|
|
|
Nardwuar
: Who are you?Crispin Glover : (laughing nervously) I, uh, I don't know. Who am I? I'm uh....well my name is Crispin Glover... Crispin Hellion Glover! Ha ha ha that hasn't actually crossed my mind, but it's an interesting thing to think about. And then also Michael Jackson's famous glove, 'cause you're kinda from, you know you started acting around '83, you know the Big Jackson 'Thriller' thing... I actually started acting around 1977. Oh. Okay...in commercials & stuff, right? Yes that's right. What type of commercials might people have caught you in in the early days Crispin Glover? Well, uh... 'Cause they just had a big thing on T.V., like the greatest commercials of all time, were you in any of those? I doubt it, I doubt it. I didn't actually do that many of them, but I did a McDonald's commercial, and a commerical for Bayer aspirin, and um... Did they last long? Like what McDonald's one was it? Was it that people running down the mountain one? No, they weren't very famous ones unfortunately. I never made a lot of money on commercials. The most...the biggest one that I had was the Bayer aspirin commercial and that was not a very famous one by any means. Have you ever met Michael Jackson or had any run-ins with him at all? No. Have you ever met the guys from Redd Kross? Uhhh... Jeff and Steve McDonald... I don't think so. 'Cause I always think of them when I think of you and think of you when I think of them...the Redd Kross guys... Oh. 'Cause they once saw Michael Jackson get in a limo.. But that's what I was wondering Crispin...are you successful? Ha ha ha well ha ha it all depends on what one would be successful at, I suppose. No, but do you feel happy with yourself, like are you successful with the way your career is going? Well, you know, it all depends, like I say, it all depends on what I would consider to be successful. I mean I have not had a lot of films out lately but I've had a lot of visibility and it probably would be a good thing for me to have happen, definitely, right now. What was your break? I mean obviously you got to go in that McDonald's commercial. Everybody's dream, to get into a McDonald's commercial. What was your break? What made you get into films? What was the big thing? There must've been something. Well I've never really felt I've had a particular break. I mean it's always been kind of...just...certain things have come along. Certainly the most visible thing that I've ever done was the Back to the Future film...but it's like I'd been working for quite a few years before I did that as well. Were you frustrated that that would never come? That I would not work? Yeah. Well, I think when I was around 18, I questioned how I would start acting in film, which is stuff that I wanted to do... Do you have a degree at all? No. |
'Cause you're coming up to Vancouver. This is
Crispin Glover and you're coming up to Vancouver on Saturday night for
the Big Slide Show and I've heard you talk before, well through friends
I've heard bootleg recordings and stuff...no, just joking...but you seem
to talk very intellectual. 
Ha ha ha. Like you don't have no degree to help you spew out those words at all? I went to a small private school for about nine years in Los Angeles, and it was a very good school and then I went to a public school for a few years after that, in high school, and I found the education was not quite as, uhh, good basically. It was just...it was quite lacking. So I feel I had a very good beginning education. When you broke into the movie scene, well, like you said in like 1977, you started acting, but you know around 1983 your filmography seems to start, at least from the stuff we've been faxed here... Right... Who were your contemporaries around that time? Who were the people that acted with you, the people that were your age, and what are they up to now? Ha ha ha well, uh, ha ha ha... You know like there was that hollywood brat pack, rat pack, etc. What are your contemporaries up to and you know, how has your career paralleled with them? You know it's funny. I've never really felt that I've gotten into...it's hard for me...I mean I can consider certain people contemporary by my age, by being the exact same age... That's what I mean. Like you showed up in, for instance in that movie High Shool USA, weren't you? Yes. Like Todd Bridges was in there... Right...I know...ha ha ha. And Nancy McKeon, or whatever her name was. Like those are kinda contemporaries of yours. Like how has your career paralleled those? Because I would say