The Michigan Daily -Thursday, September 9, 1993 - 15
No Hollywood jaded ego for Sizemore
By DARCY LOCKMAN
Tom Sizemore walks into the room
rumpled and charming. The rumpled
look carries no permanence (it is, after
all, only 9 a.m., on a Sunday), but the
charm that emanates from Sizemore's
long-lashed blue eyes and scruffy vis-
age suggests a certain staying power.
Conversation with this soon-to-be movie
star does not shatter the suggestion.
Nervously pulling out a cigarette,
Sizemore asks, "Is it alright if I smoke?
Will it bother you?" and what director-
after-director apparently see in his de-
ceptively "tough guy" appearance im-
mediately becomes apparent. Class.
Personality. Did we mention his charm?
At 31 (note: he.will turn 32 in No-
vember), this born-and-raised Detroit
boy is at the point in his career when
many actors seem to lose their charm
and adopt the jaded ego of Hollywood.
But Sizemore has managed to side-
step this tradition. With a multitude of
small parts in big movies already be-
hind him (minor roles in "Born on the
Fourth of July," "Flight of the Intruder"
and "Guilty By Suspicion"), he has
earned the right to the meatier roles in
major motion pictures that are now com-
ing his way. Coming his way is putting
it lightly. They're seeping in.
Sizemore played opposite Wesley
Snipes in "Passenger 57" and currently
stars in the recently-released feel-good
comedy "Heart and Souls," in the emo-
tionally-charged thriller "Striking Dis-
tance" with Bruce Willis and in Tony
Scott's 'True Romance" with Christian
Slater. Notbad for the Wayne State grad
who got his start in a Grosse Pointe
Theater production of "Bye, Bye
'America Is obsessed with
violence, celebrities,
murder, sex, power. The
media. We always have
some serial killer poster
boy. Always someone
new. it's an obscene
business, serial murders.
And It's kind of
symptomatic of America.'
- Tom Sizemore
Birdie."
"It's an exciting time in my career,"
Sizemore admits hesitantly, "ButI don't
think about that toomuch. Ijust try todo
the role. I'm not much in the business
thing. Just working with great directors
-Tony Scott, Ron Underwood ("Heart
and Souls"), Oliver (Stone) - it's been
great. Working with great directors
makes the movie-making process-re-
ally creative. It's a different kind of
feeling. Plus, I have a lot ofresponsibil-
ity with these larger roles. You're much
more integral to the whole thing."
Sizemore is currently at work on
what will undoubtedly prove to be his
most controversial movie to date, Oliver
Stone's "Natural Born Killers" (penned
by Quentin Tarantino), co-starring
Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey
Jr., in which he plays a Chicago cop
with a penchant for catching serial kill-
ers.
"We're shooting at Joliet," he says,
shaking his head as he speaks. "A lot of
prisoners there. Twenty-three hundred
of them. One thousand of them are
doing life without parole for murder.
Two hundred of them have been picked
by Oliver through a screening process
(to work as extras). It's hard to shoot in
a prison with all these guys. They're
nice guys, but they're killers. It's hard,
but Oliver likes it that way," he laughs,
shaking his head again, "With Oliver,
you don't have to act, you just go to the
set. He likes taking actors to deep places,
the jungles."
The "jungles" that Stone explores in
this project are those that Sizemore see.
as entrenched in American society.
"America is obsessed with violence,
celebrities, murder, sex, power. The
media We always have some serial
killer poster boy. Always someone new.
It's an obscene business, serial murders.
And it's kind of symptomatic of
America."
Sizemore would eventually like to
return to the stage (he performed at
Wayne State's Hillberry Theater in the
early '80s, as well as in a number of
regional and off-Broadway produc-
tions), but for the time being, making
movies is what he's "gotta do." Be-
tween "Killers" and his next project
(Sizemore will play Bat Masterson to
Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp under the
direction of Lawrence Kasdan) the op-
portunity to do what he's got to do
should not be a problem.
Except for that fame thing. "If you
become a movie star, you have to deal
with it, I guess. You have to find a way
to deal with it. I don't know how I will,
if, in fact, ithappens. I'd like to hope that
I'll deal with it well, that it won'tchange
me."
We hope so too, Tom, 'cause, boy,
that charm ...
I
BOOKS
Continued from page3
that enabled him to communicate with
JHVH-1, or Jehovah-1 (do not read that
name aloud!).
