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!