![]() “He’s a tough guy with a soft heart, and he and I connected immediately.”īaldwin concurs: “Michael’s a very special guy, and I grew to love him over the course of making ‘The Getaway’-he’s absolutely amazing in the film too. “Michael’s quite sentimental but he doesn’t want people to know that, and I find that a very endearing thing about him,” says “Wyatt Earp” director Lawrence Kasdan. It’s hard to say exactly what Madsen might be hiding, but some who’ve succeeded in penetrating whatever defenses he has erected around himself insist he’s one of the nicest guys in the business. “We could sit here and talk for hours and you could leave knowing absolutely nothing about me.” “I’m shy,” he confesses, “and I’m not the kind of guy who wants to be at a party with a lot of people because I prefer being an observer to being a participant. Yeah, Madsen’s been around the block, but he’s not 100% muscle. When one points out that guns have figured prominently in most of his films and asks if he owns any himself, he says, “Sure, I have a few guns-I’ve used them, too, because I’ve been in life-threatening situations. A few minutes are spent discussing the finer points of tattoos-Madsen has several quite beautiful ones, including the Harley-Davidson logo on one biceps, and his wife’s name (Jeannine) on the other-and when the conversation drifts to literature Madsen remains perfectly in character and names Charles Bukowski as his favorite author. Dressed in motorcycle boots and a leather jacket, he has a few beers and several cigarettes for lunch, and talks in a hoarse whisper that’s vintage Brando. ![]() Meeting with Madsen at a Beverly Hills restaurant, one encounters a man who both lives up to his reputation as a ruffian, yet is unexpectedly cordial and accessible. So ferocious is his performance that Madsen is going to need to do some major back-peddling in order to persuade anybody he’s not the most dangerous actor in Hollywood. Madsen turns up here as Rudy, a sociopathic killer who pulls a heist with the couple, then proceeds to double-cross everybody within firing distance. Donaldson’s version features Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger as lovers on the run from the law as they struggle to extricate themselves from a life of crime. “The Getaway” is a remake of the 1972 Sam Peckinpah chase picture that starred Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, which was based on a book by pulp novelist Jim Thompson. Madsen is also prominently featured in Roger Donaldson’s “The Getaway,” which opens Friday. Madsen recently completed work on Lawrence Kasdan’s “Wyatt Earp,” a Western epic slated for release on July 4, which finds him cast as Wyatt’s older brother Virgil (Kevin Costner has the lead in the film). Madsen looked surprisingly at home tossing a football with 12-year-old actor Jason James Richter, who played his foster son in the film, but it didn’t take long for him to trade the football back in for a gun. Toward that end, he took the role of sensitive dad Glen Greenwood in last year’s surprise box-office hit, “Free Willy,” the story of a killer whale and the troubled kid who befriends him. Blonde, the cool killer who casually slices the ear off a bound and gagged police officer while prancing around to Stealer’s Wheel oddball ‘70s hit, “Stuck in the Middle With You.” It was a horrifyingly convincing performance, but the 35-year-old actor is determined to prove he can do other things than play the heavy. ![]() “I think I’m a leading man in a bad guy’s body,” jokes actor Michael Madsen, clearly aware of the tough-guy persona he’s developed since he delivered the performance everybody remembers from Quentin Tarantino’s critically acclaimed low-budget thriller, “Reservoir Dogs.” Madsen played Mr. ![]()
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