you've done pretty well compared to them. Well, I mean, the thing is you can always compare yourself to somebody, and you can make yourself feel kind of terrible or great by doing so, but I think it's better to just, kind of, you know, figure out what it is that you're wanting to try to do, and not necessarily try to compare one's self to... Well come on, who were your friends back then? I mean are they still your friends now? I mean how have their careers differed? I'm just curious because like you said you had you know a big break with the Back to the Future movie. What other actors have had continual breaks that started around the same time as you? That's what I was curious about. Well like I say, see, you're kind of gauging it from a different point of view than I am. It's...I've been working for such a long time that my contemporaries have changed every few years or so. If you mean contemporaries by the idea that they're people that are working at the same time as I am, or if you mean by people... On the same set...like you showed up for the McDonald's shoot or whatever for the commercial and there was a guy there and now he's gone on to something else...because I would argue Crispin...because the promoter of the gig here Nettie said that you're kind of having a hard time, you know you haven't had that many big movies lately, but I would say that you're ultra successful. You're doing just great compared to those other people. Uhhh ha ha well I, I, don't know...I don't really like think of it like that exactly. Ok. What can people expect from Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show? Um, well it's, I take old books for the 1800's and rework them and these are slides of the books. And I narrate them as the slides go. This is kind of like a Woody Allen thing where he buys like a foreign movie and redubs it? No, because the books are definitely my own doing. Some of them do use original words from the original books but some of them, quite a few of them, in fact most of them are really just kind of written by myself. And a lot of them are based in like the 1800's, aren't they...they have that 1800's kind of theme to them...you're kind of totally into that? Yeah most of the books are taken from the 1800's because I do like that time but also for publishing it works out well. They're not in copyright infringement because of the time period. Have you ever heard of a band from San Francisco called the Caroliner Rainbow at all? No. 'Cause they're totally obsessed by the 1800's too or that kind of era and they have neat kind of like hand designed record album covers. Oh. A friend of mine actually saw your performance in Olympia...you did a slide performance. Is that going to be the same thing that's going to be happening here? Yes. Yes. That's right. He kind of commented that some of the audience -- now how do you perceive this -- that some of the audience was laughing like AT you, rather than with you... Ha ha ha I don't, I don't feel like that. I feel that the laughs in the show...I've done the show quite a few times now...and they stayed pretty consistent as to where they are and they're generally about the same things...it's pretty evident that they're laughing at the things that are within the context of the books. So you've never liked jumped in the audience and started to punch somebody out 'cause they got you mad or something... Ha ha ha. No no. The audiences have always been really quite receptive. It's always been...everyone seems to have enjoyed it quite a bit. |
|
Are you going to show your film Rubin &
Ed at all? Um no. Not on this show. No. I was just wondering if you could give listeners just a brief plot synopsis of Rubin & Ed since a lot of people haven't seen it, but it's such an amazing film. Please Mr. Glover... Ha ha ha well ha ha ha um let's see... First of all it's Howard Hesseman, so it's got to be great...from WKRP, right? Ha ha ha well ha ha ha Rubin & Ed is a story about 2 fellows that go out into the desert to try to bury a dead cat. Did you use an actual dead cat? No. No we didn't. Ha ha ha . We did not do that. But you do have an eyeball specimen collection, don't you? Like you are fascinated by things kind of dead or innate... Well there's two different questions there. I don't actually have an eyeball collection, that's something that kind of got into press that isn't true. I guess I shouldn't have been reading Spin magazine from 1987, then. (chuckles) But I do have an old optometrist's piece from the 1800's that was a medical piece