David Carradine on kung fu, Bob Dylan, and sex: A never-before-published Q&A

Jun 16, 2009, 10:43 AM | by Clark Collis

Categories: Film, News

In 2003, just before the release of the first Kill Bill movie, I conducted a
phone interview with David Carradine, who played the eponymous assassin in
Quentin Tarantino's martial arts duo-logy. Only a tiny sliver of that
conversation has ever seen the light of day. Carradine, of course, died in
Bangkok earlier this month at the age of 72 in circumstances that remain
mysterious. For what it's worth, as the interview repeatedly makes clear, the
actor was someone with a tremendous zest for life, if also for life's wilder
paths.

And so, here's the late David Carradine on taking a martial arts class with Bob
Dylan, acting in drag, and almost dying on peyote.

CLARK COLLIS: The Kill Bill premiere took place last night. How did that go?
DAVID CARRADINE: Just great. I think everybody loved it.

It's quite an extreme experience. Did anyone throw up?
Actually, one of the female members of the Carradine clan said she was a little
nauseated at the end of it. But she also loved it. So even when they get sick
they like it. And that's Tarantino, isn't it?

You've worked with some great directors. Where would you rank Mr. Tarantino?
Well, at this moment, at the very top. His movies are the absolute cutting edge.
With Pulp Fiction, it seems to me, he redefined everything that we think about
movies and directors. And he managed to do it again with this picture.

How did you get along with your Kill Bill costar Michael Madsen? In many ways
you two seem cut from the same cloth.
In a lot of ways actually. Oh, we fell in love. Michael is a rough and tough
guy. Probably rougher and tougher than I am. And that's saying a lot. But at the
same time he's a poet, and a lover of art, and a very caring person. Yeah, we
just absolutely fell in love, that's all there is to it. He's definitely going
to be a very close friend of mine for the rest of my life. I wish I'd met him
earlier.



You had an extensive physical training period before filming began?
Three months, yeah.

But you were already proficient in various forms of marital arts?
Oh yeah. I'm proficient in just about any one of these things. Samurai swords I
had not had any particular experience with. But I was a fencer. I did
Shakespearean plays. You have to be a fencer. I'd never done wire work, and that
was a lot of fun. It's painful. I probably have scars on my back that won't go
away, because it bites. But, you know, you're flying through the air swinging a
samurai sword. You're willing to put up with a lot to do that.

Your 1995 autobiography Endless Highway is a hugely entertaining read. At one
point you describe being pecked in the balls by a parrot, Then, on another
occasion, a huge dog bites your penis. What is the appeal of the Carradine
nether regions to the animal kingdom?
Fortunately, it was just a gesture on the dog's part. He wasn't really trying to
bite it off, he was just trying to show me who's boss.

And then you punched him?
Yeah.

There just seems to be a bit of a theme with animals and your unmentionables.
Well, twice in 66 years…. But part of that I think is the fact I've spent a lot
of time in a lot of dangerous positions and situations. I don't know if you've
gotten that far in the book, but I had my nether regions blown up on a set once.

I was going to ask about that. You shot yourself in the groin?
Yeah, I shot myself. But another time when I was standing on top of a movie
explosion and it went off. It hurt. It hurt for a while.

You've made over 100 movies. What's the weirdest film you've ever been involved
in?
Probably the weirdest was a movie that was called Natural Selection. They
changed the title to...uh...I can't remember.... It's Monster something....
Monster Chase? Monster Killer? Monster Detective? [The film was actually called
The Monster Hunter.] I play a detective who is famous for tracking down serial
killers. It's a comedy. Mike Bowen, my little brother, plays the serial killer,
which is why I did it in the first place. Like I say, it's a comedy and the
serial killer detective is a lot crazier than the serial killer. It's completely
goonie. It's probably the most bizarre performance I've ever given. Unless you
want to talk about Sonny Boy.

That was a movie in which you acted in drag. Tarantino has said that is one of
his favorite performances of yours...
Well, it would be, yeah.

...although he's still not sure whether you're playing a woman or a man.
That's the idea. You can't figure it out. And I probably shouldn't tell. It's a
very strange movie. It's violent, it's perverted, it's really perverted, and at
the same time it's sweet, it's romantic, and it's funny as hell. It's the most
amazing combination of stuff. Just really kinky and weird.

You originally learned how to fight in prison?
No, in reform school. I've never been in prison. I've been in jail a lot. But
I've never actually been sentenced to anything.

Why were you in reform school?
I was a truant. And if you're a truant in New York City, the truant officer gets
after you and then you get into the courts and then things happen which they
really shouldn't. But I ended up in a very sweet reform school. It's the place
you go to if you've got a really kind judge. It's literally there for
rehabilitation. It's not there to punish people. That was quite a trip.

Is it true that you taught Bob Dylan kung fu?
Yeah, well, briefly. He didn't stick with it. And I didn't actually teach him. I
got him to get into a little class which consisted of me and Bob and I think
maybe one or two of his kids with my own kung fu master.

Was he any good?
He was a natural. But he turned to me and he said, "Is this kung fu?" And I
said, "Well, Bob, you have to get through this to get to it." Kung fu: You've
got to spend your whole life at it before you're kung fu. And I don't think he
wanted to spend his whole life at it. But, yeah, he had potential that's for
sure. He's a boxer you know.

I did not know that.
Yeah. Amateur, of course. He and Quentin used to spar together if you can
imagine that: little tiny Bob and huge Quentin.

Bob Dylan?
Yeah.

Are you pulling my leg?
No, I'm not.

One of the most dramatic parts of your autobiography is when you sever an artery
while doing peyote. Did you learn anything from that experience.
That's a good question. I think I mention in the book how everything changed
from that moment on. But I don't know if I was very volitional about it. You
know, most of the things that have happened in my life have been pretty
arbitrary, I walk into a room and someone hits me with a two-by-four and that
changes my life. I'm not sure what I've learned from anything. I mean, every
minute that I'm alive is a learning experience in some way or another and that
makes for trillions of bits.

You've had a lot of peaks and troughs in your career. Do you still get excited
by making movies?
Oh, every time. Even some of these tiny little exploitation movies. When I'm
making a movie I really am lost in it and the set becomes home to me. And most
of my movies are made on location, so it's just as well because otherwise all
I've got is a hotel room.

You once said in an old interview that your favorite past time was sex?
Well, isn't it everybody's? People just don't say that.

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