The Bill & Ted actor answers your questions about working with Keanu Reeves, whether there will be a fourth instalment and nights out in Brixton with the Death Wish director
You were born in London but grew up in America . When do you feel most British? DonarudoToranpu The UK is still my second home. I’ve worked there a lot as an adult. When I’m back in London, I like walking on Hampstead Heath, so I would say that’s where I feel most at home.
Having played Marko in The Lost Boys and then John Polidori in Haunted Summer , have you been tempted to take on another vampire-related role? And was getting staked to death while you were sleeping a bit of a disappointing end for Marko – what would have been your preferred way of going out in style?
Death by stereo, perhaps? Finbarre and MoreorLesPaul I’d love to do another vampire movie.
I love those characters. They’re interesting and great fun to play.
There are some really good vampire movies – I’m grateful I was in one that has, for some reason that none of us can figure out, really stood the test of time. And I love Marko’s death.
As an actor, the first time you get staked is the most memorable.
Which Keanu Reeves was the most fun to work with: in Waiting for Godot on Broadway ; as Ted “Theodore” Logan to your Bill S Preston, Esq in Bill & Ted ; or as mutant Ortiz the Dog Boy when you directed him in Freaked ? And following Waiting for Godot, what wildly inappropriate classic should Bill & Ted tackle next?
FioreSebek and GunHarp I just love performing with Keanu. The funny thing is we both play bass, so all through the first Bill & Ted, whenever we weren’t shooting, we’d be jamming.
Keanu and I both have theatre backgrounds and have studied Shakespeare, so I’d like to do some Shakespeare, maybe something like Measure for Measure. There’s a few that we’ve discussed.
I’m not sure if we’ll get there, but who knows? Never say never.
My kids ( six and nine) have just discovered Ben 10 in all its incarnations and I saw you directed the live-action versions. If you could choose the powers of any of the aliens in the Omnitrix , which would it be and why?
LethalLiaison Heatblast was my favourite. He’s a powerful fire character.
My children were obsessed with Ben 10 at the time, and we worked on those together, which was something I don’t often get to do, so it was a lovely experience. I met my wife on that project too.
She was running Cartoon Network studios at the time.
Michael Winner directed you in your first film, Death Wish 3 . Say something nice about him – and where did you go out drinking when you were filming it in London?
ExFi and OttoMaddox I can absolutely say something nice about Michael Winner. He was the most erudite sociopath I’ve ever met.
That’s a compliment. We used to drink in Brixton, largely.
One of the people working on the show – I think he may have been involved in some criminal activity, so maybe the less said about him the better – owned a club there. They would close it and we would hang out there all night.
I was 19 when I made Death Wish 3. It was a very fun, formidable summer.
You’ve made documentaries about Napster , the dark web, blockchain and YouTube. Which part of the internet scares you most these days?
Zenchi The hasty, greed-oriented rush into the AI space is the most frightening thing happening right now. That’s not to say all AI is bad, but a lot of the people running the AI companies are very bad.
So what scares me the most is the tech oligarch takeover that’s occurring in so many areas of business, politics and civic culture.
After directing your Frank Zappa documentary , for those, like me, who’ve been immune to his charms, can you recommend a Zappa track or album? HenleyRegatta I didn’t make the doc as a big fan.
I made it because I was very interested in Frank Zappa as a way into looking at American culture and artistic culture. He’s a really good doc subject: someone who decided to live their life in a purely artistic way, and what the consequences of that were.
If you want the quintessential Zappa album – unless you are just never going to like him – it’s impossible not to enjoy Hot Rats. I’m also very partial to the album he made at the very end of his life, The Yellow Shark, which is almost a classical, jazz-oriented album.
The Bill & Ted movies feel like a beautiful, optimistic tribute to the idea that music created by ordinary people will save the world. Do you think it still could? venusdenico I do think that good art will always help the world. It’s not the only thing. But I do think that music and other art forms absolutely help the planet and help humanity.
Thanks for that wonderful ending to Bill & Ted Face the Music . Will there be a Bill & Ted 4 ? brucevayne1000 Keanu and I would love to make a fourth movie.
I think the stars have to align in a number of areas for that to happen. But we love playing these characters.
We kind of are Bill and Ted. We started playing the characters so young, I don’t really think they exist without us.
We defined the characters from the very beginning, so I don’t think it really matters how old we are. It becomes a question of how long can you act, and I think one can act until one is no longer breathing.
I really hope they don’t do a reboot. I don’t really want anyone else to play Bill, because I am Bill.
That would be a disaster.
If you had access to Bill & Ted’s phone booth, which non-bogus historical figures would you visit? TeeDubyaBee I would like to go back to ancient Greece.
I would love to meet Euripides or Aeschylus. Or go to Shakespeare’s time.
The future too. What is going to happen?
Will there be a planet? I’d be curious to go 40 or 50 years into the future and have a look at whether we pulled ourselves out of this climate disaster we’re falling into, which I believe we will.
I’m not a nihilist. But I’d be curious to see how we did it.
If you could “melvin” anyone in real life – as Bill & Ted do to Death in Bogus Journey – who would it be? Dr_J_A_Zoidberg I grew up in the US, and I did not grow up with “melvin”.
I grew up with “wedgie”. It must be a coastal thing.
Maybe on the west coast they say “melvin”? In the midwest and the east coast they definitely say wedgie.
Anyway, who would I most like to melvin or wedgie? Elon Musk.