Everyone loves Christopher Walken’s Pulp Fiction speech, The Deer Hunter’s ending, or Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” video. That’s why the song’s in your brain. It’s almost like he’s played himself. Has?
Most Christopher Walken impressions focus on his cadence rather than his voice. It’s nice that he’s gotten away with it in most of his work because it’s how he talks.
In 2012, he told CBS News’ Tracy Smith why he spoke that way. He was born in Queens when most of his neighbors and his parents’ bakery customers were immigrants. He initially heard their English-speaking voices.
“My parents had strong accents,” he remarked. According to The Guardian, his father was German and his mother from Glasgow. “It’s rhythm—English speakers have to pause and think about the correct word. It probably rubbed off.” He’s been dancing since he was 3, so it’s lucky if he’s had that speaking rhythm since birth.
The Wrap asked Walken about his strange speech pattern, but guess what? He also alters his scripts to suit himself. He’s left some writers because he removes punctuation and swaps periods and question marks.
“I’ve said, “If that’s what you want, that’s OK, but you’ll have to get somebody else because I can’t.” I can only accomplish it this way “says.
He writes similarly, too. His letters are handwritten because he doesn’t have a computer or phone. Like his speaking, his writing is strange: all capital letters, no punctuation, and one sentence. Expect nothing spectacular as he never learnt cursive.
Daniel Day-Lewis trained as a boxer for a year and a half, according to The Telegraph. Walken opposes.
In 2012, he told The Guardian that he never acted. “I play myself. I’m my life’s sole reference.” He then differentiates between actors and performers. Performers don’t act; actors do. “I perform… I know. My profession.”
Walken primarily memorizes. He reads lines in his kitchen and finds his rhythm to prepare for a part. Even though it’s complex, it taps into his first love—dance. Later, he told The Guardian that he memorized even The Jungle Book lyrics while singing around the house, his least favorite part of the work. “A tiresome, excruciating chore,” he would utilize cue cards if allowed.
In 2016, Guardian reporter Emma Brockes remarked Walken was so modest he seemed immune to criticism. She’s noticed before. He told The Guardian a few years previously that he kept his sanity and avoided ulcers by not striving too hard in Hollywood.
“I didn’t anticipate things to go well, so they did. I wasn’t ambitious. Lazy, “said. “I don’t chase.”
His low-stress mentality has kept him healthy, and he doesn’t panic if he doesn’t work. He also doesn’t get offended when he doesn’t receive a part, making his Hollywood experience unique: “It’s always honest. You’re cast or not. Easy.”
Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” video revealed Walken’s early dance training, but he’s not Christopher.
Salon reports that the second of three boys was called Ronald after British actor Ronald Colman, who became famous in American cinema. He started out as Ronnie. He told IndieWire that dancing in a nightclub act behind Belgian cabaret dancer Monique Van Vooren changed it. She introduced all her dancers towards the end of the show. “One night,” she added, “I’m going to call you Christopher.” Okay.” I kept it.” At least professionally—his friends and family still call him Ronnie.
Walken is one of Hollywood’s most unexpected players: What happened in the Pacific Ocean the night Natalie Wood died? Walken, Wagner, and she were on the boat Splendour near Catalina Island. Wagner and yacht captain Dennis Davern radioed for help on November 29, 1981, and her body was discovered six hours later.
Walken and Wood were filming Brainstorm that night.
Vanity Fair reports there were more stories than answers, and the only known events of that evening were a dinner party, lots of alcohol, and staff-described aggressive behavior. “A conversation I won’t have,” Walken told People in 1986. He told Playboy (through The Hollywood Reporter) in 1997 that he didn’t know what happened but suspected an accident.
According to LA medical examiner Thomas Noguchi, Walken drowned accidentally. When Vanity Fair received the original police report, Davern and Walken both described two days of arguing, envy, and drinking. Wagner’s wrath caused her to want to flee the yacht, according to Davern. Walken refuses to discuss conflicting stories.
Walken has been asked to anticipate what’s next, like humans do. He won’t retire or become director.
