Genre Magazine - June 1996
The Zane Event By John Polly “Oh, to be a gay movie icon,” muses 30-year-old actor Billy Zane as he sits in a charming if unpretentious L.A. lunch spot. Frankly, as he contemplates the allure of homo worship, he’s not at all what you might expect if you’ve ever met a Hollywood heartthrob. He’s taller than you expect (6’2”), balder than a cue ball (Zane’s head has been shaved ever since last year’s thriller Demon Knight), and smart as a whip (conversation will touch upon Langston Hughes, gender politics, and philosophy). He’s out flacking for his starring role in this month’s superhero adventure The Phantom and he wants you. Bad… “It’s certainly the most loyal audience you can find,” he offers matter-of-factly. “Gay people are avid moviegoers and appreciative fans.” A comment like that could of course smack of generalization or chilly business acumen as much as the truth. Zane, however, serves it up as a compliment. “if you’re going to go for an obscure reference from pop culture, rest assured the joke will be gotten by the gay community.” Sure it may sound a bit like pandering, but Zane’s aim is true. Given his offbeat resume, Zane knows that his audience is one with interests and tastes beyond the mainstream – like gay people are purported to have. But if Billy Zane loves us for our minds, does he mind if we love him for his body? “It’s what every actor wants,” Zane says unapologetically. “To be wanted by everyone, and to be lusted after by men. Actually, I think what everyone wants is to be desired, and to know enough to try to diminish that desire. It’s all the ego could aspire to.” Why not? Billy Zane may not play on our team (he’s recently separated from his wife, actress Lisa Collins), but he certainly doesn’t mind if we get sweaty watching him work out. Like his latest onscreen persona, Zane is something of a Zen cowboy. He approaches his work with a philosophical, humanist bent. He’s an actor, but also a thinker – in the same sense that the Phantom is a crime-fighting hero who’s also a progressive, compassionate guy. “He’s not superhuman,” says Zane. “he’s superhumane.” After years of playing the odd, albeit complex, character roles – like the sniper with a conscience, or the comic car thief – Zane has found a character that exemplifies his own ideals. The mantle of the chivalrous Phantom seems to fit Zane as snuggly as the character’s translucent bodysuit. “Billy plays the character wonderfully,” declares his costar Kristy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Swanson. “He’s strong, funny, soft-spoken, and full of ideas – very much like the Phantom. And if the suit fits, wear it!” But many gay men noticed Zane before he donned a cat suit. “He’s always seemed very mysterious sexually,” says longtime fan and Premiere magazine’s editor at large, Bruce Biddy, (a.k.a. openly gay gossipmonger Ted Casablanca). “Part of his attraction is that he comes off so ambiguously, a la Montgomery Clift or James Dean. He truly smolders onscreen.” Indeed, our toes curled (for all the wrong reasons) as he terrorized a shipbound Nicole Kidman in his first major film, Dead Calm. He won our hearts (not to mention Sherilyn Fenn’s) as the orchid-happy environmentalist on Twin Peaks. He infused sex appeal into the gender-jangling costume drama Orlando. He played the male bimbo of Marisa Tomei’s dreams in Only You. And he exuded a puckish, if very twisted appeal as a hellish henchman in last year’s Tales From the Crypt flick, Demon Knight. And in a world where a kilted actor/director can win an Oscar for a movie where a gay character gets tossed out of a window, having a bot straight guy be frankly appreciative of his gay appeal feels downright dandy. “I like making people feel good,” Zane grins. “and, hey, if my looks get people to the movies – wonderful!” Just how many people his muscular frame and olive skin will pull into theaters will be determined this month when The Phantom charges into a multiplex near you. In a summer that is noticeably free of surefire, big-budget sequels, Zane’s Phantom is poised to be the year’s action-hero adventure, and in the process to establish Zane as a bona fide movie star. “The response has been amazing,” says Phantom director Simon Wincer, who’s lensed the pics Free Willy and Operation Dumbo Drop. “He’s fantastic in the film – ver physical, with piercing eyes and a great sense of humor. Both men and women have loved him in the preview screenings. (Paramount chief) Sherry Lansing said she couldn’t have imagined anyone else in the part. This role should do a lot for him.” Zane himself wouldn’t mind if his star were to rise as high as the Phantom’s moral standards, or even if he were to end up being forever associated with his Phantom character. “It would be an honor,” Zane says. “It would be a breath of fresh air. For the longest time, I was ‘that psycho on a boat,’ so it will be nice to be something else. Something else, indeed. In fact, Hollywood hasn’t seen a hero as swashbuckling or as morally pure as the Phantom since the days of Errol Flynn. “He’s definitely not a dark knight,” says Zane of his character. “I had to keep reminding the filmmakers of his politics. Things like, ‘Well, he wouldn’t actually kill the snake, he would catch it, give it a good talking to, and let it go its merry way.’” Zane feels that his character’s overwhelming goodness will have an effect on viewers spoon-fed harder, more violent protagonists. “This hero doesn’t kill,” he explains. “When a hero kills in a film, I find it a bit barbaric. For me, it slows down the process of watching a film. I feel like a porter carrying the emotional baggage of the hero. But in the case of The Phantom, your hands are free, you travel light. You’re not a scene behind going, ‘That made me feel really weird,’ You’re thinking, Cool. This feels good.” This kinder, gentler world view fits well into Zane’s own. He’s long advocated films that carry a positive message. “I won’t take roles that I think are insulting or detrimental,” Zane says. “If something isn’t life-affirming, no matter how clever the plot is, I avoid it.” Zane extends this goodwill to social issues, too. According to him the Phantom is perhaps filmdom’s first comic-book hero capable of embracing the gay cause. “I think the Phantom’s the perfect hero for the gay community in that he is unconditionally loving,” Zane claims. “He has a profound