which has wax portions of the face that include the eye and that has various diseases of the eye, and I do tend toward liking old medical books and such that contain various pathological interests. Are you into like crime scene photography at all from the 1920's? There was a book published recently called 'evidence' that has some neat pictures of crime scenes. Well...I...it's funny. I've always tended toward liking pathology more than crime scenes. Something about the nature of the actual growth of the disease that comes from the animal that is ensuing upon the other animal. Or if there's some kind of malformation that naturally occurs from the genetic make-up. I find more of a beauty in that than necessarily the actions of outside forces, but I find both of them interesting. So Crispin Hellion Glover, why were Rubin & Ed republicans? Ha ha ha well I didn't actually write it so I couldn't tell you for certain. I guess I have my own reasons, but I could never say. Did you actually drink from your boot in the movie Rubin & Ed? Ummm no. And why hasn't the Orkley Kid been released? Um, there's some stuff that would have to be done with music rights. What projects are you working on right now Crispin Hellion Glover who is coming to Vancouver...you are coming to Vancouver on Saturday night to the New York Theatre, aren't you? Ha ha ha to do...oh yes.  First
time to Vancouver, B.C., Canada? Yes. Never been to Vancouver, B.C., Canada? You get to go to the New York Theatre like the york, get it, like the New York Theatre. That's where you are Saturday night. This is Crispin Hellion Glover and what projects slash movies are you working on right now? Well the last film that I was in was a film that Jim Jarmusch has directed called Dead Man. And is that scheduled for release? What's that about? Is that exciting? Are you happy with it? I haven't seen it yet and I'm not quite sure when it's supposed to be released. Did you ever meet Andy Warhol yourself? I did. Didn't Beck, you know that singer Beck...didn't he hang out with Andy Warhol or didn't his mom hang out with Andy Warhol? I don't know. When did you Meet Warhol? I met him at Madonna and Sean Penn's wedding. And was that the first time you actually encountered him? Had you ever seen him around before...were you intrigued by the Warhol mystique? Yeah. Yeah definitely. Yeah. That was the first and only time I ever saw him. You just recently directed, according to your credits here, Crispin Hellion Glover, Captain's Log, a documentary short on pornographic Star Trek fantasies.. Ha ha ha. A fanzine actually. Oh it was a f-f-an...oh explain. Captain's Log. Well actually it's something that I, I probably shouldn't fax that thing out because unfortunately it's something that was not release-able because of legal problems, but it is something that I made. I'm excited about something I'm supposed to direct in about a month...a short film that is about down's syndrome people. I'm excited about that. Did you ever consider hiring Erik Estrada or Aldo Rey to like perhaps participate in something like Captain's Log because they've been dabbling in soft porn for years! Ha ha ha. No. This isn't, it isn't soft porn. Well I guess it is, it is soft porn...they're drawings though, not films. Because a lot of those actors, are kind of you know, they're down and out and they're looking for some, you know, cash....and you probably could have got the Chips guy to do something. I mean gosh he's doing Bad Religion videos, he could at least do something with you. Ha ha ha well this particular thing was a documentary on people that actually do this. Have you ever seen anything by director Andy Sidaris at all? No. He does like movies like Hard Ticket to Hawaii or Seven... Hmmm....I don't know that. Have you ever been approached, Crispin Hellion Glover, to do a porno film? No ha ha ha I haven't. But according to your 1989 Restless lp, you are a masturbator. Ha ha ha yeah. Yeah, that's true. |
|
Explain that please Crispin Hellion Glover.
Well I think the song is self-evident. Where is Nancy Sinatra today? Um...I don't know...ha ha ha. Is she still alive? 'Cause you cover 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" Right. I don't know. Have you had any run-ins with old school Hollywood mafioso types at all? Um...old school Hollywood mafioso? You know like big kind of Sinatra-ish old school mafioso types? No I haven't. Are you the 1990's version of Mort Sahl? Ha ha ha I don't think so. What happened to Mort Sahl? I don't know. Is he still alive? 
