Interview

Christopher Reeve

Super Chat with Sharon Hammond

ANDY WARHOL: We brought Sharon along for the soap opera freaks.

SHARON HAMMOND: I was your biggest fan when you were on Love of Life. I was telling Andy all about Betsy and Arlene and Meg.... You really handled everybody on that show.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: Thank you. It was a fun character to play.

AW: You've got a new nose. I've never seen anybody with a nose like yours -

SHARON: He's always had it. The only thing that's different is his hair color.

CHRIS: They're bringing back the Roman style.

AW: It's not Roman.... It's really unusual. It's a great nose. Did you build up your body for the picture?

CHRIS: I did some pretty intensive weight training, but we decided early on not to make Superman musclebound.

SHARON: I just like them in the arms.

AW: Did they pad you out in front so they wouldn't show your sex? Why do they do that anyway?

CHRIS: I don't know; maybe the kids can't take it or something. But there's nothing specific there; it's definitely not graphic. Everyone seems to be a bit more comfortable that way.

SHARON: Is your costume the same?

CHRIS: It's the traditional costume, updated a bit. The fabrics are more modern.

SHARON: Will they be making another Superman TV series?

CHRIS: I shudder to think of it. I wouldn't even begin to contemplate such a thing. Hopefully they can do it without me.

SHARON: Do you think you'll be sick of Superman by then?

CHRIS: I guarantee it. The next film, play or whatever I do I'll have to pick very carefully, so I can break the image right away. I don't want to seem ungrateful - it's a terrific part - but I've put a lot of time into acting and I don't want to stop with Superman.

SHARON: Are you planning to do any more theater?

CHRIS: Oh, I'd like to do theater again as soon as possible. I was just beginning to get somewhere on stage when this came up, and I was yanked right out of it. I did a play with Katharine Hepburn, A Matter of Gravity, which was a good experience personally, though the play didn't turn out to be what it should have been. It's about an old woman and her grandson, whom I played. We did six months on the road and three in New York. It was fabulous working opposite her.

AW: I saw that. You were great.

SHARON: Was she easy or difficult to work with?

CHRIS: Katharine Hepburn has a lot to deal with - she's not very well, and there are always a lot of doctors, and then there's the tension which comes from having to be Katharine Hepburn, with all the expectations attached to everything you say or do. That takes its toll.

SHARON: Would you like to be that famous?

CHRIS: I'm not terribly concerned about fame. I think one's work should stand for itself.

SHARON: How old are you?

CHRIS: Twenty-four.

SHARON: Did they tell you why you were picked for Superman?

CHRIS: No. People were up for a lot of different reasons - some thought it was camp, a spoof, a parody, or something like that, which it's not. Others were legitimately up for it, but just weren't right for the part. Now James Caan, who's a wonderful actor, couldn't play Superman in a million years. If you put him in a leotard and red boots and had him flying around, he'd be laughed right off the screen. You've got to have somebody whose face is not going to expose a lot, who'll arouse curiosity in the audience, and who can be made to look like the image that has developed over the last forty years. Ninety percent of why I have the part is because when the makeup is done, I look like I walked right out of the comic book. The other ten percent, I hope, is my acting ability.

AW: Is Lois Lane's romance with Clark or with Superman?

CHRIS: With Superman. It's always been that way. I think our audience is going to come from two or three different generations. The character has been around for forty years, so there are people who remember him from their own childhood and are going to be curious as to how it's being done today. Then there are people who are reading the comics now. You can go down to the corner newsstand today and this month's issue of Superman is right there. So there's a built-in audience worldwide of millions and millions of people, each liking him for different reasons. But I think the central appeal of Superman, the reason he's lasted for forty years, the reason a movie of this size can safely be made today, is because of the split personality. It's a Walter Mitty kind of thing that has always caught people's imaginations - on one hand a bumbler, a schlepper who can't really cross the street by himself, and on the other hand the man who can take charge and solve the world's problems.

AW: Does Superman have brown eyes or blue eyes?

CHRIS: Blue. Thanks to Stuart Freeborn, who is the best makeup artist in the business, the difference in mental composition really comes out. There's an intensity to a clear person, and Superman doesn't have a lot of garbage floating around in his head. The issues in life are pretty clear to him and he knows where he stands.

AW: How much did this movie cost?

CHRIS: A lot. Thirty million dollars.

SHARON: Did you have to do a lot of action stuff?

CHRIS: Well, I've been shot by machine guns, walked through fire, flown five or six times, pulled cats out of trees....

AW: Superman on TV doesn't do any of that. He just flies.

CHRIS: Yeah. He lies on a table in a wind tunnel, and the music goes "dah-ta-da-dah."

SHARON: Did you have to jump off things?

CHRIS: No, but there's one funny bit where I see there's trouble outside the Daily Planet building. I'm Clark Kent, so I throw a few furtive looks around, whip off the glasses, pull up the shade and go right out the window. Before I hit the ground I'm Superman. You know how I get rid of the Clark Kent clothes? I squash them to the size of an aspirin; they're like dehydrated food.

SHARON: Andy thinks the next trend will be paint-on clothes.

CHRIS: What I didn't know when I started is that Superman supposedly has his costume on all the time, underneath his clothes. I couldn't figure out what he did with the cape, but we've worked that out.

AW: How does he go to the bathroom?

CHRIS: Well no, I mean...

AW: That's why comic book heroes are great. They don't have to go to the bathroom.