MovieChat Forums > Crimewave (1986) Discussion > Interesting interview with late great Br...

Interesting interview with late great Brion James...

posted 19 years ago by KnatLouie
4 replies | jump to latest

I found this on his website, in an interview by Louis Paul, August 1999:

LP: What do you remember about CRIMEWAVE, the Sam Raimi film?

BJ: I was out of my mind on drugs. I got sober not long after that.

LP: That was the film where you had the weasel-like voice ...

BJ: I was the rat man. So, I played it like a rat, I moved like a rat, and did something with my voice a little bit. I took over a lot of Paul Smith's scenes. They didn't really like the way he did them, so they asked me and I said O.K. So, I did the scenes and I made them funnier.

LP: That was a very physical film for you as well...

BJ: Yes, very. Three months in Detroit, which was where we were. Murder City. I was really sick, I was doing a lot of drugs, but I told Sam Raimi, put me on, but don't say cut ... let me go. He did and I went and basically I had the show. At that point, which came after BLADE RUNNER, they put me on a blacklist, because I wouldn't be in the union, and when I came up for that, they said you can't do the movie. They said "we've got to have Brion James". They said "no, he's not working for us." Finally, they said "look, he's the only guy we want". They said "fine you can have him, but we're not paying our part". So, they paid they're part I worked like ten weeks and twenty-five hundred. You know they say, don't make waves, so I learned my lesson.

LP: Don't make waves...

BJ: Yeah, well that's what they do. So I didn't want to make waves, and I didn't want any more troubles.

[–] Grimaceisbest 19 years ago

That's interesting... I was just reading Bruce Campbell's book, "If Chins Could Kill", and there's a section on Crimewave in which he remarks that there was an actor named Brion who did a lot of cocaine and destroyed a hotel room.

I figured it was Brion James, just came here to check. Got an interview too.

[–] KnatLouie 19 years ago

lol, really? That sounds pretty funny, I would love to read Campbell's book sometime. But it's only available if you own a credit-card I guess, so I'll have to wait.

How many actors named "Brion" are there anyway? :oP

You've got an interview? Show it!

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] x1nd0lent 18 years ago

Yikes. I saw an excellent interview with Brion James years ago. He was talking about how his method acting was so subjectively intense for him, that there were often times when it'd take him weeks or months to get himself out of a role he built up. Now can you imagine hanging with Brion in real life, with him stuck as Arthur the Rat Man. Doing lots of coke with him and having him freaking out in that voice, wrecking the place? What a freakshow that must have been!