I don't know. Do you care about him at all Crispin Hellion Glover? Ha ha well, now he did political humour in the 70's, didn't he? I'm not that familiar with Mort Sahl. I think he got banned by Ed Sullivan or something like that, but I'm not going to get any closer to the Sullivan allusions I promise. Are you into Dolomite? Have you ever heard of Dolomite? Yeah I like Dolomite. So are you the 1990's version of Dolomite Crispin Hellion Glover? Ha ha well I don't think so but you never really know. I never really think of myself as being versions of people. And if you want to see what Crispin Hellion Glover is, go and check out the New York Theatre on Saturday night...for Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show. Now has hanging around Uma Thurman given you any good Timothy Leary stories? I um ha ha ha know that he is her godfather. Okay, but has hanging around Uma Thurman given you any good Timothy Leary stories Crispin Hellion Glover? I'm sure everybody's got a Timothy Leary story, don't they? Not really. No, I don't have any good Timothy Leary stories. I've seen him around a lot in various places but no particular stories. You did act in the movie Teachers though, right? Yes. And that featured Royal Danno. Yeah that's right. He's an amazing character, isn't he? Well, you know, I remember him and he was a very nice fellow kind of a quiet fellow but I don't know his career that well. I know he had done something that... The Seven Faces of Dr. Lau and he'd been in, like, he played Abe Lincoln and he'd been in like 75 films and stuff. Yeah yeah he'd worked a lot yet I wasn't that familiar with his work. So you didn't hang out with him at all? No he was kind of quiet and I think his wife was there. That was a long time ago. Seemed like a nice fellow. Ever run into James Caan's son? No. He's always like in the tabloids with like two girls around his arms and stuff like that. Seems like a real jerk, James Caan's son. Not that you would hang around jerks, Crispin Hellion Glover but you're coming to Vancouver to hang out with Vancouver on Saturday night at the New York Theatre...and guess who's from Vancouver... Who? Guess who's from Vancouver, your old acting buddy. Who? Your old acting buddy, Crispin Hellion Glover, Mi-chael... Oh that's right, he is from...I knew he was from Canada, I didn't know he was from Vancouver in particular. Actually Burnaby I think specifically. But Michael J. Fox is your old acting buddy, Crispin Hellion Glover. Can you tell Vancouver anything about him? Come on, tell them, tell...what is the real Michael J. Fox? It's funny...I worked with him several times but I never really had much of a conversation or anything with him. I don't know him very well. You know, no little intimate kind of teasers...you know Vancouver deserves to know about Michael J. Fox! You can, you know, tell us... Ha ha I would but there really isn't...I don't know that fellow very well. I worked with him but I never really got to know him at all. Now didn't you appear on Family Ties? Yeah. I did. What was your part...you were playing like a college guy who was worried his family would find out he was out for dinner? I recall. I think so, yes. What sort of T.V. and sitcoms have you done, Crispin Hellion Glover? 
Well I did one when I was 16, a pilot which was very, very bad and that
was the first like kind of, like, television thing that I had done, well
other than commercials, and then I did a few different of those like Freak
Hammer shows. I never really enjoyed it very much. And then I did one
television movie, kind of a comedy movie. I never really enjoyed doing
television very much. You never did the White Shadow or anything like that? No, no I didn't. The only drama I recall that I did was um...Blue....what was it...I can't remember the name of it now...Blue...it was one of those police shows...and I can't remember wh... NYPD Blue or something like that? Yeah. I can't remember what it was called though...and it was one of the things...one of the performances of myself that I've never seen. I kind of would like to see that one actually. So people should search out Family Ties. Are you on T.V. infrequently, like in syndication...do you ever flip it on and see yourself doing a part, from an old T.V. ... No...I've never had that happen. You did work though with Mrs. Brady? Yeah. Florence Henderson... That was my very first job when I was 14. I was...well my first...actually I had done one commercial and then I did the sound of music when I was 14 w/ Florence Henderson playing Maria. Now please, like Greg Brady, you did not get it on with Mrs. Brady did you? No, no...but he did come to the show I remember. What, they all hang out together? Well he definitely came, and he saw the show, and came backstage. I recall that. So Mrs. Brady is a contemporary of yours? Ha ha I guess you could say so. I've always been fascinated by that guy Oliver, you know that guy Oliver that was on the Bradys. Yeah I do. I always kind of thought Oliver was interesting too. 'Cause he's only like 29 now, 29 or 30. And how old are you Crispin Hellion Glover? 30. |
|
30, so you could've been Oliver on the Brady
Bunch. Instead you met up a few years later with Florence Henderson.