Over time, "Bob" has discovered
that JHVH-1 controls everything in our
universe through the SKOR, the cosmic
"script" upon which our destinies are
written. According to the SKOR, aliens
(called "XISTS") will come to Earth on
July 5, 1998. On that day, JHVH-1 will
judge humanity, using the XISTS to
execute his sentence. "Bob," the only
human able to communicate with
JHVH-l and the XISTS, will protect
SubGeniuses to ensure that they are
transformed into OverMen and Women.
How can you avoid certain death
five years from now? "Repent! Quit
your job! SLACK OFF!" Slack is the
key to your survival. Let the tides of life
carry you to your destination, and then
you'll really be Slacking.
Unfortunately, the Anti-Slack Con-
spiracy limits yourability to Slack. Hard
to believe? Face it: school, work, gov-
ernment, and institutionalized religion
deny you Slack. Is it just coincidence
that all these organizations produce the
same Anti-Slack state? Ask "Bob," he
knows. He fights the Conspiracy daily
on your behalf, so you can have the
freedom to achieve Slack. Whether or
not you take ad-.antage of that hard-
fought freedom by Slacking is up to
you, but without Slack it is impossible
to become a SubGenius andultimately,
an OverPerson.
If saving your life isn't enough of an
incentive toread "The Book," themind-
bending collages are worth alook, espe-
cially if you're ahard-core po-mo fiend.
But overall, "The Book" contains wis-
dom and insight worth reading and
knowing. "The Book" shows us that
"Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take A Joke"
is not just a meaningless slogan, but a
way of life.
-Oliver Giancola
Global Tyranny ... Step
by Step
William F. Jasper
Western Islands
Oh, those wacky reactionaries! Just
when you thought communism was
dead, William F. Jasper, a member of
the John Birch Society, has found anew
threat totheAmerican Way-the United
Nations. In "Global Tyranny ... Step by
Step: TheUnitedNationsand the Emerg-
ing New World Order," Jasper attempts
to reveal the United Nation's sinister
conspiracy to rule the world.
Jasper is a right-wing ideologue, not
a conspiracy theorist. "Global" lacks
the careful, subtle approach needed to
fully expose such a conspiracy and.
more importantly, explain why it exists.
If you do not already believe in what
Jasper says,"Global"may notconvince
you.
For example, Jasper complains that
the United Nations has been a front for
communist agents since its creation in
1945. But is communism still a threat
after the apparent fall of the Soviet
Union? Jaspercites "New Lies for Old,"
abook written in 1984 by a KGB defec-
tor who warns that the apparent "liber-
alization" of the U.S.S.R. and Eastern
Europe is merely a "strategic decep-
tion" meant to dupe the kind-hearted,
giving West.Interestingly, the anti-com-
munist Jasper believes a communist
source when it advances his belief that
communism is still dangerous. Jasper is
oblivious to the fact that the KGB often
sends phony "defectors" to provide false
information to the West, and if there's
anyone who would want to stop the
liberalization of the U.S.S.R., it would
be the totalitarians in the KGB.
Jasper also does not sufficiently ex-
plain the strange alliance between com-
munists and Western "Establishment
Insiders." Many of these Insiders be-
long to the Council on Foreign Rela-
tions (CFR), a group which advocates
world government. While Jasper criti-
cizes the CFR's totalitarian, communis-
tic goals, he fails to explain why indi-
viduals like George Bush and Bill
Clinton belong to this organization. In
fact, many arch-capitalists (like the
Rockefellers) supportone-world causes.
Jasper assumes that many of these sup-
posed capitalists are really communists-
in-disguise, an assertion which he never
proves. Jasper ignores the possibility
that these internationalists really want
to establish a capitalist world market.
But if that were true, Jasper would have
to criticize the American institution of
capitalism, and that would be impos-
sible for this ultra-patriot.
Jasper's solution to the United Na-
tions menace is equally simplistic. He
parrots the John Birch Society's slogan,
"Get US out!"
Unfortunately, even if Americans
do awake from their "slumber" and
really do get the U.S. out of the United
Nations, evil CFR members will still
control the U.S. government and its
foreign policy, a problem which Jasper
himself describes. Jasper does not say
how we freedom-loving Americans
should expel these CFR puppets from
our beloved democracy.
A conspiracy within the United Na-
tions to establish global tyranny may
indeed exist, but Jasper fails to prove it.
He is content to focus on the surface, on
an alleged conspiracy that.suits his own
political ends. In doing so, he overlooks
the more insidious, more uncomfort-
able conspiracies that may lie under-
neath. Jasper cannot separate his ideol-
ogy from his search for the truth.
-Oliver Giancola
AH, Suede
I IN!