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.

There were rumors that flew about the two of us, which were complete poppycock. There was never any romance between Madonna and myself. I mean, we had a moment where we're kissing in that video [Material Girl], but she at the time was with Sean Penn, and I was married with two kids, so there was no funny business there.

I think it [Trouble In Mind] was the only time Divine didn't appear in drag, or certainly one of the few times, anyway. Alan created a time and place that was no time and no place, so it was not identifiable with any particular period or any particular city or any particular country, for that matter. I mean, everybody spoke English, but that was about it. So you couldn't pigeonhole that film.

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.

This ["Cowboys & Aliens"] was an occasion where a studio was willing to spend a lot of money to make a film set in that time and place, but the hook was that they were also going to have aliens from outer space!

One of the wonderful things about the actor's life is that's what we have the opportunity to do; we bring all these aspects of ourselves and of our personal lives into the work that we do.

Part of my claim to fame is that my first film was also Johnny Cash's first film.