Quentin Tarantino?

“ He is so much fun; and he's having so much fun, it's a much fun as a barrel of monkeys, in fact it is a barrel of monkeys! It's difficult to stop and talk to Quentin, whether he's shooting or not, it's like talking to a runaway train because he's always so many places at once, so when he starts to focus on you and directs you, it's really a privilege because you actually get a one-on-one with him. A good director generally doesn't tell an actor how to act, most of the time when they do it doesn't help, quite the reverse. I'm reminded of a story of Michael Caine once asked John Houston `You're not telling me anything, why don't you tell me anything' and Houston replied `Well when you cast it right, you don't need to' and that is the truth with most directors but Quentin was able to show me things that ignited me, and he whispers, so nobody else knows what he's saying, he could be saying how wonderful you are or telling you not to do it like that again, it's a conspiracy. I tried to find a metaphor of what it was like for me working with Quentin, he found in the cellar a vintage bottle of champagne all covered in dust. He took it out, polished it and maybe even shook it a bit, and then popped the cork and out came this thing, that I don't think I've ever accomplished before, after 40 years in the business and 102 feature movies and God knows how much television, and 35 plays including 11 Shakespearean plays I thought there was nothing else I could do to go forward put he got me to push yet another envelope. At this moment, and I don't think it's a Summer romance, he's my favourite director. ”

Did you have any doubts that you still had it in you?

“ I couldn't have proceeded during any one of those 40 years if I didn't always think I'm the best there is, I might have even created that for myself because that's how you do it. Years and years ago when I was doing a play called The Royal Hunt Of The Sun and Peter Schaffer told me I was the actor of my generation and I thought `Ok, that sounds pretty good' and he also told me `stay away from television' which of course I didn't do, no I've never had any doubts, not in my abilities so much as my destiny. That's the way I've always thought about it. It's going to happen. I liked what I did in this picture because I'm not doing an accent, I'm not doing a funny walk, I'm not pretending to be anyone other than who I am, but for the fact that I'm not a serial assassin, but I can sure get behind Bill being pissed off about this woman leaving him and marrying an El Paso nerd and apparently having his baby, by the time she tells me it's mine I've already pulled the trigger, that would kind of pi** me off. Approaching a character like this, when people say I'm the villain of the piece, and I have to answer and say `Look, there are no good guys in a Quentin Tarrantino film'. Everybody has an agenda, I even wonder about BB, going around stomping goldfish is a rough start, but when you approach a villain, if you want to call him that, you have to approach it from his point of view. From his point of view he's not the villain, he's the man and everything with him is justified, so you have to look at it that way. ”

Is it true that Quentin raided your wardrobe?

“ They came to my house and raided my closet. They took 96 items, swords, cigar case, my artwork, even pieces of furniture, as it turned out though very few of them were used because the original idea was that Bill would live in a villa surrounded by bodyguards but Quentin decided that if this guy is an international assassin he's got to be on the move all the time, so what I lived in instead was the most extravagant hotel suit on the planet so it would not be my own things, so very few of my own effects were eventually used, but they did things like the let me wear my own ring, which is pretty much all you see of me in part one, and the boots are mine, it's my jewellery, my watch, they almost used my car, part of that is because I've got a lot of good shi** and partly because of Quentin's determination to let the character be as comfortably me as possible and he took that to an almost ridiculous extent. One of the nice things about it was that all the stuff they took, I got back doubles and triples of it because they have to copy everything for the movie. ”

What about claims that the movie is too violent?

“ I love violent, sexy movies. Censorship is really a dangerous thing and I think we make too many rules, the safety police are after us on everything we do. I don't know what it's like over here but in the United States they are telling you about a lot of things that can only effect just you, you don't have a right to make your own decisions about whether you want to risk yourself and I don't think that's right. I think we've got the cause and effect mixed up. Art is an effect of society, not a cause of it, and if you think there are too many violent movies you should start educating your kids differently. That's what these violent movies are reflecting: it's a really violent society, and if you make a movie that way it becomes realistic. Art tends to be an exaggeration. So if we have a violent society, and we are certainly living in enormously violent and scary times so you're going to see movies like that. The only way you can get out of that is to put a limit on creativity and I'd be looking to emigrate to Mars if that was imposed on me. ”

Did you have any injuries?

“ I can't remember a film in which I haven't hurt myself in some way, sometimes seriously - not that seriously obviously because I'm sitting here - and I got cut in the sword fight that I have with Chia, which is not in the picture but is going to be in the DVD they tell me, and I've actually seen a still in which you can see the blood on the shirt and it was on a take. Believe it or not, being an actor film or stage actor can be a dangerous business. ”

David Carradine Filmography

INTERVIEW WITH Daryl Hannah (Elle Driver)

How was the big fight scene with Uma?

