10- The Michigan Daily Summer Weeky- Wednesday, August 4,1993
Natural born movie-star
H':Tom Sizemore makes the big jump from minor roles to stardom
By DARCY LOCKMAN
Tom Sizemore walks intotheroom
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 sugges-
tion.
Nervously pulling out a cigarette,
Sizemoreasks,"IsitallrightifIsmoke?
Willitbotheryou?"andwhatdirector-
after-director apparently sees in his
deceptively "tough guy" appearance
immediately becomesapparent.Class.
Personality.Didwementionhischarm?
At 31 (note: He will turn 32 in
November), this born-and-raised De-
troit boy is at the point in his career
Tom Sizemore as a soft-hearted tough guy in "Heart and Souls."
DEPARTMENT OF
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when many actors seem to lose their
charm and adopt the jaded ego of
Hollywood. But Sizemore has man-
aged to sidestep this tradition. With a
multitude of small partsin big movies
already behind him (minor roles in
"Born on the Fourth of July," "Flight
of the Intruder" and "Guilty By Sus-
picion"),hehasearnedtheright tothe
meatier roles in major motion pic-
tures that are now coming his way.
Coming his way is putting it lightly.
They're seeping in.
SizemoreplayedoppositeWesley
Snipes in "Passenger 57" and cur-
rently stars in the recently-released
feel-goodcomedy"HeartandSouls,"
in the emotionally-charged thriller
"StrikingDistance"withBruceWillis
and in Tony Scott's "True Romance"
with Christian Slater. Not bad for the
Wayne State grad who got his start in
a Grosse Pointe Theater production
of "Bye, Bye Birdie."
"It's an exciting time in my ca-
reer," Sizemore admits hesitantly,
"But Idon'tthinkaboutthattoomuch.
I just try to do the role. I'm not much
in the business thing. Just working
with great directors - Tony Scott,
Ron Underwood ("Hea and Souls"),
Oliver (Stone) - it's been great.
Working with great directors makes
the movie-mnakingprocess really cre-
ayive. It's a different kind of feeling.
Plus, I have a lot of responsibility
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 Kill-
ers" (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 killers.
"We're shooting at Joliet,"he says,
shaking hisheadas hespeaks. "A lotof
prisoners there. Twenty-threehundred
of them. One thousand of them are
doing life without parole for murder.
Twohundred ofthemhavebeen picked
by Oliver through a screening process
(to work asextras). It's hard to shoot in
a prison with all these guys. They're
nice guys, but they're killers. It's hard,
butOliverlikesit that way,"helaughs,
shaking his head again, "With Oliver,
youdon'thave toact, youjustgo to the
set.Helikestakingactorstodeepplaces,
the jungles."
The "jungles" that Stone explores
in this project are those that Sizemore
sees as entrenched in American soci-
ety. "America is obsessed with vio-
lence, celebrities, murder, sex, power.
The media. We always have some se-
rial killer poster boy. Always someone
new. It's an obscene business, serial
murders. And it'skindofsymptomatic
of America."
Sizemore would eventually like to
retu to the stage (he performed at
Wayne State's Hillberry Theaterin 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 Earpunder the
direction of Lawrence Kasdan) the
opportunity 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, it happens. I'd like to hope
that I'll deal with it well, that it won't
change me."
We hopesotoo, Tom, 'cause,boy,
that charm..
A
4d
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