understanding of humanity and he honors all interests and desires. He’s a champion of love – however (and for whomever) people feel it.” Beyond filling the Phantom’s metaphysical shoes, Zane was just as thrilled to be stepping into his physical ones. “He’s a cross between Errol Flynn and Gene Kelly,” says the man who claims it was the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain that made him want to be an actor. “Those MGM musicals were film as an art form. Back then, the artist was a specimen of immeasurable talent, who had to use his vocal chords and a sense of timing as well as his thigh muscles,” says Zane, explaining the inspiration. “So I approached the Phantom’s physicality from the point of view of dance. I copied the body positions in the comic strip, those very catlike poses, in order to communicate emotion through my body.” The bodysuit Zane wears is rather communicative, too, hugging his every muscular curve and bulge. “The suit is hot,” Zane smiles. “It’s this skintight purple netting, printed with these designs like body tattoos all over it.” However, unlike other recent big-screen comic-book heroes, there’s no rubber enhancements on this costume. “No foam here,” Zane warmly assures. “It’s all real. 100% U.S.D.A.” Like any superhero, Zane uses his unique powers in order to win the day. In Zane’s case, it’s his handsome mug. “You use whatever it takes,” he offers, completely aware of the power of his expressive eyebrows and hazel eyes. “If you’ve got something to say to people, the good looks is a great device to get to them. I won’t claim false modesty. I’m glad my parents got it on.” Zane’s outspokenness is not surprising; he’s seen the benefits of what good looks and talent can do. Born and raised in Chicago, his parents were amateur actors themselves. As a teen, Zane cut his teeth performing in summertime musical productions. In 1982, he spent a year in Switzerland studying acting and writing at the American School. Two years later, Zane packed up his ’64 Mustang and left his hometown for Hollywood. Barely three weeks after he hit town Zane was cast in a small role in Back to the Future. Quickly following in the footsteps of several more minor movie roles came Dead Calm, which was the film that got Zane noticed, big-time. Playing the sexy and psychotic castaway who charms his way onto a couple’s sailboat before proceeding to terrorize them, Zane exuded a palpable and even volatile sex appeal. Suddenly, he was hot – and all of 21. “That was a bit of a mind-warp, really,” shrugs Zane. “It was an interesting challenge. Some people say you do your best work first. You’re a novice who doesn’t know any better than to make choices that you wouldn’t dare make with more information.” Novice he might have been, but he still didn’t leap at the classic Hollywood temptation to follow a psycho role with ten more higher-paying psycho roles. “For years, I refused to do a movie where I would have to pose with a gun for the poster,” he explains. “Because of that, I turned down some good roles. Instead, I did the quirky little movie, or chose a film based on its great cast. And it all paid off. It put me in a place to do The Phantom which marks everything that I aspire to play.” Zane laughs. “It just took eight years to get here.” In that eight years, Zane has managed to work with some of Hollywood’s sharpest directors. When asked to name his favorite, he pauses. “Sally Potter,” he says, naming the director of Orlando. “A matriarchal set is cool, really fantastic – it was a wonderful merging of creative and visionary energy that was decidedly feminine. It wasn’t about the usual he-man ego trips.” Zane’s learned from other helmers as well. “Phillip Noyce is a master in my mind,” he says of his Dead Calm director, who went on to guide such films as Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games. “I love the way he works with his crew. Everyone’s opinion is valued. And Phantom director Simon Wincer taught me much about knowing where you are and not getting lost in the technical aspects of making a film.” What Zane has taught himself is the value of action over words – no small feat for a guy with a self-admitted penchant for waxing poetic. “I did a lot of talking about my work for a while,” he says. “I decided to become more of a practitioner, and quit all of my yapping. Actions do speak louder.” But when pressed to reveal his current philosophy, Zane yields. “I had this conversation with Laurence Fishburne in the cold dunk at The Beverly Hot Springs and it was very revealing,” he begins (our minds reeling). “The Beverly Hot Springs is a local bathhouse for Hollywood types and would-be perverts,” Zane explains facetiously. “I reminded Laurence of what he said once when someone asked him for advice. He offered a line from a poem by, I think, Langston Hughes: ‘Dig, and be dug.’ That’s the philosophy.” Beyond our flippant bathhouse fantasies, Zane has yet to be cast in a gay role himself, but notes that Hollywood is beginning to provide more opportunities for that to happen. “This is show business, and what sells is made,” he states. “The studios are finding that it’s not just Hollywood that is becoming more tolerant of gay themes, but all of America. Can it still get better? Always. I know that somewhere between a wacky, campy comedy and an AIDS drama there’s a middle ground that is being missed. There are a lot of voices that aren’t being heard. That’s what I’m looking forward to. A film where someone’s sexual preference is irrelevant, where there doesn’t have to be that token difficult moment coming home when Dad’s got to deal with it. I personally cannot wait until it just happens to be.” Until then, Zane will continue his pursuit of quality material. “Next, I’m doing a heavy-duty Jim (The Grifters) Thompson short story,” he divulges. “It’s called This World, Then The Fireworks. It’s a Greek tragedy of matricide and incest and 1950’s Americana.” Is there a homo slant to it at all? “It’s always anybody’s guess as to what was going on with the Greeks,” he quips. So other than his and his body, what is Billy Zane, superstar to be, really proud of? “My sister,” he says, referring to actor Lisa Zane,”…and my compassion. I like what it inspires and what it can do; how a little gesture can go a long way. That turns me on.” And then, in his best superhero voice, he adds: “You know. Dig and be dug. Dig… and be dug.”