Ha ha ha that's right. Um, did having your number printed in Spin magazine bring you many Canadian friends? Well um, I have noticed that people do call from Canada, and have always called from Canada for some particular reason. That actually wasn't my home telephone number, that was a number which I used for promoting the books. So why did you tell spin your number, was it just kinda like a neat promotional toy? Exactly. It was something to promote the books. Can you tell the listeners your new phone number at all, Crispin Hellion Glover? Ha ha no, I don't give that one out. There's no information number you can give out? Um, yeah, they can call that same number...2... 213 464 5053? Yeah. Or they can call 310 391 4154. Again, Crispin Hellion Glover, please tell the listeners of CITR radio and you're coming to Vancouver this Saturday night to the New York Theatre, the special phone number that they can contact you through... 310 391 4154. Or... 213 464 5053. Did you ever answer the phone when the phone rang there or was it basically just an answering machine? It was an answering machine. So you never answered it once. No. But people did try to scale and try to find your apartment when you gave out your address of your apartment... I didn't give out my address but people did find out where I lived. Um, describe your apartment Crispin Hellion Glover. Oh well that...it was a neat apartment at the top of a building and it was painted all as I liked it, various colours, dark and bright... Black walls? There were black walls. There were gold walls. All different colours. And a gynecological exam table? Well it was a medical chair. I still have the medical chair. I'm not sure if it was a gynecological chair but it was a medical, a stainless steel medical table. You know I hate to do this, I'm enjoying this interview, but I have an appointment I have to be at at 10:30 and I'm running a bit late. Okay Crispin Hellion Glover we just have two more quick questions here : You don't live in that apartment now but is your apartment black at all? Is it all black walls still? I've bought a house and I've been slow to redecorate. I am planning to start doing some more painting of that nature though, I think. I'm being a bit more careful about this one. It's a house and I want to make it perfect. And do you have a coffin filled with tar too? No. I have a lot of art objects that were made to look as though they were tar. And what do you think is so great about Kelbo's potato salad? 
Ha ha ha I, you know...Kelbo's closed down a couple of years ago. I was
disappointed that it did... It's an amazing club in L.A., isn't it? Well it's...I was going there when I was 16. I was always afraid that it would become a club and then it kind of did and I stopped going. I liked it when it used to play old music from the 40's and old people would go and dance, but unfortunately the whole place is closed now. Just recently. Yeah, just within the last year. And finally who did you play in Wild at Heart? I played the cousin of Laura Dern. And what's David Lynch up to now? You recently did a movie with him? Umm... Or you did a movie with him, Hotel Room? Oh I did Hotel Room with him. I've worked with him a couple of times. I'm excited about something that he's...well I don't want to say too much about it...but there's something that he's agreed to do for me that I'm very excited about. So he's still happening and doing films? Yeah, I think he's working on various projects, I'm not sure exactly what they are though. And Crispin Hellion Glover your dad is not Danny Glover is it? No ha ha. But what does your dad do? My father is an actor. And what was he in...was he in all those cool psychotronic 60's movies? Um he did more 70's films. He was in Diamonds Are Forever and Chinatown. But I, I'm truly enjoying this interview but I unfortunately really do have to go. Ok, well thanksverymuch Crispin Hellion Glover. And check out Crispin Hellion Glover this Sat. night at the New York Theatre, and Crispin, doot doola doot doo... Ha ha ha well thanks. No, Crispin...doot doola doot doo Ha ha ha what? Crispin Hellion Glover, doot doola doot doo Ha ha ha what...I don't know what you're doing. You just gotta add, don't you get it...doot doola doot doo. Ha ha ha ha ha what? Crispin? Doot doola doot doo. You want me to go 'doo doo'? YES!!! Thank you. Ha ha ha okay. Okay, rock on. Alright, thanks very much. Okay, so, yeah I hope people come out. This Saturday night, the New York Theatre. 
Thanks a lot. Ok. Bye. Interview done over the phone on March 17, 1995
|
