Hungry Like the Wolf

Initially reluctant to consider the connections between his assorted scoundrels and perverts (not least for fear of typecasting), Spader eventually concedes: "There is one consistency. Many of these characters are, in their own way, extremely aggressive, dominant, and controlling." He adds with a laugh, "I'm not very good with passivity."

Pretty in PinkSTEFF MCKEE, OBNOXIOUS RICH KID

"There was just one simple conceit behind that performance. I said to John Hughes, 'What do you think about having this guy who seems like he's 32 hanging around a high school?' You wondered if this guy even went there; he was just wandering the halls. I thought it would be funny for him to have this horrific, enormously sophomoric cynicism of someone in their early thirties."

sex, lies, and videotapeGRAHAM DALTON, IMPOTENT SEXUAL PREDATOR

"This was just such an exploitatively aggressive character. Someone once told me that as they were watching it, they thought it might turn into a thriller—that all those women in the tapes would be revealed as victims, and it would be a serial-killer story. I thought about that, and honestly, if that had been the case, I don't know that the perfomance would have been much different."

WolfSTEWART SWINTON, MACHIAVELLIAN BOOK EDITOR

"Another film that, for me, was all about sex. Ambition, actually, but boy, do those two things go hand in hand. There's that scene where he's turned into a werewolf and is bounding across the stable, trying to mount and fuck poor Michelle Pfeiffer."

StargateDR. DANIEL JACKSON, WIDE-EYED EGYPTOLOGIST

"A real change for me. Most of the time I play people who are seemingly ancient. This was probably the youngest character I've ever played. I really liked his childlike quality, his innocent curiosity and excitement. It was a fun, make-believe-in-the-backyard production. Supernova [Spader's other sci-fi vehicle] couldn't be more different—that was claustrophobic, troubled, anxious."

CrashJAMES BALLARD, CAR-CRASH FETISHIST

"When I start work on a film, I'm always hoping that whatever questions I have will hope-fully not be answered before the end of shooting; if they are, I don't know what the hell I'll do the rest of the shoot. Crash really satisfied in that area. I was very conflicted when I read the script, and continue to be so even now. It provoked a lot in me; I understood nothing and everything. You know, in his own quiet way, my character fucked everyone in the film, and no one noticed."

Return to "James Spader's Carnal Knowledge" by Dennis Lim