When I was in high school... I loved the outdoors, and I was introduced to wilderness camping. I was in a little prep school - a boarding school in southern California, in Ojai - and when I was in this school, they had a camping program, and there would be regular trips: hikes into the mountains, the Sierras, the Sespe River Valley, and different places.

But I love to be outdoors. I prefer being outdoors to, you know, being inside.

Mel [Gibson] could stage physical comedy and put the camera in such a way... I mean, we did some really funny stuff, and he had some great ideas about how to do it. It was a delight to work with him in that regard.

One can't help but bring one's own personality into what one is doing, and it's certainly true of us actors and it's true of writers.

So we went off and made this movie ["Jim Younger"], and I've gotta tell ya, it's as much fun as I've ever had making a movie. It was kind of like adult summer camp. We put on this Western gear, strapped on our six-shooters, and went out and played cowboy all day! It wasn't an easy shoot.

I guess at that moment in time I had a certain... presence? A certain level of presence in the industry. But that was at Madonna's request. There was a concept for the video ["Material Girl"], and the idea was that it was kind of a Howard Hughes and Marilyn Monroe sort of idea, that there was this guy behind the scenes making it all happen. And she saw me as that guy, so she asked for me.

Lee Marvin was just the best. Just the best. And that was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until he died. And the same with Ernie Borgnine. You know, I went up there and did that movie [Emperor Of The North] with those guys, and I actually was with Ernie the night that he died.