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.

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.

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

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.

I changed my major to English and I went off to Fort Collins. And within the first couple of weeks, I noticed that they were having auditions for a production in their theater department. They were going to stage Jean Anouilh's Becket, which was a film I loved, with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton. So I went down and auditioned, and I got the role. I got the Peter O'Toole part. So here I was, a 19-year-old playing King Henry.

That was Robert Aldrich. And that [Emperor Of The North] was one of the only times I actually got a part in a movie in the conventional way: The role was there, I auditioned, I auditioned again, and then I actually did a full-fledged screen test, which they shot on a soundstage on the lot at 20th Century Fox. They put up a set, and Robert Aldrich actually directed me in this screen test.

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.