“ It was initially planned to be a duel in the desert where we stand back to back, walk a few paces take a stance that sort of thing. Then Quentin changed his mind and decided he wanted to do it in the trailer. I was worried that he had gone so over schedule in China that he had decided to cut my scene all together or down to nothing. But I guess he had been inspired by War of The Gargantuans and the idea of Godzilla and his brothers smashing up Tokyo and us smashing up the trailer like that. He also wanted the grossness of Jackass. That kind of stupid funniness. ”

Did you get hurt?

“ First of all I had to do like a jump and somersault over the kitchen counter and it was a real kitchen counter. It didn't move. So occasionally during the take if I was a little tired because I was wearing my shoes and not my sneakers - it is easier to jump with them on. My thighs were black and blue from my hips to my knees. I would hit the edge of the table and scrape all the way down. But mainly my injuries were not so bad from the rest of the fight other than the bathroom stuff. Most of my injuries came from that because it was not choreographed. I just went for it. ”

Who would win in a real fight you or Uma?

“ Me! No question. I am more athletically inclined. (Does she agree with that?) Who cares! ”

What injuries happened in the bathroom fight?

“ I couldn't see. I had a patch over one eye and guts over the other. So I really was blind. We did not have a plan for what was going to happen in that room and I just decided to go nuts because I thought it would make Quentin laugh. And it did. The toilet and sink were real and so I knocked the toilet off the wall, the mirror came down on my head, I broke the toilet in half and the shower pole came down on me. I put my head through the wall. It was not pretty. So I was bleeding and bruised. Nothing permanent though I still see a shadow of a bruise a sort of stain on my left arm a year later. There was no way to be protected or padded. I figured it was worth it because it was funny. ”

Afterwards you couldn't go sunbathing because you would have looked as though you'd been abused?

“ I know it's true. ”

Had you always wanted to work with Quentin Tarantino?

“ It is probably a fantasy of most actors that they get to work with him. There are a handful of directors that people want to work with. Quentin has had such an indelible impact on cinema. I have been a fan of his for a long time. When I read the script of Pulp Fiction I laughed out loud so many times and I don't generally laugh out loud when I read a screenplay. I think he is so clever and original because it is the love that he has of all movies that bursts through and shows itself on the screen. ”

How was the shoot in China?

“ It was so cool. I only shot one day but I trained there for a month and a half. It was fascinating. I went exploring by myself. I have a friend who was born in China she escaped during the cultural revolution and was living in Hong Kong she came and showed me around. That was when I saw the cool stuff and got into people's homes and have a traditional tea service, saw real Chinese dumpling houses. We asked each other questions and I saw what is being buried by McDonalds and Starbucks. ”

Are you annoyed by sex symbol image?

“ It is so annoying for some reason they have chosen a cartoon character of me that I don't know where it came from other than the colour of my hair. It has nothing to do with my real life or personality. I have learned you can't do anything about it but can't let it bother you or ruin your day. I get annoyed every once in a while. They did something on E! a true Hollywood Story which is really a Bullsh** Hollywood Story nobody I know talked to them and their information is so wrong it is not funny. You have to let it go and do what you care about? ”

What about doing Playboy?

“ That was an incredibly creative endeavour but was not presented as such because we were supposed to have control over the images and we shot the coolest pictures. There was no below the waist nudity. We did crazy punk circus girl shots of me on a tattooed horse with a Mohawk thing with a giant Afro as a butterfly. Cool and unusual images but Playboy ended up printing only the blonde pictures even ones we had not approved. I was furious. I would be in a law suit if I had the money to fight Playboy. But I don't want to spend years and millions of dollars suing them. Ultimately what they wanted was a blonde chick naked. I figured since they said I had approval it would be ok. ”

Was it a statement of still being sexy when you are over 20?

“ I am not so concerned about that. I feel fine and I don't really think about it ever except when I wake up and think oh I look like shit today. Otherwise I feel pretty much the same as I always have. It's more other people's concept that age is a big issue. In Hollywood age means you get relegated to playing moms ex-wives or something. Look at some of our greatest actresses Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange who only occasionally get a great role. ”

You've played weird characters any favourite?

“ So many different elements go into choosing a part. What doesn't sound fun about playing a mermaid or Blade Runner or a villain. All those characters are fun and the more different they are the better for me. Sometimes I play a character because I want to work with someone. I did the Grumpy Old Men thing because I wanted to work with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. And I'm so glad I did because I loved those guys. I got to be friends with them. I have a bunch of favourites. Blade Runner is one of my favourite characters. Elle Driver is definitely a favourite. I loved the character from Steel Magnolias. She was great to inhabit. ”

Daryl Hannah Filmography

Kill Bill - Vol. 2

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