Norman: I remember when we had rehearsals for that. The first day, we had to read through the script, and the first thing that [costar] Debbie Harry said about the script was,"You're not going to take out any of the violence, are you?" I thought that was great. Because you know what? It's just a movie. The movie was pure fiction. It had a lot of humor to it, besides the murders. I didn't have any problem with the violence.
Nylon: In that picture, you also have a kinky relationship with your mom, played by Debbie Harry. Did you get flak at all about the incest issues?
Norman: I'm having a hard time. I've done a slew of independent movies and even some studio films that have been pushed back [for release] because test audiences were confused. Like,"We're trying to rework the ending for our test audiences in Omaha. In Orange County, California, we showed it it 15 students, and they had problems" To these directors, I say:"Make the movie you intended to make! Don't be coerced into changing your movie because some test audience had a problem with the violence in that scene, or the mother-son issues." It pisses me off! Just be ballsy and be punk rock and make the movie that you intended to make.
The bartender arrives with our vodka tonics and asks, interested, about a music magazine that's one our table.
"We 're selling these magazines for just $9.95 apiece." Reedus jokes, like a mischievous teenage boy. He the returns to the topic at hand, violence in movies: "Everybody's a fucking critic. Everybody's in film school. Everybody wants to be an actor, a director, a writer. But take a movie like The 400 Blows. I'm sure that movie got a lot of flak whe it came out - and that movie's genius.
Taxi Driver got lots of shit. Midnight Cowboy got lot of shit. Those are my favorite movies. It's frustrating for me. I like what I do, I believe in what I do, I sign on to a project because I believe in the story, or I believe in the director or the writer or the other actors involved."
Reedus always had star quality, even before he found success as an actor, remembers as an old friend from Los Angeles.
One afternoon years ago, says the friend, she went with Reedus to Malibu, and stopped by an animal feed store with a petting zoo in the back. They found a pig in one cage and a goat in another, separated by a cage wall.
Reedus put his finger through the wire, playing with one of the animals. All of sudden,the pig and goat were fighting each other, vying for the attention of Reedus.
"I realized at that moment", says his friend, "his appeal goes so deep. He's one of those people who shines so brightly. You know he's going to be a star."
It was just a few years later that he was plucked bay Miuccia Prada and the celeb wranglers at Vanity Fair.
Reedus says he love acting, but he's smart enough to know that it's more than just a job. He's already bee pursued by the paparazzi and gossip columns. In fact, a few days before we meet, he and Christensen are mentioned in the New York Post's Page Six for having canceled a cover they did together for Toronto's FW magazine, because they'd reportedly broken up.
"I've never heard of FW magazine," Reedus says. "That never happened. They just make it up. It's completely fictional. It's to sell papers, I guess. I've been in the Post a few times, and I think one time, it was the actual real story."
Nylon: Like many actors, you seem to have a conflicted relationship with the press. But what about the press you choose to do for publicity?
Norman: It's good to a point because it gets you exposure, but I think it's nice as an actor when people don't know who you are. To do an interview about a movie, or what it's been like making movies, that makes sense, but to go on Conan O'Brien and say, "Ooooohh, I was on the cover on Vanity Fair," or "I met Mira Sorvino!" - what's the point of that?
Nylon: Right. And what about this, the magazine to which your fiancee contributes?
Norman: I sort or pushed this interview back, like, "We'll do it this issue...no, we'll do the next issue...no, we'll do the next issue." Because it's Helena's magazine, and I don't want people to think, "Helena got him an interview in this magazine." But we talked about it. She was like, "If you were doing a magazine, I'd do it for you. You know, support what I do, and I support what you do." And that's really what it's about it. In the end, she's the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. Whatever she does, I'm going to support."
Nylon:You've been together two years, but you know that you want to spent the rest of your life with her?
Norman: She's amazing. it's really nice. When we met, it was just perfect. I met her through a friend of mine, a DJ and an artist in L.A., at a birthday party downtown at this Japanese restaurant. Some mutual friends of ours were like, "You should meet this girl, you'd love this girl, you guys would hit it off." When she came into the restaurant, I didn't wanna look at her. She was sitting right across the table and I didn't want to look at her, because I knew if we started up a conversation, it would be serious from that time on. I was just cowardly.
Nylon:And now you are expecting your first baby?
Norman:s Yeah! Didn't you see her belly? [referring to when we ran into Helena at their apartment] We're very excited. We couldn't be happier. Everything's really nice right now.
--Elizabeth Wallace
