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By Root 684 0

on the door and say, “They really want you.” I’d stumble out and do something and then go back to sleep. I kept thinking to myself, “Ten days ago I was up there working with the high lamas in a gompa, and here I am removing ghosts from drugstores and painting slime on my body.” It was kind of tough to get into it for about a month. I thought, “What the hell am I doing here?” I mean, you’d look around on the set in Ladakh, and there were thirty-five monks looking at you, just looking at you. And you realized that they were looking for a reason. It was a reminder all the time. A reminder that you’re a man and you’re going to die, so you’d better not waste this time here. So when I got to New York, I would be sitting there looking across the street, and there’d be the entire staff of Diana Ross Productions waving out of the window, then coming over to get autographs. That was the first day on the job. All of a sudden, it was like a whole different world. But after a while it became nice, working on the movie, and I sort of got into the rhythm of Hollywood again, as opposed to Ladakh. It was fun being with Dan and Harold Ramis. Acting-wise, they’re fantastic. But also, they’re very much aware of the situation, that you are just a guy, and then for thirty seconds or a minute and a half, you’re a movie star, and then you’re a guy again. And then you’re a movie star again. They know the difference, and they see the hilarious things that are happening all around, while you’re supposedly being a movie star.

Had you had time to think about your part in ‘Ghostbusters’ at all? I mean, there you were, wham, off the ‘Concorde’ onto the set.

Not a bit. I just did it. Harold and Dan wrote the script. Wherever there wasn’t a line, they’d say, “Well, we gotta have a line here.” We just made stuff up. When I saw the movie the other night, I realized more of it was improvised than I thought. Especially the action stuff.

I’d never worked on a movie where the script was good. Stripes and Meatballs, we rewrote the script every single day. I think most movie actors change their lines nowadays. I didn’t use to think so. Then I worked for Dustin Hoffman [in Tootsie]. Dustin changed all his lines a lot of the time. He gave a different performance every single take. He shot five different movies. Even if he didn’t change the lines, he would change the meaning. How they cut that movie, I don’t know. I think it’s the only way to work. I don’t believe that you can give the same performance every take. It’s physically impossible, so why bother? If you don’t do what is happening at that moment, then it’s not real. Then you’re holding something back.

Are you fed up with comedy?

I think all the comedies that we all do, they all get better. And even though they’re not perfect or maybe silly to some people, we learn each time about how to do it. People don’t expect master carpenters to get it right after they do six chairs, and we’ve only done six movies. You’ve got to do a lot of them, and it takes time, there’s just so much pressure because the money is so big. There’s only so many movies made a week. I mean, in the old days, I would have made fifty-five movies by now, and I’d have worked with a lot of people and learned a lot. As it is, I’ve worked with six directors, seven directors, eight directors, something like that. You know, that’s peanuts compared to what the old guys did. And I’d like to work with a lot more actors, too, though it’s the directors that really teach you something, and cinematographers. Those are the guys that know. There’s like a pure knowledge there; there’s no clowning around. They either know it or they don’t. You can’t lie about it.

Are you expecting to do more serious parts in the future? Does that depend on whether ‘The Razor’s Edge’ is a success?

Well, to a certain extent, it does depend on whether The Razor’s Edge is a success or a failure, because if directors see it and they say, “That guy can act a little,” then I’ll get offered jobs from serious directors. As it is now, I’m in the phone book under