In 2015, he told The Wrap, “They retire you, not acting.” “What would I do?” He told Rolling Stone that he had no retirement goals. He doesn’t travel, do sports, write, draw, or have kids, and claims he wants to be like John Gielgud, who couldn’t attend his 90th birthday celebration because he was making a movie.
“If I were a director, I’d attempt to find the greatest people I could and then leave them alone,” he told Interview of his disinterest in directing. He’s glad to keep doing what he’s doing since he’s bad with lighting, cameras, and angles.
Walken wore The Comfort of Strangers’ jacket at an Independent interview in 2010. When asked, he acknowledged to lifting the jacket off the set multiple times in 1990. “Never,” he said. “My movie wardrobe is from the set. Nothing. Steal.”
He’s also known for raising his garments for years. The clothes department cleaned out his changing room before his last scene in Batman Returns. After filming, he lost his mental list of what he desired. “They noticed.”
In 2010, Walken told The Independent about a TV show that would have been huge, like a train wreck. In Nova Scotia, Marlon Brando called him.
Brando wanted to contact his choreographer after seeing him dance in Pennies from Heaven. Hollywood has never received a stranger request. Brando wants a home-based musical variety show. Everyone danced while Brando played the piano. Brando’s crackers-and-milk diet claim followed. The world lost out on the Marlon Brando Variety Show. “That’s something we all missed, I think,” he said Letterman.
Walken told Total Film (via GamesRadar) that he’s able to play dangerous and scary characters because he’s a real guy. “Living in a horror museum because there are so many odd people wandering the streets and riding the subways” was his childhood in New York. He adopted a rough attitude to protect himself on the streets, and it worked. “I’m a pussycat!” He’d fail at real-life evil for several reasons: He’s a pacifist and doesn’t think he could handle a pistol. “I smile and laugh more than most,” he remarked.
He assured The Independent he wouldn’t play a villain with no morals, and he has. “Offending me has never been an option. I was offered disgusting roles “he rejects without hesitation.
Want Christopher Walken’s wrath? Write a script with a character who acts and talks like you think.
He told Rolling Stone that Walkenizing—writers revising a script for him—frustrates him. “They convert it into what they imagine my personality to be,” he stated, declining many intentionally strange parts. He told The Guardian that Walkenizing happens often, usually in the form of post-cast rewrites. Don’t do it—it greatly annoys him.
What’s he terrified of when any of Walken’s craziest characters could appear in your nightmares? It’s long.
He told Total Film (via GamesRadar) that he’s afraid to ride horses. Sleepy Hollow? That was Elizabeth Taylor’s National Velvet mechanical horse. He told The Guardian that other horses he rode were phony, including A View To A Kill’s. “They always runaway with me,” he remarked.
According to The Guardian, he hates driving. He and his wife hate leaving the hotel in London. He claimed staying in is simpler than getting used to looking the other way when crossing the street. “I don’t mind dangerous mental things, but I don’t walk into crowds. I avoid airports.” He’ll avoid swimming and flying if he can. He attributed it to growing up in the city, never needing to experience such things, and not caring.
Walken’s show business roots are odd and deep. He discussed his first work with IndieWire while discussing When I Live My Life Over Again and the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Walken claimed he was center stage in the circus, which was different. He worked with Sheba, a huge cat, at 16. He stated the “professional” lion tamer did his job and left Walken with “this one old girl.” He recalled her fondly, saying, “She’d sit up as I entered with my whip. She was more doglike. She was sweet… She’d slap your leg. Cat-like.”
A huge housecat.
Walken answered a trade paper ad to get the position. Experience wasn’t required. Periods.
Walken has almost 130 IMDb credits, and most of his characters are a certain sort. He’s long been used to playing oddballs. He told Vanity Fair he’d consider other possibilities. He wants to portray one role. “I haven’t played an ordinary guy,” he remarked. “Dad with kids. I may never get that portion.”
People either love animals or barely acknowledge them. Walken told Parade that watching wildlife outside his Connecticut country home is one of his favorite things to do. Walken welcomes deer, turkey, birds, and snakes.
