Once upon a time in Hollywood, the charismatic heavy with smarts and a heart was a familiar archetype in mainstream cinema — think Robert Mitchum, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, or James Coburn — but the recent passing of Michael Madsen, at the age of 67, could well mark the end of that particular chapter in movie history. Though he made his breakthrough as the psychotic, ear-slicing Mr. Blonde in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs, Madsen was capable of much, much more, although it’s fair to say that only his work with Tarantino ever made the most of that soulful talent. Which other tough guy could have delivered the line, as he did so memorably in Kill Bill Vol. 2, “That woman deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die” and sound like they meant it?
The following interview took place 10 years ago in February, high in the mountains of Telluride during the shoot of The Hateful Eight, Tarantino’s wintry Western with a whodunit twist, in which he played the mysterious Joe Gage. The director had chosen the town in Colorado for its predicted snowfall, but, for quite some time, none came, keeping the crew on their toes.
I met Madsen during a lull in production; though the talk was ostensibly about the film at hand, the actor couldn’t help but digress, at one point welling up behind his rockstar shades as he recalled his early days as an actor, pumping gas for the likes of Warren Beatty, his odd-couple friendship with Sergio Leone, and, after getting a bit too cozy with Tarantino’s laser-like auteur specificity, his fractious interaction with the mainstream film industry.
Parts of this interview have appeared elsewhere, but this is the full exchange, and it’s very revealing, even today. How much of what he says is actually true is hard to prove, and he certainly had his own particular style of self-mythologizing. But then, to quote John Ford’s 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” It’s a reference Madsen would have dug; indeed, just yesterday, he passed into legend himself.
DEADLINE: How did you get involved with The Hateful Eight?
MICHAEL MADSEN: Well, first, I just wanna remember one thing.
DEADLINE: What’s that?
MADSEN: You know, when Budd pulls his sword out [in Kill Bill Vol. 2] it says, “To my brother Budd, the only man that I ever loved.” And I would just like to start by saying that I have that sword. And I would say to Quentin that there should be one that says [the same thing]: “From me to Quentin — the only man I ever loved.” I wanna go on record by saying that.
DEADLINE: This is the third time you’ve worked with Quentin…
Well, it’s actually the fourth. I’d like to say it’s the fourth time, ’cause he cut Hell Ride. You know, Hell Ride wasn’t releasable when they finished that thing. ’Cause various people had had their hands on it. And he took it, and he put it back together like a jigsaw puzzle. And he fixed it. And it’s a much better movie. And I like it a lot. But the reason it’s good is ’cause he cut it.
DEADLINE: Is that the 2008 Larry Bishop movie?
MADSEN: Yeah. So, I think Hateful Eight’s the fourth one, really. To be honest.
DEADLINE: When did you first hear about it?
MADSEN: Well, you know, I was actually sitting with a couple of cops. I was in my house and a handyman that we had had absconded with some things from the house — my wife’s watch and some jewelry. And I when I found out, I basically told the guy that I was going to cause him…
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